MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The crushing of the unfinished BBC’s Top Gear program and its Patagonia Special

Jeremy Clarkson and his Porsche 928, with the H982FKL plate, simple coincidence or provocation, which led to serious incidents in Patagonia

Remember the BBC Top Gear program with Jeremy Clarkson, back in September/October 2014 when his planned tour of Argentine Patagonia and later Chile, ended with the team having to flee, given Argentine people’s animosity and which later included a diplomatic incident involving BBC?

Well the Supercar-Blondie site is now convinced 99 percent sure that it is known what happened to the Porsche 928 driven by Jeremy Clarkson in the Argentina Special. The car, along with the Lotus and Mustang used by James May and Richard Hammond, were left in Argentina when the team ‘fled’ the country.

But no one knew what happened to it until very recently. And it wasn’t a happy ending. A little over a decade ago, the Top Gear team headed to Patagonia in Argentina. For the Argentina Special, James May bought a Lotus Esprit, Richard Hammond bought a Ford Mustang, and Clarkson bought a Porsche 928.

However the problem was that the 928 happened to come with a license plate that some people in Argentina thought was a deliberate reference (provocation??) to the 1982 Falklands War, and the defeat by a British Task Force of the occupying Argentine military, H982FKL.

To this day, there’s an ongoing dispute over the Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls Islas Malvinas and claims sovereignty over them.

As the team reached Ushuaia, protesters gathered, and the tension rose quite quickly. As a result, the production team stopped filming and essentially ‘fled’ the country for Chile, leaving a lot of equipment, including all three cars, behind.

The BBC (which owns the rights to Top Gear) tried to recover them, but Argentine authorities said no, mainly because they feared the cars would be displayed as ‘trophies’ in the UK.

The fact is that years later, all three cars were crushed.

The reason why Supercar-Blondie argues that they are only 99 percent sure, is that only one person was allowed to document the process, and British officials were barred from bringing cameras.

What happens with Top Gear cars after the show, normally Top Gear presenters used press demonstrators that they gave back after filming.

Jeremy Clarkson’s favorite car for example, was a Lexus LFA on loan from the manufacturer. Having said that, the fact is BBC also bought dozens if not hundreds, of cars for the show including some exotic and valuable models.

But after each episode aired, the cars remained in the possession of the BBC, unless the presenters decided to buy them and keep them.

But the BBC is a media company and a broadcaster, not a car collector or a car museum, which means the British giant generally tries to get rid of the cars to recover costs.