Top Gear films put fans in the driving seat
Details
Louise Duffy
| 06 July 2019

BBC's poplar motoring series Top Gear is launching three original films that will allow anyone with a smartphone or tablet to experience stunt vehicle manoeuvres.

Available exclusively on the Top Gear YouTube channel, the 360 videos enable viewers to perform jumps over a music festival, a supermarket carpark and a petrol station. There are also explosions, crashes and spectacular failures, true to Top Gear style.

Filmed in the first-person, a member of the Top Gear production team welcomes fans from the comfort of their own motorhome to take them around the film set on a golf buggy, showing them what they’re about to jump over. After checking out the jump ramp, it’s time to strap into the driver’s seat and hit the road.
In the first 360, the viewer jumps a petrol tanker over a petrol station. Viewers will also encounter The Stig, who has appeared to have spilled a load of petrol everywhere, with predictably chaotic results. Film two involves jumping over a mini-music festival in an old, underpowered campervan, while the third film takes on a jump over a supermarket carpark into the last parking space, using a Kia Ceed.

At the end of the series, a short behind-the-scenes video will also show how the films were made.

Duncan Gray, commercial director, Top Gear, commented: “We wanted to create entertaining content for our YouTube channel that took fans behind the scenes of a Top Gear stunt. And by producing this content in 360 we were able to ‘virtually’ put viewers right there in the driving seat of three enormously inappropriate stunt vehicles, something we’ve never done before. The results, as you will see, are smashing!”