[02x05] June 8th, 2009

[Adunaphel]

http://www.finalgear.com/shows/topgearaus/2/5/

[babylon]

the elfin review was perhaps the finest moment of top gear australia to date... what a couple of insane vehicles..?!?!?! beautfiully shot, great reviewing by steve, great editing and sound design... loved the race between the elfins... really exciting... although i wonder if they really let them cut loose... and if steve would win if they did...

enjoyed the mindless violence of the armoured cars challenge... especially warren's face when the guy smashed his window in... would have liked to have seen the kombi van get smashed in... this was the only drawback of the episode for me... and that the statesman didn't blow up when steve hit the fuel tank...

HG nelson was the best interview yet... he and warren are clearly mates... and the fact he vomited on the top gear track!!! awesome! he's an aussie legend and his upchuck should live in TGA folklore... name a corner after the incident... brilliant...

great work.... very. solid. show. 9

[rewoid]

My favourite TGAU episode so far. The Elfin segment was good. Star was descent. Did ok with the armoured cars, but agree they should have shot the combi too.

[melbournian]

Racing cars, violence, guns and mobility scooter racing. A definite 9 from me. SIABSC was made quite special by HG Nelson's commentary (especially down the back straight). The armoured vehicles thing was pretty damn funny, quote of the episode goes to Steve ('I keep asking myself one question: What would Jason Bourne do? What would Jason Bourne do!? I don't know! I don't speak fifteen languages!'). Warren looks like he has some expreience with a firearm....anyone know if his history contains any military/hitmanesque chapters? I was disappointed they didn't destroy James' Kombi...I was half expecting him to start it up and have it blow up. Mobility scooter racing started out a little lame (please less scripting Freehand!) but came really very good and funny. The car ad...what the fuck indeed. And the Elfin review was FANTASTIC. Beautifully shot, informative, and Steve's enthusiasm and enjoyment were really evident. Great job there.

[Dsemaj]

Really good! I felt James' campervan was a bit of a cop out for the sake of being funny, but it was still good anyway.

Looking forward to next week... I wonder how they'll go with the US trip!

[awdrifter]

The Elfin car reviews are good, the Caterham 7-ish one looks great. But I'm not sure about the challenges though. Still, a pretty good ep.

[tone76]

A solid 8.5. Because FG polls don't go fractions, I had to round it up. So, yeah ... 9 it is.

Steve's Elfin review was sensational. It covered all the basics, plus it had some conclusions (i.e. spending extra on the V8 Elfin is a waste of money etc). It even gave some decent tech specs along the way! That said, most of the reviews in S2 have been vastly improved on their equivalents in S1.

The challenge was very, very funny. Sure, the scripting was obvious in parts, but I'm sure Wazza nearly shitting himself wasn't in the script. I don't think the Kombi was a cop-out, I thought it was a very humourous plot device. I just about LOLed off the couch when I saw the Kombi in UN colours...!

The car ad ... I saw that on YouTube a few months back and was wondering the same thing Pizzati was.

HG Nelson was an excellent guest, arguably the best non-motorsport related SIABSC thus far. It seemed like he really wanted to be there, and wasn't there because his manager or SBS told him he had to be. SIABSC didn't drag on, and HG was talking *gasp* about cars!! More guests like that, please! (although did anyone else notice the audience member behind HG in the Valvoline t-shirt? I thought Castrol still sponsored TGA, although I'm overjoyed there are no more of those stupid badly dubbed Castrol Edge ads during TGA).

The mobility scooter race was hilarious. Whilst one does have to wonder if the result is pre-determined (i.e. did Steve already film the GTHO review BEFORE the race?), scripting seemed to go out the window when they actually got onto the track. Using it to go out to and come back from a commercial break was also a nice touch. It would have lost its fun if we watched all 30 laps ...!

The best bit about this episode is how the timing of each item seemed about right. It seems like there were fewer items, but the items that were left in were finished properly.

So yeah, 8 wouldn't be quite enough, and 9 might be a little generous ... but I'm feeling generous.

Originally Posted by melbournian

Warren looks like he has some expreience with a firearm....anyone know if his history contains any military/hitmanesque chapters?

I have a feeling that Warren may have been in the Army for a while. I forget where I heard/read this though (probably somewhere on here!).

[TVR-161]

9 from me. genuine laughs, good segments, good star. it seems they listened to our criticism.

