'Top Gear' Revs Onto DVD In US

If you're not exactly driving a Bugatti Veyron to work or picking the kids up from soccer practice in your shiny, new Rolls Royce, you can get your supercar fix without breaking the bank thanks to our friends across the pond.

"Top Gear," an award-winning British car show that recently made its American DVD debut with its 10th season featured in a three-disc set, offers you just that fix.

You might not be a gear head going into "Top Gear," which just wrapped up its 12th season and can be seen on BBC America, but you might just be one after watching a few episodes.

One of the things that sets the show apart and ropes in car fans and novices alike is the interaction between the show's three hosts, or "presenters" as they're known in Great Britain, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

The trio's competitive streak and their natural chemistry as they trade jabs over each other's car preferences has become one of the show's main calling cards. At times the good-natured ribbing they give each other might remind you of hanging out with some of your friends, if they all had British accents and used words like "rubbish" and "larking about."

Sure, this is a show that features the hottest supercars, such as the $1.3 million Veyron, which races a Typhoon jet fighter in the third episode on the DVD, the Porsche Carrera 2S and the Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster.

And make no mistake, the cars are filmed with the same loving, high production values that "Top Gear" fans have come to expect. When you see the light wash over a Ferrari 599 as the clouds sweep across a brilliant blue sky, you can't help but want to climb behind that wheel.

But it's the hosts and their often outlandish stunts that are the real stars of the show, and the 10 episodes features on the DVD are no exception.

Some of the most memorable challenges in the 10th season found them driving through the Kalahari Desert in three 20-year-old beaters, crossing the English Channel in a fleet of home-made amphibious cars, and staging a race across London between car, boat, bike and public transportation.

But perhaps the comedic highlight of the season finds Clarkson cramming himself into a Peel P50 mini-car, an "automobile" smaller than a soap box derby car, driving it to work at the BBC studios and then lifting the car up by the fender and dragging it in with him.

As he and others drive the car through the office later in the segment, not to mention Clarkson attending a meeting while sitting in the car, you can't help but get a feeling for what makes "Top Gear" so unique.

Just as memorable is the segment that opens the first episode of the season, which finds Clarkson, Hammond and May on a road trip to find the best driving roads in Europe. Interesting enough in itself, but to raise the stakes a bit they take a Lamborghini Gallardo Superlagerra, a Porsche 911 GT3 RS and an Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 on their travels through Monaco, Italy, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

As always, the show also features the usual segment, "Star in the Reasonably Priced Car." The 10th season finds the likes of Helen Mirren, Simon Cowell, the Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood and singer James Blunt taking turns putting a common four-door Chevrolet through its paces on a race track.

And the show wouldn't be complete without "The Stig," a "tame racing driver" who never speaks or removes his racing helmet on screen. Season 10 uses The Stig to great effect, letting him ride the bus and train in the race across London and following him on holiday to Spain, where he relaxes poolside in full racing gear.

Season 10 is the first season of the show to make its way onto DVD in America. Given how infectiously fun and entertaining it is for gear heads and novices alike, I doubt it will be the last.