The Urraco was badly rusted under layers of shoddy repairs and paint. Total bare metal body rebuild at great expense by a really professional outfit. Now a lovely Lamborghini Blue coloured car living in Melbourne, Australia.
@@Fabulousprofound168 No. Everything has been rebuilt to very high standard by a Lambo enthusiast who has had a Urraco previously. Now a very nice bit of kit.
I know exactly where it is and see it regularly... It gets used reasonably often and looks nice in what I believe is the colour it left the factory. It should be painted black again though.
Thanks mate, I have often wonder what became of thoes cars, to be honest was pissed off by the lack of respected showen to these cars on a show realy liked,its great that one of them ended up in my country.
Agreed, annoys me how they'd shit on old cars. Rolling a Citroën CX Safari off a cliff for instance, then wanking off about what an amazing car it was in a French special. The last TG trio were no better, lobbing an old, tired Bentley Turbo R around and wrecking it, claiming it was an old POS. None of the cars TG shat on are cheap to buy, especially now.
Why don’t you do the £1500 Porsche challenge next? I believe Hammond’s 924 is now in a private collection in Germany, May’s 944 was scrapped in around 2009 a few years after the show and Clarkson’s 928 was broken for spares at the end of the show. Another good one to do would be the £1500 coupe challenge as I believe Clarksons Starion is still around but not sure about the others.
Yes they did but unfortunately almost all of them have been scrapped. Having done some research all of the top gear cars that survive to this day are: Hammonds 924 Jeremy’s Starion Jeremy’s BMW rally car Hammonds Land Rover camper All three of the cheap classic rally cars James’ Urraco Clarksons Jenson Healey (Not 100% sure on that one but I’m pretty sure it did) James’ TVR S2 Hammond’s India Mini James’ India Rolls Royce All three Botswana cars All three Africa cars including the backup Scorpio Most of the reasonably priced cars. I can’t find anything on the Bolivia cars but I suppose there’s always a chance they survived.
@@ajc944 Jeremy's Alfa 75 from the £1000 Alfa challenge also appears to be a survivor. It turned up at Festival of the Unexceptional in 2017 but the MOT ran out shortly afterwards and it's now SORNed.
Re the Merak: I remember finding that car on Eurospares back in the day and I *think* they mentioned that it actually *was* an SS-version, despite what JC claimed on the show. I remember watching the ep when it first aired and immediately checking prices on those cars on the web. Turned out that these things didn't turn up as bangers all that often even back then (at least not over here in Germany), but you could find them "for cheap". Even the GT4 stayed pretty reasonably priced for quite some time after the ep aired as many people seem to have falsely taken JC's BS about the Dinos not being "true Ferraris" as gospel. However: I do believe that especially these very early "cheap sports-car" challenges did help to raise prices/desirability of whatever half-way desirable models were being featured in the challenge. So, even if the show did mistreat or even destroy one example, they probably did more to help save other cars out there. Once an appearance on TG would make a certain classic car more desirable, prices/potential value would go up, thus making a restoration a more viable option.
Hi Oscar, love the vids, another challenge of their's you could do was their Belgium trip with the 190E, E36 M3 and Sierra Sapphire, seems forgotten compared to their other cars (S15 E2)
Now I'm curious on what happened to cars from classic car rally challenge. In the episode the trio claimed that they bought the cars from BBC. But from what I can see the cars was used in some TG Live show and later was exhibited at Beaulieu. I kinda doubt that they "bought" the car from BBC. The fate of the cars is interesting, we know May's Ami survived in private hands and was tested by Drivetribe years ago. For Richard's Lanchester, there is a footage from UA-cam dated back in 2020 showing a man starting a car that he claims to be the TG car. Last is Clarkson's Sprite, very few information of this car. Wonder if it still exists.
I watched that episode and laughed mao all the way the through it. I was once driving up the M6 following a Land Rover Defender when there was a cloud of smoke from it followed by a shower of hot metal, it was spectacular to say the least.
Great video mate, always wondered what happened to these, made me laugh how many times james broke down, what about the sierra saph cossie, e36 m3 and 190e cosworth from the track day saloon challenge, 3 awesome cars
I wonder what happened to the British leyland “challenge” cars, especially the dolly sprint. I’ve heard it was again bought by Hammond, but there’s barely any info I can find on the car.
Great bit of research Oscar, lots of views and lots of comments shedding valuable light on... ... the James May Lambo. I watched the original episode and that Lambo was the real superstar/car. So pleased it's still rocking.
There is a top gear dvd with deleted scenes and one of them is for this episode where the final challenge was to try and sell them and see how much they could get for them. Jeremy won as he sold the Merak for spares as opposed the whole car.
Funny how it quotes from that Top Gear Challenge by James May, ''The car that started on the back of a tow truck and the car that took so much stick from Hammond and Clarkson.. Was the ONLY one left running..'' 2024, seems like that is the reality today!
The same could be said of someone who cannot construct a grammatically correct sentence! 🤷♂️ As far as I’m concerned the MOT tester is doing a safety inspection, not an English exam! The world is full of incredibly practical people who struggle with academic qualifications just as it is full of academic experts who are practical imbeciles, I know which one I’d sooner deal with!
