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First 'Top Gear' trailer: New faces, same old tyre-squealing shenanigans

Here's your first look at the new-look show with Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc in the driving seat.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm
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The new series of "Top Gear" is racing our way fast. Here's the first trailer for the revamped BBC series, featuring new presenters Matt LeBlanc on three wheels and Chris Evans on all fours.

Globally popular British motoring show "Top Gear" will have a new cast of presenters when it returns next month, but the tyre-squealing trailer suggests it's business as usual in terms of high-octane action and outlandish stunts. To the raucous strains of "I Just Want To Celebrate" by Rare Earth, the trailer sees a range of gorgeous cars burning rubber, including an Aston Martin Vulcan, an Ariel Nomad dirt buggy and, er, a Dodge Viper with a machine gun on its head.

Fasten your seatbelt, put your pedal to the metal and press play on the trailer:

Former "Friends" star LeBlanc finds himself the butt of a joke by the wardrobe department while driving a three-wheeled Reliant Robin, while Evans hastily abandons a spinning Audi R8 V10 to throw up beside the track, an incident that made headlines in January.

There's no sign yet of the other new presenters, except a quick glimpse of German race driver Sabine Schmitz. She'll be joined in the new series by Formula 1 legend Eddie Jordan, YouTube motoring journalist Chris Harris and one Rory Reid. Long-time CNET readers may remember Rory from his days at this very website, where he first got behind the wheel to present car videos.

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The new series is already under a lot of scrutiny as the new cast takes over from the long-running team of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, who left last year in controversial circumstances. The ousted trio are preparing their own car show on Amazon after Clarkson was dismissed for punching a "Top Gear" producer in a fracas about a sandwich. Details of the Amazon show are yet to be confirmed.

The new series of "Top Gear" airs in May on BBC Two in the UK, BBC America in the US and BBC Knowledge in Australia.