BBCJeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond made it out of the Deep South in one piece after driving through town in cars covered with signs touting their love of gay rights and Hillary Clinton and their hatred of country music and NASCAR.
That's just how those guys roll—sometimes provocatively, always humorously.
But even though their cars were free of slogans in Argentina, where they were shooting their latest Top Gear adventure in September, it was the license plate on a Porsch that got the locals all riled up—and prompted the Top Gear hosts' hasty exit from the country!
According to the U.K.'s ITV News, a group of angry veterans pelted their vehicles with stones because they thought that the British show was mocking the two nations' historical, bloody conflict over the Falkland Islands with the plate number, H982FKL. The Falklands War lasted 74 days and ended with Argentina's surrender on June 14, 1982.
ITV posted unverified footage of the moment when the crowd seemed to turn on the sports cars being driven by May, Hammond and Clarkson, yelling and throwing rocks at the longtime Top Gear hosts. A police escort eventually showed up to ferry them out of harm's way—and out of the city.
Top Gear executive producer Andrew Wilman said any report or rumor that they picked that number-letter combination on purpose was "completely untrue."
"We're pleased the team is safe and would like to thank all of those who have helped," a spokesman for the BBC told ITV. "As the executive producer has made clear, the number plate issue is a very unfortunate coincidence."
Ernesto Alonso, president of the Malvinas (or Falklands) Veterans Center, begged to differ, saying, "This is not a coincidence. The program has a history of doing this [drumming up controversy]. It wasn't by chance. I think they need to apologize to the Argentine people—we're a peaceful nation. Unfortunately it has produced this reaction from the Patagonian people and the Tierra del Fuego province—which is after all the capital of the Malvinas."
There's been no word from any of the guys on social media since the incident, but Clarkson sounded happy to be in Argentina when they first arrived, and he continued to have fun with the British tabloids from abroad.
"Argentina. In a hotel bar. I am going to f--king live here," he tweeted Sept. 19 along with a pic that featured a lot of bottles and cans. A few days later, he followed up with, "According to the Mirror, the BBC told me not to misbehave while I'm in Argentina. 1) they haven't and 2) see pic."
According to the Mirror, the BBC told me not to misbehave while I'm in Argentina. 1) they haven't and 2) see pic pic.twitter.com/bd3erxSsTZ
? Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) September 23, 2014"Here's my official response to the Mirror," he added. (His official response to the Mirror is NSFW, BTW.)
Meanwhile, there's no word yet on how what went down in Argentina will affect those planned episodes, though we imagine that they wouldn't shy away from using the footage from their journey, harrowing or otherwise.