Top Gear: Season 18
Season 18 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Top Gear Season 17.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 18 Progress Shield
Episode 1
Sep 10, 1987
From Press Day at the Frankfurt Motor Show — William Woollard and Sue Baker report the latest cars. Frank Page drives the new medium-sized Peugeot 405. On the road, there are test
Episode 2
Sep 17, 1987
Surrounded by the glories of Britain’s motoring past at the Heritage Motor Museum, Syon Park, William Woollard introduces a new feature — the Top Gear Car of the Decade — and road
Episode 3
Sep 24, 1987
Are Top Gear viewers dissatisfied with their cars? Several hundred of you wrote in to complain last series, in response to an invitation to air your problems. William Woollard inve
Episode 4
Oct 1, 1987
Car design in Eastern Europe has lagged behind the west, but with the new Lada Samara, has caught up. Sue Baker visits the Togliatti factory in central Russia, to drive one of the
Episode 5
Oct 8, 1987
This year’s motorcycle show at the NEC Birmingham is set against a continuing background of falling bike sales. William Woollard views the latest models the industry hopes will enc
Episode 6
Oct 15, 1987
This week’s car of the decade is from the 30s. William Woollard tests the Citroen Traction Avant that introduced a new level of engineering to the family car, and foreshadowed fron
Episode 7
Oct 22, 1987
William Woollard presents the programme from London’s Motorfair 87. Sue Baker drives the latest Lotus, and there’s a report on the apparent revival in British car manufacturing — i
Episode 8
Oct 29, 1987
Britain’s motorway network seems constantly clogged by road repairs. William Woollard asks why the surfaces need rebuilding so frequently, and looks at an alternative way of fundin
Episode 9
Nov 5, 1987
Traditional car design in Eastern Europe has lagged decades behind the west, but with the new Lada Samara, the Russians seem to have caught up. Sue Baker visits the Togliatti facto
Episode 10
Nov 12, 1987
William Woollard tests the new right-hand-drive version of the Honda Civic hatchback. Sue Baker returns to Birmingham’s ‘Wheels’ project to see how the scheme to give people real e
Episode 11
Nov 19, 1987
In this final programme of the autumn series, William Woollard puts the spotlight on more complaints made by Top Gear viewers about car design and performance. Sue Baker looks at t