Journalist Jeremy Clarkson is one of the all-time great motoring media figures of the 21st century. Although he has more recently become known for farming through Clarkson's Farm, he will probably always be best known for his stints on Top Gear and The Grand Tour.
Given his long career, there is often discussion about what his favourite car might be. Over the years, Jeremy has driven all manner of vehicles, from city cars and sports cars to supercars and even amphibious cars. However, one car has become more closely associated with Jeremy than any other whenever the debate turns to his favourite.
In an interview on a podcast published by motoring magazine Autocar, he admitted there was one car that still lives in his head and one he'd still like to own: the Lexus LFA.
The Lexus LFA is a Japanese supercar powered by a V10 engine sending power to the rear wheels. Speaking on the aforementioned podcast earlier this year, Jeremy said: “An LFA still lives in my head as a car I’d love to own. They’re just pre ‘peak car’.”
He added: “When the LFA came out, the reviews were kind of… nobody got excited by it. And then I drove it, and I was priapic.”
Jeremy went on to describe how the sound of the engine was like “a ‘wounded bear’… a wailing noise… I thought ‘oh my god this is just absolute joy’… That’s a car I still treasure.”
This isn’t the first time Jeremy has talked about the Lexus LFA since he first drove it in the early 2010s. In an interview published in 2019 by DRIVETRIBE, he was asked if, at the time, the LFA was the best car he’d ever driven.
Jeremy replied: “Yes, still is. The Lexus LFA because of the noise it makes principally. Millions of faults in it, you can’t do the seatbelt up, fuel tanks’ too small, all sorts of things wrong with it. But because of the noise it makes that V10 sound was spine tingling and you don’t get that from electric cars.”
Despite Jeremy's farming exploits, he still keeps a keen eye on the future of motoring and, in particular, motoring shows.
Recently, he commented on the prospect of a Top Gear revamp and whether there would be demand for it if it were to return.
Speaking to The Times, he admitted there would be, but only under certain conditions, especially when it comes to electric cars. He explained: “It will work if they do it right.
"There is an opening for someone to review electrical cars because no one really understands them. I’m not going to watch it but there are lots of people who do want to know about all these Chinese cars because it’s all completely changing.
“They should do it as a consumer programme, which would be quite a ballsy thing to do because no one wants to go back to the Seventies. Like What Car? magazine on television.”