Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this nearly hour-long special, the trio hosts their own motor show on Millbrook's Proving Grounds in Bedfordshire and hosts the finals of the viewer reviewer competition for the grand prize being the Volkswagen Lupo GTi given by jamjar.com.
The Driven Motordrive event - being sponsored by the AA - was made in response to the Birmingham Motor Show 2001 being cancelled (see Top Gear's coverage about it here: youtu.be/oqsAj4buTJk?feature=shared&t=1682) to bring the latest cars, sneak previews and the viewers of Driven a chance to even drive the latest in automotive exotica.
It was planned in advance from the first episode of the series and featured Jason and Mike promote it alongside giving the viewers a chance to even win tickets to Motordrive, if they guessed correctly which car from the episode would've won. This event also marked the earliest televised appearance of the long-forgotten FBS Census, as Pulling Power would cover it (on both Carlton & Westcountry regions) a day later for their last-in-series episode, and Top Gear featured a road test alongside an inside look into the car's development on the 8th of November. For more on the FBS Census, check out Alex's video on this forgotten British car manufacturer: youtube.com/watch?v=JkN2FB1-uC4
Aside from the Motordrive stuff, the trio also road tested cars and reported on various stuff. Jason Plato for instance drove the Qvale Mangusta and covered the unveiling of the MG X80 - now known as the MG XPower SV - with an unique appearance of former Driven host Peter Stevens, as well as showed concept cars from the concurrent Tokyo Motor Show 2001, also a day before Pulling Power did with Mike Rutherford. Mike Brewer in the meantime showed the viewers around the testing facilities of Millbrook (where the cars are tested), featuring most notably the banked oval or the Belgian pave. Little would they know, that 7 years later a certain trio of middle-aged men would use the oval to test the top speed of their lorries and then attempt to brake them all the way to 0, though unfortunately with the only casualty being Captain Slow, who also was a host on Driven.
Enough of the yapping, this special is particularly important to Driven's history, and to respect it even more, this is the restored version of the entire special, with adverts and all AA sponsor idents in full, made in the similar style to the Alliance & Leicester sponsor idents on Pulling Power.
I would like to thank @assortedvideos4899 and @misterdocuk for providing the footage required to restore it, and to @lanxtotas for taking up the Herculean task of combining the best of both material to make it restored. The original recording by Assorted Videos is still available on this channel (on the Archived Driven playlist), but it's unlisted. If anything, this is the ultimate way of watching the special without having widescreen footage (let alone the master recordings).
Adverts:
- Littlewoods
- Currys (Panasonic widescreen TV)
- Burnout (PS2 UK version)
- Budweiser "True."
- army.mod.uk (1)
- Pantene Pro-V
- army.mod.uk (2)
Timestamps:
00:00 AA ident (1)
00:15 Intro
00:55 Viewer reviewer (intro)
01:27 Viewer reviewer (shortlist)
09:35 Motordrive coverage (1)
10:40 AA ident (2)
10:45 Adverts
11:48 AA ident (3)
11:53 Qvale Mangusta & MG X80
16:11 Motordrive guide
18:08 Viewer reviewer (driveability)
23:40 Coming up... end of part 2
24:02 AA ident (4)
24:07 Adverts (2)
25:11 AA ident (5)
25:16 BMW 745i road test
29:47 Viewer reviewer (knowledgeability)
36:03 Motordrive coverage (2)
36:50 Mike's Clinic; dodgy Porsche 911
40:04 Coming up... end of part 3
40:12 AA ident (6)
40:17 Adverts (3)
41:20 AA ident (7)
41:25 Isuzu Zen in-depth report
44:37 Viewer reviewer (presenterability)
49:58 Viewer reviewer (likeability)
51:07 Viewer reviewer (summary)
52:17 Outro (& 4car voting comp)
52:45 AA ident (8)
52:55 4car.co.uk ident
In this nearly hour-long special, the trio hosts their own motor show on Millbrook's Proving Grounds in Bedfordshire and hosts the finals of the viewer reviewer competition for the grand prize being the Volkswagen Lupo GTi given by jamjar.com.
The Driven Motordrive event - being sponsored by the AA - was made in response to the Birmingham Motor Show 2001 being cancelled (see Top Gear's coverage about it here: youtu.be/oqsAj4buTJk?feature=shared&t=1682) to bring the latest cars, sneak previews and the viewers of Driven a chance to even drive the latest in automotive exotica.
It was planned in advance from the first episode of the series and featured Jason and Mike promote it alongside giving the viewers a chance to even win tickets to Motordrive, if they guessed correctly which car from the episode would've won. This event also marked the earliest televised appearance of the long-forgotten FBS Census, as Pulling Power would cover it (on both Carlton & Westcountry regions) a day later for their last-in-series episode, and Top Gear featured a road test alongside an inside look into the car's development on the 8th of November. For more on the FBS Census, check out Alex's video on this forgotten British car manufacturer: youtube.com/watch?v=JkN2FB1-uC4
Aside from the Motordrive stuff, the trio also road tested cars and reported on various stuff. Jason Plato for instance drove the Qvale Mangusta and covered the unveiling of the MG X80 - now known as the MG XPower SV - with an unique appearance of former Driven host Peter Stevens, as well as showed concept cars from the concurrent Tokyo Motor Show 2001, also a day before Pulling Power did with Mike Rutherford. Mike Brewer in the meantime showed the viewers around the testing facilities of Millbrook (where the cars are tested), featuring most notably the banked oval or the Belgian pave. Little would they know, that 7 years later a certain trio of middle-aged men would use the oval to test the top speed of their lorries and then attempt to brake them all the way to 0, though unfortunately with the only casualty being Captain Slow, who also was a host on Driven.
Enough of the yapping, this special is particularly important to Driven's history, and to respect it even more, this is the restored version of the entire special, with adverts and all AA sponsor idents in full, made in the similar style to the Alliance & Leicester sponsor idents on Pulling Power.
I would like to thank @assortedvideos4899 and @misterdocuk for providing the footage required to restore it, and to @lanxtotas for taking up the Herculean task of combining the best of both material to make it restored. The original recording by Assorted Videos is still available on this channel (on the Archived Driven playlist), but it's unlisted. If anything, this is the ultimate way of watching the special without having widescreen footage (let alone the master recordings).
Adverts:
- Littlewoods
- Currys (Panasonic widescreen TV)
- Burnout (PS2 UK version)
- Budweiser "True."
- army.mod.uk (1)
- Pantene Pro-V
- army.mod.uk (2)
Timestamps:
00:00 AA ident (1)
00:15 Intro
00:55 Viewer reviewer (intro)
01:27 Viewer reviewer (shortlist)
09:35 Motordrive coverage (1)
10:40 AA ident (2)
10:45 Adverts
11:48 AA ident (3)
11:53 Qvale Mangusta & MG X80
16:11 Motordrive guide
18:08 Viewer reviewer (driveability)
23:40 Coming up... end of part 2
24:02 AA ident (4)
24:07 Adverts (2)
25:11 AA ident (5)
25:16 BMW 745i road test
29:47 Viewer reviewer (knowledgeability)
36:03 Motordrive coverage (2)
36:50 Mike's Clinic; dodgy Porsche 911
40:04 Coming up... end of part 3
40:12 AA ident (6)
40:17 Adverts (3)
41:20 AA ident (7)
41:25 Isuzu Zen in-depth report
44:37 Viewer reviewer (presenterability)
49:58 Viewer reviewer (likeability)
51:07 Viewer reviewer (summary)
52:17 Outro (& 4car voting comp)
52:45 AA ident (8)
52:55 4car.co.uk ident
