Internet rumors are a funny thing. Back during the last presidential campaign, 10% of voters polled thought Barack Obama was a Muslim... until his campaign staffers came out and denied he was a Muslim. Then 14% of us thought he was a Muslim. And you can see the same thing happening with another bout of "Top Gear is dead!" rumormongering. Seriously folks, the "TG is dead" gossip that accompanies the end of every single season is getting just as old as "Will Brett Favre come out of retirement?" Both have surpassed the point of story and are now borderline ritual. Actually, it's looking like this year, Favre's staying on the farm down in Mississippi. Which makes the Top Gear rumors even more annoying.

The last segment of the last episode of Season 13 showed an uncharacteristically toned down Clarkson waxing extra-poetic about the Aston Martin V12 Vantage and how he fears that because of environmental worries, the busted global economy and the particularly British "War On Speed," that the days of the supercar are finished. As a result, he seems a bit sad. So sad, in fact, that many around the globe (and especially those at their keyboards) started in with the inevitable, "Top Gear is dead" refrain. Well, that and James May might have been seen crossing a street not wearing any shoes. But guess what? Everyone's favorite car show is coming back for a 14th season.

According to both The Sun and some website called Top Gear, Jezza, Hammond and May are going no where. Says Clarkson, "I can assure everyone I'll be back in November doing Top Gear. We're filming the next series and already have several things in the can. I couldn't think of anything I'd want to do more." So you heard it here first – Top Gear Season 14 starts in November. Amazing what a bit of research can do, no?

Speaking of which – we unearthed Clarkson's actual review of the V12 Vantage. And much unlike the three sentences he said about the car for the now infamous segment, Jeremy didn't like Aston Martin very much at all. See, Jeremy thinks that the real top Aston is the DBS. But it costs $269,000. Now, the V12 Vantage goes for $209,000, but is the new car 99% of the DBS for $60,000 less? Says Jezza, "I was pondering this earlier on today while blasting down a sun-flickered Cotswold road in my wife's 4.7-liter V8 Vantage convertible. And then the obvious answer hit me: The car I'd buy is the one I was in." Indeed. For those interested parties, the notorious video is posted after the jump.



[Sources: The Sun; Top Gear]