I remember hearing about Clarkson's Maserati being broken down for spares and May's Lamborghini being painted orange and then shipped to Australia. It looks even better in orange.
Ref, Clarkson’s Maserati, Someone must have been keeping up the SORN declarations till at least December 2013 as that’s when SORN declarations changed from annual to indefinite, if they hadn’t it’s yearly SORN would have expired and would show up as untaxed instead 👍
@ yes it would still need to be done or alternatively would have needed a certificate of destruction in which case would mean the reg would come up with nothing on the gov site, I’ll repeat, for it to still show as SORN now would require someone still updating its paperwork unit at least the 13th of December 2013 and even if your trade theory were correct ( it’s not because honestly if you are trade it’s even more important that your paperwork is impeccable) the fact is that it would come up as untaxed now if it hadn’t been done 👍
Remember, this was nearly two decades ago. Today, you can get a Maserati 3200 GT V8 for well below £10K that most see as being a grief inducing, dated, unreliable money pit. In two decades time though it will probably be seen as a beautiful classic.
I don't understand the hate for this episode. They bought these supercars for 10k. If you had 10k at that time you could have bought these cars. The Maserati was in very poor condition and broke, the Ferrari was repaired and the Lamborghini was sent to Australia. Tg and TGT yeah made mistakes. But the cars they destroyed were either on purpose destroyed Ie many G-Whizzes. Its like the British Leyland challenge that Sd1 was chosen for its bad condition. They never deliberately broke cars to make better tv, in the sense making them stop working so they would be in a backup car
The Patagonia special deliberately destroyed some very nice cars. During the number plate debacle they said there were only two 928 GTS manuals for sale and they bought the nicer one
I'd love to know what happened to the US roadtrip cars from Top Gear. The ones that went from Florida to Louisiana. I tried some research on trying to find them, but no luck. I live in the southeastern part of the US and would love to buy one of them if they can be found.
Because DVLA. Ask them how they 'lost' thousands of motorcycle and HGV entitlements and refused to give them back. They are the most ridiculous, shoddy and unprofessional of all government agencies and are never, ever in the wrong. But they will keep taking your money
In the posting of the Urraco on oldtime Australia, they also were selling a 308 GT/4, but in blue. Given than the Urraco was repainted and restored, could the 308 he has be Richard Hammond's Ferrari?
@oscarsgarage447 me too mate just randomly had a look to show my brother a 1989 BMW 326i I think looked like it needed some tlc maybe Frankensteined bits from other cars ha but not completely fucked up. Be like painting over Michael Angelo's work.
Pretty sure for challenges like that, they used press cars. Usually press cars are kept by the manufacturers and as they are getting older they are put into heritage fleet or classic division / museum. For the Cessna 182, quick search of registration shows that the plane was involved in a crash back in 2011. There are report that the plane would be fixed but the registration is cancelled so I assume it's either still exist but damaged or scrapped.
@@EthanDolan61101 After writing the comments I actually look for the Bugatti and the same car was used by Hammond during drag race against Typhoon. The car also being tested by several media so the Veyron is likely a press car indeed. You could try search it in a registry like ECR.
Another DVLA slip up. My guess is when DVLA started selling the 2 number prefix plates in 1989 it got put on it by mistake, but once issued no one was going to worry about it. Then it got taken off as someone wanted the plate.
That's interesting because the Lamborghini came to Australia and now l can say there is this Lamborghini in Australia and the other l saw driving along a Lacia Delta Intergrale that's the second one l have seen around the Sydney area
Great video as always Oscar What I find interesting about Clarksons Maserati is that I remember some time around 2014 when I first saw this episode looking up the Cars on the dvla website to find out what had happened to them. I remember at the time It was showing as untaxed since 2006 which is about right considering it was scrapped around that time. It is now showing as sorn. My question is why would somebody bother sorning a car that doesn't exist? And also if it has been scrapped how come a certificate of destruction hasn't been issued?
It depends when it fell into the hands of the breaker. It may have sat unloved with the BBC for sometime, but once into the hands of the breaker I believe they would have to declare it Sorn until it was destroyed. Only since 2014 when continuous taxing/sorn was introduced did people focus on making sure vehicles were properly destroyed on the system, prior to that vehicles were scrapped but there was no incentive to get a certificate of destruction
i know its not top gear but wondering if one day could find out if any cars from "last of the summer wine" still exist? there were a number of cars featured on it so some might have interesting stories tied to them!
Even if it is tax exempt, you still have to "tax" it or sorn it. It is just that the tax you pay is 0.00, but if you don't do the paperwork you can still be fined for not "taxing" it or declaring sorn.
