[01x08] November 17th, 2008

[Adunaphel]

So what'd you all think of it?

Please vote and write a little review

And if you know any of the music that appeared in this episode - please post here.

[stiggie]

Thanks Adunaphel.



I thought it was a good episode and a fitting end to series 1. The trip through Tasmania is something I would very much like to do myself one day. The white Aston was gorgeous.

The Commodore being beaten by the Ford was a little unexpected.

[fbc]

I'm trying to work out they got the Tassie drive so wrong - I mean with that combination of cars & roads surely you can't go wrong. But there was no excitement, no sense of how special those cars are, the footage was tame - albeit well shot. The only thing that grabbed my attention was the sound of the Lambo - pure sex.

I've reached the point of cringing when WWTT comes on - it's just too forced with Warren's rants trailing on too long.

On the plus side - Charlie's XF piece. Easily his best work, and one of the show's best efforts too. Very solid review - we got background, information, specs, opinion & some action footage. Nice piece.

Red vs Blue - I almost wish they'd have run this in ep 1 or 2 to get it out of the way. Memo to Warren - we don't need round 3 until season 3 at least... (I should add, I'm a huge supporter of the Commodore & Falcon, but two comparisons was one too many for the one season).

6/10 for me - the lost opportunity in Tassie plus the repeat of Red vs Blue dragged it down.

[stiggie]

Putting TGA on the WWTT board was good though.

[stevanford1]

Originally Posted by stiggie

Thanks Adunaphel.

The Commodore being beaten by the Ford was a little unexpected.

What, you expected the commodore to be faster? FORD POWER !!!

[stiggie]

After GM gave Holden a billion dollars to design it... yes.

[Icedvovo]

It was all new cars. Boring as...

Season One Overall Rating.

5/10

TopGear in name only. The Car Show in a party frock.

[Icedvovo]

On the plus side...

The plea from Cox to buy Aussie Sixes was the first bit of real passion in the entire season.

On the neg side...

They need to get better detailers. The close-ups revealed filthy cars.

One the plus side...

Wazza plays a fine banjo.

One the neg side...

They're all woeful actors.

On the plus side...

Tassie looked like fun.

On the neg side.

TGUK already did Porch, Aston and Lambo.

On the plus side...

At least we all got the MANY James Bond references and will now go out and see the latest movie..

[budgieishere]

So this is the first episode I've caught since the first one for a number of reasons (clashing work and download limits). I was desperately hoping it wasn't like the first one.

I think I was surprised in parts. Charlie's XF review in particular was very good, he did a good round up of it's features, compared it to previous Jags and gave it a good thrash. What sprang to mind is that it's the kind of car review that UKTG is really missing at the moment. A good, honest car review.

The Tassie drive was alright, mainly for the way it was shot. The bit where Warren stopped in that shop though completely threw me off. Out of the three, Steve and his Lambo stood out - his passion for the road and the car.

Warren and that board made me really cringe. The way he shouted and was just unfunny and had to gee up the crowd (albeit weakly) made even my brother say he felt embarrassed.

I kind of tuned out a bit for Claudia. I caught a bit about her riding bikes when she was younger and something about a Volvo. But I did kind of feel like she was, as Charlie put it, looking for a park. But I have a feeling that's down to the track a bit. I'll leave that discussion to other places.

Holden vs Ford, it was ok. Nothing really special. I haven't seen the previous one so I can't compare it.

I'll probably give this a 6-7. Mainly because I thought Steve was pretty good, and that XF review was really good.

[Red_Bull]

Originally Posted by stiggie

After GM gave Holden a billion dollars to design it... yes.

Yeah, but it's two years old and it really only ever caught up to where the Ford was with the BF anyway. I love Holdens and I adore the VE, but there can be no question the FG is a better car.

Not a bad episode, I enjoyed the XF review (albeit, a little bit old news) but fbc is right about the Tasmanian drive. Three exotic supercars in a spectacular location, on some great winding roads, and they still got it wrong.

Charlie's rant about the Holden and Ford being the lifeblood of the Australian car manufacturing industry, well he's right, but he conveyed the message in a profoundly irritating way. I could barely understand him when he was screaming at the top of his voice. Get off already.

I think they summed it up well with the WWTT segment about the TGUK trio, what indeed were they thinking?

[tone76]

7/10 here.

The Tassie drive seemed like it was only half done. They could have driven a bit more around Tassie rather than just dicking around on a closed bit of road outside Strahan for a while. Superb part of the world, though. Wazza's 'random' drop-in at an antiques shop was pretty funny, too. The whole thing left me wanting more, it really could have been so much better as it had such potential.

I liked tonight's R v B. There was a (gasp!) conclusion, it was a hoot seeing Stig punting two repmobiles around the track, and Charlie's rant - albeit obviously scripted - had some force behind it.

The Jag XF bit was quite decent. WWTT? Not so much, although I did find the reference to Jezza, Hamster and May to be quite amusing. I'd like to see WWTT get the arse in S2, it seems to have run its course. Would free up Wazza to host, too ...

[Dsemaj]

Originally Posted by Red_Bull

Yeah, but it's two years old and it really only ever caught up to where the Ford was with the BF anyway. I love Holdens and I adore the VE, but there can be no question the FG is a better car.

Ford has always had the better six. Holden beats the Ford when it comes to the V8 models if you ask me.

On topic though, I don't know. It's good for a first season, but will it go anywhere?

[stevanford1]

Why would they not put the typhoon and the clubsport around the track but the put the base model falcon and commodore around it ?

