What Was the Top Gear 24 Hour Endurance Race?

The Top Gear 24 hour endurance race was a race that was entered into by hosts of the British television show Top Gear. The original hosts of the British program, James May and Richard Hammond, along with Jeremy Clarkson, participated in a 24-hour endurance race in Silverstone. This was a race designed to test both vehicles and drivers to their utmost abilities.

Top Gear is a television show that began in Britain as an informative weekly program. The show specializes in the realm of automobiles and showcases the different car manufacturers’ most powerful and expensive models.

The show originally aired on Britain’s BBC broadcasting station, and now has subsidiary television programs based in both the United States and Australia.

The Endurance Race

The team entered the race driving a BMW 330i, the manufacturer’s turbo diesel model. They used the BMW in spite of the fact that previous records had been set in the race by teams that had driven the Audi R10 TDI, a LeMans model of the popular touring vehicle. The Audi has the longest history of winning the yearly race.

The team’s reasoning for opting to drive a vehicle other than the one that the majority of teams in the race rely on was that they wanted to test the vehicle and get a better idea of its abilities and endurance. This vehicle was used even though the vehicle itself is designed to be a road-driven model, not an off-road or dirt track racing vehicle.