We’re back! A sneak preview of series 21

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we’re back! Well, almost. You’ve probably divined all you really need to know about our new series from the trailers, but if you want more, here’s a peek into what we’ve got planned for the coming weeks.

The first show is Sunday 2 February, BBC Two, 8pm, and we’ll have all the behind-the-scenes action for you right here on TopGear.com as usual. See you then… 

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

Pictures: BBC Worldwide 

In the course of making its annual 
not-quite-Christmas special, Top Gear usually goes to a country you’ve heard of, such as Vietnam or India. This 
time, however, the since-when-has-Christmas-been-in-February special is from a place few people have heard of 
at all: The Republic of the Union of Myanmar. You might know it better as Burma…

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

In the course of making its annual 
not-quite-Christmas special, Top Gear usually goes to a country you’ve heard of, such as Vietnam or India. This 
time, however, the since-when-has-Christmas-been-in-February special is from a place few people have heard of 
at all: The Republic of the Union of Myanmar. You might know it better as Burma…

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

Although he is from Birmingham, Richard Hammond has absorbed the ways of 
the countryside extremely well. It’s why he owns 
a needless number of old and malfunctioning Land Rovers, remains suspicious of food with bits in it and secretly wants to own a pickup truck. 
So when the Top Gear office said someone was needed to go to the Middle East to drive a version of the Mercedes G-Wagen that was 
not only a pickup but also had six wheels and looked like a sort of wealthy moron’s monster truck, Hammond didn’t need asking twice…

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

Place a pair of lightweights in the gentle custody of May. He will explain that, despite their striking likeness and shared badge, they couldn’t be more different. One has 160bhp, while the other makes do with 311bhp. He will tell you that one costs £15k, whereas the other is yours 
for £50k. Then he’ll hand both to The Stig and take several steps back…

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

Place a pair of lightweights in the gentle custody of May. He will explain that, despite their striking likeness and shared badge, they couldn’t be more different. One has 160bhp, while the other makes do with 311bhp. He will tell you that one costs £15k, whereas the other is yours 
for £50k. Then he’ll hand both to The Stig and take several steps back…

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

Because the Top Gear presenters are middle-aged, they have very fond memories of the Eighties and, in particular, what they believe was the ‘golden age’ of hot hatchbacks. With this in mind, the producers decided to set the silly old fools a challenge. “You three go out and buy an old hot hatch each,” they said, “then meet up for some challenges where we, white-coated swines that 
we are, will attempt to prove you’re talking out of your increasingly arthritic arses…”

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

Because the Top Gear presenters are middle-aged, they have very fond memories of the Eighties and, in particular, what they believe was the ‘golden age’ of hot hatchbacks. With this in mind, the producers decided to set the silly old fools a challenge. “You three go out and buy an old hot hatch each,” they said, “then meet up for some challenges where we, white-coated swines that 
we are, will attempt to prove you’re talking out of your increasingly arthritic arses…”

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

Because the Top Gear presenters are middle-aged, they have very fond memories of the Eighties and, in particular, what they believe was the ‘golden age’ of hot hatchbacks. With this in mind, the producers decided to set the silly old fools a challenge. “You three go out and buy an old hot hatch each,” they said, “then meet up for some challenges where we, white-coated swines that 
we are, will attempt to prove you’re talking out of your increasingly arthritic arses…”

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

In 1997 Toyota launched the Prius. Who’d-a-thought it would lead us here, to the McLaren P1 on a soggy day in Belgium? And yet here we are, with a 903bhp hypercar that owes a good chunk of its power to electricity. But this is more than a beefed-up battery pack. It’s a 217mph science lesson. As Jeremy says, “It makes everything else look like the past”. So it should make light work 
of the world’s scariest circuit, right...?

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

According to one of Top Gear’s many mantras, you can’t call yourself a true petrolhead unless you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo. Bad news for Richard Hammond, who, to date, has not. But he did recently confess that the brand new 4C coupe might be the 
car to make him break his duck on Alfa ownership. So when the office needed someone to test this lightweight Elise-alike, Hammond didn’t need to be asked twice…

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

All the TG presenters love small cars. 
James has a Fiat Panda. Richard has a Fiat 500. Jeremy 
has a Mercedes CLK63 AMG Black Series. But he says he likes small cars too. And since all three of them were very insistent on this point, the producers told them to pick a small car each and meet on the Crimean peninsular in Ukraine – a very interesting part of the world…

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

In a recent column for Top Gear magazine, Jeremy described the longest crash of his life. It may or may not have happened while filming this power test. And it may or may not have been in the BMW M135i. It may have been in the 
Golf GTI. Although – on an alarmingly wet track – a front-drive VW is surely 
a safer bet than a meaty, rear-drive BMW. Either way, the skid marks 
will be there for years.

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…

From the land of pig smokers and longships comes the Zenvo ST1. It 
has a 7.0-litre V8 from the foundries 
of Valhalla (actually it’s from a Corvette, but that’s not very Danish). It stole its face from The Stig, who sounds a bit Nordic. And it has 1,100bhp, which should please Clårksøn the Loudhailer. But can it really trouble a Veyron’s lap time around the Top Gear track? Your television will reveal all...

For a full bumper preview of the new series, including words from big boss Andy Wilman, you need the new issue of Top Gear magazine, on sale 30 January or delivered earlier to subscribers…