Top Gear hosts test the ‘modern’ Life on Mars Audi Quattro – ‘This is what you need!’

In the latest episode of Top Gear, hosts Chris Harris, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness test some of the most iconic classic cars from TV police shows, and their modern counterparts. A recent poll found that the Jaguar Mark 2 driven by Inspector Morse was voted the most iconic TV cop car of all time, with over half of survey participants choosing it as number one.

It was closely followed by Gene Hunt’s Audi Quattro from Ashes to Ashes (43 percent), and the Ferrari 308 GTS that starred in Magnum, PI (41 percent).

When looking at the newest models, the presenter went in different directions: an American classic pickup, a sleek performance car and a German sportback.

Freddie chose to go bold with the Ford 150 Raptor, the best-selling pickup truck in the world.

The newest model has been “made tougher and faster”.

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Freddie had the honour of driving the Ferrari 308 GTS, made famous by Thomas Magnum in Magnum PI.

Paddy, complete with a siren and flashing light, took a ride in the iconic Ford Gran Turismo, which was made almost synonymous with Starsky and Hutch.

The episode also paid tribute to the late Sir Clive Sinclair, the founder of the Sinclair C5.

The English inventor was heralded as producing a “revolutionary” vehicle that was designed for urban commuting, with it also being zero-emission.

The vehicles travel at 15 miles per hour and had a range of eight miles, with the presenters saying it was “ahead of its time”.

Freddie puts his neck on the line, literally, by attempting to break the national speed limit in a C5 bobsleigh – christened the “Ski5”, naturally – down Lillehammer’s Olympic luge run in Norway. 

Freddie Flintoff, Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness are back for their sixth series at the wheel - Top Gear airs this Sunday at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.