Top Gear has a reputation for many things. Chief among those is its use of staged situations and its uncanny ability to insult cultures and ethnic groups across the world. Occasionally, though, we have to give the team of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May the benefit of the doubt.
Spoiler Alert.
For TG's big, massive Christmas road trip this year, the trio of Brits was to head to Argentina where they'd conduct an undoubtedly absurd road trip in three cars. In this particular case, that includes a Ford Mustang Mach 1, a Lotus Esprit and a Porsche 928.
Now, for those not familiar with history, for nine weeks in 1982 Great Britain and Argentina fought a short, but bloody (over 1,000 casualties between the two sides), war over the Falkland Islands, about 300 miles east of Patagonia. We won't get into the specific geopolitics behind the fighting, but the Brits won, retaining control of the islands. That fact has never sat well with the Argentinians, who still lay claim to the islands and their roughly 3,000 inhabitants. Enter Clarkson.
Apparently, Jezza's 928 happens to wear the number plate "H982 FLK," which to the Argentinians is a dig at the country's defeat in the 1982 Falklands War. While we wouldn't put it past the nationalistic Top Gear trio to poke some fun at their country's old foe (let's keep in mind the show's love of World War II jokes), that would be awfully subtle if it were really an honest attempt at mischief. Coincidence or no, retribution for TG's perceived slight was swift.
First, the city where the crew's road trip was set to end, Ushuaia, banned Clarkson. The outrage only grew from there, though, as the TG team was forced to cut its trip short by three days and flee the country after the crew and their cars were pelted by stones thrown by angry Argentinians. According to Yahoo! News, Clarkson was forced to abandon his car.
Jalopnik acquired video of the attempted stoning, and we can see the crew vehicles as well as a red Esprit and what looks like the rear end of a late 1960s Mustang fleeing the scene.
At this point, it's not clear what impact this fiasco will have on TG's Christmas special, although we should find out sooner rather than later. Scroll down for the video of the attack. The action starts around 1:15.
Spoiler Alert.
For TG's big, massive Christmas road trip this year, the trio of Brits was to head to Argentina where they'd conduct an undoubtedly absurd road trip in three cars. In this particular case, that includes a Ford Mustang Mach 1, a Lotus Esprit and a Porsche 928.
Now, for those not familiar with history, for nine weeks in 1982 Great Britain and Argentina fought a short, but bloody (over 1,000 casualties between the two sides), war over the Falkland Islands, about 300 miles east of Patagonia. We won't get into the specific geopolitics behind the fighting, but the Brits won, retaining control of the islands. That fact has never sat well with the Argentinians, who still lay claim to the islands and their roughly 3,000 inhabitants. Enter Clarkson.
Apparently, Jezza's 928 happens to wear the number plate "H982 FLK," which to the Argentinians is a dig at the country's defeat in the 1982 Falklands War. While we wouldn't put it past the nationalistic Top Gear trio to poke some fun at their country's old foe (let's keep in mind the show's love of World War II jokes), that would be awfully subtle if it were really an honest attempt at mischief. Coincidence or no, retribution for TG's perceived slight was swift.
First, the city where the crew's road trip was set to end, Ushuaia, banned Clarkson. The outrage only grew from there, though, as the TG team was forced to cut its trip short by three days and flee the country after the crew and their cars were pelted by stones thrown by angry Argentinians. According to Yahoo! News, Clarkson was forced to abandon his car.
Jalopnik acquired video of the attempted stoning, and we can see the crew vehicles as well as a red Esprit and what looks like the rear end of a late 1960s Mustang fleeing the scene.
At this point, it's not clear what impact this fiasco will have on TG's Christmas special, although we should find out sooner rather than later. Scroll down for the video of the attack. The action starts around 1:15.
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