The mystery of Top Gear's visit to the States has been solved, with the trio bringing a Porsche 911 GT3, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, and Ferrari 458 Italia to Virginia International Raceway. Pictures below. Update: more pics, info.
Photos of the event come courtesy of Jim's Garage, who captured the production crew and the hosts hanging out with their exotic threesome. News of what happened at the event also slipped out via Autotrader, who reports it was the kind of shoot they were planning.
Select members of VIR's country club-like organization were invited to the event. A letter to members explained: "There will not be any opportunity to interact with the presenters for photos or autographs. They apologize for this but it is because the guys are really busy filming all day so it's just not going to be an option. Moreover, you will not be able to post any pictures or videos of the day until after the show airs. That's just so they can keep the VIR visit secret until their broadcast date."
A lucky 60 or so VIR club members were invited to circulate the track in their own cars as photographers shot background video in the morning, while the show's stars lounged on the balconies of their villas overlooking the track.
Like a game of automotive musical chairs, the extras were whittled down to a remaining 18 drivers who circulated on the track along with the Top Gear presenters to provide still more video grist for the show. In the afternoon, the Top Gear crew continued without the benefit of colonial extras.
More photos and information from another Jalopnik reader who was there:
The "event" was pretty cool, after the first hour, if your car was picked to
stay for more filming you got more track time, this time with Clarkson, May,
and Hammond in their SLS, 458, and GT3 (respectively). What I didn't
capture was Jeremy hooning the SLS around turns 1-6 (POWERRRRR), eventually
spinning the car in turn 5/6. He didn't hit anything thankfully and they
continued with their shoot. Sorry for the bad phone pics, I forgot my
camera at home.Some of the cars 'picked' to run with them was a Carrera GT, a few C6 Z06's,
CTS-V's, Atoms, a Civic hatch (lol), and some older 'Murican muscle.
(Hat tip to Jim and AutoBlog!)