For any newcomer or old veteran of BBC's Top Gear, this is your chance to either rekindle or start your love affair with the three ambitious, but rubbish trio – Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

The upbringing of any gearhead around the world has been forged by their love for all things engine and wheels related. The BBC Top Gear crew only made the bond between person and vehicle even stronger.

Their antics and passion for motor vehicles have provided entertainment for millions. Let's get right into it!

Update April 2022: This article was updated with more information about special episodes of the hit TV show – Top Gear.

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Season 12, Episode 8: The Vietnam Special

Top Gear Vietnam Special BBC bikes clarkson hammond may
Top Gear Vietnam Special via Top Gear Fandom

This special stands out for many reasons in the series, specifically because it doesn’t have any cars in it. The special revolves around the trio making their way through Vietnam on motorbikes—yes, you could argue one of them is more of a scooter.

Hammond and May, being bike enthusiasts, already loved the chance to showcase the freedom a bike can offer a petrolhead. Clarkson, on the other hand, loathes bikes and was not particularly happy. Especially, as he faced riding a motorbike for the first time in a country that he doesn’t know. To add to that fear, Clarkson chose a 1967 Piaggio Vespa, a motorbike not synonymous with Grand Touring. Hammond goes for a Belarussian-built 125cc two-stroke Minsk, and May goes with a four-stroke Honda Super Cub - a bike that has been in production since 1958 and still sold 100 million times in 2017.

honda chaly mini bike vietnam special bbc top gear
Honda Chaly Mini-Bike via Wikipedia

The trip starts out with the crew, mainly Clarkson, getting used to their bikes. May and Clarkson have trouble finding helmets that fit, so they end up ‘MacGyvering’ something resembling a helmet.

They set off from Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in pursuit of a mountain-top bar in Đà Lạt. Along the way, Clarkson is still learning how to ride his Vespa, so expect a lot of bleeps as Clarkson finds himself scraping across the floor a few times.

In the second part of the trip, the trio makes their way to Nha Trang. During this leg, they come across the ‘back-up’ vehicle for their trip in case one of theirs fails. The back-up is a 1973 Honda Chaly mini-bike. If that wasn’t bad enough already, the mini-bike has a Stars & Stripes livery with its speakers blasting out Bruce Springsteen’s, ‘Born in the USA’ or 'The Star-Spangled Banner', depending on which version you are watching. Calling the back0up Honda embarassing and inappropirate would be an understatement for obvious reasons.

As they get near the end of this leg, night falls, leaving all of them struggling to see on the unlit mountain roads —a tense and nervous watch to say the least.

Minsk Vespa top Gear Vietnam Special
Minsk & Vespa - Top Gear Vietnam Special via TopGear.com

On the next leg of their journey, they see the very best Vietnam has to offer from its hectic cities, its mountain roads to its modern-infrastructure projects. During each stop they give each other ludicrous presents to carry on a motorbike—it’s down to you to watch and find out what they are! Yet, the trio makes their way through each tumble or mechanical failure somehow, eventually making their way through Hội An to Huế, where they experience a bit of luxury and explore the complex past of Vietnam. In the latter province, they make their way around the mind-blowing Hải Vân Pass. This is where Clarkson finally sees the beauty and freedom a bike can offer alongside the picturesque roads and scenery. He even began to drop a knee whilst going around corners!

From there, they make their way north to the capital city of Hanoi and eventually to Hạ Long Bay—a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is where the trio are forced to turn their bikes into amphibious vehicles. Their final mission is to get to a bar in the middle of Hạ Long Bay, which is made up of about 1,600 islands—not exactly an easy game of hide-and-seek. There won’t be any more spoilers to what happens in the end but you can be sure it will be entertaining.

The end credits are a reference to Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War classic, Apocalypse Now (1979).

Jeremy Clarkson BBC Vietnam Special
Jeremy Clarkson in the Vietnam Special via TopGear.com

These specials provided an opportunity to see Clarkson, Hammond, and May go to extreme environments with unsuitable vehicles and attempt to keep them running the whole way. Yet, through their adventures, they end up falling for the vehicles they ride along. A gearhead's version of Romeo and Juliet but with “three fat middle-aged men falling over a lot” instead.

