Looks like I didn’t give The Sun enough credit. The BBC is now confirming their article:

A spokeswoman for the BBC confirmed that BBC Worldwide - the corporation’s commercial arm - had been in talks, but could not confirm details.

“BBC Worldwide has had exploratory conversations with the US networks to bring a local version of Top Gear to the US, but there is not yet a deal on the table,” she said.

Discussion, as always, is taking place on our forums.