Ciao Italia! The master debaters of motoring return for the 18 th season of Top Gear this Sunday on Prime.  In the debut episode, the trio tour Italy in a convoy of red supercars.  FYI: did you know more red cars are involved in accidents than any other colour?

Freshly cleared of his latest controversy in which he claimed union workers should be shot (in a voice saturated with sarcasm), human bobblehead Jeremy Clarkson is back for the 18th season of the magazine style show that is a love letter to all things automotive.  

Over seven petrol-perfumed episodes, Clarkson, Hammond, May and cohorts make a car chase movie, re-invent the mobility scooter (the future transport for us all!), attempt to backflip a Mini and race against a rocket-powered flying man.

In Sunday’s premiere, Jeremy ‘Loud Hailer’ Clarkson, Richard ‘Hamster’ Hammond and James ‘Stephen Fry in a wig’ May crusade across Italy to determine which of their supercars can measure up to the Ferrari 458, and it's full of their trademark bluster, brio and endless mutual needling of each other.

With Clarkson in a Lamborghini Aventador, Hammond in a Noble and May in a McLaren, the trio put their lead feet and their best insults to the test as they speed trial their respective vehicles at two of the most terrifying racing tracks in the world.

At Nardo, a circular course so enormous that it can actually be seen from space, Clarkson pushes his Lamborghini so hard he experiences a temporary facelift, and also offers the Hamster some grudging praise for participating in the heart-stopping challenge, (but not to his face of course.)

“I do have quite a lot of respect for the midget doing this because well the last time he tried to go fast on a test track it didn’t go well”, he says, referring to Hammond’s near-fatal 2006 dragster crash.  

Hammond's brush with death doesn't appear to have slowed the petite speed demon down and no doubt his wife was cursing the TV if she ever saw this episode. 

As if Nardo wasn’t hair-raising enough, next it’s off to Imola, one of the most dangerous driving tracks on Earth, and also the site of racing legend Ayrton Senna's fatal accident.

“Aagh, a bit of wee may be coming out,” squealed May as they raced around the track.  You and me both, watching these vehicles navigate turns at over 200kmh will have your esophagus making a quick visit upstairs. 

All your favourite features of Top Gear remain, and this year takes on an international flavour with an assortment of Stigs of the world; we glimpse a teaser of the Chinese Stig who delivers a flying kick to a door, and we get to meet the Italian Stig at Nardo, with a bevy of bella donnas in tow.

will.i.am appears as the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car and for once, actually has an interesting story to relate, and it’s not about Fergie’s bladder control.  The man best known for being one quarter of the Black Eyed Peas (and one half of the Black Eyed Peas whose name people actually remember), will.i.am discusses how he has built his own car company, IAMAUTO, in the economically depressed area he grew up in. 

It’s also your only opportunity to see the man who designs cars that look like a child’s fantasy Matchbox car, driving a burgundy Kia, which looks more like a tea cosy on wheels.

Top Gear
Prime
Sundays from 26 February, 7.30pm