Gallery: Top Gear's finest adventure pics

“Wouldn’t it be cool if we drove the DB11 to Athens?” an overly enthusiastic member of the Top Gear team once proposed. So that’s exactly what we did. Where better to test the 600bhp, twin-turbo 5.2-litre V12 engine, than on the hairpins of the Valparola Pass?

Looking to explore Canada in 48hrs? We’d recommend Vancouver Island – half the size of Scotland, but with the same sights, sounds and creatures as the rest of Canada. And, if you need a vehicle to do it in, look no further than the Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo – complete with kayak on the roof.

We all know that the Toyota Hilux is indestructible. But what you may not know is that it can fly, too, as we discovered in the Skeleton Coast in Namibia. The aftermath of this incident? Not a single warning light. Not one. The same couldn’t be said for Ollie Marriage…

Anything Burt Reynolds can do, TG can do better. So, when we were told we had 28 hours to get from Atlanta to Texas and back, and a 717bhp Trans Am to do it, we jumped at the opportunity. Among the back-to-back blues bars of Memphis, we certainly looked the part.

It’s no secret the Range Rover Velar can pad around Notting Hill just fine. But when it was released, we wanted to know whether it would actually be any good as a 4x4. So, we took it to Norway, specifically the grizzled and ancient mountainscapes that jag above the fjords. Jealous?

Deep in the Swartberg mountains lies the remote town of Die Hel, accessible only by one devilish road. A mere 30 miles long, the drive is two-and-a-half hours through relentlessly jagged geology. We’re still not sure why we chose the Mercedes-AMG GLA45 to do it in…

What better way to lap Iceland than in a Nissan GT-R? Along the way, we experienced steam and ice, mountains and plains, and endless swings of weather and climate. And, although it was the first visit by a GT-R to the country, it never felt the slightest bit out of place.

When the Top Gear maths gurus figured we would need 6.3kg of gold to be able to purchase the £160,200 Bentayga, we decided to head to the gold capital of the world, California, to discover such riches. Where else for the most exclusive, most luxurious and most powerful SUV?

Chances are, you haven’t visited Montenegro. But when all this blows over (must… resist… mentioning… The Winchester… ah, dammit), you definitely should. Why? Because when it comes to memorable roads, it’s more than well endowed. And the F-Pace? It fitted right in. 

Task? Drive every decent road in the United Arab Emirates – and slightly beyond – in a couple of days. Vehicle? McLaren 570GT. Ok, then. 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8, 0-62mph in 3.4secs, and a top speed of 204mph. Our conclusion? The 570GT might just be the world’s most practical supercar.

We know, we know, it looks like something out of a cartoon. And we weren’t quite sure of its market position, either, until we embarked on the Ultimate Japanese Roadtrip, and it all clicked into place. Either way, you don’t have to appreciate the way it looks, to appreciate the way it drives.

Hunting meteors can be a tricky business. That is, of course, unless you’re in the Rolls-Royce Phantom, that contains its own private constellation. Does it match the beauty of the real, thing? Not quite. If that’s what you’re after, the Grand Canyon, at 4am, isn’t a bad place to start.

When the new Discovery came out, we were concerned. Concerned, because we thought it had become the go-to all-rounder for the country set and wannabe urbanites alike. So, we wanted to see if it still has the Swiss Army knife appeal of the old one. Cue: European adventure.

At Top Gear, it goes without saying that we like a challenge. But the Trans-Alaska pipeline, in a tiny Mazda MX-5 Roadster, without a roof? Ah well, easy is boring. And, on a journey that most baulk at a making in a full-house off-roader, the MX-5 never missed a beat. Credit where it’s due.

The hills are alive with the sound of Porsche 911R and Honda NSX. Or, rather, they were, when the Top Gear team decided on an Austrian adventure. Naturally, we took a (small) detour over the Alps, otherwise that would have been a dereliction of duty. Paradise? We think we found it.

If we were going to make a break for it, and leave civilisation behind us, we’d fancy our chances hiding out in the Algarve, especially with a hefty Ranger Raptor to help us dash about the Monchique mountain range. We had bags of fun with the pickup during our Top Gear 24 Hours at Portimao last year.

The Atlantic coast at sunset, a brace of convertibles and the open road. Taking a few minutes away from our TG24 extravaganza at Portimao was an opportunity to really evaluate the appeal of these ultra-desirable droptops. Which set of keys would you take? Bearing in mind the tuk tuk was already spoken for…

We’ve all got an American road trip on the bucket list – except this is off-road and in Mexico. Close. Jim Glickenhaus’s US outfit built the SCG Boot – a respectful homage to Vic Hickey’s off-road racer that took part in the 1969 Baja 1000 – and we took it to the deserts of Baja California. Mmm, dusty.

The McLaren GT, Polestar 1, the Bentley Continental GT and the twisty roads going from Nice up into the foothills of the Alps. There’s nowhere you’d rather be behind the wheel of a nice car on a sunny spring day.

No, it’s not 1975, but perhaps it should be. We discovered the joys of simplistic motoring at the thin-spoked wheel of the trusty Citroen Mehari on our recent tour of France to celebrate the marque’s 100th birthday.

When Lamborghini called and asked TG if we’d drive a new Aventador SVJ Roadster from the factory to the UK, we certainly had a good think about it. Lot on, you know? If you’re going to drive an Italian supercar all that way, it would be rude not to drive down the sumptuous bendiness of the Gotthard Pass in Switzerland. Who needs motorways?

The Americans go crazy for a doomsday scenario, but as we found out while driving the Jeep Wayout through Michigan, it does leave them somewhat better prepared. The Jeep came with a pop-up tent, complete with memory foam mattress, on-board cocktail bar (no, really) and a built-in awning. Perfect for seeing out the impending apocalypse.

We got to drive the Mustang Shelby GT500 from Los Angeles to its launch event in Las Vegas, taking in some of the straightest and most unyielding roads that backwoods Nevada had to offer. Wait, what? But there’s still something very exciting about aiming a big American muscle car at the horizon and squeezing the throttle.

Forget the driving on our epic road trip, somewhere to stay is just as important. And why not spend a night or two at Andrea Mancini’s Miataland hotel in Italy, dedicated to the humble but much-loved Mazda MX-5. There are six bedrooms and a stack of Japanese roadsters that Mancini will let you take out for a spin.

An original race-prepared, road-legal Bugatti EB110 that actually competed at Le Mans in 1994. On an old Spanish race track with 60-degree banking that hasn’t seen solid track action since 1923. No pressure, then. But at least there are some lovely roads near the Sitges-Terramar circuit up past Barcelona.

Old-school grunt meets new-age torque in the hills outside Los Angeles – a chance for our 2019 muscle car of the year to meet the saloon of the year. Both very different, but both of them lots of fun as we took them out to find driving roads outside the heaving metropolis that is LA.

The California Double might sound like a racy burger with a bit of pineapple in it, or something, but it’s really about performing a feat that’s only possible in few places, skiing and surfing in the same day. Of course, unseasonably warm weather meant starting further away from our Malibu destination, which unfortunately meant having to push the Audi RS6 Avant a little harder through the winding roads down to the Pacific coast. 

It says Porsche right on the front of the new Taycan, so obviously it is one, but we really needed to test it against something that contains the purest Zuffenhausen DNA. Which is how we ended up pitting a new Taycan Turbo S against an original 911 RS in the hills outside Los Angeles. The Taycan won our Game Changer of the Year award in 2019, but with these two options everyone’s a winner.