Jeremy Clarkson shared his disapproval at the scrapping of rundown Top Gear vehicles (Picture: PA)
Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has expressed his dismay at the BBC scrapping some of the customised cars from his era of the show.
The TV presenter, 64, hosted the popular motor show from 2002 to 2015 alongside Richard Hammond and James May during which time they modified plenty of vehicles.
Many of the cars were housed in the National Motor Museum in the World of Top Gear exhibition for public viewing.
This was shut down after Top Gear was put on hiatus for the ‘foreseeable future’ after Freddie Flintoff’s near-death experience while filming the show in 2022.
But now they are being re-homed, with a handful of vehicles being disposed of.
‘I’m sad that many have been destroyed. I guess the problem is some people see cars as just a ton-and-a-half of glass, plastic, metal and rubber.
This is just one of the cars that was in ‘too poor a condition’ to move to the new location (Picture: BBC)
A handful of cars have been ‘disposed of’, some have been sent for restoration and many will be moved to a new home (Picture: BBC)
Jeremy says for ‘petrolheads’ this is a ‘sad development (Picture: PA)
‘But to petrolheads, they’re more than that. That’s especially true of cars we used on Top Gear,’ told The Sun.
It is understood the scrapped vehicles included Jeremy’s Fiat Panda stretch limo as well as a Mini Cooper used in the first-ever car ski-jump attempt during the 2006 Winter Olympics special.
May’s caravan airship from 2010 was also reportedly scrapped.
BBC told Metro they disposed of ‘a small number of the vehicles [that] were in very poor condition and unroadworthy.’
A spokesperson said: ‘We have rehomed the majority of the show’s iconic vehicles from the now closed World of Top Gear exhibition at the National Motor Museum.
‘We’re pleased to confirm that many of them will be available for public viewing at a soon to be announced new location.’
The BBC confirmed they have also ‘retained some vehicles for restoration and future Top Gear brand use.’
The BBC has confirmed that they will soon announce the new location for the modified cars (Picture: BBC)
The cars which will be moving include the ‘indestructible’ Toyota Hilux (2003), the Nissank (2006), the P45 (2013) and Mr Nippy (2020), adding that the Panda Limo is in ‘poor condition’ and ‘would not survive the move’.
After leaving the show Jeremy presented the Prime series The Grand Tour alongside Richard and James but their tenure came to an end in 2024 after six seasons.
Discussing the decision to bring the show to a close, James told Yahoo UK: ‘It’s sort of sad, and I know people are sad that it’s over, but it couldn’t go on forever, and we’re all getting on a bit.
‘And we exhausted the idea fairly thoroughly, I think, so it’s like we quietly put it to one side rather than destroy it.’
The Grand Tour trio left the show in 2024 (Picture: Getty)
Jeremy is the star of one of Prime’s biggest shows, Clarkson’s Farm (Picture: Prime Video)
Meanwhile, the Clarkson’s Fram star added, per BBC: ‘It’s a young man’s game. The other thing is that if we were to sit down and ask, “Where next?” – well, we’ve been everywhere. We’ve done everything you can realistically do with a car, and the world has shrunk – and that’s the tragedy.
‘Years ago, we drove from Iraq into eastern Turkey into Syria, Damascus and Israel. We did the Crimea to Ukraine. You couldn’t do any of that now.
‘There’s some rich ground in and around Indonesia, but you can’t really go there either. North Africa, apart from Morocco, is completely out.’
Jeremy has found huge success with his series Clarkson’s Farm in which he documents his journey maintaining a sprawling farm in the Cotswolds.
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