The cast and crew of the BBC's Top Gear television show were forced to flee Argentina ahead of schedule due to controversy over a vehicle number plate that appeared to reference the 1982 Falklands War. Affixed to a Porsche 928 driven by Clarkson, the plate number in question read, "H982FKL, which was reportedly perceived by many Argentinians as a subtle reference to the still-divisive conflict that occurred between Argentina and the U.K.
Co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond, who accompanied Clarkson in a Lotus Esprit and Ford Mustang, were in South America to film the cast traveling the Patagonia Highway to the city of Ushuaia located in the southernmost regions of Argentina. Despite Top Gear and BBC executives explaining that the plate number was unintentional, the situation began to unravel. The U.K.'s Express—where you can also see a photo of the Porsche in question—reports that former members of the Argentinian military stopped the Porsche 928 before marching to Clarkson's hotel and demanding that he and everyone affiliated with Top Gear abandon the region.
Many specifics remain unclear, but all indications are that the show's stars left the country via plane three days ahead of schedule. Tensions remained high as the remaining crew prepared to exit, the TG team coming under attack from protesters who stoned the vehicles while stopped for refueling. According to the Express, film-crew members reportedly told officers at a checkpoint: "We're leaving the cars, we don't want more problems. Burn them if you want but we're getting out of here." Later, a member of the Argentinian war veteran association partially responsible for instigating the protest told the media, "We told them we couldn't guarantee their security if they didn't leave."
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For what it's worth, we looked up the plate number in question on a U.K. registry decoder, and it indicates that the registration originated in Maidstone, United Kingdom, between August 1990 and July 1991. This is just the latest skirmish for Clarkson, who courted controversy earlier this year when video surfaced in which he was alleged to have uttered a racist remark, a charge that he denied. At that time, the BBC issued what he referred to as his "final warning," and intimated that would be sacked if he made "one more offensive remark, anywhere, at any time."
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