Jeremy Clarkson's latest test car, a heavily modified Porsche, has been recalled at short notice amid safety concerns, cutting short his time behind the wheel.

The broadcaster, long known for his motoring reviews on Top Gear and The Grand Tour, has in recent years become just as recognisable for his farming ventures. Clarkson runs Diddly Squat Farm near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, the setting for the popular Prime Video series Clarkson's Farm, which has also documented the launch of his farm shop and a pub in the Cotswolds.

Despite his agricultural pursuits, the 66-year-old has continued writing motoring columns and reviewing new cars for national newspapers and magazines. His most recent piece for The Times centred on a heavily reworked Porsche 911 built by American specialist firm Gunther Werks.

Clarkson admitted he had been looking forward to spending real time with the car, but the review was interrupted before he could put many miles on it. Describing the vehicle, he explained it was a Porsche 911 993 that had been "tuned and tweaked and restored" by Gunther Werks into what he called a "million-horsepower, million-pound restomod."

He joked that the car would be "perfect for winding up readers who think I should only review cars everyone can afford," adding sarcastically that such critics mainly favour Trabants. He then told those readers to "relax, comrades," pointing out that he wouldn't be able to review the Trabant either.

Clarkson went on to explain what actually happened with the Gunther Werks demonstrator. After taking it on a short drive to the pub and back, he said he'd got just enough of a taste to discover the car was "very fast, very bumpy and very, very mechanical." Shortly afterwards, the company contacted him to say its other demonstration vehicle had run into "some kind of problem," meaning the one on loan to Clarkson needed to be returned immediately.

As a result, his planned in-depth review of the restomod Porsche was effectively cut short before it could properly begin, leaving him with only a brief impression of the car's performance and handling.

The incident adds an unusual footnote to Clarkson's long-running motoring journalism career, which continues alongside his agricultural work at Diddly Squat Farm and the ongoing success of Clarkson's Farm on Prime Video.

Source: witneygazette.co.uk

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