Top Gear Tonight: Pagani Huayra, Bentley Continental GT Speed & SIARPC is Damian Lewis

Top Gear Returns for Series 19 tonight with the first episode featuring the Pagani Huayra, Bentley Continental GT Speed and Damian Lewis as SIARPC.

It’s a long time since we did a ‘What’s on Top Gear Tonight’ piece ahead of a showing on BBC2. And that’s because series 18 ended in March 2012 – more than ten months ago.

But series 19 starts tonight with all its faculties intact and Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May all signed up for another three years of Top Gear, so hopefully we can look forward to more than one series a year now we’ve got the summer of sport and jubilee out of the way.

In tonight’s episode – the first of seven shows – Jeremy returns to the smallest car (in the world) theme that kicked off a few years ago with the Peel P50 by building his own smallest car (that looks a lot like a mobility scooter) before taking it out on the streets of London and then pitching it to the Dragons Den mob.

Richard gets to open the new Top Gear series with a bang by taking the latest car from the maker of his favourite supercar out to play – the Pagani Huayra . Will Richard be disappointed that the Huayra is far more generic than the Zonda, or will he be as enthralled as he was by the Zonda. And we get to find out just how quick the Huayra is as The Stig blats it round the Top Gear track.

James May, meanwhile, has got his hands on the new Bentley Continental GT Speed and decides to find out if its enormous torque, power and four wheel drive make it a contender for the most luxurious rally car ever by taking the new GT Speed on a rally stage in Wales during the 2012 WRC Wales Rally, with Kris Meeke at the wheel and James as co-driver.

Finally – apart from Top Gear News and the usual fripperies – the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car tonight is ginger-haired actor Damian Lewis, star of Homeland and Old Etonian.

Top Gear Series 19 Episode 1 airs tonight, as usual, on BBC2 (and BBC2 HD) at 8pm.

By Cars UK