Jeremy Clarkson is in danger of being left in the slow lane. NBC, the US broadcaster, has hired an outspoken, fast-talking radio “shock jock” to front the American version of Top Gear.

Adam Carolla, a Los Angeles-based comedian, boasts a CV that makes the British presenter seem like a paragon of political correctness. Carolla has managed to insult the entire population of Hawaii and is perhaps best known for co-hosting a television show epitomised by scantily clad women jumping on trampolines and performers downing cans of beer in record time.

Carolla, who at 44 bears a passing resemblance to Clarkson, 48, will be joined on the show by a professional racing driver and a television handy-man who has been hailed as a sex symbol by an American magazine.

BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, is hoping that the trio will help to cement Top Gear’s position as a multi-million-pound global brand.

As well as selling the format to NBC and making an Australian version of the show, the BBC is thought to be eyeing up a deal with a German broadcaster – raising the prospect of 200mph races along the country’s speed-limit-free autobahns.

The UK version of the show, which returns for a new series tonight on BBC2, has been licensed to more than 40 international broadcasters, turning Clarkson and his co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond into stars in countries such as Russia and Poland. The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, is a fan and the programme has a global audience of 150m.

BBC Worldwide, which has production offices in Los Angeles, has begun filming a pilot episode of the American version for NBC. It will test whether US audiences are amused by the show’s trademark stunts such as attempting to launch a Reliant Robin into space.

Carolla, a self-confessed car nut who owns several Lamborghinis, Maseratis and Ferraris, is expected to give Clarkson a run for his money when it comes to laddish behaviour.

Last month Clarkson, a Sunday Times columnist, faced calls for his sacking from Top Gear after claiming to have driven at 186mph in a tunnel through London’s Docklands.

Carolla came to prominence on a radio show called Loveline, on which he insulted Hawaiians by describing them as inbred and “the world’s dumbest people”. The show was taken off air in Hawaii and he had to apologise. He went on to create and co-host a glaringly sexist television programme called The Man Show. It featured a troupe of models known as the Juggy Dance Squad and a performer who would quaff beer while singing lewd drinking songs.

Carolla’s co-presenters are Tanner Foust and Eric Stromer. Perhaps mindful of the 288mph crash that nearly killed Hammond in 2006, programme makers chose Foust, a rally racing driver who has performed stunts in Hollywood blockbusters such as The Bourne Ultimatum.

May will be flattered to see that his US equivalent is Stromer, a DIY expert who was described by People magazine as one of the “sexiest men alive”.

Clarkson met Carolla in Los Angeles earlier this year and admits that his counterpart is much funnier. “He made me laugh a lot,” he said. “I’m not funny at all – well, not without editing.

“I can’t see any reason on earth why it [the programme] wouldn’t translate and work over there. The Office does, Simon Cowell does, Gordon Ramsay does. They’ve been working very hard to make sure they’ve got three guys where the chemistry works.”

Jay Leno, the NBC chat show host and also a Sunday Times columnist who turned down an approach to be one of the presenters, has expressed doubts.

“My great fear in America is that, for instance, if Kia was our sponsor this week, we’d have to say the car was fantastic,” he wrote earlier this year.

Full-throttle wit

Clarkson:

— We all know that small cars are good for us. But so is cod liver oil. And jogging. I want to drive around in a Terminator, not the heroine in an E M Forster novel

— I don’t often agree with the RSPCA as I believe it is an animal’s duty to be on my plate at supper time

— The Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite

Carolla:

— The greatest perk of being on TV so far has been going to strip clubs and having all the strippers recognise you

— Often success has nothing to do with talent. You look at the Spice Girls and you think, gosh, why didn’t I think of that?