Italian supercars, a 'muscle auto' that's banned in Europe and an absurd runway-focused tractor took center phase concluding night in another adrenaline-fuelled episode of Pinnacle Gear.

Kicking off the 5th instalment in the BBC motoring show's 25th season, presenter Matt LeBlanc headed to Italy to put Ferrari'southward new 812 Superfast through its paces at the Imola circuit, the former home of Formula 1'due south San Marino 1000 Prix.

After drifting the supercar around the rail for a few laps, LeBlanc paid tribute to the legendary F1 driver Ayrton Senna. The three-time F1 champion was killed following a high-speed crash at the circuit in 1994.

Meanwhile LeBlanc teamed up with Chris Harris to build a loftier-performance tractor, called the "Track-tor", in a bid to help alleviate traffic problems caused by slow-moving subcontract vehicles.

Later in the episode, Rory Reid travelled to the United states to review Chevrolet'due south new Camaro ZL1 1Le with the aid of German racing driver Sabine Schmitz.

According to Reid, the muscle car is banned in Europe considering the carbon fibre winglets on its front bumper could be unsafe if the auto were to hit a pedestrian.

Then what practise the critics recollect?

Following mixed reviews of the previous episode, Digital Spy says terminal night's show was "the highlight of the entire series." The program has clearly found its "fun factor" and appears to be on grade for "an heady new era".

Reid's review of the "forbidden" Camaro muscle motorcar was the episode's stand-out feature, the site says, acting equally a brilliant follow-upward to his curt film on Nihon'south underground motorcar civilization in episode 3.

Fans may be divided over the Track-tor section, which was "mostly just an excuse for LeBlanc and Harris to look giddy in an over-powered tractor," The Daily Telegraph says.

But the wacky tractor scenes were joined by a pair of thorough car reviews, making the episode feel like "a proper petrolhead spread".

19 March

Top Gear season 25 episode 4 review: US dragsters, Korean racers and French icons

Subsequently a manic route trip beyond Nippon last Sunday, Acme Gear headed dorsum to Northward America shores for a high-octane sprint between a U.s. military aircraft and a musculus car in the latest episode.

This week's instalment kicked off with presenter Matt LeBlanc driving the new drag-focused Contrivance Challenger SRT Demon to southern California, where he then helped with the landing of an airborne Nasa ER-two research plane - based on a Cold War-era U-2 spy plane.

Equally The Daily Telegraph explains, the ER-ii has a "wonky landing gear – which resembled a unicycle strapped to the bottom of the aircraft" - and therefore requires a high-speed "spotter" aeroplane to race ahead and guide it down. Thankfully, the 829bhp Demon was up to the challenge.

Later in the show, LeBlanc joined co-star Chris Harris for a trip to southern France in a 70-year-old Citroen 2CV, to make up one's mind if the retro car is a motoring icon or a glorified city runabout.

Meanwhile, Rory Reid trialled a pair of Korean performance cars, the Kia Stinger GT and Hyundai i30N, around the Television receiver show'south exam track at Dunsfold Drome in Surrey.

So what did the TV critics think?

This latest episode "stalls a little" at the first, says Digital Spy, but finishes on a high with LeBlanc and Harris'due south 2CV risk.

Each presenter's segment was "focused on the cars", a welcome development after the crazy stunts of the first 2 instalments in the new series, the website says. But each segment felt "isolated" compared with the "grander, challenge-filled road trips earlier in the season".

The Daily Telegraph agrees, dismissing LeBlanc'south Dodge Challenger Demon film as "another ho-hum Pinnacle Gear" segment filled with loud engine noises and clouds of tyre smoke.

The most noticeable aspect of the episode, the newspaper says, is the growing sense of Rory Reid existence the "third bicycle" in the trio. Reid remains restricted to the confines of the Dunsfold circuit, while the other 2 presenters take part in more glamorous excursions.

Notwithstanding, the new season is proving to be a hit with fans, and episode four was no exception. I Twitter user even argued that the new series of Top Gear could be better than the latest flavor of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May's Amazon Prime number motoring show, The Grand Tour.

12 March

Top Gear seasons 25 episode iii review: LeBlanc and Harris take route trip across Nippon

Acme Gear headed to Asia for an adrenaline-fuelled road trip across Japan in last night's episode of the BBC Ii motoring show. The trip comes hot on the heels of the team's adventures in the US, where episodes one and 2 were filmed.

The third instalment in series 25 features presenters Matt LeBlanc and Chris Harris buying a couple of Japanese-built nineties sports cars from an auction house where 15,000 motors are traded daily. They are and so tasked with exporting the cars to the UK for maximum profit.

Later on selecting their sports cars, the presenters set up off from the auction house in Tokyo to the Tohoku Region in northern Nippon. Along the style, the duo take part in some drifting at the Ebisu circuit and visit the site of 2011's nuclear disaster in Fukushima.

Meanwhile, co-star Rory Reid takes viewers through some of the more than outlandish aspects of Japan's machine civilization. Some of the baroque toys he shows us include a route-legal Porsche 962C Le Mans car and a host of heavily modified Lamborghinis that make the robots from the Transformers wait positively tame.

Critics are once once again full of praise for the BBC motoring testify, with Digital Spy applauding the episode's change of stride.

The challenges in the secondhand sports cars, nevertheless, "turn a piffling anticipated" and the utilize of Japanese-inspired graphics for Harris'southward review on the Lexus LC500 at the beginning of the show are described every bit "cheesy".

But The Daily Telegraph disagrees. Information technology says the "Akira-style animation" is "center-grabbing" and looks as though information technology's been taken straight from a 1980s anime moving-picture show.

However, the newspaper says the new presenters "acknowledged Japan's neon-streaked idiosyncrasies" without making "a twelvemonth'southward supply of Geisha-puns" and gags near the "mis-pronunciation of the alphabetic character 'r'". In other words, none of the predictable jokes you might take expected from the previous hosts of Elevation Gear.

v March

Top Gear season 25 review: fans praise 'awesome' second episode

After last week'south critically-acclaimed start to Top Gear's 25th season, the motoring show returned to BBC Two on Dominicus dark to rave reviews from fans.

The new episode is a complete departure from the flavour premiere. Presenters Matt LeBlanc and Chris Harris swapped their V8-engined sports cars (used for their road trip beyond Utah in the showtime episode) for an arsenal of off-road mechanism.

Using vehicles ranging from a Ford F650 Supertruck to a flying buggy, the pair travelled across the wood-covered hills of northern California looking for Bigfoot.

Fans were full of praise for the season's second episode. Many of them took to Twitter to share their verdicts.

One fan wrote: "Best always episode of the 'new' meridian gear this… F$#*ing awesome".

Others, meanwhile, said the "chemistry" between LeBlanc, Harris and co-star Rory Reid continued to ameliorate. Information technology's an area that had come up under fire from reviewers in the prove'southward previous season.

But much like previous episodes, several fans called for the return of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, the original trio and the stars of Amazon Prime's Chiliad Tour.

The episode was also well received by critics. Digital Spy,  for instance, said the "scripted chatter" between LeBlanc and Harris about finding Bigfoot was a "highlight" of last night's evidence.

While the hunt for the mythical animal was "ridiculous", says The Daily Telegraph, the segment was "carried off with an admirably straight face up."

Top Gear airs on BBC 2 on Sundays at 8pm.

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