@7:36 it'd tickle me pink if the 308 GT/4 to the left of May's Lamborghini was actually Richard's Ferrari, *also* repainted and exported to Australia :D
Love this series on tracing cars and the history Keep up the great work. What happened to the Pola Expedition cars? Think I saw one of them at C&M in Stratford few years back. Well it had the same reg, plus think one was left under covers in the volcano episode TG did ? Be nice to track it down and then do an interview with the current owners. Also in the race to the Gentleman's club "Spearmint Rhino", have you got any shots of that also ????? !!!!! Just asking for a friend !!! Re Jeremey ending up in a bush, figure that was the wrong kinda bush to end up in at the end of the day ???? !!!!!!😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
You can use car vertical too which will confirm reg transfers on and off a vehicle to make sure you got the correct cars. They might even sponsor you they seem to sponsor every car UA-camr 😂
They do, but you appear to have to do a 60 second advert for them which I'm not keen to do as feel its a bit tacky (screenshot this comment for when I crumble...). Mycarcheck does show plate changes for this car but prior to top gear episode and the dates didn't make much sense which I have had before with cars registered before DVLA computerisation in the early 1980s
Not sure if it ended being THE table on the set, but i'm sure Clarkson mentioned it either at the end of the episode or in the next episode and showed either the table or a picture of it. It seems odd to me that the breakers would have scrapped the shell, too many valuable parts on it and no serious damage! My money says they kept it or sold it whole.
I found it strange that Clarkson never bought the Merak? With his obvious love of Italian brands. He even described it, as possibly the prettiest super car ever made. He bought the GTV and has the Montecarlo in a shipping container. Christ he even bough the ghastly 4x4 SL.
@FergR He genuinely didn't, the engine failed. It's an old car. I am not the biggest Clarkson fan personally prefer James or Richard but I disagree with him being blamed for something that not his fault
@@georgepom328 Agree,but the engine was shared with the Citroen SM. I’m sure one of them could have been reasonably sourced. If not I’d have put a V6 Busso in it. At least it would have had a beating Italian heart. If James cars now worth K80. Think what this would be worth with its provenance. I think it’s been accepted it was a genuine SS. The badged was purchased due to a rear shunt.
Also to correct myself Clarkson was right it wasn't a genuine Merak SS but a fake because the Merak SS didn't enter production till 1976 and his car was first registered a year earlier.
I've no idea about the date of production with various Merak's but I do remember watching the episode at the time & seeing that it had the vented bonnet that was also an SS feature (as well as the badging).
Always interesting watching these older episodes DVLA checking the cars, even the new cars they were reviewing at the time. Like when Jeremy drove a Jag XJ up to Scotland, that is still on the road
The one car i want tracked down is Clarkson's Mercedes from the Season 8 (2006) Quaint My Ride episode. Even though I enjoyed watching the show, it was (and still is) painful to watch how they defaced this car and made it baisicly unfit for public roads They ripped out the interior and added two tons of cement and after all this mistretment it amazinly still drove. The license plate is P597 YGJ It was a 1996 S Class I hope the car is still okay, even after they ruined it back then
I can look but as not being a Corrie watcher I wouldn't know where to start TBH. I do know one of the Spender Sierra Cosworths made an appearance though.
I was disgusted with the Top Gear team for this episode. I'm a car guy, we fix things, not drive them to destruction. They p#ssed in the face of enthusiasts that can't afford these nice cars! What a bunch of morons the Top Gear team are, I wan't entertained!
Місяць тому+6
Precisely why I despised all the idiotic 'challenges' aka ruining cars Top Sneer and The Grand Snore revelled in.
@robinfoster7597 At the time, these supercars were the price of a used Ford Mondeo. They wouldn't have done it 10 years later because the market was different. The Maserati wasn't in good condition so fell apart.
I don't like classic cars being thrashed by Top Gear either, but here at least they did it with a point: Cars like these are tempting, but don't buy them because they are fragile, thirsty, not that fast (they are slower than an Astra Diesel!) and you'll need lots of money to run them properly. Of course, this challenge didn't age well.
@oscarsgarage447 I went through many comments here and was wondering why nobody noticed that! I saw it immediately, it more or less shouted at me, haha! 😄
As usual with Top Gear those cars were played about with to make them look unreliable .That Maserati probably had most of its oil drained .All for the cameras, can understand doing that with modern junk , but not classics like this .It was supposed to be a show for car enthusiasts
None of them faked, The Maserati was in very poor condition when bought. The Ferrari did break but Hammond later bought it off the BBC and repaired it .
@LOTPOR0402 I mispoke in this Case the Lamborghini was exaggerated. The whole premise of the challenges was buying cheap cars. A 1500 quid Porsche 928 is gonna be unreliable. Think about it they were buying nice cars (as in nice designs) for not alot of money means they are gonna have problems. They bought cheap Jaguars, Citroens, Alfa Romeos, Maseratis, Lancia
That was the episode that lost me as a fan of Top Gear. The reason that those cars were cheap was because they needed work and driving the Merak to destruction was a gratuitous waste of a decent classic car that somebody could have rebuilt.
Seriously. The Merak was rooted before Top Gear got hold of it. Secondly it was not even original and thirdly it is not a highly desirable car. If it was valuable, it would not have been scrapped, regardless engine or no engine. The other two cars live on. I read somewhere that the Dino is under restoration and the Lamborghini is in Melbourne after being fully restored.
To be fair, clarkson said on the show that the Meraks engine had "just been rebuilt" so I cant imagine they would have predicted when buying it that it'd blow up. Either the previous owner was lying or they made some serious mistakes on the rebuild there.
UA-cam are screwing with you mate, I clicked on the vid multiple times from my feed and says vid removed and now private.........I ended up getting in by coming into YOUR channel and then via the vid previous on your channel.
Even if its historic £0 tax you still have to go through the taxation process and it will show as taxed. Technically you could be prosecuted for not taxing a £0 tax car...
