Top Gear

[mwerner]

Anyone else watching this BBC import?

It's a "motoring"-oriented show, with lots of fun stuff to do with various aspects of all sorts of cars, from normal sedans through high-perfomance sports cars and even racing machines.
I shouldn't be interested, I suppose; I'm not really a "car guy". Still, the show is a lot of fun.
They have guests on, and all the guests have to turn a lap on their test track in a stock sedan. They keep the times posted on a big board; everyone from film actors and musicians to F1 drivers.

They also have crazy "challenges". For instance, driving across a large African country in a car purchased locally. Though the jungle, across the massive salt flats, through the rivers... Quite a hoot.
The three "hosts" are a hoot as well; one of them made a deprecating remark about F1..."how hard can it be?"
So team Renault invited him to try to get one of their cars around a test track for two laps. Quite the humbling experience!
Fun show.

 

[jim preston]

I watch it. It is hilarious, especially May. The episode where they crossed Africa was hilarious, and the cars could not be designed for off-roading or have four wheel drive. I particulary liked Hammonds 1963 Opal Cadet- "Oliver!"

 

[A.W.U.K.]

This has been running for years and some of the articles can be viewed on utube.

The new series started last week - hilarious as ever! With the current fuel situation, the team have been ordered by the BBC to concentrate on the fuel economy issue. So in the very first item, they took 5 different supercars, filled them with precisely one gallon of petrol and raced them round a racetrack until they ran out. In case you are interested, the most economical was the Audi A8 which managed over 5 miles.

The next item was a test to see which was the most economical. A Toyota Prius Hybrid and a BMW M3. The Prius was driven around the race track as fast as possible and the M3 followed as close as possible behind. The Prius achieved about 17mpg and the M3 about 19mpg.

My favourite old piece was the conversion of a Merc into Anne Hathaway's Cottage. find it on utube!

 

[gajinoz]

One of my favourite episodes was the one in which one of their challenges was to go to America and each purchase some old junker and drive it across three of the southern states into Alabama, (I think it was).

As part of the trip they each had to paint slogans on each others cars. They ended up with things like:

Hillary for president
Manlove rules
Nascar sucks

.. and similar.

The part where they were chased out of town by a bunch of good ol' boys in a truck was very amusing.

I was amazed they weren't shot!

 

[bobofish]

Excellent. I haven't seen that one. It's a wonder they lived to tell the tale!

 

[Tim-Gabz]

Opel Kadet! Atchung!

 

[These_Nutz]

I heard they Stigg has an American cousin.

 

[Andy_L]

and an African one.

I'm not into cars but it's one of the few programmes I watch. In the US do you get a edited version to fit in adverts and still have a 1hour run time?

 

[Chiller2]

I love the show can't wait for the new season to start. FYI they are making an "American" version I predict Massive Failure. I loved the African episode and the car boat episode.

 

[xdshooter]

I think the American version idea was trash canned. Jeremy didn't want to travel to the US to film. Too bad, there are thousands more open spaces for their challenges and competitions over here.

 

[Chiller2]

I think the American version idea was trash canned. Jeremy didn't want to travel to the US to film. Too bad, there are thousands more open spaces for their challenges and competitions over here.

Oh you misunderstand they are gonna use American host and Adam Corrolla is one of them.http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/2956/

 

[metalfof]

I loved the episode where that modiified Icelandic 4x4 drove(skimmed) on water!

 

[Bernoulli]

It used to be better - when it was about cars instead of the personalities of the generally boring presenters.

 

[ChadHahn]

I liked where they tried to kill the Toyota pickup. They ended up placing it on top of a building they dynamited. The frame broke and was being held together by the bed but they were still able to drive it into the studio.

Chad

 

[DocArnie]

Best, funniest and most stunning car show I know!

 

[macdo]

Be interested to see if the US version carries over Jeremy's view of US motoring? Probably not...

 

[Bob W]

I don't know what channel Top Gear is on, but I've never seen it televised. I have watched video segments of episodes of interest - the Honda S2000 and Ariel Atom specifically. Good stuff.

 

[jim preston]

It's on BBC America

 

[2k3gti18t]

I love top gear. I have the last five seasons on my HD. If you want to look up old episodes in full with descriptions you should try Final Gear It has news updates as well as to the less popular show Fifth Gear.

 

[Unsub]

I have the new one downloading right now from pirateBay. I loved the one with the caravans(american for trailers) and Jeremy is concrete proof that not all UK men are pussies.