Top Gear - the BBC show

[rkwei]

We invite all those members and fans of the BBC show "TOP GEAR" to discuss it in this thread.

(If interest is high, and posts become numerous, we may move it to it's own section of the forums.)

[zackwatt]

What is Top Gear???

Well....

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May present The Best Car Show Ever.

Top Gear is estimated to have over 350 million viewers worldwide, 5 million of which view the program each week in the UK.

Top Gear is currently hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. The show was relaunched in 2002 with two new presenters and a new format, with each program consisting of at least one review of a new car, automotive news highlights, and a Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment where a celebrity guest is interviewed and performs timed laps, the best of which is posted on a leader board. Following most car reviews on the show is a Power Laps segment where Top Gear's resident test driver The Stig sets a lap time to be posted on the Power Laps board.

Check out the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear

[SC986]

What a great show!! Awesome cars and pretty good comedy. I've got it on right now! Glad to see it back for the year, I've missed it.

[Topless]

Love that show. Best show for guys on TV. Last night they did a segment on caravaning (trailer camping) in the UK. Too funny!

[Houston C4S]

If you haven't seen it, use youtube and find the series where they travel
through America's redneck country.

I'm still laughing and it's been a long time since I have seen it.

Great show. Period.

Best,

--Mark

PS: On one show, they built a space shuttle of sorts and used a Peugeot
with wings as the actual craft. And actually launched it! Too funny.

And the one where Jeremy shoots at cars as in skeet shooting.

Plan plenty of free time for this, by the way. It's too funny.

[steve00s]

My favorite show. It got discontinued in our area. I wrote to the programming director asking for reconsideration but to no avail. I'm now forced to youtube segments.

[zackwatt]

You can find all episodes on Mininova.org. Those familiar with Torrent downloads will have no problem acquiring high quality episodes. I have every episode since 2001 :D

New season begins October 7th! With Ten New Episodes!

[SC986]

Did anyone catch this last night? Captian Slow driving the Bugatti Veyron? Insane car! 16 cylinder, 4 turbos, TEN radiators. On the VW track, he did reach the 250 mph. :eek:

[edevlin]

I am also a big fan of the show, the guys are nuts in a way you rarely see on tv these days. I love the clip where he tries to kill a 911:


How to kill a 911 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DExG0qNsIM4)

Ed

:cheers:

[SC986]

My favorites this season have been the one with the camper and the one where they build the soft top car and catch the car wash on fire with it.

[noone986s]

One of the best that may not have reached you guys yet is where they convert 3 cars into amphibious (sp) vehicles. A camper van, a toyota pickup and a classic British car. Even my wife was cracking up at that episode. The new series just started again here, and it look like they are revisiting the challenge by trying to cross the English Channel with similar machines.

The non stupid stuff is good too, they just did a great trip to find the best driving road in Europe and a great review of the new Audi R8.

I still watch the one where Clarkson tests the 911 GT3RS against the Ferrari 360 CS as I save my pennies for when I can get one.

[SC986]

Yeah that one was on this season here. Seems like they raced them in a lake if I remember correctly. Jeremy almost made it, turning over right when he got to the dock.

[Silverbird]

This season revisits that episode, where Jeremy was closest to winning on the lake.

This time, they let them modify the original plan and now they sent them across the English Channel to France.

Youtube is quite handy for picking up the episodes


Yeah that one was on this season here. Seems like they raced them in a lake if I remember correctly. Jeremy almost made it, turning over right when he got to the dock.

[SC986]

This week it was a special were they were in Miami. All three had to buy used cars for $1,000 and go through challenges while driving to New Orleans. No cars this week, but one of the funniest shows I've seen them do.

[NickCats]

Gotta love YouTube and Top Gear :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGiFQPGwRxE

Pay particular attention to what he says right after the 3 minute mark !

Nick

[kabel]

note: that bit is from Fith Gear, not Top Gear. Also a good show.

[NickCats]

Thanks, Kabel, I did not realize that :o

Did you guys see this :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7059887.stm

Gamers will be able to download episodes of BBC Two show Top Gear inside video game Gran Turismo 5.
Forty episodes of the popular motoring show will be available on a dedicated Gran Turismo TV channel accessed via the PlayStation 3's online network.

Gran Turismo is the world's most popular racing video game series, with more than 47 million copies sold.

The test track used by Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond will be recreated inside GT5.

Virtual drivers will be able to race the hundreds of cars licensed inside the game around the track featured in the show.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is due for release in 2008. GT TV will also feature news and features about the motoring world.

"We're sure that players will be as thrilled as we are when they get the chance to put their own driving skills to the test on the Top Gear Test Track in GT5, as well as enjoying classic episodes of Top Gear via GT TV," said Kazunori Yamauchi, president of the game's developers Polyphony Digital, in a statement.

Simon Danker, director of digital media at BBC Worldwide said: "We're thrilled to make Top Gear accessible to Gran Turismo gamers."

Nick

[NickCats]

This week it was a special were they were in Miami. All three had to buy used cars for $1,000 and go through challenges while driving to New Orleans. No cars this week, but one of the funniest shows I've seen them do.

SC,

Just caught this episode on BBC last night. I thought they were gonna get killed when that truck full of good old boys pulled up to the gas station in Alabama ! Laugh out loud funny...

Nick

[RandallNeighbour]

If you haven't seen it, use youtube and find the series where they travel through America's redneck country.

I'm still laughing and it's been a long time since I have seen it.

I must disagree. I saw a side of Jeremy Clarkson that I did not like at all. While he was in America, he was a pretentious, arrogant prick who took great pleasure in saying every American he met in the USA on that trip was fat, stupid, and unattractive. They deliberately goaded locals into hating them by writing things on their cars to bring out the worst in the people of the deep south.