Hello my name is Kyle from Australia thankyou for the history lesson this is my favourite Top Gear episode because Jeremy Clarkson car blows up the engine and engine blow ups are my favourite type of car brake downs in the hole world so Thankyou for that from Kyle Waddington Australia 🌍🌎
@ funnily enough I was invited to so many parties because people enjoyed my company . Clearly you can’t judge people just because they have an opinion different to yours . Loser .
@@randomstuff7872 He’s right though, Top Gear was not a motoring program, it was totally scripted entertainment barely pretending to be a motoring program. No true motorist enthusiasts enjoy seeing classic cars being destroyed for the sake of scripted entertainment. I’d go ever further & state that the type of people who enjoy Top Gear are the type of people we don’t want anywhere near classic cars.
I own the Urraco now in Melbourne. It has been fully restored all rust removed new blue paint new leather interior, rebuilt engine, suspension etc.
Great to hear. Another colour change! If you would you get in touch that would be great oscarsgarage999@gmail.com
Melbourne Derbyshire or AUS?
Does the electric systems work ?
Australia
@@bfapple Florida! 😆
Hammond said in a drivetribe video. He did in fact buy the ferrari off the BBC.
@@leecaddick8502 Wouldn't it be amazing if DRIVETRIBE bought that Ferrari and restored it as a present for Richard?
@EthanDolan61101 no, drive tribe is ass, should be tdc or autoalex
@@dietznutz1 good idea
@@dietznutz1TDC &AUTOALEX RUBBISH .MAT ARMSTRONG IS THE CAR GUY 💯
@fishwarrant6355 he's good but tdc are like old TG
I bought the mobile rolling road that the 3 cars were tested on in that episode, it was originally built for TVR.
The Urraco was badly rusted under layers of shoddy repairs and paint. Total bare metal body rebuild at great expense by a really professional outfit. Now a lovely Lamborghini Blue coloured car living in Melbourne, Australia.
@IanMorris-x8e yes all those box sections are terrible rust areas.
Is it still running out of electricity? 😅
@@Fabulousprofound168 No. Everything has been rebuilt to very high standard by a Lambo enthusiast who has had a Urraco previously. Now a very nice bit of kit.
I know exactly where it is and see it regularly... It gets used reasonably often and looks nice in what I believe is the colour it left the factory.
It should be painted black again though.
How much of it is still the original vehicle?
Thanks mate, I have often wonder what became of thoes cars, to be honest was pissed off by the lack of respected showen to these cars on a show realy liked,its great that one of them ended up in my country.
Agreed, annoys me how they'd shit on old cars. Rolling a Citroën CX Safari off a cliff for instance, then wanking off about what an amazing car it was in a French special.
The last TG trio were no better, lobbing an old, tired Bentley Turbo R around and wrecking it, claiming it was an old POS.
None of the cars TG shat on are cheap to buy, especially now.
Yes mate a waste!@JonnyJayJonson
Why don’t you do the £1500 Porsche challenge next? I believe Hammond’s 924 is now in a private collection in Germany, May’s 944 was scrapped in around 2009 a few years after the show and Clarkson’s 928 was broken for spares at the end of the show. Another good one to do would be the £1500 coupe challenge as I believe Clarksons Starion is still around but not sure about the others.
Will take a look. Later cars ended up in the Beaulieu exhibition
Yes they did but unfortunately almost all of them have been scrapped. Having done some research all of the top gear cars that survive to this day are:
Hammonds 924
Jeremy’s Starion
Jeremy’s BMW rally car
Hammonds Land Rover camper
All three of the cheap classic rally cars
James’ Urraco
Clarksons Jenson Healey (Not 100% sure on that one but I’m pretty sure it did)
James’ TVR S2
Hammond’s India Mini
James’ India Rolls Royce
All three Botswana cars
All three Africa cars including the backup Scorpio
Most of the reasonably priced cars.
I can’t find anything on the Bolivia cars but I suppose there’s always a chance they survived.
Just to add I haven’t included the ones at Beaulieu, these are all the ones in private ownership
@@ajc944 Jeremy's Alfa 75 from the £1000 Alfa challenge also appears to be a survivor. It turned up at Festival of the Unexceptional in 2017 but the MOT ran out shortly afterwards and it's now SORNed.
@@ajc944I didn't know the Hammond camper survived. I saw him at Beaulieu and then he disappeared
Thanks for all your work. Very enjoyable.
Glad you enjoy it!
Fascinating. Good work
Re the Merak: I remember finding that car on Eurospares back in the day and I *think* they mentioned that it actually *was* an SS-version, despite what JC claimed on the show.
I remember watching the ep when it first aired and immediately checking prices on those cars on the web. Turned out that these things didn't turn up as bangers all that often even back then (at least not over here in Germany), but you could find them "for cheap". Even the GT4 stayed pretty reasonably priced for quite some time after the ep aired as many people seem to have falsely taken JC's BS about the Dinos not being "true Ferraris" as gospel.
However: I do believe that especially these very early "cheap sports-car" challenges did help to raise prices/desirability of whatever half-way desirable models were being featured in the challenge. So, even if the show did mistreat or even destroy one example, they probably did more to help save other cars out there. Once an appearance on TG would make a certain classic car more desirable, prices/potential value would go up, thus making a restoration a more viable option.
