[01x03] March 8th, 2009

[Heathrow]

Car Review MP: BMW Alpina B3 – good segment

Miscellaneous Segment NF: Destruction of GAZ 66 parts1 & 2 – quite good first part was funny but the second part looked a bit staged.

News: Not good yet but will get better – the MiniXC

Cool Wall: Oscar & Mike working quite well together, will improve with time and the audience were better than in episode 02.

Car Test OK: Ford Mustangs the original legendary model to a modern one – good segment

Miscellaneous Segment: funeral for an old British Rover Maestro – a bit of a laugh & good piss take of Clarkson and the best thing to do with an Austin. .

SIARPC: Artist (painter) Nikolas Safronov – this needs work, the format and delivery are not so good, plus the dude looked really pissed off at only being in third place

[silversquirrel]

Well, I think its getting better. Still seems like the comedy and "feel" of the show is forced. First Hints of some originality. I would like to see it age a bit into its own show.... but for now, something to watch while waiting for the new season of the original to get going. Id like to see some more of famous landmarks as backdrop.

[finalfool]

watched all 3 episodes all the way through and will admit, 3rd one was actually watchable and learned something new from it.

1. I thought the Alpina piece was OK, it seems Misha or Mihail (he looks younger than I am) took some driving lessons he didn't seem that skilled in the Porsche in episode 1. Also explaining the differences between the typical 335 and the Alpina was interesting. It is funny when they mention the makers must have not been thinking of the Russian market when they put it a pure silver plaque in plain view in the car. Reference to the theft problem I imagine.

2. I actually enjoyed learning about the GAZ66 and some history of the vehicle in Russia, would like to know more about the Volga and Lada and other Russian vehicles. All I've seen of the famous Volga is in old movies. I'm sure many Russian dignitaries were driven in Volgas.

3. The segment where they poke fun at Richard Clarkson is entertaining.

Caveats, the first episode was painful to watch. The second episode was about the same. TopGearRU simply copied things like the Chinese can copy things (you'll get this joke reference if from the Super Piss Piss segment in episode 1 where they seem to mistake that it's made for a woman's physiology not a man's and was painful they didn't see that but the ladies in the crowd did). The second episode also seemed painfully copy catted, I thought they paid the police to pull them over and make it look exactly like the original TopGear episodes to add some drama. I agree, the crowd got thinner and thinner per episode, hope the crowd count bulks up and I wish them success, it seems to be getting better.Those kabobs looked yummy yummy.

[MrBooby]

Originally Posted by finalfool

3. The segment where they poke fun at Richard Clarkson is entertaining.

You mean Jeremy Clarkson

[finalfool]

Originally Posted by MrBooby

You mean Jeremy Clarkson

Yup, that's who I meant, I always seem to mash up Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson's names together.

[awdrifter]

Apina B3 review, that was actually ok, but their track still sucks. You can see the car bouncing all over, even if the suspension is soft, it shouldn't bounce that bad. The sub says it's got a softer suspension than the 335i, is that right? Also, they first said the car was 360hp, then 340hp, is that a sub error or did they made a factual error?

GAZ66 truck. This is probably due to the language barrier, some of the jokes and cultural references I didn't get. But I thought it was aweful to destroy a truck like that. Clarkson at lease made an attempt of a challenge, but they were just wrecking the truck.

Old vs New Mustang. This segment was actually pretty good. But the Mustang GT should be a 4.6L V8, not V6. The sub said it's a 4.6L V6, but there is no such configuration. It's either a 4.0L V6 or 4.6L V8. And if it's a V8, it should be much faster in the drag race, expecially with Stig behind the wheel.

Overall, 6/10. I don't think I'll be watching any more of TGR, the language difference made it a lot hard to follow.