Winter Olympics Special

Production Notes: Winter Olympics

As the 2006 Winter Olympics kicked off in Turin, Italy, we decided to host our own version of the games in the properly wintry land of Norway. However, this being Top Gear, our games weren't so much about world-class athletes vying for sporting perfection as three blokes mucking about in the snow and blowing things up. And for reasons that have long since been forgotten, someone thought it would be a good idea to give Clarkson a gun.

Biathlon

• The H&K machine pistol Jeremy deployed to such hopeless effect was supplied by the local Norwegian police armourer. He told us that, thanks to the gun's state-of-the-art telescopic sights, it would be almost impossible for Jeremy to miss. Oh, well.

• The Audi James drove to victory in the biathlon was the first and only Q7 test vehicle in Europe. The good people at Audi pulled out all the stops to get the car to us in time for the shoot, and were therefore understandably a touch miffed when we crashed it into a big ditch. Sorry.

Ski jump

• The first thing you should know is we had absolutely no idea our rocket-propelled Mini would work so well. This was the first time we'd worked with the rocketeers and, to tell the truth, we were a bit sceptical. When it set off and went properly airborne we were both surprised and elated. The rocketeers have told us they now know exactly how much thrust they'd need to beat the ski jumper. You never know, we might have another go.

• The lithe young chap you see performing a perfect ski jump at the beginning of this film was a student from a nearby school. When we asked the locals where we could find a top-class ski jumper, we were told that pretty much every schoolchild in Norway is more or less of Olympic standard.

• The kids from the local comprehensive practise jumping at the Olympic site during their PE lessons and have all their own gear. Playing rounders on a rainy school playing field seems a bit rubbish by comparison.

• Because we had no idea what the Mini would do once the blue touchpaper had been lit, we had to build a huge protective crash barrier at the bottom of the run. This was to make sure our errant Mini didn't go spearing off into the ski-lift or simply blast off into the forest, never to be seen again.

• The big white bales you see being put into place before the launch are actually filled with straw, which is one of the best impact-absorbing materials you can get. However, straw is pretty scarce in the Arctic wilderness of northern Norway, so it had to be transported from sunnier climes.

Ice hockey

• Taking car football and adding ice to the mix was always going to get a bit messy. We were therefore pretty surprised when Suzuki gamely offered us ten of its new swift hatchbacks to play with. They proved to be extremely tough and kept going despite the best efforts of our Norwegian rally drivers. Two of them even had to be flipped back on to their wheels after being rolled over.

• Our teams were made up of some of Norway's top rally drivers and, just like the England football team, they turned up with a contingent of WAGS. Thankfully, the girls weren't interested in shoe shopping and just wanted to get drunk. Hooray for Norway!

• The special team colours worn by the Suzukis were based on those of two real-life hockey teams. Sadly, we can't remember which ones.