Petrolhead Planet

In the first ever episode of Petrolhead Planet, Jethro Bovingdon heads to the Scottish Highlands in what might be the ultimate Porsche, a 911 GT3 RS 4.0. This motorsport-inspired 911 doesn’t disappoint, but what about the epic, desolate roads of northern Scotland that make up the North Coast 500? On this trip Jethro encounters the best and worst of British weather, but on the day the sun shines he’s joined by the iconic Carrera GT supercar, to help him determine whether the 911 GT3 RS 4.0 is the greatest Porsche of all time.

The French Riviera might be a playboy’s paradise, but for petrolheads, the mountains above the Mediterranean coast have some of the world’s greatest driving roads. Jethro Bovingdon starts this episode of Petrolhead Planet on a famed rally stage close to Monaco where he meets the first BMW M3. His route then takes him higher into the Alps, to the Route Napoléon and along the Gorges du Verdon. Can the 30-year-old icon still cut it? A special guest, rally and Dakar legend Ari Vatanen, is out to convince Jethro it can. But our host might only have eyes for the E46-generation M3 CSL, which he has a rendezvous with atop the lunar landscape of Mont Ventoux.

Have the likes of the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 and LaFerrari been left behind as car manufacturers promise all-electric 2000bhp hypercars? There are many ways to find out, but Jethro Bovingdon’s preferred method is to spend five days with the McLaren P1 crossing the Spanish Pyrenees. His journey starts on the edge of the Mediterranean in beautiful Barcelona, before heading up into the mountains that separate Spain from its French neighbor. It’s an epic trip, one that ends a thousand miles away in Bilbao, but not before Jethro’s spent a day on track with the P1 – and been forced to go paragliding by the crew.