See? It floats. Jeremy, Richard and James with the mk2 Hovervan on the River Avon

You can always rely on the Top Gear team to come up with crazy-but-just-doable ideas that will make entertaining television, even if they do annoy the half of the population that doesn’t like Top Gear.

On that basis, the mk2 Hovervan is a cracking idea. The mk1 model was less good (it sank), so the mk2 Hovervan was fitted with bigger engines, larger skirts and additional floatation devices.

These modifications enabled it to “skip gracefully across the surface of the River Avon causing barely a ripple”.

Allegedly.

Based on a highly modified Ford Transit, the Hovervan has also been described as “noisy – and dangerous – and thirsty – and disruptive – and destructive – and uncontrollable – and expensive”.

You can now make up your own mind about the Hovervan, because it has joined the ranks of wacky and crazy Top Gear vehicles in Beaulieu’s World of Top Gear. Other Top Gear triumphs at Beaulieu include the Hindustan Ambassadar taxi, which was recently crowned by Jeremy and the lads as the world’s best taxi.

The Hovervan in action on the River Avon. Fancy a closer look? The Hovervan is now on display at the Beaulieu World of Top Gear, along with other classic Top Gear ‘designs’.

Away from Top Gear, Beualieu is also home to the Bond in Motion exhibition and of course the National Motor Museum. For a petrolhead — or anyone with a passing interest in how cars and popular culture have developed hand-in-hand over the last century — it’s a great day out.