Clarkson's Car Years

Clarkson, owner of a Ferrari 355, defines what qualities make up a supercar, identifies the best and worst examples of the genre and calls the supercar's future into question.

In this show, our favourite motormouth reveals how the Japanese car industry has boomed over the last 50 years, to the extent that the country is now producing the most advanced vehicles on the planet. But he argues that although Europe may have learned from Japan about reliability, Japan still needs to learn how to make cars with heart and soul.

Jeremy Clarkson sets out to solve the mystery of why people like British sports cars. With their rich tradition and romanticised image, in some cases its easy to see why. But on the other hand there's the discomfort of open-top motoring to consider. His quest naturally involves road-testing the latest models, and then he concludes that the best one is not British at all, but Japanese!

Sad but true, the British car industry has been in steady decline over the past 50 years. In this show, Jeremy Clarkson laments the demise of our once treasured and highly respected ability to produce quality vehicles and looks for answers as to who's responsible.

Motormouth Jeremy Clarkson investigates the rise of the 'hot hatchback' in the 1980s. This was the decade of the 'must-have', and in the show Jezza looks at some of the famous models that rolled off the production lines including, the Volkswagen Golf GTI, the Ford XR3, the Peugeot 205 GTI and the Escort Cosworth.

In this bumper show, he considers current and recent family cars. Not satisfied with the Ford Focus which he finds too small, Jez moves on to MPVs, such as the Renault Espace, and finds them to be no more than vans with windows. Then it's on to some huge off-road vehicles which he opines to be anti-social, but fun!