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Top Gear Live is coming to the UK
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Top Gear Live is coming to the UK
Matt Hubbard
Speedmonkey
October 4, 2012
Top Gear Live comes to the Birmingham NEC from 25-28 October.
It is a bit like the old Birmingham motor show but bigger, better and louder - and features live performances from Clarkson, Hammond, May and The Stig.
Basically Top Gear Live is split into three parts - the arena, the track and the exhibitions.
The Arena Show
This is basically a live version of Top Gear hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May but with the added excitement of stunts and special effects plus an interactive Exhibition featuring a host of familiar props from the Top Gear studio.
These include a tribute to 50 years of Bond featuring Aston Martins (with the new 007 film Skyfall hitting cinemas that weekend), Clarkson taking on The Stig with help from the armed forces, a new world record attempt by the fearless Top Gear Stunt Team and a never before attempted game of motorised sidecar polo which will inevitably, and repeatedly, end in disaster.
The Track
The track is a bit like the Top Gear Test track but smaller and indoors. It will play host to the usual japes from the three presenters but this year will also feature The Grudge Matches.
Grudge Matches will kick off with a duel between former F1 driver Tiff Needell and the legendary Stig, Top Gear’s tame racing driver. When the dust settles, Needell will join fellow Fifth Gear presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson to co-host the on-going show which will feature a host of regular Top Gear favourites and an impressive line-up of A-list stars all driving the ‘Reasonably Priced Car’.
After the dramatic opening shoot-out a series of other Grudges Matches will follow. The cream of the world’s latest generation of hot hatchbacks will be pitched into battles –competing pocket rockets include the new Vauxhall Astra VXR, Ford Focus ST, VW Golf GTI 35, RenaultSport Megane 265 Cup; Skoda Fabia vRS and the Citroen DS3 Racing. As television viewers will know, the Citroen is a confirmed Top Gear champion and was whizzed around the Monte Carlo Grand Prix track by Jeremy Clarkson.
A mouth-watering selection of rally cars will be recreating many of the sport’s Grudge Matches from the 1990s, an era when British champions Colin McRae and Richard Burns ruled the world. Flame-spitting turbo cars confirmed include Escort Cosworths, Subaru Legacies and Imprezas, Toyota Corollas and Lancia Integrales.
The Exhibition
The exhibition is basically The World of Top Gear. A world of cheap leather seats, dodgy hair and old cups of tea.
At the middle of it all is a replica of the Top Gear TV studio and the giant Cool Wall.
In the Exhibition you’ll also see some of the swoopiest and most expensive cars from the most famous manufacturers, including the Arial Aton V8, Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster, Vanquish and Zagato, Audi R8 GT Spyder, Bentley GT Super Sport, Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari 458, the Lamborghini Aventador and more.
There are TV screens which will show some of the most ambitious – yet rubbish – challenges in the TV show’s history, and when you’ve reminded yourself of those, you can get up close to some of the actual Top Gear Challenge cars.
All in all this year's Top Gear Live sounds great. To book tickets click
here. We'll see you there!
