Top Gear Series 21 teaser includes McLaren P1, Mercedes 6×6, and Alfa Romeo 4C

By Nick Jaynes January 28, 2014

top gear series 21 teaser includes mclaren p1 mercedes 6x6 alfa romeo 4c 2 long

The BBC 2’s Top Gear, the world’s most-watched television show, returns for its 21^st Series this Sunday, at the exact same time as the 2014 XLVIII Super Bowl. And I can tell you which one I am going to be watching: Top Gear.

In the all-new, second trailer, we see Clarkson, Hammond, and May are up to some wacky hijinks, as usual. Clarkson drives a McLaren P1, May gets dropped into a river, and Hammond drives the Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6×6 by some lovely ladies.

Just a few series ago, I worried that my beloved Top Gear had jumped the shark. Looking at this video, though, I think the boys are back in a serious way. And I am very, very pleased.

What high-flying mayhem lies in store for us over the 21^st Series? We’ll have to just wait and see.

Want to know which Top Gear episodes I think are best? Check out my list of the Top 10 Best Top Gear Episodes.

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Nick Jaynes is the Automotive Editor for Digital Trends. He developed a passion for writing about cars working his way…

Cars

Before the McLaren P1 hybrid hypercar, there was the 1898 Porsche P1 electric car

mclaren p1 hybrid hypercar 1898 porsche electric car s14 0021 fine

Porsche unveiled last week a very special barn find indeed. It’s the world’s first Porsche – and it’s electric.
Called Porsche 2, but known as the P1 for short, the horse-drawn carriage-looking wood-wheeled unit was hand-built by Ferdinand Porsche in 1898. Powered by a three-horsepower electric motor, which could be over-boosted to five horsepower in a pinch, the car could do 35 km/h for three to six hours or for 80 kilometers.
“The vehicle speed was regulated via a 12-speed controller, which offered six forward gears, two reverse gears and four braking gears.”
So why are we just learning about this car now? After Porsche demonstrated his creation at the 1899 international motor vehicle exhibition in Berlin, the P1 was parking in a warehouse in 1902, never to be touched again.
That is, until now.
Recently rediscovered, the P1 will be making its way to the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart where it will hopefully reside for another 112 years.

Cars

Did McLaren’s P1 hyper hybrid set a 6-minute Nurburgring production-car lap record?

did the mclaren p1 set a nurburgring production car lap record 1

The McLaren P1 hybrid supercar already has some pretty impressive numbers to its credit, but it's missing one thing: an official Nurburgring lap record.
McLaren previously announced that the P1 had lapped the infamous German racetrack in under seven minutes, putting it in contention for the record. However, officials wouldn't reveal the actual time.
Rumors suggested that time was close to 6 minutes, 30 seconds, but McLaren has remained mum.
Now, Autocar reports that the P1 did in fact make it around the Nurburgring in roughly 6 minutes, 30 seconds, citing an anonymous McLaren insider as its source.
If the report is accurate, the P1 is not only faster around the 'Ring than its hybrid rival, the Porsche 918 Spyder (which completed a lap in 6 minutes, 57 seconds), it's also the faster production car to ever lap the track.
The current production-car record is held by the Radical SR8 LM, which is essentially a scaled-down prototype-style race car with license plates. Its best lap was 6 minutes, 48 seconds, making the P1's (potential) victory fairly decisive.
Then again, what do you expect from a carbon-fiber missile with a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 and an electric motor? Combined, they produce 903 horsepower, enough to hurl the P1 to 62 mph from a standstill in just under 3 seconds, and on to an estimated top speed of 217 mph.
So while a Nurburgring-record claim is definitely believable, it still needs to be confirmed. When it is, the P1 will officially be the ultimate performance, at least until the LaFerrari makes a trip to Germany.

Cars

Here comes Clarkson! Top Gear UK teases 21st series

Jeremy, James, and Richard will be back for a 21st series of the globe’s most popular television show, Top Gear, later this month.
To celebrate the momentous occasion, the BBC Two has released a very, very short teaser clip. In it, show star Jeremy Clarkson is tiredly slumped over the wheel of a Volkswagen Up!, as he drearily repeats “lorry” over and over.

It’s believed this is a snippet of the Top Gear trip to Sochi, Russia to help open the Winter Olympics … well, perhaps “help” is the wrong word.
Based upon some videos captured by some adoring fans, the trio are slogging their way through Europe in subcompacts; Richard Hammond in a Ford Fiesta, James May in a Dacia Sandero, and Jeremy Clarkson in the Up!.
What the boys will be doing in Russia is only up to your imagination. Surely, however, it will be full of memorable hi-jinx – ones tame enough, though, to keep them out of a Russian gulag.
If you’re not familiar with Top Gear antics, check out my list of the Top 10 Best Top Gear Episodes of All-Time.
As soon as we learn of the exact release date, or any more of the adventures in store for us in Series 21, we’ll be sure to update you. So stay tuned!