Porsche is the last bastion of cars for petrolheads. So when they start making electric cars, you realise the world really is changing.Collection: Car
The ecstasy of driving a new Ferrari is now almost always eradicated by the pain of dealing with the organisation.
My first car was a Mini, a little red Mini. I cherished it and I stripped the seats out of it and 'boy-racered' it.
Matt LeBlanc thinks his own jokes are funny which is problematic when you're driving along - he expects you to laugh and often they're not funny.
I like drifting stuff that shouldn't be drifted. When someone tells me 'that's not a car that should be drifted,' I'll go against that and say 'yes, it is.'
You think you can drive accurately in confined spaces until someone puts something like a shipping container in the way and you suddenly think: 'I'm going to hit that.'
Top Gear' is all about the cars. We've got humour in it but the unique premise of the show is it all starts with the car.
I had a full 11/10, out of body of moment when I drove the Ferrari FXX K. That woke me up proper sideways.
If you're not authentic you get found out. You wouldn't watch Jamie Oliver if you found out he couldn't boil the egg.
The big picture, for me, having grown up with 'Top Gear,' is that it was loved. We need to get that back. It needs to be an institution.
I'm from a more rigourous journalistic background. If I say a car is good or bad, the viewers can trust the fact that I have spent all my working life reviewing cars.
Top Gear' is for the whole family, regardless of gender, sitting down together to enjoy some slightly silly escapism.
We like to be involved vaguely in the creative process so we know what's going on and we have some input, but actually, 'Top Gear' is at its best when the producers spring something on you and we respond naturally to it. The more you know, the less realistic your reactions.
Unlike Fred and Paddy, I don't get many offers of work other than 'Top Gear,' because I'm crap at everything else.
Top Gear' is the thing that helped shape my life with cars, my perception of cars and my obsession with cars, and I'm raring to give it a go. I'm also quite gobby and happy to get into trouble, so I'm hoping I can underpin the programme with journalistic credibility but still cause some mischief.
The car is absolutely central to our approach. Everything we do begins with the automobile, whether it's old, new, bizarre, weird, strange, or cool. We're not going out to make a comedy show, and that's great, certainly from my point of view because obviously I'm totally obsessed with cars and I don't really like people.
You have to learn where people's funnybone is before you can start to poke fun and work out where that joy lies.
I think you can tell just how much fun we're going to have making 'Top Gear' with Paddy and Freddie. They're both brilliant, natural entertainers - and their mischief mixed with the most exciting cars on the planet is sure to take the show to the next level.
People often look at the past through the rose-tinted glass, but if you go back to 'Top Gear' 2000/2002 the chemistry wasn't there, it took time to grow.
People think the future is all about being green and clean. It's going to produce the fastest cars the world has ever seen. It is going to be incredible, it is going to be a speed fest.
If you tried to transplant an internal combustion engine and gearbox into another car, you have to bring with it all the systems and everything else to communicate with each other. But in an electric car, it's much simpler.
Top Gear,' for entirely understandable reasons, started to focus on its international status because it was selling so well in international territories.
You set yourself a nice problem when you're faced with: 'Is our show too exciting? How do we make it even more exciting?'
I don't know much about football but I know when Alex Ferguson retired this guy called Moys came in and he was doomed to fail. He could have been the best manager in the world, but karma tells you that after that prolonged success you're always going to have problems.
If you mess around with your mates, you get into rough and tumble then you remember you're in your mid-40s and you can't land the way you used to, so it's great fun.
I just want to be part of something people can watch with their family at 8 P.M. on a Sunday night, and be proud of it.
The Road & Track audience is basically me, you know, the car geeks. But, we have to acknowledge that most people find that, socially, very, very boring. We huddle in corners and we talk about differentials and final drive ratios, and most people just don't care. You have to acknowledge the fact that 'Top Gear' can't be about that.