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A Lamborghini Crash Is Good TV, Paddy McGuinness Explains

Entertaining television almost always includes drama, and this doesn’t apply just to reality shows. With BBC’s Top Gear, the drama is unscripted and, as Paddy McGuinness got to find out for himself this summer, can involve a 1991 Lamborghini Diablo.
The aftermath of the Diablo crash during production for Top Gear 11 photos
Photo: YouTube / BBC
First preview of 29th season of Top GearFirst preview of 29th season of Top GearFirst preview of 29th season of Top GearFirst preview of 29th season of Top GearFirst preview of 29th season of Top GearFirst preview of 29th season of Top GearFirst preview of 29th season of Top GearFirst preview of 29th season of Top GearFirst preview of 29th season of Top GearFirst preview of 29th season of Top Gear
Shortly after shooting for the upcoming season of Top Gear resumed after lockdown, Paddy McGuinness and co-hosts Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris headed out to Elvington Airfield so they could shoot a ‘90s supercar challenge. Paddy would be driving a 1991 Diablo, Freddie a Jaguar XJ220 and Chris a Ferrari F40, in a bid to see who gets to 200 mph (321.8 kph) first.

No word yet on whether they were able to complete the challenge before Paddy went off the road, through a fence and crashed the Diablo. When the news broke out in the media right after the crash, headlines claimed something along the lines of him having “cheated death,” which hinted at a much more serious crash than what actually happened.

Speaking with the Daily Mail as part of the promotion tour for the new season, Paddy plays down the crash and even laughs it off as a means to make the series better. He’s not entirely wrong, actually: viewers do tune in to see them do stuff they wouldn’t personally do, and if this happens to end in crashes and tumbles without serious injury, all the better.

“I had an off-road incident in a Lamborghini this series, which was a first in three series I like to remind Fred of that,” Paddy says. “But I think sometimes things happen in an episode and it kind of works out better, because I think seeing the Jaguar [that Freddie drives in the episode] do its 200 miles an hour and me and Chris looking at the monitor, I don’t know, the film felt better for that.”

“If that Lamborghini hadn’t gone off the road and all three of us were on the track then I don’t know what the dynamic would have been, I don’t know what would have happened, but it [was] a really nice moment for the show,” he adds.

He even jokes that he crashed the Diablo on purpose as some sort of selfless act for the sake of ratings. It’s all a joke to him now, of course, but only because no one got hurt.

Freddie too agrees that there has to be a sizable element of danger for audiences to keep tuning in, and he and his pals are happy to give it to them. As far as he’s concerned, though, he doesn’t like letting his family know what these planned stunts are ahead of time, because they don’t need the extra stress. For example, he says, they didn’t have to know they would be shooting a stunt on the infamous Wall of Death.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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