[xsirhc]

cringe factor of nought. gave it an 8. very very good watch, and H.G. Nelson was a pretty good guest as well. Am really getting used to steve's style of powertests, he's getting used to it as well.
Plus, I owned one of those style escorts shown in the ad. Certainly mine was so slow it could not outrun a dead clown...

[Kiskaloo]

I also rounded up to an 8.

A decent cheap car challenge. Not enough "cocking about", but an interesting idea (TGUK's simiar test with RH actually in the car while they fired at it never aired).

I liked the SIABSC and the car tests.

The mobility scooter race was kinda lame. And after watching these car commercials, I think people owe Infiniti an apology for their original commercial effort.

[lockstops]

Gave it a 7- Solid episode.
I loved the Elfin review! Great driving and beautifully shot. Plus it had an added dimension with the race and a good conclusion. I've said it before- i think Steve's power tests are consistently the best part of the show.The presedential cars challenge was a great idea and it started pretty well (most TGA challenges start well i think) but then strayed a bit. James' kombi was a real cop out in this regard. And the ending was weak- no conclusion or wrap up. Having said that, there were some real LOL moments- especially from Warren and Steve when they first see each others cars and the look on his face when they read the card after the first ambush. http://forums.finalgear.com/images/smilies/lol.gif
SIABSC was ok - i just don't like HG Nelson.
But the mobility scooter thing was lame! Yeesh-bad studio scripting again! I too wonder if they filmed the GTHO story first and reverse engineered the result. (But the idea of a GTHO story coming up: http://forums.finalgear.com/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif)
And as for the old ad? Enough now!

[ykickamoocow]

Best episode of the year. Other than the scripted combi bit the episode was close to perfect.

[Evan]

Gave it an 8.

Really enjoyed the Elfin test. I think that Steve is very good at reviewing the power cars. He is informative and also provides fantastic visuals.

SIABSC was great. I'm really enjoying them since Warren has taken on the interviewing job. As for the guest.... champagne HG Nelson.

It was a better challenge, but still needs that little something more. If TGUK did that same challenge and Hammond did not want any one to shoot the combi, do you thin that James and Jeremy would really leave it alone? Not likely! I liked that fact that it followed the formula of 'come together, pull the piss out of each others vehicle, go away and alter the vehicle, compete in challenge'.

I think that the most promising thing to come out of this episode was the real chemistry that is developing between the presenters. They are starting to get used to each other and that is transferring to the screen.

[MP4/14]

An 8.

HG Nelson was by far the best Star in a Bog Standard car and he actually new some things. The commentary around his lap was priceless.

The rest of the show wass quite good too. No complaints so therefore quite a good episode.

[Hidden_Hunter]

Very solid and more importantly GT-HO Phase 3

[stiggie]

Originally Posted by babylon

the statesman didn't blow up when steve hit the fuel tank...

Thats because this was real life, not a Hollywood movie.

Originally Posted by melbournian

I was disappointed they didn't destroy James' Kombi...

I suspect that it may have actually been James' own Kombi, so they weren't allowed to hurt it.

Originally Posted by tone76

I have a feeling that Warren may have been in the Army for a while. I forget where I heard/read this though (probably somewhere on here!).

I remember reading that in an article too, back when the hosts were announced. But you don't need to see him shoot to know he was in the army. You can always tell a soldier by their bearing and gait.

[stevanford1]

9 from me. Great episode. Can't wait for them to test the GTHO phase 3.

[Fleetfoot]

And a 9 from me.. Last year I wasn't impressed and made a lot of suggestions including the "let warren do a lot more" etc, and it's all going very very well the way it is.

More to the point my brother and my friends who all hated TGAU are letting me know they're actualy watching it and having a bit of a laugh, so well done producers and the team, keep it up.

The challenge actually had a bit more of an ending to it too, keep going with that, make it a definite from to via with jokes alongside.

[babylon]

Originally Posted by stiggie

Thats because this was real life, not a Hollywood movie.

well, it's actually a tv show... and let's face it, explosions are awesome.

amongst other things... http://www.explosionsandboobs.com/

but seriously... its a shame they didn't ( or more likely COULDN'T ) blow something up at the end of the challenge... would have been a nice cap to a good fun challenge...

still reeling from that elfin review... nice.

[rohit.rv200]

Some pretty good stuff this week, Good to see some TGUK lunacy creeping in. The Elfin cars review was pretty good, The Armoured car segment would have been a lot better if they brought along a MP5 Assault Rifle Cant wait for the Pontiac G8 review next week, looked pretty funny