TOP Gear presenter Paddy McGuinness has spoken about his now infamous crash in a high performance Lamborghini as the new series of the hit motor show returns this weekend.
"It's grown legs a little bit," said the Bolton comic who crashed a borrowed Lamborghini Diablo, “I went from a Lamborghini to a Scoda in the same episode, so yeah, it was painful."
After losing control of the car in North Yorkshire during filming for series 29 of the hit automotive show, the 47-year-old Take Me Out turned Top Gear presenter made national headlines by “ripping off” the underside of the £250,000 machine.
“We were driving, it was torrential rain and there was oil on the road,” he explains.
“We weren’t going very fast, but the back end spun out and it went onto the grass and the trouble with the Diablo is it’s so low down, it’s fibreglass, and so the bottom was ripped off… I was thinking how did this happen? We’re facing the wrong way –”
The accident has become something of a long-running joke for the Top Gear presenting trio, as McGuinness’ co-hosts, ex-England cricketer Freddie Flintoff, 42, and automotive journalist Harris, 45, proceed to point out.
“The story changes every single time; it’s an amazing work of fiction worthy of C.S.Lewis,” said Harris.
“Honestly, Paddy is committed to this show and he took one for the team. That morning he said, ‘look, I’m going to have a really low speed, amateur looking shunt in this Lamborghini to get us on the front page of the papers – and look, it worked beautifully.
The forthcoming series is set to move from its current home on BBC Two to a new prime time slot on BBC One after last year’s opening episode attracted an impressive 3.5 million viewers.
Top Gear is enjoyed by fans all over the world with the BBC World Service to adding English subtitles to the show’s two northern presenters, Paddy and Flintoff.
During the pandemic, the Top Gear team swapped the confines of the studio for a brand new drive-in setup complete with a socially distanced studio audience.
Paddy said: “What will be interesting when the viewers see this series is that [there is] one particular episode where we all get in a car, and then when we get out the other end, I’ve got bleached hair, Fred’s hair has grown six inches and Chris has lost two stone – and that’s within the same episode!
“The continuity people have had an absolute nightmare with us."
Top Gear airs BBC One on Sunday, October 4
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