User:DBD/Archived/Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car

Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car is a recurring segment on the BBC Two motoring programme Top Gear.

During most programmes, a celebrity — usually of British fame — is interviewed by Jeremy Clarkson. Discussion is normally amusing, and focuses on car-related matters, such as the celebrity's car history. Then Clarkson, the guest and the studio audience watch the guest's fastest lap on the Top Gear test track.

Suzuki Liana
For the first seven series of its current incarnation, the car driven was a Suzuki Liana. The car used is stock, except a roll cage and racing seats have been added as safety measures. Each guest first practices with The Stig and is then allowed a number of attempts to make his or her way around the test track in the fastest time. However, the star doesn't learn of his or her lap time until they are interviewed. Practice laps, crashes and the drivers' facial expressions are also shown for amusement.

The two slowest laps on the Liana celebrity list are held by Terry Wogan and the late Richard Whiteley, both of whom were beaten by Billy Baxter, who is a Bosnia war veteran who is completely blind. He wrenched the Liana through the track under directions from Clarkson in the passenger seat in a time of 2 minutes 2 seconds, which was 1.4 seconds quicker than Terry Wogan, and 4 seconds faster than Richard Whiteley.

The fastest non-professional driver was Ellen MacArthur. Unlike most contenders she made no comments to the camera during her lap. She completed the lap in 1 minute 46.7 seconds, beating Jimmy Carr by 0.2 seconds

The Liana endured considerable abuse from the stars when undertaking their laps. In one incident actor Michael Gambon clipped the final corner almost rolling the car. It was done in such a spectacular fashion that the corner was henceforth named "Gambon Corner". When Lionel Richie drove the car, one of the front wheels fell off. Trevor Eve also lost a wheel, invoking Clarkson to coin the term "pulling a Lionel." British transport minister Stephen Ladyman added further injury to the Liana by denting the boot when he lost control during practice and slid backwards into a tyre wall. David Soul managed to destroy the clutch of two Lianas during his time on the show due to his unfamiliarity with manual cars. Christopher Eccleston was the only celebrity to use a Liana with an automatic transmission, because a hesitant Eccleston admitted he was "only qualified to drive an automatic." To accommodate his needs, Top Gear succeeded in borrowing an automatic Liana, of which only 40 existed in the UK. As a reference to his role in Doctor Who, the automatic Liana was shown materialising onto the racing track, with a TARDIS materialisation sound effect played over it.

The Liana has also been modified on several occasions. David Soul's Lianas featured a red police light and a white stripe in reference to his Starsky and Hutch role. Johnny Vegas was provided with 'L' plates as he hadn't passed his driving test at the time. When Justin Hawkins came on the show, the Liana he drove had flame decals pasted on it. Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar had an ornate tissue box placed in the back, as an homage to Asian drivers.

In its service, the Liana covered 1600 laps of the circuit, and its tyres and brakes were changed 400 times.

In July 2005, Formula One driver Damon Hill appeared on the show for the first time as the star. This was kept a surprise to the audience and the viewing public, and when Nigel Mansell came on the show, it was covered up in magazines and on the internet by saying that the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car would be Alan Titchmarsh. All Formula One drivers are put into their own list with regard to lap times because of their exceptional skill level. In addition, the Liana was pulled out from retirement to allow Jenson Button to make a time, and Clarkson noted that the Liana would be pulled out for use by Formula 1 drivers in the future. The most recent F1 driver to drive the Liana was Lewis Hamilton on the 2nd December 2007 show.

For some of the laps more than one person has been present in the car. This was the case for Clarkson's run when he had both Hammond and Dawe in the car. Trinny and Susannah were both in the car for each other's runs. Denise Van Outen was in Johnny Vaughan's when he did his lap, Van Outen never did a lap driving the car. Clarkson was also present as a navigator for Billy Baxter's laps.

Both Stigs, the original black Stig and the current white Stig have done laps around the track in the Suzuki Liana. Topping the list for the Liana was the second Stig (1:44.4), who took the car out for its last run (for celebrities as F1 drivers still use the Liana,) during the Episode 2 of Series 8.

Chevrolet Lacetti
Starting with the eighth series, the Liana was replaced by a Chevrolet Lacetti, with a new blank scoreboard. The format was changed so that each star would have five practice laps, and then a final timed lap, with no allowance being given for mishaps.

As a starter for the new car and format, an open day was held for any celebrity who wanted to take part. Seven stars recorded times that day: James Hewitt, whom the presenters claimed not to recognise and called "well spoken man", comedians Alan Davies and Jimmy Carr, rock stars Rick Wakeman and Justin Hawkins, footballer Les Ferdinand, and actor Trevor Eve who topped the time at 1 minute 47.0 seconds. Jimmy Carr, who held second place in the Liana behind Ellen McArthur, spun out while doing his timed lap and got the slowest time ever around the track at 2 minutes, 8.91 seconds.

On 28 January 2007, Jamie Oliver posted a time of 1:47.70 in melted snow and standing water. Given the rivalry Oliver felt towards fellow celebrity chef and Top Gear driver Gordon Ramsay, Oliver asked that the 4-second allowance normally granted for wet laps be used to put him at the top of the leaderboard "just for a day, please."

Billie Piper posted a time of 1:48.3 but was deemed by The Stig to have failed to complete a lap properly, as she failed to negotiate some corners. The Stig suggested a three second time penalty, but after Clarkson consulted the audience, it was decided to let the time stand, which David Tennant tried to over turn on the 23rd December 2007, however it was revealed that Billie was wearing a see-through top and if he had done so "would have been faster than Simon Cowell"

In the 11 November 2007 episode, Simon Cowell retook his fastest lap with a time of 1:45.90 - the Stig saying he had a natural ability.

Clarkson has referred to the part of the board with times of 1:51 and over as the "Thespian Zone" due to the propensity for actors and comedians to post slow times.

Time deductions
Sometimes an additional term is written next to the time (such as Hot). This indicates that the Stig and the Top Gear team consider that the prevalent weather conditions have affected the time. The time on the board is not adapted: e.g. 1:50 MM (Mildly Moist) is deemed to be equivalent to 1:48 on a normal dry track. The following list describes how many seconds it costs a car or gives a car an advantage