Mark to remain with lad for Top Gear (7)
I believe the answer is:
stetson
'top gear' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'mark to remain with lad' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'mark' could be 'stet' (I've seen this before) and 'stet' is present in the answer.
'lad' could be 'son' (lad can informally mean a young boy) and 'son' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stetson that I've seen before include "St Neots (anag.)" , "Tip" , "Hat with wide brim and high crown, maybe a cowboy's" , "Hat, for Texan oil magnate, say" , "Hat, for country-and-western singer perhaps" .)