After the BBC cancelled the original Top Gear format in December 2001, Jeremy Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman met to devise a revival, pitching a studio-based format with a fixed location, a timed lap circuit, a veteran test driver, and celebrity challenges.

The BBC green-lit the new format partly to compete with Channel 5's Fifth Gear, a rival show launched by several original Top Gear presenters and producer Jon Bentley who had left the BBC.

Production secured Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey as the show's fixed location, converting one of its aircraft hangars into the studio and enlisting Lotus to help design the test track on the site's runways.

Neither Clarkson nor Wilman could find a racing driver comfortable speaking on camera for the test-driver role, so they decided to make the character silent and keep their identity concealed, leading to the creation of 'The Stig', a nickname suggested after recruiting driver Perry McCarthy.

At the start of the third series, Perry McCarthy was replaced as The Stig by Ben Collins for contractual reasons, and the character's suit was changed from black to white.

On 20 September 2006, Richard Hammond was seriously injured crashing a jet-powered Vampire dragster at up to 314 mph while filming a segment, prompting BBC and Health and Safety Executive inquiries and delaying production until filming resumed on 5 October.

For the 2007 'Polar Special', Clarkson and May drove a specially modified Toyota Hilux to the recorded 1996 location of the North Magnetic Pole, becoming the first people to reach that point by car, in a race against a dog sled.

Ticket demand for studio recordings became so high that one person seeking a ticket was told they would need to wait 21 years to get a place.

On 13 December 2022, Andrew Flintoff was seriously injured in a second accident while filming for the planned 34th series at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome and had to be airlifted to hospital; production was suspended and the BBC later announced Top Gear would not return for the foreseeable future.

Clarkson's contract was terminated by the BBC in March 2015 following an incident in which he verbally and physically abused producer Oisin Tymon, prompting Hammond, May and Wilman to leave the show as well and later launch The Grand Tour on Amazon.

During the 'Toyota Hilux Destruction' film in the third series, Clarkson and May subjected a Hilux pick-up to various destructive tests, allowed to use tools for repairs but forbidden from replacing any parts except the windscreen, to prove the truck's toughness.

The 'Cool Wall' segment, where cars were sorted into categories like 'Seriously Uncool' and 'Sub Zero', had no fixed rules for judging, and according to producer Andy Wilman the criteria were not necessarily related to a car's actual quality; any car owned by a presenter was automatically classified as 'Seriously Uncool'.