The car that Freddie Flintoff was driving when he suffered his near-fatal crash Top Gear crash was not responsible for the accident, the vehicle’s manufacturer has said.
The ex-England cricket captain, 47, was behind the wheel of a Morgan Super 3 at the Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey in December 2022 when it flipped during filming.
He was travelling at just 22mph at the time, but the three-wheeled car was open-top and he was not wearing a crash helmet, meaning his face scrapped along the tarmac.
The incident left him with serious facial injuries and broken ribs, effectively ending his presenting career on the now-axed BBC motoring show.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the crash, Morgan Motor Company chief executive Matt Hole has now insisted that the Super 3 was not to blame.
‘We have had an independent evaluation and it [the Super 3] has been given a clean bill of health,’ Mr Hole told The Times.
‘The Health and Safety Executive were involved and there was no allegation against the car.’
While production of the Super 3 is currently suspended, Mr Hole stressed this was due to Covid-related supply chain issues, not because of any concerns surrounding the car’s safety.
He added that the incident had not hurt the model’s popularity, saying the vehicle remained most in demand in the Middle East and United States, where Flintoff’s crash attracted little media attention.
‘We have turned things around and we are thriving,’ he said.
The Morgan Super 3 – a lightweight car capable of reaching speeds up to 130mph – is known for its distinctive design and unconventional handling, which some have described as difficult to master.
Flintoff’s co-presenter on Top Gear, motoring journalist Chris Harris, has previously admitted the car was a challenging one to drive, though not inherently unsafe.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan podcast in 2024, Harris said: ‘It’s a difficult car, the name tells you its physics is complicated. It doesn’t mean it’s inherently dangerous, you just drive it according to what it is.’
He went on to express regret that he hadn’t been able to brief Flintoff on the car’s quirks before filming began that day.
‘Because of the call times that day, that was the first time that we’d never had the chance to talk about how he might approach a difficult vehicle, and that was the one day it went wrong,’ he said. ‘I find that very difficult to live with and I feel partly responsible.’
The BBC halted filming of Top Gear following the crash and later issued a formal apology to Flintoff.
In October 2023, it was reported that the former cricketer had received a £9million compensation payout from the broadcaster to cover lost earnings and damages.
Footage of the terrifying crash was never made public – until this year.
In April 2025, a trailer for Flintoff, a new Disney+ documentary about the sporting star’s life, offered a glimpse of the immediate aftermath of the accident. The clip showed TV crew members in high-vis jackets gathered around the overturned Morgan.
Speaking in the documentary, Flintoff said: ‘I remember everything about it. It’s so vivid.’
He added that part of his motivation for making the film was to finally set the record straight after months of speculation.
‘I’ve lived under the radar for seven months,’ he said. ‘One of the real frustrations was the speculation, that’s why I’m doing this now – what actually happened.’
Now visibly scarred, the father-of-four has spoken candidly about how the accident changed his life, calling it a ‘reset’.
‘I’m not saying I’m embracing [my injuries], but I’m not trying to hide my scars,’ he said. ‘It’s almost like a reset, I’m trying to find out what I am now.’
