Brilliant TV. Terrible engineering.

The builds

• Top Gear · Series 3, Episodes 5 & 6 · 23 November and 7 December 2003The Indestructible HiluxTop Gear drowned it, crashed it through an office, dropped a caravan on it, set it on fire and parked it on a tower block that was being demolished. It still started.
• Top Gear · Series 8, Episode 3 · 21 May 2006The amphibious cars (Rudyard Lake)A sailing Triumph Herald, a VW camper houseboat and a Hilux with an enormous outboard. Two miles of water. One of them made it, very slowly.
• Top Gear · Series 9, Episode 4 · 18 February 2007The Reliant Robin Space ShuttleHammond and May strapped a 1992 Reliant Robin to a homemade fuel tank and rockets. The boosters separated perfectly. The Robin didn't.
• Top Gear · Series 9, Episode 6 · 4 March 2007The stretch limosClarkson stretched a Fiat Panda, Hammond made an open-top MG F limo and May welded the fronts of a Saab and an Alfa Romeo together. Then they drove VIPs to the Brits.
• Top Gear · Series 10, Episode 2 · 14 October 2007The amphibious cars (English Channel)Having sunk in a Staffordshire lake, Top Gear tried the busiest shipping lane in the world. A Nissan pickup with its doors welded shut made it to France.
• Top Gear · Series 10, Episode 3 · 28 October 2007The Peel P50 office commuteJeremy Clarkson drove the world's smallest production car to work, carried it into the office, took it in a lift and got lost inside BBC Television Centre.
• Top Gear · Series 14, Episode 2 · 22 November 2009The Hammerhead Eagle i-ThrustA TVR chassis, a milk float motor, two batteries, shelving and a section of garage door. Top Gear's answer to the G-Wiz was briefly called Geoff.
• Top Gear · Series 14, Episode 3 · 29 November 2009The caravan airshipTo get caravans off Britain's roads, James May put one under a 125ft hot-air envelope. Top speed: about 17mph, and nothing at all into a stiff breeze.
• Top Gear · Series 15, Episode 4 · 18 July 2010The campervansMay put a rocket-shaped pod on a Lotus Excel, Clarkson built a tower block on a Citroën CX and Hammond's Land Rover unfolded into a mansion. Then they drove to Cornwall.

Where are they now?

Every row links to the source we used. "Whereabouts unknown" means exactly that: we couldn't verify it, so we won't guess. If you know more, send a tip through the tip line.

Not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the BBC, Top Gear, Amazon or The Grand Tour. Show names are used only to identify the episodes we're writing about. We don't use show stills or screenshots. Photos are freely licensed Wikimedia Commons pictures of the vehicles on public display, credited under each one.