Top Gear Australia returns

Top Gear Australia will return to screens this month, debuting three new Aussie hosts, a brand-new female Stig, and no shortage of action from locations here and overseas.

The trio set to host the eight-part series is made up of actor and TV host, Jonathon LaPaglia; former NRL star turned TV personality, Beau Ryan; and Blair Joscelyne, best known as Moog from Mighty Car Mods.

Featuring on-location shoots from as far afield as the French Alps, Colombia and Japan, the new show is familiar in that it adopts the same soundtrack and studio audience opening set-up as the successful UK show.

But fresh additions include a brand new, female Aussie Stig – the identity of who the new hosts claim not to know (but we’ve got a fair idea!).

carsales sat down with the trio to find out what’s in store and what went on behind the scenes. And, from what we’ve seen – and heard – there’s something for everyone.

From bull-riding to nudity, and cars to quad bikes, the action-packed series is set to raise the stakes from previous iterations of the Aussie editions.

Of all the challenges in creating the new show, LaPaglia, Ryan, and Moog say the constant travel during filming was most grueling.

“We knew it was going to be a lot of travel, but we didn’t really appreciate how much travel there was and how often you’d need to switch hotel rooms,” said LaPaglia.

And the cars? As with Top Gear tradition, the answer is many and varied – from an electric Hummer to a Pagani supercar – and some even sourced from carsales. 

Asked if there was any pressure to live up to the OG Top Gear, it was a mixed response.

“No,” said Ryan.

“Yes,” said LaPaglia.

And “A little bit” joked Moog.

“Well, we’re nothing like the original guys, I mean our environment is nothing like theirs. The cars we drive aren’t like their original series as well,” said Ryan of the super successful Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May line-up.

“We’re doing it our way; we start obviously here [in Australia]. We’re very proud of the country and the cars we have but those guys were very good for a very long time. They were a household name… To be honest, in my opinion, I didn’t really think about what they were doing or what they did.”

“I think it would be a disservice to us if I watched a lot of their stuff, so we did it our way and we stayed true to ourselves, and I think you see that from the get-go,” Ryan explained.

A major drawcard and the spirit of the show come from its high production values, said Moog.

“We’re expecting to see international destinations that are shot really beautifully, high production value, and certainly that was the case. And for all of the European components, we were working with the BBC UK crew that have been making Top Gear for 20 years,” he explained.

“I think that that production value [as a result] is what makes the [new] show really stand out. As you’ll see when you watch it, it looks a million bucks.”

Top Gear has had a chequered history since its glory days in the Noughties and 2010s.

The BBC’s Clarkson/Hammond/May Top Gear was axed after an on-set incident in 2015. A UK version with alternative hosts aired in a number of versions until 2022. International Top Gears including US, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Scandi and Australia series have also aired with varying levels of success.

The new Top Gear Australia will air exclusively on Paramount+ from May 17, 2024.