Jeremy Clarkson: [while playing the video game Gran Turismo] Aston Martin DB9, that's not a racecar, that's pornography.
Richard Hammond: [announcing the Top Gear 2008 Awards in December 2008] Right, this is the award for the best noise we've heard all year. These are the nominations. The V8 bellow of the new Mercedes CLK Black, The V8 bellow of the Ferrari Scuderia and the V8 bellow of the Alfa Romeo 8C. Well, the winner of this category. The winner, you are gonna love this, Jeremy.
Jeremy Clarkson: Is it the Black?
Richard Hammond: No. Actually, the winner is, Will Young's new single!
[Will Young's new single played]
James May: [looking through the survey results] I've just noticed, looking though these results, that ten of the thirteen bottom cars are French.
Jeremy Clarkson: That's possibly why they're burning them in Paris at the moment!
James May: I think they're just catching fire by themselves!
Jeremy Clarkson: Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It's like making a hard core adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You'd just end up with a sort of half hour close up of some bloke's sweaty face.
Jeremy Clarkson: [announcing the Top Gear 2005 Awards in December 2005] Now the best gas guzzler of the year. And the nominations are: the Range Rover Sport which achieved eight miles to the gallon; the Bugatti Veyron which achieved four miles to the gallon; and Hemel Hempstead. That actually used up 60 million gallons of fuel and didn't move an inch.
[referring to the
then-recent gas explosion in Hertfordshire]
Richard Hammond: [announcing the nominees for the Weirdest Renault] Ok, Weirdest Renault of the year. The nominees are as follows: The Velsatis. It's a businessman's car, but only if your business is Enron. The Megane, a family car, but only if your family is the Osbournes. And the Avantime, it is a sporty coupe but only if you don't want a car of that sporty or a coupe.
Jeremy Clarkson: [Inside Hammond's CamperBoat] This is actually quite cosy.
Richard Hammond: Oh yeah, has all the comforts of a houseboat.
Jeremy Clarkson: [pair start reading magazines] Did you see the titles of these?
Richard Hammond: No... well i went for those that have a houseboat feel to them.
Jeremy Clarkson: [Shows Hammond the title of the mag he picked up "Gay Times"] So why this then?
Jeremy Clarkson: [about TVR Tuscan 2] You see, my wife loves this car. She loves the noise and the vibrations and the sense of danger and the way that when you over-rev it, the whole dash lights up like a baboon's backside. Richard Hammond on the other hand, he pretty much hates it. He says its too difficult and too complicated and that all the stitching in here looks like the
kind of stitching you find when someone's tried to mend their own shoes.
Richard Hammond: [discussing Sabine's Schmitz drive round Nurburgring] Don't forget, she was only half a second a mile behind you, and she was in this van.
Jeremy Clarkson: I think we should explain. The Nurburgring, as I'm sure some of you know, is sort of open the whole time. You can pay five pounds to go on a lap, so there were other cars out there as
well.
Richard Hammond: It was just an ordinary day, and you saw them. There were guys in their Porsches, "Look at me in my Porsche, ha ha!" and they were overtaken by a van. Driven by a girl!
Jeremy Clarkson: That Zonda, really! It's like a lion in orange dungarees. Kind of fierce, but ridiculous all at the same time.
Jeremy Clarkson: We start tonight with the highlight of my childhood. It's the Ladybird Book of Motorcars from 1963, and as you would imagine it's full of rubbish really. Just endless boring grey shapes, until you get to page 40, where you find the Maserati 3500 GT. Now this for me, when I was little, was like kind of Jordan and Cameron Diaz. In a bath together. With a Lightning
jet fighter. And lots of jelly.
Jeremy Clarkson: [peering into the engine bay on the Lotus Exige] To get an idea of just how spartan this thing is, you just have to look through the rear window. Back there you've got chicken wire, bakofoil and tupperware. It's kind of like peering into one of your grannies' old kitchen cabinets.