[Philpax]

It's been improving. I especially hate when Warren says "What were they thinking?!" when sliding into that segment. Jeremy just says "and now, the Cool Wall!". It's most cringe worthy when the audience says What were they thinking alongside him. It just sounds wrong.

The Ford vs Holden segment wasn't needed. The drive was already done by TGUK - they're repeating TGUK over and over . . .
But overall, a massive improvement over the first episode.

[GerFix]

Best episode of the series for me.

The Tassie trip was beautifully shot but empty. To have a section of road closed off, with those cars and not do something quantitative was a waste. I know they said it was about 3 blokes driving great cars on great roads, but we have seen this before ... it needed something extra .... maybe, instead of putting The Stig in each car and doing a timed section, they could have put Warren in each car and do a timed section ... he is a bit of a driving duffer (who doesn't know how to hold a steering wheel) and it would have been fun to see which car is quickest in the hands of an average motorist.

The news was lively, but the road signs they showed were not funny, unlike those shown recently on TGUK.

WWTT has to go.

The Claudia Karvan interview was a better effort from Cox ... he might get there eventually.

Cox was, however excellent in his XF review ... I thought that was the best review they have done this series ... the most complete and cohesive. Yeah, it rehashed many of the points from James May's review ... but I'm sure May simply paraphrased something from Shakespeare for his original, anyway.

This Ford v Holden comparison was way better than the first ... an objective sign of improvement.

Lastly, Charlie's rant ... finally some passion, perhaps that was the real Cox coming out of his shell ... I almost thought it was HG Nelson delivering one of his TSL tirades for a moment .... and that is a good thing.

It isn't Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and it never will be ... in some ways, it is unfortunate that the program is called Top Gear and that the presenters are trying to live up to stereotypes/characters they are not. It may have been much easier to palate if it didn't carry that burdon of expectation. All in all, it has been an interesting exercise to watch the evolution of the series and I am quite looking forward to the next one.

8/10

[Blink]

I completely agree with GerFix.

Love tonights episode, and I really thought Cox has been improving (infact I saw his hands in his pockets towards the start of the show) and I really think he will get there.

WWTT was horrid. but I did hear 'And for the last WWTT' hopefully they meant the last ever.

8/10.

[spamman]

I really liked this one, and the show in general more and more as the season has progressed. Cox has relaxed up massively, they are letting Warren off his leash a lot more and Steve is a pretty good host too. Segments are finally having conclusions and we finally got a proper Red v Blue battle (With the currently better car coming away with the win).

Hope they keep learning and that season 2 is another step forward.

[Icedvovo]

Watch it back to back with the latest ep of TopGear (UK) and TGA is as dull as warm-water enema.

Seriously, I know we all want to 'wish it good'. But c'mon.... nothing funny or entertaining ever happens.

It's a competent car show, I'll concede, but it's not TopGear. They don't do TopGear things, there's no TopGear wonderment, no TopGear laughs. It's just a pretty car show.

If you guys like it, that's fine. I don't mind watching it either. But it doesn't deserve to be called TopGear.

And if wasn't called TopGear, would anyone give it the time of day? I think not.

[whitehornmatt]

The Tasmanian trip felt too incomplete, there just seemed to be something missing, and I think Steve pointed it out, why didn't they take them on to a track, or try out the other cars? Something to give a real comparison and a decision on which of them was the best? You can't just have all three say they liked their car.

What were they thinking needs to be the last, it was a good idea, but it has gotten old fast. Warren seems hugely unnatural in the angry rant he did. SIABSC was a bit dull as usual, it always seems like Cox is running through dot points and filling out a survey on the guest, rather than a discussion. I don't think Cox should leave the show, but his interviewing skills need to improve.

Good review of the Jaguar by Cox, he should have done a bit more with the classic one though. Off the topic a bit, but why do they have those fugly inverse euro-plates on it, they look horrid compared to the normal ones.

The Holden vs Ford bit was also incomplete, they showed the Ford was better, but they didn't go into why. They didn't mention the horrible transmission in the Holden (why do they still make 4 speed autos?) for example. Another odd thing, the Proton is as fast as the Commodore on the track, that can't be right.

Cox's rant at the end was good, though the fire extinguisher thing failed a bit, Steve should have slipped out of frame come back near the end of the rant, and actually used the thing on him. That would have bumped this episode up a lot. That sort of passion for cars needs to show more in reviews, and needs to also go in the other direction.

I gave it a strong six, but was missing so much on its potential to give it a 7. This series has been a solid base for them to work on. I think their camera work is better than TGUK's, they have gone too far with their filming style now, TGA's is simple but effective and good looking.

They are indeed under the UK version's shadow and I'd always take the UK show over the Australian one, but they are both good television and better than nearly all the other shows on TV.

[cpd]

A decent episode. Relative to other TGAU, it's probably the best. The news was as funny as it can be. The studio chat was kept to a minimum. WWTT was embarrassing, as always. The star was above average. Cox's Jag review was his best by a huge margin, but more downsides please! Even the camera positions for Jag lap were decent. Ford vs Holden... well, at least they chose one. However...

The Tassie thing had the usual "here's half a script, let's just go shoot some footage" feel that the other big trips had.

* The picking up the cars bit didn't really go anywhere and didn't even bother trying to be funny.
* 30-45 seconds of Spirit of Tasmania trivia would have been nice.
* The first driving portion looked like it was at 30km/h.
* The antique shop thing, while a good chance for some cocking about, just made Warren seem like a tool; wanting to look at old furniture instead of driving a DB9 across Tasmania.