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Top Gear: Bolivia Special
Top Gear: Bolivia Special is a special 76 minute episode of the motoring series Top Gear, originally broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom at 19:45 on 27 December 2009.<ref name="specialTGBlog">Template:Citation/core{{#if:|}}</ref>
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, bought locally in Bolivia for less than £3,500 each.<ref>http://www.tvguide.co.uk/titlesearch.asp?title=Top%20Gear%20Bolivia%20Special</ref>
Route
The three presenters started at a riverside in the Amazonian jungle where a towed river raft left their cars (The presenters were supposed to have been helicoptered in to the location, but Clarkson said that the helicopter had crashed before filming, necessitating a boat trip up the river.) While trying to move the raft Clarkson started to sink into the tidal mud in the river and so Hammond had to pull him out with Clarkson's Range Rover. They had trouble getting the cars off the raft but managed to use spare planks of wood on the raft to drive the vehicles off. For the first section of the journey, they were forced to make a route by slashing undergrowth and went along logging trails, encountering snakes and insects. A chainsaw and rope were used to make a makeshift bridge out of the trunks of four young trees to cross a gully. For the next section, the cars underwent minor modifications to cross a river, including non-standard use of certain products: Tampax tampons to waterproof a fuel tank cap, and Vaseline and condoms to waterproof parts of the engine. They then climbed into the Andes to La Paz along the Yungas Road, a road also known as the 'Death Road' due to its narrowness and sheer drops. Due to May's fear of heights, he humorously threatened to cut anyone's head off if they bumped into him, holding a machete near Clarkson's face when he bumped him by accident. Hammond meanwhile drove into a ditch in order to avoid a passing bus, only to find out that May's car's winch was broken. Elsewhere, Clarkson was placed in extreme danger when he met a car coming the other way, when the edge of the road ledge started to crumble under his wheels.
They modified their cars in La Paz. Afterwards, they crossed the Altiplano. They had a portable GPS with an altitude readout. 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; they took a Viagra tablet each to try to prevent high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) from altitude hypoxia. Altitude hypoxia also much reduced the cars' effective power. They turned back at 17,200 feet altitude (3.26 miles, 5,243 meters, where the air pressure was about half an atmosphere) and the road was still climbing; they took a lower westward route further north. During the climb, they used a pulse oximeter to read their blood oxygen saturation, which sometimes was down to 84%, a value which in normal life would recommend admission to hospital. Towards the end of their journey they found themselves needing to drive down a very steep sand dune to get to their destination. They initially decided to practice, but Hammond however got out of his car to talk to Clarkson, forgetting that his handbrake was broken, causing his Toyota to roll down and roll over, losing a wheel in the process. However, Clarkson and May completed the dangerous descent, and were therefore the only two presenters to complete the journey with their vehicles.
The landscape on the Guallatiri crossing was volcanic deposit with no vegetation; at least two active volcanic steam vents were seen.
Vehicles
Each of the three presenters was allowed a £3,500 budget which they could use to buy second-hand cars online via the Internet, without being able to inspect the cars before purchase.
Richard Hammond bought a tan FJ40 Toyota Land Cruiser which had been converted into a soft top convertible by a previous owner. However part of the soft top was set alight when Clarkson used an angle grinder to cut air vents in the bonnet of his Range Rover to cool the engine. Despite the car's reputation for durability, it turned out to be the most unreliable car, suffering multiple drivetrain and suspension breakdowns right from the start. The car underwent modifications towards the end of the trip, but none of the modifications made the car more reliable. It was damaged beyond repair on the sand-dune descent. His car was nicknamed 'Donkey'.
Jeremy Clarkson bought a red Range Rover Classic which he believed had a 3.9 litre fuel injected engine. However, when he showed his co-presenters under the hood, May noted it had carburettors, meaning it was only the 3.5 litre model. It became notorious for overheating and stopped working on some occasions, but it was very capable of dealing with the rough terrain. Like Hammond's Toyota, it underwent modifications to handle the high-altitude part of the trip. Unlike the Toyota, however, it survived the trip, and was declared the winner, much to the amusement of the presenters, who had previously deemed it the most unreliable car. Hence Clarkson's conclusion that "the most unreliable car in the world is the most reliable car in the world."
James May bought a red Suzuki Jimny with a 1.3 litre engine, which was the smallest of the three vehicles, and the most mocked. Despite this, it did not undergo modifications, and broke down the least (the main reason for it breaking down was when water entered the fuel tank while fording the jungle river). One disadvantage of this vehicle was its broken 4-wheel drive system, which made it a "3-wheel drive system"; May had not engaged one of the free-wheeling hubs to the lock position. He also noted that when he purchased it off the internet the ad said it was blue. It was still a very capable off roader, especially when its small engine and size are considered, though Clarkson's Range Rover was still declared to be the ultimate winner.
