The TopGear Thread

[Flash G]

Originally Posted by MightyMike

I generally like the show, but cannot stand that snobbish and borish Jeremy Clarkson. When American cars are tested, Clarkson always always finds some characteristic of the car to pick on. He always subjectively blasts build quality (e.g. hard plastics), yet I have never seen him factually point out a true mechanical deficiency or design flaw. Regardless of how American cars actually perform or hold up, Clarkson contrives so many ridiculous bad things to say that it is hard to take him seriously. Conversely, he hardly criticises European cars in such terms, even when the car is known to be of lesser quality (eg. why doesn't he complain about all of the hard plastic in the Elise/Exige, but he does in the Caddy?).

Clarkson is "brilliant". And he's 100% correct about American cars.

With the exception of the Z06, there are no American cars that are any way better than their Japanese or German counterparts.



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[Flash G]

I love the warning at the beginning of the show for Americans to "turn on the closed captioning" if the British accent gets too confusing. One warning even says to turn on the CC because "sometimes other Brits can't understand it either".

Classic...

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[LARRY]

Nice to see Top Gear on American TV again. Repeats or not.

[dstevens]

Strong bias against US cars = insecurity. Not surprising given the state of the british car industry.

Top Gear has slowly changed from a motoring show to entertainment. Two examples I've noticed this year:

- when they built the 'space shuttle', the build was shown on the show to take two weeks. A check on the british rocketry association blog showed it took around 4 months. The crash and post mortem was strange - my theory is that they had no way of landing it so they crashed it (the explosion doesn't look like a solid fuelled rocket explosion).

- the race to the north pole episode. Again, excellent, but nowhere in the show does it mention that they did not make it to the north pole. They actually went to the 1999 magnetic north pole, as used by the polar race, which is only just over a quarter of the way to the north pole from their starting point. HD 720p version is surpurb.

[Crudson]

Originally Posted by dstevens

Strong bias against US cars = insecurity. Not surprising given the state of the british car industry.

Heh you never obviously watched it when there were British cars on it. I mean normal cars not the occasional sports car like now. Some say they were responsible for poor British car sales by putting them down so much. They put everyone down, not just USA.

Getting upset that others don't like US cars suggests insecurity; be happy you at least have a car industry, irregardless of quality.

[Crudson]

You are right about the direction of the program though. More and more of them baffooning around each episode...

[dododge]

(the explosion doesn't look like a solid fuelled rocket explosion).

The explosion footage was pretty obviously faked/composited, and it's certainly not the only time their creative license has run rampant.

[redbutt]

Well...I don't know where the hell I've been, but I just discovered that Time Warner in San Diego has BBC America on channel 221 Monday nights. Tonight they had two shows back to back (the one where the Stig sets the track record in the Koenigsegg CCX, and the one with the Exige S...the other segment on that one with the amphib car challenge is priceless.)

They said there would be a *new* episode on next MOnday

[charliex]

They've been doing the whacky bits since about 1988, it was pretty much all serious BBC stuff before that.

They rag on any and all cars and makers, like lotus being turnip farmers for instance, and the car being made by airfix, watch out for that self projection!

[Westrock]

In the latest Top Gear Magazine I have (1000HP Koensigneisngisngienisng CCX-R) it says that Top Gear will return in October.

[25psi_Elise_Killer]

Tiff testing the Veyron:
<embed src="http://videos.streetfire.net/vidiac.swf" FlashVars="video=7802ca9b-9950-4005-9216-999f0103dce1" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="428" height="352" name="ePlayer" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>

[shay2nak]

the ccx is out of control! Pretty damn fast with the addition of the the "top gear" wing. I was amazed that it took 4 sec off the original time.

[Mr. Know]

Originally Posted by Westrock

In the latest Top Gear Magazine I have (1000HP Koensigneisngisngienisng CCX-R) it says that Top Gear will return in October.

Return in October does not mean return to U.S. in October. We are actually watching the previous season (8) as new episodes. There is an entire other season (9) which has already aired in the UK. The magazine means new episodes (season 10) will be in UK in October...(sorry if you already knew this).

[sonza68]

While it probably won't be aired here, it is always available via torrent.

[Crudson]

They are filming today; Hamster racing a plane in a Veyron. More info over at SELOC.

[Flash G]

Originally Posted by Crudson

They are filming today; Hamster racing a plane in a Veyron. More info over at SELOC.

Didn't they do that one last year? I remember Clarkson driving the Veyron and James & Hamster racing him in a plane.



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[Crudson]

Originally Posted by Flash G

Didn't they do that one last year? I remember Clarkson driving the Veyron and James & Hamster racing him in a plane.



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That was a cross-Euro race. This is an out and back drag race at an airstrip against a jet.

[DaveJ]

I'd like to see them lock on to a Veyron with one of those Apache Helicopters and actually destroy it.

[babak]

Originally Posted by DaveJ

I'd like to see them lock on to a Veyron with one of those Apache Helicopters and actually destroy it.

Saw a Veyron in London last week, it's a big car. But it looked great.

[rnr]

New season starts tomorrow - gentlemen start your torrent clients.