Ladyman appeared on Top Gear in 2005 for the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment. He revealed himself to be a fan of cars, and admitted to having received several speeding fines and a total of nine penalty points. The minister displayed a passion for fast cars including having owned an Alfa Romeo and posting a lap time in the 'Reasonably Priced Car' towards the top of the leaderboard. He set a time of 1:48.8, faster than Jeremy Clarkson's own time of 1:50.
After presenter Richard Hammond was seriously injured in a high speed crash in 2006, Ladyman voiced his support for the programme. He denied that Top Gear encouraged dangerous driving, instead that they “celebrate great engineering and, yes, they celebrate fast cars . . . but, equally, they’ve had me on the programme giving out road safety messages. People don’t go onto the road and break the speed limit because they watch Top Gear.”
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