Great comment!
Great video. I like these old cars, loved that episode of TG.
Please do a series on Top Gear challenge video cars and keep this a routine series! Number 1 reason why I’m here!
That's the plan! Will rotate them with other programmes but will keep seeing what we can find out.
Yea
Hi Oscar, love the vids, another challenge of their's you could do was their Belgium trip with the 190E, E36 M3 and Sierra Sapphire, seems forgotten compared to their other cars (S15 E2)
Challenge accepted
Now I'm curious on what happened to cars from classic car rally challenge.
In the episode the trio claimed that they bought the cars from BBC.
But from what I can see the cars was used in some TG Live show and later was exhibited at Beaulieu. I kinda doubt that they "bought" the car from BBC.
The fate of the cars is interesting, we know May's Ami survived in private hands and was tested by Drivetribe years ago.
For Richard's Lanchester, there is a footage from UA-cam dated back in 2020 showing a man starting a car that he claims to be the TG car.
Last is Clarkson's Sprite, very few information of this car. Wonder if it still exists.
Let me see if I can find out anything over and above that.
@oscarsgarage447 Thanks mate, love your video and research 👏
I watched that episode and laughed mao all the way the through it. I was once driving up the M6 following a Land Rover Defender when there was a cloud of smoke from it followed by a shower of hot metal, it was spectacular to say the least.
Please do more top gear cars. Very interesting!
That's the plan!
Great video mate, always wondered what happened to these, made me laugh how many times james broke down, what about the sierra saph cossie, e36 m3 and 190e cosworth from the track day saloon challenge, 3 awesome cars
I wonder what happened to the British leyland “challenge” cars, especially the dolly sprint. I’ve heard it was again bought by Hammond, but there’s barely any info I can find on the car.
Great bit of research Oscar, lots of views and lots of comments shedding valuable light on...
... the James May Lambo.
I watched the original episode and that Lambo was the real superstar/car.
So pleased it's still rocking.
Good video. Some interesting comments from other members, keep up the good work Team Oscar
Wow, you can find anything on YT these days. Nice work!
Thanks!
There is a top gear dvd with deleted scenes and one of them is for this episode where the final challenge was to try and sell them and see how much they could get for them. Jeremy won as he sold the Merak for spares as opposed the whole car.
Funny how it quotes from that Top Gear Challenge by James May,
''The car that started on the back of a tow truck and the car that took so much stick from Hammond and Clarkson.. Was the ONLY one left running..''
2024, seems like that is the reality today!
Very good point, I missed that!
I would be very concerned of any mot tester who cant spell "steering" 🤣
The same could be said of someone who cannot construct a grammatically correct sentence! 🤷♂️
As far as I’m concerned the MOT tester is doing a safety inspection, not an English exam!
The world is full of incredibly practical people who struggle with academic qualifications just as it is full of academic experts who are practical imbeciles, I know which one I’d sooner deal with!
I remember hearing about Clarkson's Maserati being broken down for spares and May's Lamborghini being painted orange and then shipped to Australia. It looks even better in orange.
Ref, Clarkson’s Maserati, Someone must have been keeping up the SORN declarations till at least December 2013 as that’s when SORN declarations changed from annual to indefinite, if they hadn’t it’s yearly SORN would have expired and would show up as untaxed instead 👍
If it had been sold to a trader would it still need that done?
@ yes it would still need to be done or alternatively would have needed a certificate of destruction in which case would mean the reg would come up with nothing on the gov site, I’ll repeat, for it to still show as SORN now would require someone still updating its paperwork unit at least the 13th of December 2013 and even if your trade theory were correct ( it’s not because honestly if you are trade it’s even more important that your paperwork is impeccable) the fact is that it would come up as untaxed now if it hadn’t been done 👍
Remember, this was nearly two decades ago. Today, you can get a Maserati 3200 GT V8 for well below £10K that most see as being a grief inducing, dated, unreliable money pit. In two decades time though it will probably be seen as a beautiful classic.
Fair point...
I don't understand the hate for this episode. They bought these supercars for 10k. If you had 10k at that time you could have bought these cars. The Maserati was in very poor condition and broke, the Ferrari was repaired and the Lamborghini was sent to Australia. Tg and TGT yeah made mistakes. But the cars they destroyed were either on purpose destroyed Ie many G-Whizzes. Its like the British Leyland challenge that Sd1 was chosen for its bad condition. They never deliberately broke cars to make better tv, in the sense making them stop working so they would be in a backup car
The Patagonia special deliberately destroyed some very nice cars. During the number plate debacle they said there were only two 928 GTS manuals for sale and they bought the nicer one
The Merak was in perfectly reasonable shape.
@FergR No it wasn't, the owner had spent 10k on the engine but sold the car for 7k. That sort of gives an idea of the condition
@willzibub If I was gonna do a road trip I would buy a nicer one. And the Patagonia situation wasn't there
Literally the only one of three was scripted was the Lamborghini and only some of the time. The Ferrari and Maserati breaking wasn't scripted
Great video, Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it. Follow up video releases this evening...
Thank you for another great video
Glad you enjoyed it.
I'd love to know what happened to the US roadtrip cars from Top Gear. The ones that went from Florida to Louisiana. I tried some research on trying to find them, but no luck. I live in the southeastern part of the US and would love to buy one of them if they can be found.
