When did 'the editor gave us all £x to buy a car' trope..

[anonymous-user]

.. begin? Buy three cars, do them up, race them, rag them, boom you've got a feature for the show, or the mag, or the channel.
Top Gear have done it for years, evo have done it a few times. The earliest I can recall was the 'Dogs Toured' features in Revs magazine, in maybe 1998?
If Revs did it, presumably Max Power did it before them, but how far back does it go?

[Timberwolf]

I don't know the earliest, but I do recall an interview or suchlike where the Top Gear team talked about the cheap car challenges. They'd filmed the original £100 Rover/Audi/Volvo episode expecting it to be serviceable mid-season filler and were surprised to find it became one of the most popular ideas they'd tried. (Richard Porter's book mentions it being the first time they'd tried putting all three presenters together for a challenge, which may have had something to do with the popularity.)

Autocar have done a few over the years, there was definitely one where they tried to get a £100 car to do 100mph on a relatively short runway, although that one was mid 2000s I don't know if it was the first.

[alorotom]

I don’t recall a MaxPower one at all.