The sixth episode of the first series of Top Gear aired on the 24th of November, 2002. It was presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, Jason Dawe and The Black Stig. Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was the guest star. It was the 6th episode overall.
Synopsis[]
Jeremy drives the Renault Vel Satis through Swindon, Richard drives the BMW Z4 in Portugal, and Dawe looks at used Volkswagen Golfs before tending to the "Grannies" as they learn how to handbrake park in a Mini. Jeremy also drives his personal Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG around the track very carefully.
Tonight...[]
- Evidence that the French have gone mad...
- Evidence that the Germans have gone mad...
- And as an oasis of sanity, the grannies are back.
Segments[]
Cool Wall[]
This episode marked the introduction of the long-standing Cool Wall. The cars placed onto the board in this episode are as follows:
| Car | Ranking |
|---|---|
| BMW Z3 | U |
| BMW Z4 | C |
| Fiat Multipla | C |
| Lexus IS200 | SU (C) |
| Audi TT | SU (U) |
| Renault Avantime | SZ |
| Mercedes-Benz SL Mk2 | SZ |
| Mercedes-Benz SL Mk3 | U |
| Mercedes-Benz SL Mk4 | SU |
Airing History[]
Series 1, Episode 6 originally aired on the 24th of November, 2002, on BBC 2. It was aired nationally in all regions except for the East Midlands. It was then regularly reshown on channels such as BBC Prime through to at least June 2005, along with the rest of Series 1. Some point after these re-runs, the episode was pulled from the BBC Worldwide sales catalogue. It has never re-aired since on any channel, nor has it appeared on any streaming services such as Netflix. As of the 13th September 2021, It was added to BBC IPlayer.
Trivia[]
- The Renault Vel Satis segment is likely to have been filmed on the 23rd of August, 2002, due to the copy of The Sun which Clarkson is reading at the very end, its front page headline reading "Police search gran's home", referring to murders committed by Ian Huntley three weeks prior to filming.
- Studio segments featuring the Vel Satis were also filmed in August 2002, as this episode was originally intended to be the pilot. However, after a disastrous pair of initial shoots with French footballer David Ginola intended as the show's first ever guest star, this episode would be pushed back.
- This episode marked the first of 26 times that the Cool Wall segment appeared in the series.
- When Richard Hammond remarked that BMW wouldn't replace the 3 Series with a then-non existent 4 Series, he unknowingly foretold BMW's decision to split the M3 saloon and coupé into two new models; the M3 and the M4.
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