[13x04] July 12th, 2009

[13x04] July 12th, 2009

  • Total voters
    482
For me it was a very good episode, what do you want more?

The blast of the Renault R26 vs Focus RS was awesome, pure fun, that is the most fun you could have in a track! One faster in the straits and the other flying past in the corners... pure fun :D
The Porsche segment in technical terms ( sound, camera, lights) was excellent the way Top Gear do things, better than any Hollywood thing full of CGI.
The British Bulldogs "race"... well of course it had to be scripted because if they were doing it for real this season would end very very badly :lmao:

Some of you are complaining about the SIRPC, again what do you want more? M. Schumacher, Stephen Fry and now Usain Bolt.
It isn?t Usain?s fault that the doesn?t do well in interviews XD

I rate it a 9/10
 
If you watch in slow motion @ 59:41 / 59:58 (at the side shots), you can easily tell it's CGI.
 
JC going on about the "slick tyres" on the Renault is pure bs cos they've put on other cars with exactly the same type of tyres before. Good episode nevertheless.
 
ahpadt said:
JC going on about the "slick tyres" on the Renault is pure bs cos they've put on other cars with exactly the same type of tyres before. Good episode nevertheless.
Click to expand...

Yeah, by that logic the Exige wouldn't be up there either...
 
I did forget something else I realy liked about this week, the split screen Stig laps. I think that's an important lesson learned from TGAustralia actually. I've noticed that show can suddenly grind to a screeching halt when they spend too much time on multiple timed laps. Also from a non-expert POV it was easier to compare the handling with the two super imposed. I liked that better than "and earlier the Stig put in a time of _____" that they sometimes do. I'm still a bit surprised that the 'car bit' was my favorite part of the show. I'm guessing that was the segment they felt emotionally connected to.
 
I really enjoyed this episode. 9/10
 
Plissken said:
So, the idea that the Government sell it off, one of the mates of said drug dealer buys it (using some cash he "managed to get hold of") and then puts it in storage for a few years until he gets out never occurred to you?
Click to expand...

Forcing the man who's in prison to buy his own car back? Is that a bad thing? It's not like his "mates" can't go out and buy another Evo for him, when he gets out of prison.
 
Focus/Megane was decent enough, shame the Focus isn't 4WD though, really crying out for it. Was pleased to see they finally managed to make the front end look less 'blunt' compared with the ST and standard Focus.

News was ok and SIARPC is not something I bother watching most of the time.

The Panamera is not a nice looking car and as much as I really try hard to like it I can't, it looks awful from the side, genuinely terrible on an almost Korean car level. It might drive well but why would you buy it when you could buy so many other things for that money that do the job just as well and actually look good.

The Evo segment was entertaining but tiresome because they try to portray it as real or believable when it's completely staged and fake. If you're going to be fake and mess around that's fine, just don't sit there trying to make me think it was real, it's not worth the extra effort I'll be entertained anyway.

It's always a shame to see a car in good condition destroyed really, some I care about more than others but I've never been much of a fan of pointless destruction. Aside from the superb Evo, I'd say the army kit in action was the best part of the whole show.

Worst episode of the series so far, although it's more a case of the first three being good than this one being really bad.

Oh and at what speed does the rear spoiler on the Panamera come up? Since it was up quite often in that segment, wonder if it's a 75mph one ;)
 
7/10 for me.

The army thing really bothered me. I wished they had shot at him with paintball guns or something. Instead of fake "live ammo".

I really like the RS. Great car. :cool:

..
 
Last edited:
flydiscovery said:
I did forget something else I realy liked about this week, the split screen Stig laps. I think that's an important lesson learned from TGAustralia actually. I've noticed that show can suddenly grind to a screeching halt when they spend too much time on multiple timed laps. Also from a non-expert POV it was easier to compare the handling with the two super imposed. I liked that better than "and earlier the Stig put in a time of _____" that they sometimes do. I'm still a bit surprised that the 'car bit' was my favorite part of the show. I'm guessing that was the segment they felt emotionally connected to.
Click to expand...
Actually, I would have preferred it if they "ghosted" the images so that we could see both in the same shot. But that might just be me.
 
Destroying a Mitsubishi Evo: NOT cool, not funny; it reminded me of the scene from ?Gone in 60 seconds? when the metal claw grabbed the Mustang. When he said it was only 8000 pounds I thought: they?re going to thrash the car, they always do that to old bangers but this is an Evo, what the hell, no one who likes cars would do that.
I understand it was a car that had belonged to a drug dealer but that is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard: destroy somebody?s car because of something they did; they are no better than the rat-bastards who key your car because they are afraid to confront you face to face. Instead of buying and destroying the car, they should have done something against this ridiculous law (I thought only in Texas or some other state from the United States of USA :) they compact your car for speeding)?like buying the car and running over the judge that sentenced it to the crusher after having said a snappy one-liner? classic Charles Bronson revenge maneuver.

Good parts:
jc- How many horse powers do you have in your "Renault"? =))
jm-3.4secs-that's right up your street
Porsche sat nav - genius
James sleeping in the car reminded me of...me
bless you, bless you, bless you...
I don't want him to fall off his bike but if he did...

Star in the Chevrolet: I think if he ran the length of the track, It would have been a better time?set the dogs on him or something for motivation?or even better: dress in white table cloth with eye holes and the KKK logo: for some reason, black people don?t like KKK turbochargers?

