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Most expensive Top Gear segments?

I imagine the Maserati 250F segment was pretty damn expensive.
 
And how much compensation did they have to pay Sir Steve Redgrave for trashing his garden?
 
Amie8 said:
And how much compensation did they have to pay Sir Steve Redgrave for trashing his garden?
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What do you mean they "trashed it". I think it was perfect with the fountain and all !

How about the Botswana special or the Bolivia special?
 
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I suppose if you take the episode as a whole the Top Gear Winter Olympics Special must have been pretty pricey once all the bits were added together.
 
I think any of the big trips must cost a fortune, especially to the um, exotic locales like Botswana. Also good call on the Reliant Robin.

The Veyron race across Europe was really complicated--there was a chase plane following James around and I remember Jeremy or Willman saying they spent an absolutely absurd amount of time editing it.
 
I would imagine the 4-a-side Aygo football, or even the hockey one during the TG Olympics wouldnt be cheap. Same thing with the events Hammond usually puts on, like the airport vehicle racing, caravan racing, etc...
 
I don't think the Polar special should have cost so much, since Toyota sponsored it. I think most of the car reviews done on location are usually sponsored by the companies. I mean TG is probably the most watched motoring show on TV, not to mention one of the most watched shows period, so i bet they get a lot of stuff from the companies themselves.

I think the most expensive should be the road trips, since they have to pay for everything themselves.
 
narf said:
Used Hummer, meh. Two banger cars to drive over, meh. An explosives test, meh - potentially a planned demo by the manufacturer, filmed by the BBC at very small cost.
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I also don't think that was expensive. I guess the Hummer was defective or worn down some other way. Maybe even a crashed car and just filmed from an angle where you couldn't see the damage. Come on.. who is thinking that they bought a brand new hummer just to blow it up?

PS: I just looked it up on a used car database. You can get a used Hummer for 12.000?. I guess the costs for the flight of the filming crew inclusive hotel were more expensive.
 
Dracwolley said:
In the BMW X6 review in [14x07], Jezza took himself and the car to Australia, Spain, Switzerland, and Hong Kong. He also went to Barbados just at the end but didn't have the X6 with him. Probably far from the most expensive, but perhaps up there nonetheless.
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Actually, I believe that was surprisingly cheap because they decided to shoot it in places where Clarkson was going to be anyway. Spain and Switzerland either for his DVD (Thriller (?)) or that RWD segment from Series 13, Australia because of either Top Gear Live or Clarkson was there to work shit out with the channels doing Top Gear Australia, Hong Kong = Top Gear Live.
The only one where there might've been real monetary outlay by the BBC is Barbados, but i'm betting the explanation there is Clarkson being on vacation in Barbados anyway and just sending 2 crew members down there for a day to shoot that part of the segment or something.
 
The Abu-Dhabi segments ? The Lambo SV (with the 722 race) and Veyron against F1 ... Were the roads simply closed for, idk, renovation, and had just been finished or ... Otherwise, I'm guessing the insurance for the cars, and "booking" the roads ^^ might have cost a bundle.

But yeah I have to agree, the Reliant Shuttle seemed really costly.

The real question though is : How much money does the BBC make in return? ^^
 
jdhore said:
Actually, I believe that was surprisingly cheap because they decided to shoot it in places where Clarkson was going to be anyway. Spain and Switzerland either for his DVD (Thriller (?)) or that RWD segment from Series 13, Australia because of either Top Gear Live or Clarkson was there to work shit out with the channels doing Top Gear Australia, Hong Kong = Top Gear Live.
The only one where there might've been real monetary outlay by the BBC is Barbados, but i'm betting the explanation there is Clarkson being on vacation in Barbados anyway and just sending 2 crew members down there for a day to shoot that part of the segment or something.
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That's pretty much it.

Switzerland = site of RWD challenge race (13x05?)

Spain = filming of Thriller DVD

Hong Kong and Australia = TG Live 2009 locales

Barbados = Jeremy's annual Easter holiday
 
Given the advancements of prosumer video equipment that may have been shot by his wife or kids as well.
 
14x01 Lexus LFA. I imagine it was really expensive to hire a spaceship.
 
Remember, this isn't necessarily about the cost of the stuff they show, but the cost to the BBC to make it. Those cars in Abu dhabi obviously belonged to a "local" who was more than happy to lend them out for that segment., similarly most other expensive stuff will be "provided" so I'm guessing the biggest costs will probably be travel, manhours and insurance. To me 3 things were probably pretty expensive (they're already mentioned)

Senna bit because of the licensing
Maserati 250F because of the insurance (see avatar)
Robin space shuttle (obvious)
 
I would guess that the shooting and production, salaries etc cost orders of magnitude more than the stuff blown up on the screen. They have a budget of about 1-2 million pounds per episode after all. Even the rocket was hardly a six-digit undertaking because there are not many exotic and expensive parts in that kind of rocket, it is the know-how that counts and I would bet that the amateur rocket guys were more than happy to play with expensive toys with no or average salary.
 
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