[16x02] June 15th, 2009

[Viper007Bond]

http://www.finalgear.com/shows/fifthgear/16/2/

[Heathrow]

Car Test - Tiff: Ferrari 599 – the HGTE. Tack test at Maranello with Sir Stirling Moss,
After being a bit rude about the 599’s understeer three years ago, Tiff liked the new tweeks on the HGTE. He could have been a bit more respectful to the 79 y/o legend and not hoon about so much. OK segment.


Find a Celebrity a new Car - Jason: Matthew Pinsent compares two sports cars, the Mercedes SL63 AMG and a Maserati Gran Turismo S. Jason was a bit rough with his guest as well, think MP liked the Merc better. Fair segment.

NBIAG? - Jonny: Audi A5 cabriolet vs. BMW 3 Series convertible. I liked this, and Jonny was entertaining and approved of the A5. Good segment.

Car Test - Jason : Porsche Cayman PDK vs Manual gearboxes. Don’t care, poor segment for me.

Economy MPG Tim: Manufacturers estimate vs. 5G group test cycle. Skoda saloon, Smart fourtwo and another car? The test revealed that the manufacturers claims are close enough to the actual usage. Now I liked this test and it was done very well, but given the result it show have been binned. It had no story to tell.

Challenge Tom & Tiff: The Ilkley Trial in in a Russian motorcycle & sidecar combo (Ural?) Tiff being an arse on a motorbike again, but Tom is really funny at the slapstick stuff. Epic fail on the trials of course, but entertaining. Lots of people will probably hate this segment, but it was the best part of the show for me in only a fair episode.

Overall a 6 from me.

[NecroJoe]

The rip, sure...some parts repeated...but it was all there. I still watched it, just skipped past the in-episode rerun.

The Audi A5 segment was just as...fluffy as his R8 review. He drive them no differently than a Buick LeSabre. He told us 3 things about them that we can find out from a brochure. Here's how long it takes for the top to drop compared to its competition; here's the price list for the options; these people that don't understand what I'm saying may think this car is pretty-ER than the BMW...although it just seems like they were simply giving that car a thumbs-up...compared to nothing. *shrugs*

I liked their summary of their trail run. :-p "We failed, we stared cheating, we failed again, and then we broke." (or something to that effect.)

I've figured out what I think is lacking: right now, it's just two "hosts" showing videos other people made. It's not much different than "America's Funniest Videos." The inter-film banter that seems to flow the best and seems to make the most sense are the segments where Tom is talking about the video he was just in...or when Tim is recapping his last video...I think a big help in the show would be to talk to tiff after his film. Talk to Jason after his...rather than the two hosts simply reacting to the video as if they've just sen it for the first time.

As for the MPG segment, I don't know about Europe, but in the last coupld of years they just re-configured the MPG test cycle to most accurately account for real-world driving...and it actually did get them a lot closer to real world results...they are still bad, but they've gotten better. Apparently, the cycle they use was especially hard on hybrids, taking up to 15% of their claimed MPGs away.

[nasanu]

It is not all there.

The first part of the trial is gone plus the segment with that guy buying the car is missing. Horrible rip, thanks for the effort though.

[Viper007Bond]

The second segment was duplicated and it took out the third segment as a result (note the total video length). So yes, there was missing content.

A new rip is out though.

[awdrifter]

Shoot out. If Jason didn't miss so many shifts in the PDK I think it would've been faster. While the buttons are a bad design decision, for an owner who drives the car everyday, they will get use to it.

Audi S5 Cabriolet. It's actually a lot better looking than I thought. I'd probably go for the V6 though, with a car so heavy. I think Johnny's test is fine. Who's going to really push their 2.0L convertible. This car is build for daily driving a cruising.

Ferrari 599 HGTE. I wish Tiff would've drove the car alone for a few laps though. His test last time was very informative, this time though it feels like a celeb segment.

The fuel segment is kinda interesting, looks like the EU testing is more accurate than the US EPA ratings.

Didn't care about the celeb choosing a car or the time trial segment. And where's Vicki? Is she gone?

7/10 for me.

[NecroJoe]

Oh yea...forgot it was missing the celeb segment. I missed that. Shows how much I pay attention to Fifth Gear.

[Viper007Bond]

What in the fuck was up with Jonny's hair?

[Shawn]

Pretty average episode, the celebrity segment this week was even more painful to watch than usual. The guy seemed a little weird, and the whole segment seemed short and like it had no point to it.

