Ranking The Best Classic Top Gear Specials Worst To Best

The Botswana special, it featured two of the best cars (in a sense) that have ever been in a Top Gear special. More on those in a moment.

This was one of the first adventures they embarked upon that had real wilderness to it. The surfaces and challenges that featured along the way were fantastic, whilst at all times playing second fiddle to both the cars and the stunning country in which it was set.

The banter flowed between the trio in this one like a fine wine. James May constantly referencing the VW Beetle (the back-up car) as Clarkson struggled to get his Lancia back from the dead was both funny and cruel. As it was when Clarkson and May discussed Hammond's love for his Opal and cutting bits off his wife.

The real strength here though was both the Opal Kadet and the Lancia Beta Coupé. The Kadet has gone down as one of the most famous special cars in Top Gear history because of Hammond's love for it and how much he went through to get it across the finish line (he took it home after filming was complete). However, Clarkson's Lancia was just terrible in the best way, when he got it nothing really worked and how he managed to get it from one side of Botswana to the other remains a total mystery.

A real great episode of Top Gear, bettered only by episodes that themselves have gone down as some of the finest TV that anybody has ever produced.

Best Car: Hammond's Oliver (Opal Kadet)