Top Gear defends fake Ferrari act

...by saying the show required `specialist equipment’.

The accusations about fake vehicles were made after one of the suppliers to the show at Sydney’s Acer Arena spotted the cars backstage and became suspicious about what was under the bonnets.

During the show, fans looked on in wide-eyed wonder as three Ferrari F360s chased each other around the ring, missing each other by a few centimetres in a casual disregard for their $370,000 price tag.

Other eagle-eyed fans smelled a rat however when they spotted irregularities in the body work of the cars which were missing a rear air vent.

The music was so loud it was difficult to hear the noise of the Ferraris which ordinarily would be unmistakable.

The cars were actually Toyota MR2s fitted with body kits to look like Ferraris.

The same thing happened on the South African leg of the tour, but the producers fessed up to the substitution beforehand, explaining the cars were on their way to Australia.

Of course it begs the question what happened to them?

“Top Gear Live is a mix of the usual Top Gear fooling around, exotic cars and extremely exciting, live-action stunt driving,” the show’s spokesperson Gemma Courtenay says. “Stunt driving requires highly specialist equipment. In this sense Top Gear Live is no different from any cinema or theatrical production.”

Jeremy Clarkson and the Richard Hammond took Top Gear on the road in October, playing to some 250,000 people, with 67 shows in six countries.

A “local” filled in for missing presenter James May at each port of call.

For Sydney, it was Top Gear Australia’s Steve Pizzati, or Pizza Boy as Clarkson kept calling him.

There’s no mention of the Ferrari fiasco on Top Gear Australia’s website, just the news that anchor Charlie Cox has been replaced by jazz great James Morrison for the second series which goes to air later this year.

The sleight of hand strikes at the very core of Top Gear’s DNA which draws much of its excitement from the fact that’s it’s all real and that they don’t mind trashing the odd Ferrari or two in the name of entertainment – hang the expense. Or so everybody thought . . .

The fake Ferraris were in fact Ferrenzos, Toyota MR2s with body kits that are designed to look like the real thing for a faction of the cost.