Top Gear: Bolivia Special

Top Gear: Bolivia Special
Country of origin	United Kingdom Bolivia
No. of episodes	1
Production
Running time	75 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC Two
Release	27 December, 2009
Related
Top Gear

Top Gear: Bolivia Special was a special 75-minute episode of the motoring series Top Gear, originally broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom at 19:45 on 27 December 2009.

It features the presenters James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond travelling 1,000 miles through from the rainforests of Bolivia to the Pacific coast of Chile. The presenters used pre-owned off-road vehicles, purchase locally in South America for less than £3,500 each.

Route

They started at a riverside in the Amazonian jungle where a towed river raft left their cars. They had trouble getting the cars off the raft but managed to do it after one whole day of trying this had happened when James eventually thought of how to make a bridge using excess planks of wood left on the raft. At the start they made a route by slashing undergrowth and went along logging trails; they had a chainsaw, which Jeremy enjoyed using to cut four young trees to make a bridge over a gully. Then they climbed into the Andes to La Paz along the Yungas Road, also known as the 'Death Road' because of its narrowness and sheer drops, where Richard drove into a ditch due to a passing bus and Jeremy nearly went off the side because he met a car coming the othe way.

After La Paz they crossed the Altiplano. Their attempt to take a straight route into Chile over the Guallatiri active volcano was defeated by weakness and a drunken-type feeling caused by severe hypoxia caused by altitude (see altitude sickness); they turned back at 17,200 feet (3.26 miles, 5243 meters, where the air pressure was about half an atmosphere) altitude and the road was still climbing (their GPS had an altitude readout) and took a lower westward route further north. During the climb, they used kit to read their blood oxygen saturation, which sometimes was down to 85%, a value which in normal life would recommend admission to hospital. Near the end of their journey they had to drive down a very steep sand hill to get to their destination. They initially decided to practice, before this occured Hammond got out to talk to Jeremy and whilst doing so forgot to apply the handbrake, the car began to slowly and comically roll down the hill. Hammond's car crashed down a small portion of the hill and was left totaled, with all the contents of the car thrown everywhere and the front wheel severed. Clarkson and May who still had running cars made it down after discussing that they should both engage low range and second gear with the diff lock engaged, James commented 'I haven't got one' which made Jeremy laugh. They both sucessfully made it down the hill, despite the rear tailgate of the range rover opening up. This meant Hammond had to run down the hill as his car was destroyed.

The program featured non-standard use of sex medications: Tampaxes to waterproof a fuel tank cap for a river crossing in the jungle; taking a Viagra tablet each to try to prevent cerebral oedema from altitude hypoxia on the Guallatiri crossing.

Vehicles

Using the £3500 budget, Richard Hammond purchased a pre-owned home converted convertable Toyota FJ40. Jeremy Clarkson purchased a Range Rover with a 3.5 litre engine that he believed was a 3.9. This was discovered when Jeremy opened the bonnet and told his co presenters it was the 3.9 injection when James commented that there was carburettors Jeremy knew he had the 3.5l model, and James May used a red Suzuki SJ with a 1.3 litre engine the smallest of the 3 veichles which was mocked because of its size and its famous reputation for rolling over.