Top Gear USA Host Eric Stromer

Quick Stats: Eric Stromer host HGTV's "Over Your Head" and NBC's "Top Gear"
Daily Driver: 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid (Eric's rating: 8.2 on a scale of 1 to 10)Other car: 2007 Honda Odyssey (rating: 9)
Favorite road trip: Sheridan Road on the coast of Lake Michigan
Car he learned to drive in: 1974 Pontiac Catalina
First car bought: 1966 Volkswagen Beetle

Among car enthusiasts, Eric Stromer (ericstromer.com) may be the least known of the three hosts on NBC's still unscheduled "Top Gear" pilot, although HGTV viewers know him from his show "Over Your Head."

While the antipodean version of "Top Gear" just made its debut in Australia, the buzz on the Interweb for NBC's version of the British hit is (hopefully) it will be a mid-season replacement. While we wait, Motor Trend Online got a chance to get to know Stromer, who comes from a past steeped in American car culture.

Devotees with "Top Gear" U.K. withdrawal have pegged Adam Carolla as our Jeremy Clarkson (some in the blogosphere even saying he resembles Jezza) and if drift/rally champ/Speed TV host Tanner Foust is the U.S. Richard Hammond, for his part, Stromer is living the role of Captain Slow (aka James May) in real life.

The self-professed "bus driver" is still smarting from trading his 2003 Audi All-Road 2.7 Turbo for a 2007 Honda Odyssey, which goes down as the "saddest day" of his life. "I cannot accept that I got rid of the All-Road for an Odyssey, it makes me want to kill myself," he says fervently.

It was after he and his wife Amy Tinkham had their third child -- to shuttle their sons Wyatt 10, Dusty, 5 and daughter Willow, 2, soccer-mom style. "I drive very conservatively, carry a ton of children, and wave to my friendly neighbors as I pull in and out of my driveway," Stromer laughs. "But you know what? It's a great life, God bless it."

When he isn't making fun of himself, Stromer rates it a 9 for performance. "The thing corners like a little sedan and it's pretty peppy," he admits.

Being from the Midwest, Stromer was bred to love American muscle power and as a contractor drove pickups for years. Another heartbreaking day came when he traded his 2004 Ford F-250 for a 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid. "It was a beautiful, beautiful truck, loved it, huge. I could carry around a pallet of bricks and the performance gets better the more stuff you put in the back of it," he laments. "But it's just so expensive to run a V-10."

He gives the Camry an 8.2 rating. He laughs, "You know what would make it better? If it went really fast and burned a lot of fossil fuel!" The Camry is a better ride for Stromer, who drives all over Los Angeles to film his HGTV show. "So I came off a V-10 F-250 and I was spending like $27,000 dollars a day on gas." One day he took the truck to the body shop and was told the frame was bad. "I immediately pulled up the highway after spending $70 bucks in gas to get from the body shop to the Toyota dealer. I just said, 'Give me the hybrid.'"

"The Camry is a great car because it feels like a really nice luxury sedan and it's got all the bells and whistles with the navigation system and a great stereo," Stromer says. "Performance-wise, it's exceptionally fast for what it is. I couldn't believe it. But you know it's not a BMW 5 series."