THIS MOTORING YEAR 2016: The five craziest celebrity car stories

The shiny celebrities that saturated our social media news feeds and television screens daily in 2016 are (mostly) glamorous, rich and beautiful – and they’ve got the wheels to match.

From a 21-year-old reality star with a Rolls Royce to an ostentatious US president-elect with an armoured limo, there were plenty of motoring marvels to write about in 2016.

Here are five of the craziest headlines to grab our attention 2016.

Matt LeBlanc announced as a host on Top Gear
When the BBC revealed it would carry on producing Top Gear even without its brazen yet beloved host Jeremy Clarkson (and his co-conspirators James May and Richard Hammond), few could have guessed Clarkson’s successor would be Joey from Friends.

American actor Matt LeBlanc was the most famous of the six hosts chosen to replace the trio and perhaps the most random, given his lack of apparent ties to the car industry.

Surprisingly, fans had more of an issue with main host Chris Evans, a British radio and TV presenter who rubbed people up the wrong way and reportedly created tension during filming. Other fans found the large line-up of hosts confusing and messy.

After the 23rd season aired, Evans quit, but LeBlanc is reportedly set to return in his place for a 24th series, scoring a pay packet of around £1m, according to the UK’s Mirror.

Meanwhile, Clarkson, Hammond and May defected to Amazon to host its travel-meets-test-drive series The Grand Tour. In true form, the first episode broke Amazon audience records and courted controversy thanks to some ill-advised jokes about terrorism.

In case they weren’t busy enough, Clarkson, Hammond and May also launched DriveTribe in November. The app/site/mobi is described as a social media site for the car-obsessed.

Kendall Jenner gets a Rolls-Royce for her 21st birthday
Most people would be lucky to get a secondhand car on their 21st birthday. But when you’re reality star-turned-model Kendall Jenner, your 21st gift is a Rolls-Royce.

The car, which was presented to Jenner with a bow on top, was a gift from German businessman Saygin Yalcin, who made his fortune as the founder and CEO of SellAnyCar.com, a car sales site in the Middle East.

The weirdest part of the whole thing was that Jenner doesn’t exactly count Yalcin as a close friend. In fact, her half-sister Khloe Kardashian described Yalcin as “a stranger” during a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“We go outside and there’s this Rolls-Royce, and this man standing there. I was like, ‘What’s the gift, the guy or the car?’” Kardashian K said.

“And then this guy just hands Kendall a pair of keys to this car and I was like, ‘Do we even know who this guy is?’ I was like, ‘Is this a joke?’ On my 21st birthday I got like, dinner and a purse. I didn’t know you get cars from strangers.”

In case you weren’t already jealous enough, Jenner is also the proud owner of a Range Rover, a blue Chevrolet Corvette, a black ’69 Chevrolet Camaro SS, a black Ferrari 488 Spider, an Audi R8 Spyder and a red ’65 Ford Mustang.

Shane Warne narrowly avoids a no-seatbelt fine
Celebrities aren’t immune from the consequences of disobeying the road rules. Shane Warne learned this the hard way when he filmed a Facebook Live video with fellow cricket stars, Michael Slater and Kevin Pietersen.

Warnie decided to broadcast to his followers from on the road in Tasmania in November, but forgot to check he and his mates were buckled up before they hit record. Unfortunately for Warnie, a few keen-eyed followers picked up on their lack of seatbelts and left comments on the video pointing it out.

The Spin King soon found himself at the mercy of the Tasmanian police force.

In a media release, Tasmania Police revealed it had “issued infringement notices to three men for not wearing their seatbelts”, confirming the men were a 47-year-old from Victoria, a 46-year-old from New South Wales and a 36-year-old from the United Kingdom.

“The infringements for Failing to Wear a Seatbelt were issued after police reviewed a video posted on one of the men’s Facebook page,” the statement said.

James Corden’s Carpool karaoke goes viral again…
And again… And again… Indeed, it’s the nature of the internet that there’s a new ‘viral” video capturing people’s attention every half hour. And in 2016, an overwhelming number of these viral videos were clips from late night talk show host James Corden’s wildly successful series, Carpool Karaoke.

The British comedian has a penchant for singing whilst driving and decided to combine this passion with his skill for interviewing celebrities. For each instalment, Corden picks up a famous face and drives them “to work” as they chat about life, laugh and regularly break out into song.

The format has proven completely addictive thanks to its informal setting allowing celebrities to open up and be themselves. Of course, some videos are more popular than others depending on the willingness of the guest to play along.

One huge success was Corden’s carpool with UK songstress Adele, who rapped, joked and provided months’ worth of internet memes.

Another hit was US First Lady Michelle Obama’s appearance, during which she sang along to Stevie Wonder and Beyonce (she was pitch perfect, of course) and was joined by rapper, Missy Elliott.

Donald Trump’s ‘Beastly’ presidential mobile
The United States president-elect has a penchant for fancy cars because, well, he can afford them. So the big question remains: what will he choose for his president-mobile?

Plenty of people are already auditioning for the job of the president’s car designer, channeling his ostentatious style into various customized armoured vehicles. In particular, it’s believed General Motors has started testing designs for a car it calls ‘The Beast’, a camouflage-covered Cadillac captured in covert photos from the manufacturer’s proving ground in Michigan.

While GM is yet to confirm the project, according to Fox News it recently acquired millions of dollars worth of government contracts, suggesting it has at least got something White House-related in the works.

It has some competition though – Dartz Motorz, a Latvian custom car design company, has also come up with a prototype for a presidential car. Its ‘Trumpmobile’ is a Mercedes-Benz GL-Class customized with armour and door handles that give an electric shock to anyone trying to gain unauthorized access.