Top Gear star and motoring journalist Quentin Willson has sadly died aged 68.<\/p>\n
Quentin helped shape the original Top Gear as one of its first hosts, working alongside Jeremy Clarkson<\/a> and the team who took the pioneering show global. He went on to front Fifth Gear and still holds the dubious honour of Strictly Come Dancing<\/a>\u2019s lowest score in history.<\/p>\n Willson’s family has announced that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family, today (November 8), following a short fight against lung cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n The motoring expert was known as a national treasure, offering his services not only as a journalist, but a television presenter and producer, author, and campaigner.<\/p>\n One of the most memorable campaigns was Willson’s FairFuel bid, which alone saved UK consumers a fortune by helping to freeze fuel duty, leading to more than \u00a3100 billion in fresh taxation being prevented by the campaign.<\/p>\n His family highlighted some of his most-loved work, sharing some of the programmes he enjoyed creating, including Britain\u2019s Worst Drivers and The Cars the Star.<\/p>\n The family said: “Long before it was fashionable, he championed the GM EV1 and the promise of electric cars, proving he was always ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n “More recently, he had worked tirelessly to make EVs affordable for all, via his FairCharge campaign.”<\/p>\n Willson’s family added: “Much-loved husband to Michaela, devoted father to Mercedes, Max and Mini, and cherished grandfather to Saskia, Xander & Roxana.<\/p>\n “Quentin will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and all who knew him personally and professionally.<\/p>\n “The void he has left can never be filled. His knowledge was not just learned but lived; a library of experience now beyond our reach.”<\/p>\n They also asked for privacy during this time of mourning.<\/p>\n His family expressed: “While messages of condolence are warmly appreciated, the family asks that their privacy be respected at this difficult time.”<\/p>\n Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced in due course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top Gear star and motoring journalist Quentin Willson has sadly died aged 68. Quentin helped shape the original…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2283,96,59,2920,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-251530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-celebrity-deaths","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-top-gear","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}