An American adventure

The Top Gear team get up to some pretty dangerous stuff – racing high-speed cars, burning down caravans, driving Jaguars off aircraft carriers.

But for their $1,000 Used Car Challenge the trio almost met their match, as a result of daubing some controversial slogans on each others cars and driving through the American Deep South.

View our slide show of the ten fastest cars around the Top Gear test track

Jeremy Clarkson painted "Hillary for President", "NASCAR sucks" and "I'm bi" on James May’s car, Richard Hammond painted "Country and Western is rubbish" on Jeremy Clarkson’s car, and James May painted “Man love rules OK” on Richard Hammond’s truck.

After driving to a petrol station the team attracted the attention of some locals, who didn’t take kindly to the messages on the Top Gear vehicles. The TV stars started to leave as a pick-up of angry locals arrived, but that was when James May’s battery failed…

Turning a Reliant Robin into a rocket

The Reliant Robin three-wheeler has been around for over three decades, but in series nine of Top Gear the team decided to make some… special modifications to the iconic motor.

With some help from The British Amateur Rocket Society, and eight and a half tonnes of thrust, the team attempted to put the Reliant into orbit.

“It’s light, it’s cheap, and it tapers to a point… like a rocket,” says Richard Hammond.

Now watch what happens when James May and Richard Hammond launch their very own spaceship…

Grow your own petrol

In an attempt to prove they could make petrol from crops (and have a go at driving tractors), the trio order three tractors on the Internet. But when the monster farming machines turn up, they’re not exactly as the team had expected…

The news series of Top Gear starts on Sunday 22nd June at 8pm on BBC2.