Not a petrolspotter so never watch TopGear, and not a fan of either Clarkson or Brand - but there's plenty who do like Clarkson (or rather his TV persona) and I can see that audience is not really catered for on the TV. Unless you include Farage - who seems to have nicked Clarkson's act.
You are bang on there Tooting, the BBC don´t really cater for that ´type´of audience anymore but they have done a fantastic job catering for ´everyone else´