The Price: £1,200 The Philosophy: Reliability (and a bit of character).
Richard Hammond did what any sensible person would do: he bought a box. Specifically, a beige 1963 Opel Kadett.
He named it Oliver.
While Clarkson was dealing with electrical gremlins and May was struggling with comfort, Oliver just kept going. The little Opel became a character in its own right. It survived the salt pans, it survived the river crossing (after a lot of drying out), and it survived Hammond’s emotional attachment.
We all remember the heartbreak on Hammond’s face when he thought he’d lost Oliver to the river. And we all remember the joy when he bought the car back from the crew and shipped it to the UK. Oliver is perhaps the only car from a cheap car challenge to become a permanent celebrity, eventually appearing on The Grand Tour and making appearances at car shows. It proved that old Japanese-German reliability beats Italian flair any day of the week.
The Price: £1,499 The Philosophy: Over-engineering.
James May, being Captain Slow, bought the car he thought would actually survive a nuclear holocaust: a W123 Mercedes-Benz 230E. top gear botswana cars
When it arrived, Hammond and Clarkson laughed at him. It was colossal. It had bench seats. It looked like the car a Botswanan taxi driver would reject for being too boring. It had the aerodynamics of a detached garage and was painfully slow.
But this was the car that won.
While the Lancia disintegrated and the Opel needed rescue, the Mercedes just shrugged. It was indestructible. It didn't care about the sand, the heat, or the rough terrain. It just motored on. In the final sprint to the Zimbabwe border, the Mercedes was the only car that crossed the line under its own power without a tow rope attached.
May proved that while style is nice (Lancia) and personality is fun (Opel), absolute, tank-like build quality is the only thing that matters in the desert.
What separates this special from standard car reviews is the emotional narrative arc of Richard Hammond and "Oliver."
Throughout the trip, Hammond babied the Opel. He cleaned it, talked to it, and fixed it with care. By the time they reached the final stretch—a race to the border along the "animal roads"—Hammond had realized that he couldn't leave the car behind. The Price: £1,200 The Philosophy: Reliability (and a
The climax of the episode saw the trio racing against the sunset. Clarkson’s Lancia was held together with duct tape and hope, May’s Mercedes was cruising effortlessly, and Hammond was pushing the little Opel to its absolute limit.
They crossed the border into Namibia. They had survived. The cars had survived.
In a heartwarming post-script, Hammond revealed that he had arranged to ship "Oliver" back to the UK. He restored the car, and to this day, "Oliver" remains a fixture in Hammond’s garage, appearing in his subsequent shows and social media. It was a testament to the idea that a car can be more than just a machine; it can be a companion.
In a move that baffled his co-hosts, Hammond bought a beige 1963 Opel Kadett. It was boxy, slow, and seemingly the least capable off-roader imaginable. Clarkson and May mocked him relentlessly, calling it "boring." However, the Kadett was built with simple, agricultural toughness. It was light, easy to fix, and unburdened by complex electronics. Hammond named the car "Oliver," and over the course of the trip, a genuine love affair blossomed between man and machine.
The "Olive Oil" Disaster
Jeremy, ever the romantic, chose a rust-orange Lancia Beta. In the world of classic cars, the Lancia Beta is infamous for one thing: rust. These cars were notorious for dissolving in European rain, let alone African river crossings. Verdict: The underdog
Verdict: The underdog. It proved that Italian flair, even when terminal, has a soul.
Leaving the salt pans, the route headed into the Kalahari. Here, the challenge wasn't getting stuck, but surviving the environment. The cars had to navigate dense bush, fighting against thorns that shredded tires and overheating engines.
It was during this leg that the Lancia finally began to die. The heat was too much. Yet, in a display of mechanical sympathy that defied logic, Clarkson managed to keep it running. He famously discovered that the car would only start if he poured water over the starter motor, a routine he performed daily.
The first major hurdle was crossing the salt pans. To the untrained eye, it looks like a hard, white desert. In reality, the crust is thin, and underneath lies deep, sticky mud that acts like quicksand.
The trio was instructed to drive across it. Hammond and May made steady progress, but Clarkson’s Lancia, with its low ground clearance, dug itself into a hole. The struggle to extract the car was agonizing. Clarkson, in a fit of desperation, stripped the car down to save weight—removing the doors, bonnet, and bumpers. He resorted to cutting up the upholstery and using the foam as traction mats. It was a desperate, ingenious move that highlighted the show's core theme: fixing cars with hammers and anger.