I'm also not liking Johnny at all this season... he was great at doing the quirky cars, he seems too robotic when he has to review expensive, luxury cars.

Also, what was wrong with the segment that was replaced by Cheapskates? Finding a car that you thought you couldn't afford strikes me as much more interesting than trying to tie two cars together for no reason at all... this week was okay, last week it was such a stretch with the R8 and Corrado. And the Art Attack style of filming the Cheapskates segment is, well, cheap - looks really low budget and childish.

Yeah, pretty disappointing as was last week... I was so looking forward to Fifth Gear for some reason this time around. Oh well, at least this was freaking hilarious:

[KurtF1]

what the hell is marano lol?

[turbokompressor]

will the person giving us the videos,please censor tim's face ...and voice !?

Jonny's hair reminded me of Ed Grimley...
You are losing your hair,get used to it or buy minoxidil:
high camera contrast and comb overs won't make it grow!

Tiff driving the ferrari:still an ugly,heavy car; saying it isn't,on ferrari's track, under ferrari supervision and after having said they weren't pleased with your small criticism won't fool anyone.
Stirling Moss and Ferrari 250swb:brilliant!I would have done the whole segment about that Ferrari:erase the 599 out of existence and show the lovely lines of the 250(which is, in my opinion,along with the 360Modena, one of the prettiest Ferraris ever).

When Tiff drove off and Tom fell from the sidecar I died laughing:genius! the scripted falls weren't that funny.

Is Vicky coming back? The more she ages,the hotter she gets.I mean,(in the previous season) she finally became feminine, not like the boy-racer-trapped-inside-a-woman's-body she used to be.
PS:If she does come back, kick tim out...I mean, it is recession and you have to cut corners...cut tim's corner!

[ahpadt]

Originally Posted by awdrifter

Shoot out. If Jason didn't miss so many shifts in the PDK I think it would've been faster. While the buttons are a bad design decision, for an owner who drives the car everyday, they will get use to it.

Yep, driver error and nothing else. The PDK would've won with ease if he could just shift properly.

6/10 from me anyway. I don't see the point in segments like that motorcycle rally thing.

[dbboston]

Did anyone else recognize the music in the bike segment.... from Top Gear...? I think it was the Veyron race? I agree - the 250 SWB racing around the track would have been great to see.

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by ahpadt

I don't see the point in segments like that motorcycle rally thing.

The point of those segments is to give you a little bit of humour... and it was a bit humorous I would say.

It felt a little faked, but frankly, seemed more realistic that Top Gear's recent funny segments.

Originally Posted by dbboston

Did anyone else recognize the music in the bike segment.... from Top Gear...?

I think what you're referring to is a movie score like from Superman or something... I recognized it as the song from Top Gear too, but it's not like it was written for TG.

[MadCow809]

crap episode.

Only entertaining bit was the 599 HGTE, everything else was just....meh

[TBR600]

Originally Posted by ahpadt

Yep, driver error and nothing else. The PDK would've won with ease if he could just shift properly.

6/10 from me anyway. I don't see the point in segments like that motorcycle rally thing.

I dunno, they said it was 30 kilos heavier as well did they not? That might be enough to bring the time down, regardless of the milliseconds saved with PDK. Not sure though.

All in all, I thought it was a decent episode... Lot's better than the previous weeks, I was actually getting antsy waiting for that one to end, I got so bored.

[sutratiago]

I didn't remember the last time i had a smile (not a laugh) due to some particular situation in 5th gear.

That rather unusual emotion happened when tom was jumping like a mad on the trial side-car
But the segment was useless!

Jonny's hair was... well... metrosexual-ish

Tim... as always... useless!

Jason... showoff!

Tiff... showoff parkinson-look-a-like-presence... awkward

And Vicky did the best 2 episodes of her life this season. Nice!

Overall it wasn't soooo bad... as there could be signs of improvement... not many...

6.5/7 out of 10

[Speedtouch]

I'm wondering whether the little niggles at TopGear are a nice recognition or getting old and tiring. Stuff like the '...in the world! In my opinion...' quote from Tom in the studio.

[ChrisSRT4]

Originally Posted by nasanu

It is not all there.

The first part of the trial is gone plus the segment with that guy buying the car is missing. Horrible rip, thanks for the effort though.

Mine was the same.

[STINGer71]

Originally Posted by awdrifter

And where's Vicki? Is she gone?

There she is http://fwd.five.tv/videos/fifth-gear-web-tv-episode-2