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50 free Top Gear trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Three men cocking about in second-hand cars became the most widely broadcast factual programme in the world. Top Gear's 2002 relaunch gave us the Stig, the Cool Wall, the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, caravan destruction, a race to the magnetic North Pole and a run of specials that ended in riots, lawsuits and a punch over a steak. These 50 questions cover the show's creation by Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman, the Dunsfold test track, the Black and White Stigs and their unmaskings, Richard Hammond's 288 mph Vampire crash, James May's nickname and his 259 mph Veyron run, the Liana lap times, the Burma and Argentina controversies, the 2015 sacking, The Grand Tour, the Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc era, and the Harris, McGuinness and Flintoff reboot that ended with the 2022 accident. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and each explanation adds one more detail. Play it solo or print it for a petrolhead pub quiz.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year did the relaunched Top Gear premiere on the BBC?
2002
The original magazine-format show had run from 1977 until the BBC cancelled it in December 2001.
Q 02Who devised the relaunched Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson?
Andy Wilman
Wilman was a schoolmate of Clarkson's at Repton and became the show's executive producer.
Q 03Who was the third presenter alongside Clarkson and Hammond in the first 2002 series?
Jason Dawe
Dawe lasted one series before James May took his seat for the second.
Q 04Which Channel 5 rival did the BBC want the relaunched show to compete with?
Fifth Gear
Several original Top Gear presenters, including Tiff Needell and Vicki Butler-Henderson, had defected to it.
Q 05Where is the Top Gear test track and studio located?
Dunsfold Aerodrome
It is an airport and business park in Waverley, Surrey; one of its hangars became the studio.
Q 06Which sports car maker helped design the Top Gear test circuit?
Lotus
The circuit was laid out over the aerodrome's runways and taxiways to suit the show's timed laps.
Q 07Who was the original "Black Stig"?
Perry McCarthy
The Sunday Mirror named him in January 2003, and he confirmed it in the second edition of his autobiography.
Q 08What name did producers first want for the silent test driver before settling on "the Stig"?
The Gimp
McCarthy objected, saying he did not want to be forever remembered as the Gimp.
Q 09The name "Stig" comes from what new boys were called at which school?
Repton
Clarkson and Wilman were both pupils there; the word is a put-down borrowed from Stig of the Dump.
Q 10How was the Black Stig "killed off" in the series 3 premiere?
Driving a Jaguar off an aircraft carrier
The white Jaguar XJS, fitted with nitrous, was shown flying off the deck of HMS Invincible.
Q 11Which racing driver was revealed as the White Stig in a 2010 court case over his memoir?
Ben Collins
The BBC failed to block The Man in the White Suit, published on 16 September 2010.
Q 12Which F1 champion was jokingly unmasked as the Stig in series 13?
Michael Schumacher
Ferrari would only let Schumacher drive the FXX, so he wore the suit for that lap alone.
Q 13Who did Clarkson reveal in 2024 to have been the second White Stig from series 16?
Phil Keen
He took over after Collins was dropped in late 2010 and stayed through the later reboots.
Q 21Clarkson judged Cool Wall cars partly on how they would impress which actress?
Kristin Scott Thomas
Later the benchmark became BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce.
Q 22Which pickup truck did Clarkson and May try and fail to destroy in series 3?
Toyota Hilux
The rules allowed repairs with tools but no replacement parts except the windscreen.
Q 23What did Clarkson and May race to in the 2007 Polar Special?
The North Magnetic Pole
They drove a modified Hilux against Hammond on a dog sled and became the first to reach it by car.
Q 14How do the "Some say..." introductions of the test driver always end?
"...all we know is, he's called the Stig."
The "Some say..." format began in series 6, with claims like his tears being adhesive.
Q 15Which car was the Reasonably Priced Car when Nigel Mansell set his 1:44.6 lap?
Suzuki Liana
Barrichello was the first guest to beat the Stig's time in it, at 1:44.3.
Q 16Who was the first guest to beat the Stig's Liana lap time?
Rubens Barrichello
The show then played up a jealous rivalry between the Stig and Barrichello.
Q 17What was the celebrity segment called during the Clarkson, Hammond and May years?
Star in a Reasonably Priced Car
The Evans-era rally-cross version was panned and dropped after a single series.
Q 18What did F1 drivers have to drive for their Reasonably Priced Car laps, to keep things fair?
The first car ever used in the segment
Everyone else moved on to each new car and a fresh leaderboard as the segment's car was changed.
Q 19Which of these is a requirement for a car to make the Power Lap board?
It must be able to negotiate a speed bump
The Renault F1 car and the Caparo T1 both set times but were disqualified on the speed bump rule.
Q 20What were the four sections of the studio board where Clarkson and Hammond rated cars?
Seriously Uncool, Uncool, Cool, Sub Zero
Any car owned by one of the presenters was automatically classified as Seriously Uncool.
Q 24What was the first feature-length Top Gear special, aired in 2006?
Winter Olympics
Cars replaced athletes in events including a biathlon and downhill ski-jumping.
Q 25Which tagline introduced many of the presenters' build-it-yourself challenges?
"How hard can it be?"
Many of the resulting creations went on display at World of Top Gear at the Beaulieu motor museum.
Q 26What did the presenters regularly destroy in the show's early series?
A caravan
Caravan destruction was one of the new humorous elements that separated the 2002 show from the old format.
Q 27Which car was named Top Gear's Car of the Decade at the end of the 2000s?
Bugatti Veyron
The presenters reasoned it was the only car worthy of the award.
Q 28What was the jet-powered dragster Richard Hammond crashed in 2006 called?
Vampire
Piloted by Colin Fallows, the same car had set a British land speed record of 300.3 mph in 2000.
Q 29How fast was Hammond travelling when his dragster crashed?
288 mph
A front-right tyre failed on his seventh and final run at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York.
Q 30How long was Hammond kept in a medically induced coma after the crash?
Two weeks
He later admitted he had no memory of his first TV interview after the crash and "lost a year".