Top Gear's Homemade Campervans: Lotus, Citroën and Land Rover
May 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.
Campervans are slow, wobbly and heavy because they have to carry a small house around. In 2010 the Top Gear presenters decided they could do better, and each built a camper with a bed, a way to cook and a toilet. Then they drove them to Cornwall for a bank holiday weekend. The museum puts the trip at 215 miles.
Three philosophies
James May's idea was lightness. He took a Lotus Excel and put a rocket-shaped pod on the roof. Inside there was room for a sleeping bag and a potty, plus an "escape hatch" down into the back seats. The museum that now owns it notes the hatch turned out to be too small for May to fit through. On the road, though, it barely felt loaded. As May put it, he was "preserving motoring pleasure for the campervanist".
Jeremy Clarkson went the other way: a Citroën CX with a tall, multi-storey structure on top that the others compared to a tower block. Richard Hammond started with a Land Rover 110 and planned a camper that would fold out into something much bigger once it arrived.
The drive
Clarkson's tower started causing trouble as soon as it got up to speed. Air hit the big flat front, forced the car back and lifted the front wheels off the ground. His fix was to take out a window and remove the rear door so the air could pass through. On camera, his verdict was "It's made no difference!" May, following behind, called it the most entertaining road trip of his life.
Hammond's problem was quieter. Cutting away the Land Rover's bodywork had left a gap all around, so the cabin was draughty and cold, and the heater didn't help much.
At a fuel stop, Clarkson discovered he'd built his escape chute right over the CX's filler flap. The fix involved a saw.
Arrival
At the campsite in Cornwall, Hammond's build took so long that the other two went to the pub. When they got back, he gave them a tour of what had become a sprawling home, with a "library", a "dining room" (still waiting for furniture) and a child's bedroom. Then the wind got up, which with homemade campers is never good news.
What went wrong
The tall one was unstable, the big one took hours to unfold and the light one was too small for its own escape hatch.
The weirdest bit
A fuel cap you have to saw through. As someone pointed out on the day, it's very secure.
The Lotus survives in a Scottish museum. Where the CX and the Land Rover went after Beaulieu, we honestly don't know.
Where is it now?
James May's Lotus Excel camper
In a museumAs of November 2026Grampian Transport Museum, Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Listed in the Grampian Transport Museum Collection, current location 'On display'. The museum closes November to March.
Jeremy Clarkson's Citroën CX camper
Whereabouts unknownAs of November 2026No published current location. Photographed at World of Top Gear, Beaulieu, in 2011. That exhibition closed on 3 November 2024 and we couldn't find where the CX went.
.jpg){kind=link}
Richard Hammond's Land Rover camper
Whereabouts unknownAs of November 2026No published current location. Photographed at World of Top Gear, Beaulieu, in 2011. That exhibition closed on 3 November 2024 and we couldn't find where the Land Rover went.
Source: Wikimedia Commons: the Land Rover camper at Beaulieu (2011)
.jpg){kind=link}
Seen one of these somewhere, or know where it went? Send us a tip through the tip line, ideally with a link we can check. We never publish a location we can't verify.
Related cars in the Quirk Database: Citroën DS, Citroën SM.
Fact-check pit lane
Facts in this piece were checked against:
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.