Jeremy Clarkson has hit out at podcaster Joe Rogan for his part in regurgitating a "made-up" story about his time filming Top Gear for the BBC.
Rogan sat down with another Top Gear presenter, Chris Harris, last week where the pair discussed Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff's horror crash and the BBC's alleged dismissal of Harris's concerns about safety.
Inevitably, stepping into the void left by Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond also came up during Rogan's chat with Harris and, at first, the pair had nothing but kind words to say about the Clarkson's Farm star.
"(Jeremy's) brilliant at what he does. No one's ever really asked me what I think of Jeremy. I think he's just the best," Harris said.
"He's quite a f***ing character," Rogan replied before turning his attention to a scene Clarkson filmed involving one of Elon Musk's Teslas.
"I think they did Elon dirtier than anybody ever did," Rogan said, which prompted Harris to chip in: "Oh, they were naughty with that."
Jeremy Clarkson returns to screens this week in the final The Grand Tour special featuring him, James May and Richard Hammond
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Rogan then provided the context as he laid out: "They did a terrible thing and I talked to (Elon) about it and he was furious. They pretended that his car died and they did it for a sketch.
"And this is the early days of Tesla when Tesla had just that little tiny car that was basically a Lotus with an electric engine... They pretended that it died on them and they did it for a sketch and they got away with it because it's entertainment and they were allowed to create a script.
"Apparently, somebody got a hold of the script and read in the script before they filmed it, 'Then the car dies'... You're watching the most popular automobile show in the world and they're saying your car sucks so bad that it died when they were testing it when it didn't die."
Instead of refuting the claims, Harris replied: "That's the way those car shows are made. Ultimately you reverse engineer an outcome."
Chris Harris also came under fire from Jeremy Clarkson his role in the conversation
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But the conversation appears to have irked Clarkson who wrote in one of his latest columns how claims the road test were fabricated are completely unfounded.
Writing in The Sun, Clarkson began: "Chris opened up on Freddie Flintoff’s accident and what the ensuing months were like for those on the show. And I must say, it was a riveting listen.
"But then talk turned to the story that I wrote a road test of the first ever Tesla before I’d driven it. And that the breakdown we showed on television was fabricated.
"There are lots of made-up stories about what happened when I hosted Top Gear. People still believe, for instance, that we did the H982 FKL number plate thing in Argentina on purpose.
"In the big scheme of things, it doesn’t matter," Clarkson continued before he hit out: "But it does wind me up something rotten when Joe and Chris perpetuate the myth that my Tesla road test was unfair.
"And the fact is, Elon Musk took the BBC to court on the matter and lost. He lost the appeal, too.
"I know no one believes me... But it’s true. On Top Gear we cocked about and upset a lot of people over the years. But our road tests were always scrupulously fair."
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What hatchet?
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) August 21, 2024
Clarkson's public pop at Rogan and Harris comes just weeks after he took to X to suggest he and the US podcaster weren't at loggerheads as one fan suggested.
On the social media site, one fan penned to Clarkson and Rogan: "When will @joerogan and @JeremyClarkson bury the hatchet and do a podcast together dammit."
Slapping down the suggestion he and Rogan were in the midst of a feud, Clarkson replied: "What hatchet?"
Before long, fans rushed to implore the two to sit down for an interview together, including one who penned: "That episode would be gold. Make it happen." (sic)
