Matt LeBlanc Has Spoken Properly About His Top Gear Job For The First Time

Yesterday the BBC made the shock announcement that Matt LeBlanc would be joining Chris Evans as the new host of Top Gear. The news came completely out of the blue, and then a later tweet also all-but-proved Chris Harris’ involvement in the show.

This morning LeBlanc went live on the Chris Evans breakfast radio show to talk publicly about his appointment for the first time, and while it wasn’t a particularly illuminating interview we did get a few ideas about what to expect from the new show.

One of LeBlanc’s first comments was “I’m looking forward to mashing up some cars together!” So anyone who thinks the new show is going to be totally straight-edged can probably think again. TG’s classic road trips around the world are likely to feature in some capacity, as Evans asked if LeBlanc had an up-to-date passport, “because we’re going to need that a lot.” South Africa sounds like the first destination on the team’s schedule.

Evans then asked about LeBlanc’s car history, with the chat quickly focusing on the former Friends star’s love for Porsche (he owns a 2011 911 GT2 RS):

I had a Ferrari, and it was a great car, and I’ve had a lot of other cars too, but the thing about the Porsche, is it just feels like the most practical real-world supercar… it does everything. You can go to the store in it, it’s not too ostentatious. And the rear-engined car - nothing comes off the apex like a rear-engined car. You can go to power quicker, I think, in a rear-engined car. You have to go in easy on the brakes, you can’t really trail brake too hard or it’ll swing around on you, but you can pick up the throttle quicker.

Star guests will also feature in the new show, with LeBlanc claiming F1 driver Romain Grosjean has already asked to come on the show. Expect the celebrity lap times to continue also, as LeBlanc says his Episodes co-star Stephen Mangan wants to appear in order to beat the American’s fastest lap time.

The new Top Gear episodes are expected to air in May, and Matt LeBlanc signed off the interview by saying “I am so honoured and thrilled, I can’t wait to get going. I think we’re gonna have a great time and I couldn’t think of a better guy to do it with.”

Now that the shock has worn off, what do you make of the appointment?