an inviTaTion To appear on Top gear It was in late February that the BBC advertised on the English Car Club Website for the best available Citroen CX and after seeing some pictures of my 1986 Prestige Turbo the BBC were keen to include it in the Top Gear program Door Keith Webb
Mud
I was allowed to take a friend on the Top Gear film Shoot and we arrived at the old stone Corinthian Arch in pouring rain having spent the night in a local hotel courtesy of the BBC. The static filming was to take place here as the arch had a very French feel to it. We were a little late as we had difficulty finding the location and the poor weather did not help. The roadway was unmade and so it was just like a mud bath. Filming started straight away driving through the arch and back, constantly having to wash down the car to keep it free from the mud splashes, using my car cleaning kit as no-one from the BBC had thought to bring one of their own. The crew tried to keep the interior clean but it was an impossible task. Jeremy Clarkson arrived in the new C6 at about 9am with his script and did the in-car filming. He was friendly and he told me that he had once owned a CX and enjoyed the car enormously.
Filming a Prestige
The production crew set about attaching microphones and cameras about the two cars before Jeremy Clarkson and the crew took them for in-car filming on nearby public roads. One microphone was attached to the rear bumper above the exhaust and another on the front wing. Cameras were located on the side of the car. Some filming was carried out from another vehicle on public roads. Every time the cars arrived back they had to be cleaned and, maybe I am biased, the Prestige paintwork always looked superior to the C6. We adjourned for lunch at about noon and we chatted with Jeremy Clarkson about the car and he confessed that he had quite forgotten how fierce the brakes were on a CX and when braking he had almost thrown the film crew from the rear to the front of the car.
9
Race course
In the afternoon filming was to take place on the Towcester Race Course. Some general shots of the horseracing and the race meeting were taken. Then driving the C6 around the perimeter of the track filming the race in progress to show the C6 suspension in action and the superb stability. The production crew then carried out the same experiment in a BMW 5 series and of course the C6 suspension was far superior. My car had to be available for filming so we spent the afternoon in the warm comfortable course hospitality room enjoying both the horseracing and the filming, whilst having our fill of food and hot drinks.