We'll let Jared explain:

Why'd we do it? (Why the hell not?):

A) It's never been done before,
B) we love wagons, and
C) we wanted to see what we could accomplish with a high degree of sophistication but with only a conservative effort.

Jon, Matt, Chris and I are all car nuts, and we all feed off the buzz surrounding something we'd actually want— so we were all familiar with how it's fed to us, and Chris, being a young but but died-in-the-wool car guy, was a good BS meter.

Matt DuVall, a Digital Arts major at SCAD and a summer intern, found a pre-existing, free 3D Cayman model, downloaded it, and created the Shooting Brake/hatchback shape using the 3D animation software Maya. We were fastidious with the details: Porsche development wheels, license plate number, tape on the front headlights and a front bumper that mimicks the newest 2011 mule shots, etc. It's definitely a
polarizing design—Some people love it, some hate it, but we wanted it to feature enough cues from the Panamera's design vocabulary to pass as a potential Porsche product, so we did spend a good bit of time on that part. Ultimately, it was all rendered in HD— and then downgraded in size and quality to appear like it was shot with a cameraphone and output in FinalCut Pro. Ditto with the audio.

We shot the clip in a Brooklyn (Greenpoint) back-alley to stage the car being parked against the wall of a decaying industrial loading dock— I added the Italian soundtrack to give things an appropriate Euro twist. Matt shot HDR to get the reflections right on the car, which meant shooting 360-degrees with a still camera with a fish-eye lens mounted and stitching it all together in Photoshop.

There was also a little Easter egg that no one picked up on— there is a Stig helmet partially visible in the rear hatch at about the 9 second mark. Perhaps too hidden.

Once the car was created in 3D, it was easy to generate a fake screenshot from existing previews of Forza 3 (soon to be released by Xbox in Oct). Turn 10, Forza's developers, also happen to be releasing official screenshots on a regular basis, so it was easy enough to create a plausible shot and build off the buzz from the existing waves of fan frenzy.

Jon Masters, another summer intern who is finishing his Masters in Media Studies at The New School, produced the campaign seeding strategy— placing links to the video in Porsche enthusiast sites, tipping Autoblog, Jalopnik, etc. and inserting the Forza 3 screenshot in the requisite fan forums (original posted on a Czech Forza fansite, in Czech, to add a layer of deception and plausability).

The 3rd and final round of scam will be fully-rendered stills, with a fake "behind-the-scenes" shot from a supposed studio press shoot. These will hit the public in the next day or so, when they're done and good. [This was written before these shots were released]

Here's the full timeline of the scam:

7/08/09

8:29AM- Video/Blog Post goes live on Topgear.com
1:00PM- Story submitted by dummy to reddit.com
1:15PM- Story submitted by dummy to digg.com
1:50PM- Thread submitted by dummy on www.planetporsche.net Cayman chat forum
2:45PM- Thread submitted by dummy on porscheclubgbforum.com Cayman chat forum
3:19PM- First reference (user comment) that questions video's authenticity (on TG US site)
3:30PM- Anonymous "tip" submitted to Autoblog.com tip service
4:09PM- Email "tip" sent by dummy to worldcarfans.com (linked URL included is from a german car web aggregator that picked up story)
5:30PM- Story picked up by Jalopnik without being artificially tipped (We're just THAT good. —Ed.)
6:58PM- Story run by AutoBlog
7:56PM- Breaks on Car Lounge forum on Motive

7/09/09
5:00AM- Story hits TopGear UK site (staff uninformed of hoax)
9:10AM- Worldcarfans runs story (headline questions authenticity
10:06AM- Car and Driver runs blog story
2:26PM- Czech Forza fansite seeded from dummy account
3:30PM- XBox fansite seeded with Forza 3 thread
5:30PM- Forza Central fan site seeded, referencing Czech-based image

07/10/09

11:30PM- Jalopnik tipped by dummy account to link of Forza screenshot
12:30PM- Jalopnik runs story linking Forza screenshot to TopGear mule video

07/13/09

6:00PM- Autoblog runs Forza screenshot

07/31/09

11:30AM- Cayman studio photos uploaded to dummy flickr account

08/06/09

10:00AM- Jalopnik tipped with links to flickr account
11:00AM- Jalopnik runs story
3:00PM- Worldcarfans.com tipped with flickr account
6:00PM- Worldcarfans.com runs article

And here's a breakdown of the traffic that Top Gear netted from all this:

Stats: (In less than one week)
Over the 27,000 views of the video (in our TopGear vid-player)
Over 400 comments (net wide)
29,000+ views on Jalopnik alone

Mystery Cayman Mule (from 7/8 - 8/10):
- 37,098 total plays 24,006 from embedded player
13,092 from reg player

Total
Jalopnik-
Video: 24,057 views, 52 comments
Screenshot: 13,626 views, 76 comments,
Photo: 15,076 views, 143 comments
autoblog-
video: 51 comments
screenshot: 38 comments
worldcarfans-
video: 22 comments
photo: 47 comments

Yet again, Jalopnik comes out on top. In, you know, excitement over a story even we said was probably fake.

PM: As I mentioned, the Internet geeks are already pumped up about the show—my buddies at Jalopnik are already calling you the "proto-Clarkson," and I'm sure fans of your radio show and accompanying blog have been hammering you about which rides you're pulling out of that stacked garage of yours and onto set. But Top Gear in the UK is kind of an online phenomenon in this country to begin with—it's gotten bigger on YouTube than some of your old Man Show tricks. What do you make of that, and are you as into the, well, insane stunts of the original as we are?
AC: You know, it's funny. I like cars more than I like stunts. The stunts are cool, but I would much rather just see ... I was just watching a rerun and Jeremy had that Aston Martin DBS in the Aston Martin Racing Green and he was turning some hot laps with that thing on an Air Force base they have over there in the UK. For me, as a viewer, in terms of just pure eye candy, I like watching that more than I like them turning a car into an amphibious landing craft or something. That's all well and good, and there's a place for it, but for me it's really about the cars.

Well, aside from being a pretty face on TV, he's apparently handy with a hammer and saw. Stromer also has his own self-promoting Web site which conveniently gives us a raft of insight into the leather arm-band wearing, eco-friendly co-host.

If you discount his time as a prop on "Santa Barbara," a show from the middle of 1980's daytime drama hell we'd watch only when the remote control was broken and we were home sick from school, and a couple stints on a few other TV shows, Eric has primarily been a construction guy. After 20 years running a construction company, the 47-year-old former People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" was tapped for "Home Improvement with Eric Strommer," "Clean Sweep," and "Over Your Head," all produced for HGTV.

When Eric isn't hosting stuff, he's apparently going to women's shows. Well, at least in 2006 he was. And he's working on a solo music project which has resulted in (bad) songs on his site that you can buy or sample-stream (if you can make it through them, you may be the progeny of Superman).

Now that you have all the facts, we know you'll join us in feeling absolutely comfortable with the idea of this guy getting a spot hosting the US version of the most amazing car show in the world. Absolutely comfortable. Well, maybe if he gets his teeth whitened and learns how amazingly well a Camry hybrid fits in a junkyard crusher. [EricStrommer.com and Youtube]

First of all, he's named Carolla not Corolla. Let's get that out of the way. With a face for radio, Carolla started his career by doing lots of the local variety, plus some comedy on the side. His big break came when he was offered a spot co-hosting the call-in sex advice show Loveline, which I listened to on headphones underneath my covers, grasping to understand what sex meant. Rarely during the show did I ever hear Carolla actually talk about sex, instead he seemed to just rant about whatever was on his mind. That's a good sign...

His big television break came along with The Man Show on Comedy Central, which he started and co-hosted with his friend Jimmy Kimmel. If you saw one episode, you saw them all. If you never saw an episode it went like this: boobs, drinks, boobs, misogyny, boobs, drinks, belch...boobs on trampolines.

After The Man Show met what many might call a timely demise, he went on to host Too Late With Adam Carolla, a late night show actually worse than Colin Quinn's late night show. It lasted one season. Luckily, Carolla kept his bridges with Comedy Central unburned as he's stayed involved with the network via his talented voice work as Spanky Ham on Drawn Together. And by talented, we mean it's a show so bad it's actually worse when you watch it drunk. We kid, we're just happy Comedy Central found that sweet spot demographic of people who think South Park is too tame.

His most successful recent venture has been his eponymous radio show, which has run in major west coast markets since late 2005. Cars are a topic of discussion on the show and he has, by most accounts, come-off as though he's not only interested in the topic but well-versed enough to carry on in-depth conversation on most topics related to the automotive world.

But even if we couldn't verify how much he knows, we can certainly verify the guy has good taste in cars. As evidence of this we can look at his own garage, which has included vehicles ranging from a 1978 Datsun Pickup, to a far more sporting E30 BMW M3. Additional cars from the Carolla lineup include a Nissan 300ZX driven by Paul Newman in the 84 SCCA National Championship and a BRE-Replica Datsun 510. Nice.

But we're guessing he's there to fill the "funny" slot on the show — the proto-Clarkson if you will. Let's just hope he can talk about cars better than he can Fox Trot:

Frankly though, we're not too surprised. After Jay Leno officially took himself out of the equation, we were skeptical about the potential success of the proposed show. Besides, doesn't NBC realize that Top Gear fans the world over just download magically summon the British episodes on our computers?
[NBC, Dark Horizons via autoblog]

So someone calls me from the network and is clearly not a car person. He says: "You like cars, right?" I say yes. "Like, all kinds of cars?" Well, yes. I like all kinds of cars. Why? "Well, the network has bought the TV show . . . um . . . High Gear? Top Gear? Top Gear! Top Gear, yes. We know you like to build cars."

I ask: what's the plan for the show? "Well, like, one week you build a car that flies and the next week you make a car that goes under water." So I said: you know you can't build these things in a week.

The first piece of evidence to support this theory comes from the fact that the show's producers told journalists vying for the job that the show was going to be taking more of a "celebrity direction." Whatever that means. So it's not going to be Angus and probably not going to be someone with journalistic integrity. That's not a shock.

The second piece of evidence is that Jay Leno likes cars, works at NBC and is retiring from The Tonight Show in 2009. Fair enough, he likes cars, but does anyone know if he wants the job? The third piece is the most ridiculous of all. Jerry Seinfeld has a relationship with NBC, likes cars and shilled for his movie on 30 Rock. Hmm... close but no cigar.

We're not saying it isn't going to happen. NBC has disappointed us before and will likely do so again. Using the same logic we're going to claim Fred Thompson as the obvious choice. He's not going to be doing anything in 2009 and he has a long-standing relationship with NBC (and we guess he likes cars). [Edmunds: Inside Line]