Top Gear - New Series

[redsturgeon]

Neither it nor Grand Tour are my favourite TV viewing but I have to say I found this TG episode a lot more palatable than the last Grand Tour special where I found the "let's solve the hunger crisis for Mozambique" premise a bit weak.

John

[bungeejumper]

Oh well, I suppose last year's series was a bit better than the one from the year before, so maybe there's some hope? Last night I was watching Hannibal's elephants instead on another channel (let's see you try that on four wheels, boys), but I've got TG saved to video, for viewing on some dark and boring evening when I've run out of Countryfile repeats.

Mind you, if it's still about nothing but fast cars, fast cars and more fast cars, then maybe I'll just repeat the Countryfile repeats....

BJ

[Gaggsy]

Mind you, if it's still about nothing but fast cars, fast cars and more fast cars, then maybe I'll just repeat the Countryfile repeats...

It was about fast cars.

Mind you, I only managed to stomach about 3 minutes so there may have been other topics.

[UncleIan]

I thought it was alright. No Eddie Jordan for starters. That Maclaran, is it me or is that an ugly car? The front end looked a bit pigeon chested. Maybe not ugly, just not beautiful. Quick though.

[DrFfybes]

[quote="Gaggsy"
It was about fast cars.

Mind you, I only managed to stomach about 3 minutes so there may have been other topics.[/quote]

There was - "star in a reasonably fast car", but apart from that is was 3 blokes cocking about in V8s.

There were a few funny moments, and I learnt a little more about US ideas of what is a good name for your child from the "real or fake NASCAR driver" quiz (a bit like the 'Ikea or Death Metal' one).

It was fairly predictable, quite similar to the laddish behaviour of the previous hosts, but the chemistry was less forced than the first 2 series.

Fortunately 'Endeavour' is on a +1 channel so I don't miss either.

Paul

[Redmires]

Top Gear remains a trivial comedy show, much like it always was. However, the half hour Top Gear Extra is quite, dare I say, interesting. A brief history of the GT40 last week and a focus on the expanding McClaren range this time. And no forced humour.

[bungeejumper]

Well, I finally caught up with that first episode last night. There it was, sitting on my DVR and making me wonder whether TG was any good (yet).

No, it wasn't. The three main presenters are getting a bit better at the banter, but Jeezuz, it was still dire. Squarely aimed at ten year olds. And will Elon Musk please step up to the plate and give Sabine Schmidt (she of the orgasmic whooping and wailing) a job on his next muscle car foray into deep space? Thank you.

Laugh? I'd have more fun watching David Starkey. At least he knows how to string a few intelligent thoughts together.

BJ

[UncleIan]

Squarely aimed at ten year olds.

When wasn't it*?

Second episode was better I thought. Well I enjoyed it.

Ian (aged 10 3/4)

* I mean, since William Woollard era

[bungeejumper]

And another thing.

Have you ever wondered what happens to the cars they batter in these programmes? So you've got a £250,000 Limited Edition McLaren that's been driven up a quarry face with wheel-spin rock dents all over the underside, and then sprayed liberally with rock salt. And then some eejit decides to throw it into a dozen donuts, one of which will run him into a low wall or a high kerb. And then some sucker somewhere is going to buy it.

I used to know a car magazine journalist who was no stranger to revving exotic Lambos and similar monsters beyond the redline on some obscure Portuguese back-road, and he agreed that, if the bodywork and suspension held out after a few journos had been at it, the gearbox probably wouldn't. The only decent thing to do with test cars, he said, was to crush them. Which hardly ever happened. Funny, that.

BJ

[tea42]

Went out in my VW T25 this morning. Air Cooled, top whack 60mph. Got stuck in a boggy field. No power steering, practically no heating. Look down on everyone, Dubbers in builders vans all smiling waving. Absolutely love it!

Supercars leave me cold… Everyone looks down at you muttering something lime "look at that twit in a coffin".

Three guesses on my opinion of TG. Bring back Woolard!

[bungeejumper]

Went out in my VW T25 this morning. Air Cooled, top whack 60mph. Got stuck in a boggy field. No power steering, practically no heating. Look down on everyone, Dubbers in builders vans all smiling waving. Absolutely love it!

Aaah, now you're talking my language. As a student in the late sixties, took a Mk2 VW campervan across southern Europe. Ours would do 70 mph down the motorway at full throttle, but it would do it all day, no problem.

Following a main road south from Sarajevo, at somewhat less than 40 mph, the road was suddenly diverted into a ploughed field because the Party was repairing it with fresh cobblestones at the time. There were Mercs full of German tourists, all grounded and floundering in the mud like fat, beached whales, and I think most of them were well stuck, but we kept on going. The next time I saw that same unmistakeable road, several decades later, it was on the telly - but instead of Mercs it was carrying a convoy of advancing Serbian tanks, shelling the mountains on their way toward Kosovo. Clarkson, you ain't seen nothing.

BJ

[redsturgeon]

My "on the road" period included 40,000 miles around the USA in a 1967 Ford F250 pickup with a cabover camper over 12 months. That thing was unburstable. It had one service during that time and never missed a beat. I can see why the things became so popular in the US. Of course the latest TG episode included its bastard great grandchild...the Ford F650...a real cuckoo in the nest.

John

[UncleIan]

well I quite enjoyed the first 40 minutes. The last bit was a bit crap though.

Definitely the best new new Top Gear yet. Okay, that may not be saying much for some of you, but I did enjoy that. Can't remember specifically the last 20 minutes, the drifting and the race to the finish? Yeah, I can see your point. Worth a watch though just for those custom cars and the Lambos. Crazy stuff. And as a bonus, no unfunny Star in a nondescript Car.