Top Gear Season 40

Right now you can watch Top Gear Season 40 on streaming — and it earns the access it was given. The 1-season run is exactly the right length for what it is doing. 120 people have weighed in on TMDB, and the verdict leans heavily positive. The storytelling serves the subject rather than the other way around. Start it whenever you need something guaranteed to land.

Whatever else is competing for your attention this week, Top Gear Season 40 is worth clearing space for. The access Top Gear Season 40 gets is remarkable — and the storytelling does full justice to it. Season 40 of Top Gear includes 15 episodes. It aired from September 1998 to December 1998. It was aired in 1998. Documentary work at this level requires access that is hard to get and storytelling that does justice to it — Top Gear Season 40 has both. The hit rate here is high enough that skipping ahead never feels like an option.

Top Gear Season 40 is the kind of documentary you immediately want to recommend to someone else. It has built its own audience without needing a direct comparison. It is a manageable watch, easy to fit into a single week. The access the production gets is remarkable, and the storytelling does full justice to it. Worth watching in order, from the beginning.

🎬 Top Gear Season 40 — Episode Guide

Episode 1

1998-09-10

Jeremy Clarkson slips behind the wheel for the new 15-part run of the motoring magazine and road-tests the Ford Focus, while Tiff Needell sees how Aston Martin’s latest DB7 compares with a flying Jaguar. Plus a report from Quentin Willson on used cars imported from Japan.

Episode 2

1998-09-17

The Peugeot 205 was a practical, fun hatchback that many drivers found irresistible. Will the 206 be as popular? Vicki Butler-Henderson takes it for a spin. Jeremy Clarkson is given the chance to try out three executive motors, starting with a sporty little Italian model: the Ferrari 456M. He moves ...

Episode 3

1998-09-24

As motor racing returned last weekend to Goodwood in Sussex for the first time since 1966, Tiff Needell tells the story of the circuit’s revival and races a Lister Jaguar; Jeremy Clarkson tests the heavyweight contenders in the four-wheel drive market; and Quentin Willson reports on crash-test resea...

Episode 4

1998-10-01

Since its launch in 1989, the original Land Rover Discovery has been Britain’s best-selling four-wheel drive. Tiff Needell tries out the new model to see what’s changed. Andy Wilman climbs aboard Britain’s biggest motor home, the American-made Windsor Monaco, while and Jeremy Clarkson and racing dri...

Episode 5

1998-10-08

Alfa Romeo are hoping to put past design problems behind them with their new saloon models. Tiff Needell test-drives the latest offering — the Executive Express — which goes on sale in Britain early next year and replaces the much-loved, if slightly quirky, 164.

Episode 6

1998-10-15

Owing to concerns over safety the Mercedes A-class was withdrawn shortly after its launch earlier this year. Jeremy Clarkson test-drives the new, modified version. On a weekend break, Vicky Butler-Henderson gets to drive a Formula One car.

Episode 7

1998-10-22

Featuring reports from the British International Motor Show in Birmingham. Rover are hoping to steal the limelight with the 75, their first new car since BMW bought the company, while Jaguar are optimistic that their new, smaller S-type will be as well received as their XK8 sports car, which won man...

Episode 8

1998-10-29

The Ford Puma was such a hit with the Top Gear team that they voted it their Car of the Year for 1997. Now Ford has followed it up with a bigger coupe, the radically designed Cougar, but will it see off the competition?

Episode 9

1998-11-05

Volkswagen’s Golf GTi first came to Britain in 1976 and soon became the choice of the fashionable set. Over the years model changes blunted the sharp edges of this original hot hatch but now, with the emergence of an all-new Golf, there’s also a new GTi. Jeremy Clarkson asks whether this latest vers...

E10

Episode 10

1998-11-12

As the latest manufacturer to enter the sports-car market, Audi hopes to take on rivals Porsche and BMW with the new TT, which goes on sale in the spring. Jeremy Clarkson asks if the TT’s good looks and high build quality are enough to help Audi see off the competition.

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Episode 11

1998-11-19

The appearance of the luxuriously equipped V8-engined Seville STS marks the return of the Cadillac name to the British market. But will it tempt buyers away from more established makes, such as BMW and Lexus, as well as next year’s Jaguar S-type? Jeremy Clarkson test-drives it to see whether it offe...

E12

Episode 12

1998-11-26

Steve Berry travels to Seattle to look at Jeep’s new Grand Cherokee, which is huge and available for the first time in right-hand drive. In contrast Vicki Butler-Henderson considers the tiny tearaway Tommy Kaira ZZ sports car, an open-top two seater which is Japanese but made in Norfolk.

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Episode 13

1998-12-03

Tony Mason looks back at two of Britain’s failed attempts to infiltrate the US market during the post war years: the 1949 Austin Atlantic, which was considered overpriced in relation to its power, and the 1950 Triumph Mayflower, an unpopular miniature variation on the Rolls-Royce. Plus a review of t...

E14

Episode 14

1998-12-10

Back in the seventies the BMW 3.0, Fiat 130 and Peugeot were the coupes to be seen in-glamorous, rare and expensive. Steve Berry learns what made these models the must-haves of days gone by, while Quentin Willson drives the new, high-tech Mercedes Benz S Class.

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Episode 15

1998-12-17

In the concluding episode of the current series, Jeremy Clarkson, Tiff Needell, Quentin Willson and Vicki Butler-Henderson select their favourite cars of the year. Last year it was the Ford Puma that won the plaudits for its overall performance. Can the team find common ground to agree on the best o...

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🎬 Top Gear Season 40 — Episode Guide

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