Top Gear host leaves

The jazz star and major car enthusiast is the new host of the Aussie version of the TG down under after a major off-season shake-up.

Officially, former host Charlie Cox is returning "reluctantly" to the UK for "business reasons".

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Unofficially, the whole TG on-air team has taken a hammering from critics who say the show lacks the spark of the British original.

Cox was never going to match Jeremy Clarkson, who has become a worldwide superstar, but he still struggled to be sharp or insightful. And his driving ability, reflected in a couple of Bathurst 1000 starts in the late 1980s, was never exploited for TG.

"It seems best to leave the show," Cox says.

He has a personal car collection closing on 100 vehicles, was the presenter for a previous Aussie TV program, has raced and rallied - including a couple of massive forest crashes - and ridden motorcycles.

"This is going to be fun," says Morrison.