[Trevor Legate]

My 2 cents - let them use your car if you wish (not that they are interested) but don't ever expect it to come back in one piece. Maybe in several pieces if you're lucky....I'd never, ever let that arrogant bunch of ****** near any automobile of mine - or anything else for that matter.

The whole Stratos issue was unbelieveable as I saw all the correspondence about that. The owner brought it down from Scotland and the Top Gear team blew the engine. They did pay for the rebuild (so I should hope) but a few months later they asked for it back at short notice. Although very inconvenient the owner came to their rescue at his own expense once more but his mechanic, who drove down overnight, warned JC that he was still working through a problem with the cars brakes - so of course, JC blasted around the track and was 'shocked' to discover ...the brakes had failed!! Whodda thought?! For the 'timed' lap the Stig, who had just completed 20 laps without mishap, got the word to 'do his stuff' which led to the car 'spinning' three times in one lap! All for the 'good' of the final programme.

I was copied in to all the emails from the owner and his hi-flyin' lawyer plus the replies from Top Gear which were arrogant in the extreme. Despite withdrawing permission to show the Stratos, they went ahead anyway as they do whatever they want. But sadly, it proved the point that there ain't no such thing as bad publicity as the phone went mad the following day at Hawk with enquiries regarding the purchase of a Stratos. Seems all the potential clients knew better than the believe anything they see on that pre-scripted 'show', so ignored all the supposed problems - glad to see you can't fool all the people all the time. I rarely watch that junk show any more...if you believe anything you see on that prog, you need to get a life, or a hobby.