Currently reading: Top Gear line-up to include Chris Harris - his best Autocar moments
Former Autocar road test editor Chris Harris is joining Top Gear. Here we look back at his best Autocar videos

Former Autocar road test editor Chris Harris has been confirmed as a presenter on the revamped version of Top Gear.

Harris will join Chris Evans, Matt LeBlanc, Sabine Scmitz, Eddie Jordan and Rory Reid on the new-lookshow, and who take over the show's mantle from Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. The new series of Top Gear begins in May.

Harris began his career in motoring journalism at Autocar, and quickly rose to become road test editor. He left Autocar in 2008, and has spent time writing for other motoring titles as well as presenting motoring videos on YouTube, both for the /DRIVE channel and for his own series, Chris Harris on Cars. Here we look back at Harris's early years on Autocar.

Read Steve Cropley's blog - Why Harris is a perfect fit for Top Gear

Chris Harris drives the Bugatti Veyron

Harris is faced with a simple choice in Germany - spend an evening with great food, drink and company in a luxurious chateux, or spend an hour on German autobahns with the 987bhp Bugatti Veyron to see how fast it can go. Simple choice, right?

Chris Harris drives the Ferrari F430 Scuderia

Before his famous falling out with Ferrari in 2011, which resulted in Harris being banned from officially reviewing Ferrari vehicles until 2013, we sent him to the firm's Fiorano test track to sample the 503bhp Ferrari F430 Scuderia.

Bugatti Veyron versus Audi R8, Aston Martin DB9, Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera - the group test

We reunited Harris and Sutcliffe to conduct a long-awaited group test between the Bugatti Veyron and some of its fastest rials - in such illustrious company, could the Veyron still come out on top?

Nissan GT-R versus Porsche 911 and BMW M3

Back in 2008, Nissan shocked the performance car world with the launch of the Nissan GT-R. With its new sports car winning group tests across the board, we sent Harris to find out just how good this new Nissan was, by pitting it against the Porsche 911 and BMW M3.

Porsche 997 GT2 versus Corvette Z06

At around £131,000, the 997 series 911 GT2 was, at the time, the most expensive (and fastest) Porsche 911 ever built. The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 meanwhile, claimed to offer similar thrills for half the price. Harris set course for Bruntingthorpe airfield to decide which was best.

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Peter Cavellini 13 February 2016

Well, to be honest.........

I kind of hoped he'd be asked because i've watched his video casts on Youtube and always found them great to watch,he has his own sense of humour too,but,Rory Reid?.....never heard of him,he's an unknown in every sense,the others are all well known,we all have our likes and dislikes about them all no doubt,but we will have to wait till the Show airs later this year.
jonboy4969 12 February 2016

Eddie Jordan should take his

Eddie Jordan should take his £475 Million and retire to his £32 million yacht, Chris Evens cant talk and drive at the same time, and throws up when other drive him, that's perfect for a car show, not, then you have MLB, why, he is neither a professional driver or a broadcaster.

Sabine will be great, we have seen her on TG before and she can talk and drive like a bat out of hell, she has pedigree as the first Lady WTCC driver, and she is Mrs Nurburgring, the other two... WHO ????? one seems to have a jouno background and can drive a bit, that's good, and then we have the last one that was supposed to be from the auditions, what a joke that was, they might as well have just employed him in the first place and not wasted time looking at the Vids, if they did..

TG of old has gone, well on the BBC, if they go too technical it will fail, the people want fun, fast cars, banter and laughs, after all it became the worlds biggest show based on all that, to vastly change it, would be cutting the BBC's cash cow, and would only prove that Amazon did the right thing....

Symanski 11 February 2016

TG Required a reboot.

Top Gear needed a reboot. Format was tired as we were getting more and more adventures where they took bangers out and smashed them up. A destruction derby every week. The best adventures were the races between a superb car and public transport. Or even just road trips in new cars. The worst was the repetitive re-hashing of a banger race. Look at their last episode, made from what was going to be the last two episodes. No motoring excellence; just more bangers.
The Apprentice 11 February 2016

Symanski wrote: Top Gear

Symanski wrote:

Top Gear needed a reboot. Format was tired as we were getting more and more adventures where they took bangers out and smashed them up. A destruction derby every week. The best adventures were the races between a superb car and public transport. Or even just road trips in new cars. The worst was the repetitive re-hashing of a banger race. Look at their last episode, made from what was going to be the last two episodes. No motoring excellence; just more bangers.

There were some tedious bits yes, but look at some of the monumental feature pieces! Take the pride of Britain one that culminated in the huge line up of British products in the drive to Bucks Palace, the narrative was superb, it should be required viewing on the National Curriculum!

si73 11 February 2016

The Apprentice wrote:

The Apprentice wrote:
Symanski wrote:

Top Gear needed a reboot. Format was tired as we were getting more and more adventures where they took bangers out and smashed them up. A destruction derby every week. The best adventures were the races between a superb car and public transport. Or even just road trips in new cars. The worst was the repetitive re-hashing of a banger race. Look at their last episode, made from what was going to be the last two episodes. No motoring excellence; just more bangers.

There were some tedious bits yes, but look at some of the monumental feature pieces! Take the pride of Britain one that culminated in the huge line up of British products in the drive to Bucks Palace, the narrative was superb, it should be required viewing on the National Curriculum!

Totally agree, it had become a bit repetitive and sometimes irritating but that pride of Britain feature was without doubt one of their finest, loved it.

Symanski 11 February 2016

TG at its best.

The Apprentice wrote:

There were some tedious bits yes, but look at some of the monumental feature pieces! Take the pride of Britain one that culminated in the huge line up of British products in the drive to Bucks Palace, the narrative was superb, it should be required viewing on the National Curriculum!

That was Top Gear at its best, without doubt. Why? Because it showed excellence. Excellence of what we can do in Britain, a worthwhile reminder of how we can be great. Alas, that standard of feature in Top Gear was getting rarer and rarer. For example, that feature was in series 20, we just had 22. In that time, how few episodes had new cars? I'd say less than half, and not forgetting that other than the Australian adventure, those new cars would only be a small feature in the show.