Toyota Hilux, What's good enough for Top Gear...

The Toyota Hilux was indeed the first car to reach the magnetic North Pole, and it would have been the only one had the Top Gear crew not decided to take a Toyota Land Cruiser too. The Top Gear Polar Special - to use its official title was one of the more serious of Clarkson & Co's challenges, and involved driving across the treacherous snow and ice of the North Pole in a journey that mimicked the Polar Challenge Race - usually navigated by trekkers and skiers with dogs.

Amazingly, the heavily modified Hilux (fitted with snow tyres, bigger arches, a bigger fuel tank, altered gear ratios and a re-worked engine to deal with the cold) made it. It had been chosen because if its other-worldly resistance to being destroyed - a previous Top Gear Hilux having been dropped from a demolished tower block, then driven away.

So, ladies and gentlemen, we give you Santa's definitive vehicle - the Toyota Hilux. It's not just a proven ice-cap stormer, it's also got room for five and a loading area probably big enough to cope with the entire world's gift demands.

Mark Nichol