Most expensive Top Gear segments?

Combine harvester snow plow? CLAAS certainly didn't sponsor that, and even old combines aren't cheap. Plus they had to modify it which would involve heavy duty welding, ship it out there, fill it with fuel (many times) get the fuel for the flamer, pay for the cars and house that were smashed or set on fire, pay for the helicopter for the wide shots...
 
Definitely the trip to France with the F430, Zonda and GT40.

Even though it was Jezza's car, the fuel bill easily outweighed the costs of making that rocket out of the Robin.

On a more serious note I'd say the road repair segment was a pretty costly one. It is absurdly expensive to do roadworks, even with the budget component from the local council.
 
DonovanM said:
I thought when he said "I bought it" in the episode, it meant he wanted one and he bought it for himself, but I guess the show may have bought it and he just did the purchasing.
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I bought it - can mean dead/death in slang, as in "I bought a ticket to heaven". I bet that is what he meant.

'Banter' from Pilots in WWII.
 
The Spie said:
In terms of up-front expense, what about the Reliant Robin Space Shuttle? I'd imagine that was incredibly expensive to pull off.
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So true. And I'm not sure if the Royal Marines volunteered their time or not. If Top Gear paid them, then I'd think the Ford Fiesta review would have been rather pricey.
 
Military films cost nothing.
As long as they are presented in a cool way, they do that for free.

For example the US have a certain rule, that Hollywood war films are provided with military stuff for free, as long as the US Forces are presented in a good way.
It's the best commercial for them - at very low costs.
Sure, they have to run the equipment and the manpower, but that's it. And the audience of a US made war film is huge - as is the audience of TopGear.

so long ,

e-type
 
What about the 24h race? Even an low budget this was expensive.
 
jo-jo-action said:
What about the 24h race? Even an low budget this was expensive.
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Not really. It probably cost more for Steve to convert the Escort Mexico in The Italian Job into a racer than it did for him to convert the 11000-pound rep-mobile, including the cost of the cars. The Escort was completely gutted, while the Beemer got less modifications.
 
Yeah, but I heard, that the costs for being allowed to take part in an 24h race are very high.
 
And remember Richard hit the Mosler in that race....I know you can't sue for damage sustained during a race, but I can't imagine that team being all to pleased getting their multi million pound racecar getting damaged by a team from a TV-show participating for laughs in a rep-mobile.
 
Cowboy said:
And remember Richard hit the Mosler in that race....I know you can't sue for damage sustained during a race, but I can't imagine that team being all to pleased getting their multi million pound racecar getting damaged by a team from a TV-show participating for laughs in a rep-mobile.
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This. I'm sure some money changed hands. Didn't TG have to pay for that Jag Black Stig trashed? And the owner knew it was going to take a pounding. Plus, novice decals or not, in order to take part in any international race you need a xompetition license, which is not cheap or easy to obtain. Plus tyres (several thousand a set), fuel, spares, etc. Even a "low-budget" 24-hour race can easily cost 6 figures, not counting the car. And being how competitive their car was, I'd say it was not nearly as "stock" as they made it out to be.

Still though, I'd say the space shuttle was probably more expensive, although not by as much as you might think.
 
Space shuttle followed closely by the Caparo T1 film. The amount of health and safety on site and Jeremy's insurance premiums would have been interesting.
 
Wallio said:
This. I'm sure some money changed hands. Didn't TG have to pay for that Jag Black Stig trashed? And the owner knew it was going to take a pounding. Plus, novice decals or not, in order to take part in any international race you need a xompetition license, which is not cheap or easy to obtain. Plus tyres (several thousand a set), fuel, spares, etc. Even a "low-budget" 24-hour race can easily cost 6 figures, not counting the car. And being how competitive their car was, I'd say it was not nearly as "stock" as they made it out to be.
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Just want to nitpick, but the whole reason they did the 24h race was to burn the diesel they grew, so they didn't really have to worry about fuel costs there.
 
Gyvon said:
Just want to nitpick, but the whole reason they did the 24h race was to burn the diesel they grew, so they didn't really have to worry about fuel costs there.
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I don't think that they ever actually grew any fuel, saying it was diesel was a convenient link to the race. I could be wrong but I don't think that's why they chose to race a diesel car anyway. :)
 
Matt2000 said:
I don't think that they ever actually grew any fuel, saying it was diesel was a convenient link to the race. I could be wrong but I don't think that's why they chose to race a diesel car anyway. :)
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Whaa...? You're suggesting that Top Gear, a factual car programme, lied to its loyal viewers?! What slanderous words you have spoken, Matt2000, retribution is coming!

Or yeah, you're probably right.
 
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Their homegrown biofuel was pretty closely knit into the storyline though. IIRC the stuff busted one of their fuel injectors.
 
I recall when they did the summary on season 3 that Jezza said the Harrier race was "hugely expensive". Perhaps Hammond taking on the Eurofighter in the Veyron (2 Veyrons were there...) could have been quite the costly affair.
 
Gyvon said:
Just want to nitpick, but the whole reason they did the 24h race was to burn the diesel they grew, so they didn't really have to worry about fuel costs there.
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This is true, but that segment still cost money, so you'd have to add that cost to the 24hr race.
 
Two things extremely expensive: Aerial footage from helicopters and hypercar's insurances (remember when JC could not drive a classic Ferrari or something just for that reason). Thus, I would say something like the Epic Race with the Bugatti.
 
What about the drag race between the Veyron and the McLaren F1 in Abu Dhabi (13x02)? The cars have (had) a combined value of ?2 million; insurance had to be massive.
 
The Spie said:
In terms of up-front expense, what about the Reliant Robin Space Shuttle? I'd imagine that was incredibly expensive to pull off.
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This is the one segment that ALWAYS makes me think 'how much the hell did that cost?'

On the BMW X6 - Jezz didn't travel to all those places just for the review - he was there for TG live, some TG TV filming, some personal holiday time (Barbados). It was a good joke though!
 
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