The Porsche trip- ugly car, genius sat nav idea; is the mail service in such a bad situation because of email that they need to encourage people to use paper? Not gonna fly, get used to it?their only hope are stamp collectors

Mark: 1 because of killing the Evo?bastards

About the Lamborghini cars on fire: if you don't know why they caught fire, don't blame the car; Ferraris light up faster than you can say "where's that extinguisher?"
A guy in Germany put cheesy chromed rims on a Murcielago, they broke at speed- of course, they were for showing off not for high power-high speed driving- and now he is blaming Lamborghini for the crash; he made site where I tried to post my opinion and explain why the rims broke but he didn?t post it. I once saw, at west coast customs,on Discovery Channel Rides, a Ferrari Enzo that had its wheels replaced with the same sort of crap giovanna one hundred billion inch gold, chrome et c. rims that didn?t fit because the Enzo has a particular type of fixing mechanism, similar to Formula1 cars and Porsche Carrera GT but they made a 2 cent adapter and fitted the wheels; when that 660HP car is going to crash(or maybe, the owner just keeps it in the garage and stares at it) who is he going to blame? Ferrari, of course.
I hate it how people who don?t know shit about cars are the one that can actually afford them, and the ones that have more petrol than blood in their system, can?t!
 
Last edited:
it was a decent episode, much better than last weeks episode.

The Ford and Renault portion was decent. I don't think i would every care for the flimsy polycarbonate windows on the Renault. I honestly dont care how much weight they save but it feels like a plastic car put together with a roll cage.

The only carbotanium part was brilliant. The Zonda looked hot.

The RAF looks a little bit staged, to beat the Porsche. But if given the chance to choose either i would do a 800 mile trek on the panamera. Though the i didn't really particularly like the sides of the care. the front of course looks like a porsche.

I didn't care for the army part at all in this episode nothing really wowed besides yes these are earthmovers and the car will be blown to smitherens. i think they a little bit americanish rubbed off in representing the firepower from the british army here.
 
I big dissapointment, gave it a 4

Ford vs Megane was ok, although Hammond over acted, yet again

News segment these days is way too short and SIARPC is way too long

Post race was dramatized to such an extent that it came out desperate

Army bit was too scripted + didnt know how British Bulldogs works + didnt explain how the army will use these vehicles
 
ahpadt said:
JC going on about the "slick tyres" on the Renault is pure bs cos they've put on other cars with exactly the same type of tyres before. Good episode nevertheless.
Click to expand...
It was quite surprising to me that they ended with a 'fighting' conclusion with that one. I was expecting them agree that the Ford is the better overall car in the studio bit. Followed by saying that the Renault is mighty good on the track.
 
Gave it an 8... it was very good, not great nor epic, but still better than anything else on TV.

Ford vs Renault thing was really good. I wish Ford (or someone other than Audi) would make another AWD turbo hot hatch. News was piss-funny. SIARPC was pretty funny too though the guy obviously wasn't the most verbose fella in the world. He could bloody drive though.

The challenge was a bit meh... can't believe Porsche expect people to buy that thing. Racing a letter gets top points for being "unique" but didn't have the same kind of excitement of the typical TG challenge. And the army thing, well, was interesting and amusing but a little too fake. I mean "and to make things interesting, they're going to be using real bullets" - yeah right!

Plissken said:
Can't stand the things to be honest. Mainly because they are amazing cars that have been hijacked into chav specials. At least round here, like Scooby Imprezas, it is rare to find one not driven by a twat.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I mean, yes, Evos are pretty good cars, but it wasn't like they ripped an Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale or Saab Sonnet I in half.

Actually I just thought of a much better idea for the whole convicted-drug-felon-gets-his-car-nuked thing. Instead of JC being shot at with CGI bullets, the actual convicted drug dealer's sentence is to run the British Bulldogs gauntlet... if he makes it to the other end, he gets his car, his condoms and his freedom... if he doesn't... well, the might of the British Army slice him and his car in half with .50 cal rounds. That would be a wonderful mix of entertainment and justice... and JC could end it with "kids... don't do drugs"!
 
6/10 and I've rarely given less than an 8

:-/ I'm normaly happy after top gear, today I was bored out of my brain, wife fell asleep and I ended up running it in small size while browsing the net.

Hammond is WAY too forced, makes you cringe, it almost seems like "look at me I'm a big boy too", his hairstyle suits the aweful porsche, too much like James, did you do that for a bet? ugh

Jeremies army bit was boring, why they keep pushing the army when they're no longer the honorable heroes they used to be is beyong me, it's all high tech killing civilians and dirty ops and hiding behind dirty politicians these days.

nah, TG felt like a bad fifth gear and the jamaican was as bad as they come, why slow down so much as a top athlete you don't celevrate like that, probably on drugs.

overal I doubt I'll ever bother rewatch this one, these "challenges" without Clarkson are more like TG Australia, Hammond is "the little guy" and he's trying to act all big and tough which makes him look like a total fake git.

Hope next week is better cause it was a real downer to sit down with the family and see nothing even remotely TG in that whole lot.
 
Last edited:
I thought it was a very solid episode until the army bit. I like seeing them test more affordable cars, like the fast hatchback segment. when its all supercars all the time, they dont feel special anymore, at least for me. Its like: "oh, another ferrari. yawn."

SIARPC was pretty good i thought. Bolt seemed a bit uneasy at first, but he was likeable and funny, and I really hoped he'd got to the top of the board, which he almost did.

The army segment was by far the weakest and worst scripted segment in Top Gear history IMO. Real bullets my arse. And they even had to have Hammond restate it at the end with that "you werent kidding were you" comment. I dont really mind the scripted segments, but at least make an effort to make it SEEM real.

Because of the army bit, I dropped it from an 8 to a 5.
 
Gave it 8/10.

This episode also was a great compilation of what the Top Gear series is all about since it had a cross country challenge, great car review in the beginning, proper star (despise local Brit talents sorry) and of course the British army.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top