The eighth episode of the second series of Top Gear aired on the 6th of July, 2003. It was presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and The Black Stig. Jodie Kidd was the guest star. with Top Gear's Own James May presenting the week's "Greatest Car" segment, later omitted from future broadcasts. It was the 18th episode overall.
Synopsis[]
Back in the late '60s Nissan decided to make a sports car. It was called the 240Z, and was a cheaper Japanese alternative to the E-Type Jaguar and Chevrolet Corvette with the added proviso of Japanese reliability. It was a fabulous car, but unfortunately got a 'little worse' with each successive iteration, with Jeremy describing the 260Z as 'plump', the 280Z as 'John Prescott', and the 300ZX as 'Marlon Brando'. He is joined by members of the Nissan Z Owners Club, who react to Jeremy's comments on their own cars. Now the latest addition to this car's lineage has been introduced, the 350Z, and Jeremy has driven it.
Tonight...[]
- Richard and James enjoy life under canvas...
- An Alfa Romeo waving its arms around...
- And Darth Vader in a Honda Civic Type Fighter R.
Airing History[]
Series 2, Episode 8 originally aired on the 6th of July, 2003, on BBC 2. This followed a week's hiatus due to the BBC Singer of the World competition taking up what would have been Top Gear's slot the week prior. It was then regularly reshown on channels such as BBC Prime and UKTV People throughout the mid '00s, along with the rest of Series 2, before indefinitely ending up as a permanent fixture on Dave from the channel's 2007 debut onwards, albeit in a cut 45-minute version. It would have its Australian premiere in August 2008, and later appear on streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime as part of the earliest available series of the show. It was ultimately added to iPlayer in 2021, however, in a two-level-cut 46-minute version, removing both the Greatest Car Ever and Race for the Universe segments, the first of which is still available on the internet (however, in a lower quality), and the latter is still present in the Xtra cut, however, with the soundtrack replaced.
Episode Names[]
Though never given a name upon its original airing, much like every other episode of Top Gear, two slightly different names were retrospectively applied to the episode by the BBC years later:
- Top Gear's section on BBC's website calls it "James and Richard Go Camping in Cabriolets".
- Top Gear's own website calls it "The one with the camping in cabrios".
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