Great thought but its a challenge tracking down UK cars! Plus US cars get their registration number changed through their lives I believe?
What flavour of lotus7 replica do you have there?
'tis a budget one... Robin Hood 2B with Zetec engine.
The number plate mishaps with the dvla and the Ferrari is excellent! Wonder how that slipped through
Because DVLA. Ask them how they 'lost' thousands of motorcycle and HGV entitlements and refused to give them back. They are the most ridiculous, shoddy and unprofessional of all government agencies and are never, ever in the wrong. But they will keep taking your money
Clarkson's car was the funnyest 😂
In the posting of the Urraco on oldtime Australia, they also were selling a 308 GT/4, but in blue. Given than the Urraco was repainted and restored, could the 308 he has be Richard Hammond's Ferrari?
Interesting point, might do some digging.
Good thing the Ferrari's bumpers are so useful.
Any chance of tracking down the terrible modified cars on pimp my ride uk? Great upload
Oh my, I had tried to erase that from my memory! lol Might have a stiff drink and take a look...
@oscarsgarage447 me too mate just randomly had a look to show my brother a 1989 BMW 326i I think looked like it needed some tlc maybe Frankensteined bits from other cars ha but not completely fucked up. Be like painting over Michael Angelo's work.
Can you find out what happened to the Bugatti Veyron and Cessna 182 from the Italy to London race please?
Crikey, bit of a challenge but I never say no...
@oscarsgarage447 Don't worry, if you can't it's fine I 100% understand, just really enjoy your content, keep up the good work.
Pretty sure for challenges like that, they used press cars. Usually press cars are kept by the manufacturers and as they are getting older they are put into heritage fleet or classic division / museum.
For the Cessna 182, quick search of registration shows that the plane was involved in a crash back in 2011. There are report that the plane would be fixed but the registration is cancelled so I assume it's either still exist but damaged or scrapped.
@@mbahpedia I see, well thanks for the info, hopefully the Cessna will fly again someday.
@@EthanDolan61101 After writing the comments I actually look for the Bugatti and the same car was used by Hammond during drag race against Typhoon. The car also being tested by several media so the Veyron is likely a press car indeed. You could try search it in a registry like ECR.
Hope you track down the so called £1000 Porsche Boxster , would love to hear about that one !
I'll take a look.
Nice content, more videos like this
Thanks, more coming soon...
In terms of looks, the 70s were the best era for supercars.
No way.
Early 60s!!!
@@68404supercars weren’t really a thing in the early 60s. The Miura was the first in 66. The craze didn’t really hit until the 70s
How did the Ferrari go from a suffix-T-reg to a prefix-A-reg and then back to the suffix-T-reg?
Another DVLA slip up. My guess is when DVLA started selling the 2 number prefix plates in 1989 it got put on it by mistake, but once issued no one was going to worry about it. Then it got taken off as someone wanted the plate.
That's interesting because the Lamborghini came to Australia and now l can say there is this Lamborghini in Australia and the other l saw driving along a Lacia Delta Intergrale that's the second one l have seen around the Sydney area
Great video as always Oscar
What I find interesting about Clarksons Maserati is that I remember some time around 2014 when I first saw this episode looking up the Cars on the dvla website to find out what had happened to them. I remember at the time It was showing as untaxed since 2006 which is about right considering it was scrapped around that time. It is now showing as sorn. My question is why would somebody bother sorning a car that doesn't exist? And also if it has been scrapped how come a certificate of destruction hasn't been issued?
It depends when it fell into the hands of the breaker. It may have sat unloved with the BBC for sometime, but once into the hands of the breaker I believe they would have to declare it Sorn until it was destroyed. Only since 2014 when continuous taxing/sorn was introduced did people focus on making sure vehicles were properly destroyed on the system, prior to that vehicles were scrapped but there was no incentive to get a certificate of destruction
i know its not top gear but wondering if one day could find out if any cars from "last of the summer wine" still exist? there were a number of cars featured on it so some might have interesting stories tied to them!
I have tried a little research. There is one possible survivor, but most were probably treated just as props and scrapped not long after filming.
I'd be surprised if Eurospares destroyed the Maserati, is it possible there is nothing online for the Ferrari because it's Tax and MOT exempt
Even if it is tax exempt, you still have to "tax" it or sorn it. It is just that the tax you pay is 0.00, but if you don't do the paperwork you can still be fined for not "taxing" it or declaring sorn.
@Titan604 ah right, cheers
I love top gear but all these cars need saving not destroying
Kind of a shame what happened to Clarkson's Maserati.
Wonder how many of the Wheeler Dealers cars are around? Absolute bargains even at the time!
Check my other videos you will find out about a lot of them!
@7:36 it'd tickle me pink if the 308 GT/4 to the left of May's Lamborghini was actually Richard's Ferrari, *also* repainted and exported to Australia :D
It would be hilarious... but I'm afraid unlikely...
Why's it up twice?
Glitch from the technical department now resolved... thanks for spotting!
Love this series on tracing cars and the history
Keep up the great work.
What happened to the Pola Expedition cars?
Think I saw one of them at C&M in Stratford few years back.
Well it had the same reg, plus think one was left under covers in the volcano episode TG did ?
