Tiff Needell presented Fifth Gear from its first broadcast on 8 April 2002 until 2016, returning briefly in 2018. Jason Plato, a BTCC driver, joined the show in 2004. During recording for Series 12, Episode 7, Plato suffered multiple burns on 9 October 2007 when a Caparo T1 he was driving at Bruntingthorpe proving ground burst into flames at an estimated 150 mph (240 km/h). Plato stated: "There was a slight loss of power, I looked in the mirror and saw some smoke, there was a slight smell of oil and then suddenly there was this intense heat. The car spontaneously erupted into a ball of flames and I was sat in the middle of a fireball." He was initially taken to Market Harborough and District Hospital by former BTCC driver Phil Bennett before treatment at Kettering General Hospital, and later received specialist burns treatment at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. The incident was mentioned during Top Gear's discussion of the Caparo T1 the following year.
Karun Chandhok joined the show's all-electric Fifth Gear Recharged lineup from 2021, having previously appeared as a guest. He left the programme in 2024.
On 27 September 2007, presenter Tom Ford broke his foot and several toes when he crashed a modified Bedford Rascal van during a drifting segment. Ford and co-host Jonny Smith were racing each other in a D1 Grand Prix style around a private track; after winning, Ford performed a victory drift that went wrong, putting his van up on two wheels and into a safety barrier.
Fifth Gear was described as "world renowned" for its shoot-outs between similarly priced and powered cars. These were held at the Anglesey Circuit on the Isle of Anglesey, near Aberffraw. During the refurbishment of Anglesey, shoot-outs moved to Castle Combe Circuit. Vehicle tests also took place at the Millbrook Proving Ground from series 14 onwards.
The first episode of the 2010 return series featured Lewis Hamilton as a guest. In Series 21, Jonny Smith drove a new Audi A1 quattro alongside Stig Blomqvist. Vicki Butler-Henderson tested the Lotus Exige S against ex-Lotus F1 driver Karun Chandhok. In Series 22, Tiff Needell and rally driver Kris Meeke evaluated hot hatches. In Series 23, Jason Plato tested the new Aston Martin Vanquish alongside Brazilian racing driver Bruno Senna, and Jason and Finnish double world rally champion Marcus Grönholm pitted two Porsche Caymans head-to-head in an automatic versus manual gearbox comparison.
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