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Jeremy Clarkson and his former Top Gear sidekicks have come up with a “genius” name for their show if they sign to Netflix.

The sacked presenter, James May, Richard Hammond and former executive producer Andy Wilman are negotiating with the online service to create a new version of the motoring series.

And one pal revealed today: “If it goes ahead, they’re planning to call it House of Cars, which is just genius.”

The title is a nod to Netflix’s hugely popular political drama House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey as US congressman Frank Underwood.

They cannot use the Top Gear name because it belongs to the BBC. It plans to relaunch the show with new hosts.

And a tug of war for Clarkson, 55, and his team has broken out between the streaming service and ITV, which also held talks with them last week.

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But a source said: “The headache with ITV is going to be the potential conflicts of interest with advertisers.

“What would they do if Jaguar or Volvo had a sponsorship deal but they wanted to berate its latest new car?

"Jeremy doesn’t like being told what to do. It could cause huge arguments.”

(Image: PA)

Like the BBC, Netflix does not use advertising. Subscribers pay from £5.99 a month to watch its programming.

But whoever signs the stars will be hoping they draw huge audiences.

Top Gear, watched in more than 100 countries, last year generated around £50million for BBC Worldwide. Its Africa special was BBC iPlayer’s top 2013 show, with 3.4 million requests.