Top Gear Australia

It just wouldnt be Australian if the lads did not delve into the great debate that has divided the nation for decades - Holden or Ford? So Charlie and Steve take the HSV Clubsport and Ford FPV F6 to Wakefield Park for the ultimate test drive to settle the argument once and for all. Then Top Gear Australia shuts down the biggest open pit gold mine in the country, the Kalgoorlie Super Pit, to get its hands dirty. In the toughest ute challenge, Charlie, Warren and Steve test their ute of choice in a race against time and The Stig. After surviving his stint as human shark bait in episode one, Warren "Why is it every episode of Top Gear I nearly get killed?" Brown, in preparation for his next outlandish idea, convinces Steve to convert a Smart Car into a hearse for under $200. While the two load a coffin into their new budget Smart Hearse and take it for a test drive, Charlie spends his time slipping into something a lot faster and much cooler - the Ford GT Supercar. As the studio guest, Australian actor, Steve Bisley (Mad Max, Water Rats), will attempt to knock Vince Colosimo off the celebrity Lap Time leader board.

The ramp is set – the jack in place – and the kettle is on! Our fearless hosts step into a world of scones, walking sticks, and shoes with zippers. There is little margin for error, or bright colours for that matter, in this age old sport. Yet roling an Astra down a steel ramp and steering from the passenger seat is not as easy as it looks. By the end of the day there is a special sub-committee established by Warren to investigate the stolen over-sized novelty jack. From the grassy flats of lawn bowls to the open plains of the outback, the lads pit satellite navigation against Aboriginal tracking skills. Warren will have to rely on his tracker, Diesel with trusty steed Ned, while Steve guides a Toyota HiLux TRD fitted with Follow Me GPS through the picturesque Home Valley Station in remote Western Australia. Who will become champion of the outback and conquer the land before nightfall? Steve Pizzati takes the HSV W427 for a raging spin around Holden’s mysterious ‘Proving Ground’ in Lang Lang, Victoria. Track limit: 250kph. Heart rate limit: unrestricted! And, iconic Australian actor Jack Thompson (the soon to be released Australia, Breaker Morant, Sum of Us) is our weekly “Celebrity in a Bog Standard Car”.

Its a once and for all 4WD showdown and to the victor goes the spoils - exclusive dinner party bragging rights. The TGA team are bound for Cairns in north Queensland after starting out in central Australia to settle which 4WD can go the distance. “I have been to a tonne of dinner parties where people have said “My 4WD is good enough to go to Kakadu if I wanted to”. Now everybody knows that they probably never will so we thought we would help with bragging rights for the next party,” said Steve Pizzati. Charlie opts for the luxurious Lexus LX 570, Warren sides with the very capable Range Rover Vogue TDV8, and Steve feels the power of Audis Q7. Its a 2,400kms test drive for the record books as the lads set out from Alice Springs on a seven night stint under the stars and along the open desert planes - their sanity is sure to be the first victim. Not a fan of being one with nature, Charlie said, “When I was a kid about 12 years old on the family camping holidays I used to lie back at night and look back the stars and think to myself “When I grow up I am going to get really rich so I never have to go camping again”.” Also around the streets of Sydney, Charlie takes the sporty Mercedes SL 63 AMG for a cruise, “A car this stylish can even make a mug like me look good, well not that bad anyway.” Car enthusiast, James Morrison, talks to Top Gear Australia about meeting his wife in a celebrity car race, owning 96 cars and his goal to beat Julia Zemiro on the lap time leader board.

Charlie Cox, Warren Brown and Steve Pizzati are each given free reign to pick the car of their choice for a weekend road trip through the Apple Isle. Meeting at the Spirit of Tasmania departure point in Port Melbourne the lads arrive in style - Charlie in a Porsche 911 Turbo, for Warren, a Bond fan, its the Aston Martin DB9 and Steve saddles up the Lamborghini Superleggera. Once across the Strait, they take off for the ultimate boys and their toys weekend away. With closed roads and assistance from the team that operates one of the worlds best tarmac rallies - Targa Tasmania - Top Gear Australia negotiates the luxury sports cars along the long and winding deserted roads in the pristine wilderness of Tasmanias West Coast. Then its Holden versus Ford take two and this time we answer the all important question. After taking a look at the performance vehicles earlier in the series, Top Gear Australia goes back to basics with these iconic brands and compares the entry-level Commodore Omega and Falcon XT on the test track to see how they stack up. Will the Ford be favoured or will the lion roar? Also, Charlie test drives the new stylish Jaguar XF SV8. Excited about the surprise and delight features in the new luxurious sports Jaguar, Charlie compares the features to the older unreliable models. "In the old days with Jags, you were surprised and delighted if it started". Award winning actress, Claudia Karvan (Love My Way) is the final Celebrity in the Bog Standard Car for series one. The popular actress admitted to Charlie that she wanted to beat her The Secret Life of Us on-screen husband, Vince Colosimo on the lap board and joked that doing her hotlap on the Top Gear Australia test track was better than winning a Logie.

If there is one thing Aussies love more than cars, its coffee. In this episode the Top Gear hosts head to Central Colombia to find the worlds best coffee beans and bring them back to Sydney to road test an official Top Gear coffee drive thru.

The Top Gear hosts duke it out to determine which decade was the best for cars. A series of ridiculous tests culminates in a showdown at the Melbourne Grand Prix. Meanwhile, JLP heads to L.A. to explore its amazing car culture.