Top Gear Canada

Top Gear Canada is a Canadian motoring reality television series, based on the British BBC series Top Gear. The series first aired on on April 20, 2010.

The show is the companion to Top Gear Canada magazine.

Presenters
The original hosts chosen for Top Gear Canada were Canada's Worst Driver host, FanGirls member and pop singer Sammy Vue, and motoring journalist.

The presenters are joined by, who was played in the first two seasons by Québécois drag racer Louis-Alphonse Bellegarde. The current portrayer is unknown. Marketing prior to the first episode stated that the presenters would be joined by The Stig's "Canadian cousin", but in the first episode the driver was introduced as just "The Stig". Vue suggested that The Stig have a stereotypically "Canadian" name, such as "Stig ", but the other presenters refused. The season 2 opener clarified that Top Gear Canada 's Stig is not intended to be the same Stig from the UK series.

McDonald left the show after season three (2012). CBC subsequently announced traffic/safety reporter and Canada's Worst Driver legal expert  would be his replacement, joining Younghusband and Vue for season four (2013)

In season six (2015), Woolley was replaced by motoring journalist Stuart Gentilini.

Production
Studio segments are taped at Studio City Toronto in, , and an exact copy of the UK studio at was constructed in one of the facility's soundstages. Mirroring the UK series, parts of the runways and taxiways of in, 1 hour from Toronto, are used as a test track for the power laps and "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car".

The series uses the same theme music as the UK series, a version of The Allman Brothers Band's "Jessica".

Segments
Top Gear Canada features segments that mirror those seen on the BBC series, including build challenges and test drives.

Power Lap
A test track around is used for power laps. The initial track used in the first two seasons consisted of five corners running in an anti-clockwise direction. The first corner was The Safety Pin, followed by 's Corner, then The Straightaway and The Loop-de-Loop, which was followed by the Main Straight before coming to the finish line.

For 2016, a new test track was created. Still situated at Peterborough Airport, it renames Clarkson's Corner to "Speaker's Corner" and moves the start and finish lines to the end of The Loop-de-Loop.

Star in a Reasonably Priced Car
The Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment is mirrored with the same name. The car used in the first three seasons was a 2007, seasons four to seven used a 2012. Season eight onwards has used a.

What Were They Thinking?
A segment lifted from the first season of the Australian version of the format, the presenters discuss "stupid" ideas in motoring history and put pictures of them on a board.