Be nice to track it down and then do an interview with the current owners.
Also in the race to the Gentleman's club "Spearmint Rhino", have you got any shots of that also ????? !!!!! Just asking for a friend !!!
Re Jeremey ending up in a bush, figure that was the wrong kinda bush to end up in at the end of the day ???? !!!!!!😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
Drivetribe got hold of the polar 4x4 a little while ago and did a video.
please try to increase the volume because I can't anymore. . . and I am eating crisps ; )
You can use car vertical too which will confirm reg transfers on and off a vehicle to make sure you got the correct cars.
They might even sponsor you they seem to sponsor every car UA-camr 😂
They do, but you appear to have to do a 60 second advert for them which I'm not keen to do as feel its a bit tacky (screenshot this comment for when I crumble...). Mycarcheck does show plate changes for this car but prior to top gear episode and the dates didn't make much sense which I have had before with cars registered before DVLA computerisation in the early 1980s
I know what you mean. I do skip past the advert section. All for the advertising the it’s a bit boring in every video for 60seconds.
Pretty sure the engine block from the Merak ended up as a coffee table on the TG set after it blew up!
I do remember there being a table of that style.
That was the 928 wasn't it? The seats certainly were.
The TG table was a V12 reportedly a Jaguar V12.
Not sure if it ended being THE table on the set, but i'm sure Clarkson mentioned it either at the end of the episode or in the next episode and showed either the table or a picture of it. It seems odd to me that the breakers would have scrapped the shell, too many valuable parts on it and no serious damage! My money says they kept it or sold it whole.
I found it strange that Clarkson never bought the Merak?
With his obvious love of Italian brands. He even described it, as possibly the prettiest super car ever made.
He bought the GTV and has the Montecarlo in a shipping container. Christ he even bough the ghastly 4x4 SL.
Because the Merak would have needed so much work to be back on the road
@@georgepom328 Not if he hadn't destroyed the engine.
@FergR He genuinely didn't, the engine failed. It's an old car. I am not the biggest Clarkson fan personally prefer James or Richard but I disagree with him being blamed for something that not his fault
@@georgepom328 Agree,but the engine was shared with the Citroen SM.
I’m sure one of them could have been reasonably sourced.
If not I’d have put a V6 Busso in it. At least it would have had a beating Italian heart.
If James cars now worth K80. Think what this would be worth with its provenance.
I think it’s been accepted it was a genuine SS. The badged was purchased due to a rear shunt.
@garybooth7121 That I think is probably true the SS Badge was scripting. However I think the Merak was in poor condition as well not just mechanical
What happened to the amphibious cars?
They were at an exhibition in Beaulieu until recently
They were put in a museum however recently they were scrapped
Also to correct myself Clarkson was right it wasn't a genuine Merak SS but a fake because the Merak SS didn't enter production till 1976 and his car was first registered a year earlier.
Plus Clarkson found a receipt with the car for an SS badge..... Instant power upgrade.
I've no idea about the date of production with various Merak's but I do remember watching the episode at the time & seeing that it had the vented bonnet that was also an SS feature (as well as the badging).
The cars are over 40 years old so wouldn’t require an MoT anymore.
But only since 2018.
1500 porches would be interesting or 1000 hot hatches
Oscar should be offered a job at the DVLA to replace their answering their machine.
😂
Jeremy ended up in a bush. Whose?
Kate
Great detective work 😎👍
Thanks
Always interesting watching these older episodes DVLA checking the cars, even the new cars they were reviewing at the time. Like when Jeremy drove a Jag XJ up to Scotland, that is still on the road
"DVLA checking the cars" When did the DVLA ever check a car?
Urraco is extremely rare supercar. It couldn't had been bought for only 10000.
The one car i want tracked down is Clarkson's Mercedes from the Season 8 (2006) Quaint My Ride episode. Even though I enjoyed watching the show, it was (and still is) painful to watch how they defaced this car and made it baisicly unfit for public roads
They ripped out the interior and added two tons of cement and after all this mistretment it amazinly still drove.
The license plate is P597 YGJ
It was a 1996 S Class
I hope the car is still okay, even after they ruined it back then
Can you do cars in coronation street
I can look but as not being a Corrie watcher I wouldn't know where to start TBH. I do know one of the Spender Sierra Cosworths made an appearance though.
The lambo color change is absolutely dreadful. That orange looks nasty.
Keep watching... we may have news on it's colour...
Every time they destroy classic cars old men all over the UK have heart attacks. Such a shame.
Thank you for all the content.
Can you look into a Granada which was in the famous five TV series.
VHK464S
I would be grateful.
Thanks...
I didn't know that Jean Claude Van Damme is now a mechanic
😂
I was disgusted with the Top Gear team for this episode. I'm a car guy, we fix things, not drive them to destruction.
They p#ssed in the face of enthusiasts that can't afford these nice cars! What a bunch of morons the Top Gear team are, I wan't entertained!
Precisely why I despised all the idiotic 'challenges' aka ruining cars Top Sneer and The Grand Snore revelled in.
i beg to differ, them doing stuff like the middle east special and keeping those cars alive and modifying them to suit was incredible
@robinfoster7597 At the time, these supercars were the price of a used Ford Mondeo. They wouldn't have done it 10 years later because the market was different. The Maserati wasn't in good condition so fell apart.
