Top Gear Live world tour to hit Sydney

The top-rating UK auto show Top Gear is visiting Australia as part of a debut world tour in February 2009.

Presenters Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond will for the first time bring their fast-paced, irreverent and zany show to more than 65,000 fans at Sydney's Acer Arena between February 5 and 8, with the mysterious Stig also on hand to display his formidable behind-the-wheel talents.

The show is part of a whirlwind tour that started in London in October 2008 and will take in South Africa, New Zealand and Hong Kong -- as well as Sydney -- on the way.

Ten separate performances at the Acer Arena over four days will see all the trademark "breathtaking stunts, crazy challenges and motoring tomfoolery" during each 75-minute live action show.

Clarkson and Hammond will engage in the usual banter, with Clarkson promising that  "There will be lots of teasing and we hope to get it back.  We will be bringing up a lot of rugby, the Olympics and cricket."

The organisers also promise that the events will feature "An A-Z of automotive exotica from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Audi, Land Rover, Bufori to Lotus."

The events will be sponsored by Shell V-Power and staged by Brand Events UK in collaboration with Dainty Consolidated Entertainment, Ticketek and ACP Magazines.

Tickets are on sale through Ticketek at www.ticketek.com.au for $69, $89, $120 and $249, and include a seat and entry to the Prestige and Performance Gallery and Motor Showcase.

Australians are quickly snapping up tickets for the Acer Arena performances, with the organisers saying that almost 70 per cent of tickets for the Sydney performances been sold prior to Christmas 2008.

Another Top Gear Live tour is being planned for 2009 that will take in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Russia.