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Season 14, Episode 6: Bolivia Special

Top Gear in Bolivia
Via: Drive Tribe

This special has to be one of the most challenging one ever faced by the production team and the presenters themselves—with the only exception of the Polar Special. They are challenged with traversing 1,000 miles across South America.

They have to make their way through jungles, deserts, extreme mountain roads, and volcanoes. A heck of an adventure to embark on, especially when you are left in the middle of the Amazon with your £3,500 ($4,660) second-hand cars on a barge with no obvious way of getting them off.

Bolivia Top Gear Special
Via: Top Gear

Clarkson chose a the very British Range Rover Classic, a car not synonymous with reliability. Hammond picks a trustworthy, or so it seems, Toyota Land Cruiser J40. May goes out-of-the-box with a Suzuki SJ413 which was sold as blue but ends up being red.

They somehow manage to get the cars off the barge, despite Clarkson getting stuck in some mudflats and May falling over. Before they set off, another man in a white coat appears and hands them some supplies: a chainsaw, car winch, Tampax tampons, Durex condoms, and some Viagra tablets—they will make sense once you watch the special, probably!

The trio set off into the jungle making minimal progress through the thick vegetation. Night falls and Hammond faces his worst fear, insects and whatever else lurks in the darkness of the jungle. It takes them three days to get out of the jungle and get onto something resembling a road.

This doesn’t mean things were about to get any easier and the Yungas Road, or most commonly known as the “Death Road”, that laid ahead. A road with sheer drop-offs on one side and a mountainside on the other, leaving you with no choice but to go one side or the other when a car, bus, truck, you name it appears coming the opposite way. After some “friendly” joking around and May threatening Clarkson with a machete—yes you read that right—Clarkson continues ahead, leaving Hammond and May behind to struggle on their own.

By himself, Clarkson comes across a modern Toyota Land Cruiser whilst in a very precarious spot. This moment lives in memory as it is probably the most nerve-wracking moment during any of the BBC Top Gear Specials. Clarkson and his trusty Range Rover Classic are right on the edge of the cliff, the road beneath them beginning to crumble as they edge their way past the Land Cruiser. As Clarkson clears the Land Cruiser and makes it to relative safety, his relief is clear to see.

Top Gear in Bolivia
Via: Top Gear

After this tense excursion, they reunite in La Paz and begin to modify their cars to help them along the adventure. They all add roll-cages and Hammond practically creates a different car to the one he started with. While May simply "fixed" his Suzuki, eventually it turns out, Hammond ruined his Land Cruiser with the modifications.

Continuing on their journey, they head for the Guallatiri volcano which at the height of 19,918 ft (6,071 meters) is a tall task to take on. As they make their way up the volcano, they struggle to reach 16,000 ft (4,900 meters). The trio stops to take Viagra pills to help prevent a high altitude pulmonary edema, and they continue again. The more they climb, the more you hear them struggle to speak the more scary it looks. Eventually, at 17,200 ft (5,240 meters), they call it. They themselves cannot go further, they turn around and head back down, rapidly too.

Top Gear Bolivia Special
Via: Top Gear

They safely make their way across the Pan-American Highway, a road that has a total length of 19,000 miles, stretching across The Americas. Hammond suffers many issues with his Cruiser, chief being his prop shaft coming apart and the diff being broken, causing him to complete a bodge job on it.

Eventually, the trio reaches their last challenge which is to drive down a massively-steep sandy hill - where Hammond with his bodge job finds a way to not attempt the challenge. Somehow there is an unsuspecting winner in this special, other than the viewers. You’ll have to watch to find out.

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Season 19, Episode 6 & 7: The Africa Special

Top Gear Africa Special BBC cars river nile
Top Gear Africa Special via Top Gear

Advertised as "You’ve seen David Attenborough's take on Africa, now it’s time to see Top Gear’s take on Africa," this special does not disappoint. The trio set out to find the source of River Nile in three estate cars worth up to £1,500 ($2,000).

