(nicknamed "Oliver") : Chosen by Richard Hammond, this small 1963 car became the breakout star of the episode. Hammond grew so attached to "Oliver" that he brought the car back to the UK , where he still owns it today. Mercedes-Benz 230E
If you’re planning a real Botswana trip, take a – not a Lancia. top gear botswana cars
: True to his "power" philosophy, Clarkson chose a car known for being both beautiful and notoriously unreliable. It suffered constant mechanical failures and required significant weight stripping—including removing its doors—to survive the Makgadikgadi salt pans. (nicknamed "Oliver") : Chosen by Richard Hammond, this
remains a high-water mark for the series, proving that you don't need a customized 4x4 to cross a continent—you just need a bit of blind optimism and $1,500. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May were tasked with driving across Botswana, from the Zimbabwean border to the Namibian border, using only used two-wheel-drive cars that were never meant to see a dirt road, let alone the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans or the Okavango Delta [ 0.5.1 ]. Here are the three unlikely heroes of that journey: 1. The 1981 Lancia Beta Coupé (Jeremy Clarkson) : True to his "power" philosophy, Clarkson chose