I'd like to see an American drive through the countryside of England with "Rugby is a sport enjoyed by Idiots" or "Princess Diana was a Lesbian" on the side of a beat up English car and not get the same response from "English rednecks."

I love the show when they're in the UK, but Clarkson's arrogance on that episode tarnished his reputation permanently for me.

[Frodo]

Randall, Randall, Randall, how I am saddened to see some poor dupe once again falling to his knees at the altar of political correctness, though I fully understand (and likewise feel) the pressure to do so. Stereotyping and, executed correctly, poking fun at stereotypical groups, is such a wonderful source of humor---and if there is one thing people in this country need more of in their lives, it’s the opportunity to laugh, even if it’s at themselves. It can be, I should add, an area fraught with peril if not entered into carefully and with a good grasp of what lines can and cannot be crossed. (Michael Richard’s videotaped and ill-advised antics on stage being one of the better recent examples of someone failing miserably at this task.)

The episode was, without question, funny as hell. I have spent some time with southern ‘good ol boys’ and let me tell you something: They DO have a sense of humor, even though it doesn’t always exactly coincide with mine. They can appreciate a good joke, especially a good practical joke, better than a lot of folks. I haven’t the slightest doubt that if you boxed up and sent them a CD of several episodes of Top Gear (including the skeet shooting one, and one or two of any of the ones having to do with cars jumping over, being ‘carapaulted’ into, etc, mobile homes; and, as the last episode, the one you found distasteful), along with a case or two of cold beer (domestic, of course; sorry…I quench their thirst while feeding the stereotype), they would find themselves ultimately laughing their asses off. I’ll go one better: I betcha they’d have more than a little respect for the cajones it took for those proper English fellas comin’ over to the deep South and pullin’ a prank like that.

As usual with most of my opinions, I could be wrong about all this…but I honestly don’t think I am.

[RandallNeighbour]

This ain't about political correctness. It's about calling out someone for being arrogant and thinking they are above others.

What would have been really funny to me would have been them getting truly roughed up for their taunting.

I still tape every episode and watch it with great enjoyment when the boys on the show stick to what they're good at... critically reviewing sports cars and putting them through their paces and being the antithesis of Motor Week on public television.

I hate Motor Week. Every vehicle gets a glowing review. It's obvious they get a LOT of cash from the automakers and have bent over to make them happy.

[Frodo]

Yeah, maybe, but it wasn't mean-spirited arrogance. It was arrogance with a twinkle in his eye...

Edit: Hey Randall, based on new (to me) evidence, something of a retraction is in order. When I made the foregoing observations I have to admit I was kinda flying in the dark. I saw the episode where they painted slogans on each other's vehicles ("Hilary for President" "NASCAR sucks" "I'm Bi" etc) and went for a drive. Until my son took me to youtube, I hadn't seen any of the others, didn't know they existed. (I have only watched the show a few times.) Based on that episode alone, I stand by my comments.

However, having seen much of the rest of the series, I do get your point. Some of it is indeed a bit arrogant, even mean-spirited. I'll try to get my facts straight before I open my mouth next time...

All in all, though, it is otherwise a very good show.

[SC986]

I see the points, and both are valid. For a second Jeremy got me a bit irritated. I am from a small southern town and have known many of good ol boys.

I guess I've just gotten to the point if someone said..you're a dumb redneck! Well ok. I mean it's just words and I won't let them hurt me with it.

Anyway..all that said like you Nick, I was rolling around watching that one.

Anyone catch this week. Jeremy hasn't seem to like Porsche much but ended up liking the new turbo after the drive. I was hoping the Stig would get to track that one.

[Tom Blue]

Clarkson’s anti-American comments do get a little tiresome but I think the show is still the best thing on TV. Kinda like Monty Python on cars.

The one segment they did on the Boxster, BMW Z, and Honda 2000 was amazing, I stumbled across it while researching for my Boxster.

I’m originally from the South, but I thought the episode where they were driving through was hilarious, probably because I knew exactly how a lot of those folks would react.

[CJ_Boxster]

Clarkson’s anti-American comments do get a little tiresome but I think the show is still the best thing on TV. Kinda like Monty Python on cars.

The one segment they did on the Boxster, BMW Z, and Honda 2000 was amazing, I stumbled across it while researching for my Boxster.

I’m originally from the South, but I thought the episode where they were driving through was hilarious, probably because I knew exactly how a lot of those folks would react.

I love how the gas station clerk's boys showed up like they dont have any jobs to be at so they pile up in a Pick-up truck and rush over with guys standing in the truck-bed holding onto the roll-bars LOL Its like typical country boys LOL

[Tom Blue]

I love how the gas station clerk's boys showed up like they dont have any jobs to be at so they pile up in a Pick-up truck and rush over with guys standing in the truck-bed holding onto the roll-bars LOL Its like typical country boys LOL

Makes you wonder just how much of that show is staged...;)

[Jersey Kid]

I agree that not only is Clarkson's anti-American comments tiresome, they are also predictable.
Top Gear is a great show, too bad he brings it down with these over done comments.

[jonnycool]

lol... i just happened upon your clarkson commets, he lives 2 miles from me!! yes the guy is a total ass BUT he knows it, he i also a very VERY clever guy, he takes the piss out of everyone INCLUDING himself, his jokes are usually the ones that everyone knows deep down that there is a little truth in but at the same time he exaggerates it for comic effect, scottish, welsh, germans americans...well everybody for that matter can't escape his crewd but funny jokes, it was our local swimming pool that he drove the rolls royce into (he even takes the piss out of R/Royce..lol) his wife is short and plump and used to walk round with a biker jacket on :confused: :D all done in tounge in cheek, as you say monty python!!! :cheers: