Top Gear fled and/or was ejected last night from the nation of Argentina by a mix of local veterans and government officials, simply because of a license plate. Seriously. Here's video of the scary attack that prompted the entire team to abandon their cars and run.
The issue erupted over a license plate belonging to Jeremy Clarkson's Porsche 928, which read "H982 FKL," which many Argentinian residents feel is a targeted insult and reminder of the 1982 Falklands War.
Argentina lost the war, but the whole conflict is still emotionally fraught and is well-remembered in the South American nation.
The fact that the plate has been on the car since 1991 and the producers denials notwithstanding, it became such an issue that locals hurled rocks and insults at the entire crew, as you can hear in the video above.
And if you have any translations of what's going on in the video, please drop them in the comments.
UPDATE: Courtesy of readers Manuel A. and Gilles Dhondt is a translation of what's being said in the video. From here, it's easy to see that at least one of the protestors was riled up based on an inaccurate report of what was actually on the plate:
"We're waiting for the cars... emmmm. They didn't give them gas in Ushuaia... We're waiting to swear at them, dude. *hehehe*. They had a license plate that read something like 'Argentina 1982, fuck you', something like that. [inaudible] Hello, how are you? [inaudible]. No, no, they blocked access on the road. *hehehe* (0:55) They're arriving, they're arriving, hold on. *sirens* Gay! Gay! Gay! Gay! (puto x4), 'Forro!' (=something like 'horrible person' in Argentinean slang. Also means condom) Son of a bitch! Gay! Gay! Gay! Yooohaaa ahahahaaaa"