Clarkson arrives first in his BMW 528i Touring which has 151,000 miles on the clock. Hammond rolls up in a well-kept and clean Subaru Impreza WRX Estate. May arrives last in a Volvo 850R Estate, however, May’s version has low-profile tyres. Low-profile tyres don’t exactly suit pot-hole filled roads or speed-humps and , something May proved along the journey.

The adventure starts with a furiously good call to action but ends with the realization that they found the source of the Nile immediately; Lake Victoria. But a man in a white coat appears with another golden envelope, which states that it isn't the source of the Nile. An argument or two later, they start the adventure again looking for Top Gear’s “Official Source of the Nile River”.

Top Gear Africa Special bbc kampala uganda cars traffic
Top Gear Africa Special via Top Gear

Due to cars being relatively new, the trio starts the adventure already admiring their choices—it might change for a certain low-profiled Volvo later on though. But as they travel into Uganda’s capital, Kampala, where they are greeted by the mother of all traffic jams. An endless sea of cars and people stuck in traffic. They are left trying to find something interesting to do in their cars.

Top Gear Africa Special BBC car show
Top Gear Africa Special via Top Gear

After what seemed like days, they made it out of Kampala and headed on their adventure. But they soon came across another quite big problem: where to sleep at night. Sorting it out by converting their cars into mobile bedrooms with each one having a purpose to help them along their adventure. May is the tools and repairs car, Hammond is the cook. Clarkson’s contribution is that of luxuries, as he has a beer cooler and a toilet seat attached to his passenger side door—both necessary items on anyone's list.

Top Gear Africa Special volvo bmw subaru nile
Top Gear Africa Special via Wordpress

Now they begin to really enjoy the trip with their cars as they search river after river seeing which way it flows, eventually finding one that does lead to where they believe the source to be. As they reach near their goal, they come across a car-killing road in the Serengeti, where the vehicles end up chewing through tyres.

The trio ends their journey with a race to see who can find the source first as “no one remembers who did it second.”

Top Gear Africa Special car show subaru volvo bmw
Top Gear Africa Special via Top Gear

No spoilers here. We will allow you to watch the special to find out who wins! But the trio ends the adventure on the notion that if you ever think your car is on its last legs, it can still do things like look for the source of the Nile.

Season 10, Episode 4: Botswana Special

Top Gear Botswana Special
Via: Top Gear

Arguably, one of the greatest Top Gear Specials is the one filmed in Botswana. Even the trio claimed that it was their best work of the lot. The African terrain is known for being brutal for cars and difficult for the driver. Despite this, Clarkson made the bold move and got himself a 1981 Lancia Beta automatic. As always, May chose the more conventional route, bringing a car with abundant availability of parts in the region - a Mercedes-Benz 230E. However, Hammond had bought himself a 1963 Opel Cadet. The same Cadet that he fell in love with, had it shipped back to the UK, which remains fully restored under his ownership today. In the special, he named the car "Oliver", and the pale-yellow Cadet is now an icon around the world.

The trio started their journey from Botswana's border with Zimbabwe and they would have to drive 1000 miles to its northern border with Namibia. The challenges through Botswana were intense as they drove across the vast emptiness of the Makgadikgadi Pan Salt Flats, forged a path through the Kalahari and crossed the Okavango Delta. But should any of the three cars break down along the way, the backup car was a Volkswagen Beetle, one loathed by all three. The picturesque landscapes of the region showcased in the special take your breath away. The episode concluded with a curious but interesting conclusion. We won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it already. But even if you have, it is one that you can always rewatch.

Many more specials can be included here but these are the highlights of the best ones. To get the full experience of the show, the presenters and the cars, you simply have to watch them. The current three presenters of the show - Chris Harris, Paddy McGuiness and Freddy Flintoff have had their fair share of some exciting specials. But we will leave those for another day.