Top Gears Race to the North Pole Great Moments
The Polar Special was a special episode of the BBC motoring show Top Gear, featuring the regular presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. It is the show’s third full-length special and was broadcast in July 2007, several months after the end of the ninth series. It was developed and released in order to lessen the drought of Top Gear during 2007 in the wake of Hammond’s crash from September the year prior.
The special saw Clarkson and May racing Hammond and American explorer Matty McNair to the Magnetic North Pole. Clarkson and May chose a modified Toyota Hilux Arctic Truck whilst Hammond and McNair used a traditional dogsled with huskies.
The presenters began in Resolute in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Before this, however, they were sent to Austria for a cold-weather training program. They then underwent further survival training on Canadian sea ice, and were reprimanded by famed explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes not to take the dangers they would face lightly.
Transport
Toyota Hilux Pickup — Jeremy Clarkson and James May
Snow Dogs — Richard Hammond and Matty McNair
Trivia
- This was the first episode of Top Gear broadcast in HD as a test run for future filming purposes — it would take until Series 14 in late 2009 before the show adopted it full-time.
- This is the only Top Gear Special where a race was the main feature instead of the trio using three second hand cars.
- The final car destination shows 78°35’07.0″N 104°11’09.0″W as the North Pole. Which is somewhere west of Ellef Ringnes Island, nowhere close to true north pole 90°N. The trip from Resolute is nearly 500KM in a straight line.
