Iconic Top Gear cars including Jeremy Clarkson’s Fiat Panda Limo & caravan airship scrapped by BBC leaving fans furious
ICONIC customised cars from Top Gear’s glory days have been scrapped by BBC bosses.
They infuriated fans by ruling that the motors — often comically adapted by the stars for bizarre challenges — were too run-down to restore or to sell into private hands.
And former host Jeremy Clarkson told of his concerns that the collection could not remain on show at the National Motor Museum on the Beaulieu estate in, Hants.
He told The Sun: “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.
“But to petrolheads, they’re more than that. That’s especially true of cars we used on Top Gear”.
Those sold for scrap included Clarkson’s Fiat Panda stretch limo and a Mini Cooper used in the first-ever car ski-jump attempt from the show’s 2006 Winter Olympics special.
The episode saw Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond put a Union Jack-emblazoned Mini on skis, before adding a jet-powered rocket and attempting to beat a professional jumper.
May’s caravan airship, which he used to fly across England in 2010 as an alternative to clogging up roads, was also destroyed.
A double-decker car is believed to have been disposed of before the World of Top Gear exhibition closed last November.
The display, with more than 60 props, closed after it was decided to “rest” the series due to Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash in 2023.
One fan wrote online: “A shame. It would have been nice for them all to stay together.”
Another said they have been auctioned off for Children In Need”.
A third added: “You’d probably get someone interested in buying them as a memento and paying a decent amount of money for it.”
One car that was saved was the “indestructible” Toyota Hilux, which Clarkson famously blew up in a tower block explosion.
Others spared included Hammond’s VW “Dampervan” which failed to cross the Channel, and Paddy McGuinness’s all-electric, all-wheel drive, all-terrain “Mr Nippy” ice cream van.
It is understood the surviving cars could be put back on display later this year.
Others may be restored for promotional work.
Former Top Gear and Grand Tour producer Richard Porter wrote on X: “They can’t be sold, even for charity, for various reasons, not least liability.”
No license fee money was used to scrap or move the cars.
BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, confirmed: “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, and we’re pleased to confirm that many of them will be available for public viewing at a soon to be announced new location.”