I don't like classic cars being thrashed by Top Gear either, but here at least they did it with a point: Cars like these are tempting, but don't buy them because they are fragile, thirsty, not that fast (they are slower than an Astra Diesel!) and you'll need lots of money to run them properly.
Of course, this challenge didn't age well.
Agreement. The needless destruction of sometimes good cars used to boil me
6:51 LAMGORGIHINI in the MOT database?! 😂
Congratulations you spotted it. I thought everyone would be all over that! 😂
@oscarsgarage447 I went through many comments here and was wondering why nobody noticed that! I saw it immediately, it more or less shouted at me, haha! 😄
We have the same eye for detail! I thought about mentioning someone at DVLA can't spell but thought might seem petty 😂.
As usual with Top Gear those cars were played about with to make them look unreliable .That Maserati probably had most of its oil drained .All for the cameras, can understand doing that with modern junk , but not classics like this .It was supposed to be a show for car enthusiasts
They didn't fake the maserati. They wanted to sell that along with the other 2 after the challenge.
None of them faked, The Maserati was in very poor condition when bought. The Ferrari did break but Hammond later bought it off the BBC and repaired it .
First day on the internet? What a shite statement!
@georgepom328 Must be a lot of unreliable classics on that show over the years then
@LOTPOR0402 I mispoke in this Case the Lamborghini was exaggerated. The whole premise of the challenges was buying cheap cars. A 1500 quid Porsche 928 is gonna be unreliable. Think about it they were buying nice cars (as in nice designs) for not alot of money means they are gonna have problems. They bought cheap Jaguars, Citroens, Alfa Romeos, Maseratis, Lancia
Sad and for the maseratiwas a great car shame it ended up on top gear
They don´t choose number plates on pourpose ... never. Jok done. 😏
Season 7 ep4 on iplayer for episode
Not a Ferrari, but a Dino...
I've been expecting this comment lol 😂 - weren't the later ones badged Ferrari though?
“Jeremy’s big end went all over Richard..then he ended up in a bush..”
Oooh matron 🫢
At least it amused someone... 😂😂
I’ll take that 308 gt4 for 10k£
That was the episode that lost me as a fan of Top Gear. The reason that those cars were cheap was because they needed work and driving the Merak to destruction was a gratuitous waste of a decent classic car that somebody could have rebuilt.
I agree they have DESTROYED many classic car's 😊
Seriously. The Merak was rooted before Top Gear got hold of it. Secondly it was not even original and thirdly it is not a highly desirable car. If it was valuable, it would not have been scrapped, regardless engine or no engine.
The other two cars live on. I read somewhere that the Dino is under restoration and the Lamborghini is in Melbourne after being fully restored.
I would be extremely reluctant to buy any car that Clarkson had driven!
To be fair, clarkson said on the show that the Meraks engine had "just been rebuilt" so I cant imagine they would have predicted when buying it that it'd blow up.
Either the previous owner was lying or they made some serious mistakes on the rebuild there.
@@_Zekken The low oil pressure featured in the show, and the bottom end noise was loud. He kept driving until it spilled its guts onto the tarmac.
Thanks for your sleuthing.
Any time!
UA-cam are screwing with you mate, I clicked on the vid multiple times from my feed and says vid removed and now private.........I ended up getting in by coming into YOUR channel and then via the vid previous on your channel.
There was a mistake our end and an earlier version got released as well as the final one. The old version has now been removed...
Cheers!
Hare Krishna
tax and mot exempt so wont show up for the ferrari
Even if its historic £0 tax you still have to go through the taxation process and it will show as taxed. Technically you could be prosecuted for not taxing a £0 tax car...
Hello my name is Kyle from Australia thankyou for the history lesson this is my favourite Top Gear episode because Jeremy Clarkson car blows up the engine and engine blow ups are my favourite type of car brake downs in the hole world so
Thankyou for that from Kyle Waddington Australia 🌍🌎
Glad you enjoyed it.
@@oscarsgarage447 thankyou engine blow ups are my favourite type of car brake downs
Hey UA-cam, can we get at least 3min of content before you cut to useless ads!!!!!
Good luck with that one...
Post it twice so you get two likes, you lucky sausage!
Glitch in the matrix now resolved... 🤭
Buy a lavalier microphone they are cheap and will make wonders for your channel
Are you wearing make up? 😂 those eyebrows look drawn on....
😂 I tried a new lighting set up... not trying it again!
👶🏻
These three doing stupid things is the reason I didn’t watch Top Gear . I prefer motoring programs.
Wow u must be fun at parties then
@ funnily enough I was invited to so many parties because people enjoyed my company . Clearly you can’t judge people just because they have an opinion different to yours . Loser .
@@randomstuff7872 aren't you clever, huh?
@@althunder4269 who are you referring to me or colingamer ?
@@randomstuff7872 He’s right though, Top Gear was not a motoring program, it was totally scripted entertainment barely pretending to be a motoring program. No true motorist enthusiasts enjoy seeing classic cars being destroyed for the sake of scripted entertainment. I’d go ever further & state that the type of people who enjoy Top Gear are the type of people we don’t want anywhere near classic cars.
Shouldn't this man be wearing an anorak?
Can be arranged...