Clarkson and Top Gear Crew Forced to Flee Argentina

Jeremy Clarkson has become an expert at pissing people off from time to time. It's time again. Reports are coming in claiming that Clarkson, his co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May, and the rest of the Top Gear film crew were forced to flee Argentina after seemingly offending the locales and the military. They were there to film the upcoming Christmas Special as they traveled the Patagonia Highway. Clarkson was driving a Porsche 928, Hammond a Ford Mustang, and May a Lotus Esprit. What’s the big deal?

Argentinians didn’t like Clarkson’s license plate which read "H982 FKL." They interpreted that as a reference to the 1982 Falklands War against the UK. Argentina invaded two islands in the South Atlantic in an attempt to reclaim sovereignty over them. The British had claimed sovereignty since 1841. A war broke out and 74 days later Argentina surrendered.

Obviously, Argentinians are still not happy with that outcome. The local media made the so-called connection between the plate and the war, and an angry mob caught up with Clarkson and crew. Stone throwing ensued. Even members of the Argentinian military stopped the Porsche on the road. They then went to Clarkson’s hotel and demanded that the entire crew leave the country. And that’s just what they did. Clarkson stated he’d "been to Iraq and Afghanistan, but this was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever been involved in. There were hundreds of them. They were hurling rocks and bricks at our cars. They wanted to drag us out." Top Gear has denied there was any purposeful connection between the license plate and the war.