[14x03] November 29th, 2009

[14x03] November 29th, 2009


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A few links about the lancia bit for your reading pleasure.

Write up from the integrale owner:
http://www.auto-journals.com/journals/Lancia?model=Integrale&journal=43

Not so positive report from the builder of the Hawk, not a happy man:
http://www.stratossupersite.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=7683

However the question has to be asked: Why send a tired car to a program which is known to hammer cars and rip them apart at the slightest oppertunity? I thought it came across fairly well to be honest, and that lap looked a riot!

Interesting. The spinout setup reflected badly on the car itself, and the owners are genuinely worried about a loss of sales for their kit car company. It's business, after all, and a small outfit like Hawk cars won't have the luxury of a well-oiled PR machine to defend their car on a show watched by almost half of England.

The people who posted in that thread didn't come across as slobbering fanboys, necessarily; I'd be pretty pissed if I had invested hundreds of hours carefully building my own pride and joy merely to be portrayed on television as a careless buffoon. It would be downright insulting.

Of course, that won't stop me from wanting one. I've always wanted a Hawk HF... :D

--

This bit about the Lotus Lada is interesting, as well:

Hammond bore the pants off everyone talking about his dog and his girlfriend and told me I was one of the most cynical people he'd ever met and never spoke to me again all day! Not so much as a 'thank you'! And I was the one who funded and build the engine and countess other things to make the show workable incl almost living at Hethel for a week at my own expense to help Lotus - and they sure needed help because no-one there could remember how to build up a car like that. I was left with the over-riding impression that TG were completely selfish and anyone with half_a_brain can see Clarkson can be really thoughtless and irresponsible on the show on TV, heaven knows how many cars and careers he must have 'buried' with his blabbermouth attitude. To be honest I think he runs that show mainly so he can meet 'celebs' to invite for dinner.

Television is serious business... <_<
 
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I gave it an 8/10. It was a pretty good ep and it had a nice flow. Not extraordinary enough for me to give a 9, not to mention a 10.

The caravan balloon was hilarious and only a little too long. Even though the airport bit was obviously scripted (one does not disturb air traffic like that without making major news, especially not if the name is James May), I thought it was funny. The Lambo is one glorious car as is every Lambo, basically. But the review was a non-review.
SIARPC was good even though I didn't like the guest. But at last we got to see a few spins on the track again.
The Lancia part was very nice. I don't agree on all of the cars, but as a die-hard rallye fan I have to agree that Lancia was once one of the greatest car companies... in the world. The Stratos, 037 and Delta Intregrale were simply astounding cars. And the Fulvia really is gorgeous. The Delta 8.32 or what it's called - putting a Ferrari V8 in such a low-key sedan and giving it a rear spoiler that comes out of the trunk lid - in the 1980s! Great!

The Hawk Stratos kit car.... I really want to drive one (or better even, an original Statos), but I'd be scared shitless so I wouldn't go past 50, I guess... that was easily the most difficult car to drive for the Stig yet.
 
9 from me, a very good episode.
The jokes were really funny this time. Like dropping a piano on prepianoed Lancia. :lol:

It had a bit "hey, let?s safe Lancia" -attitude. Not that I have anything against Lancia. The Fulvia is stunning to look at and the V4 engine is really interesting. Too bad the fwd ruins the whole car. :mrgreen:

I liked the flying caravan too. It's entertaining to watch when the guys are in real trouble. It didn't seem like scripted.
The Stigs laps were also funny but I would have liked to see the Lambo on track. It would have been interesting to see how it compares to an awd Gallardo.
Oh well, maybe it was wet out there and the time would have been useless.
 
The part with Lancias was pretty good.

Although I'm disappointed that Ford didn't win.
 
I gave it a 5. I was so sick of Lancia's I skipped ahead hoping for something else and found more Lancia's.

Ford is still the right choice in my opinion.

The Gallardo was nice but they never let the Stig drive it. Would have been nice to see how it compared. Boring episode.
 
And for everyone who hates the scriptedness of the gags, my reaction during the notarace.

*Richard gets out, leaves the door open*
Me: Sigh. I can see this coming a mile away...
*Jeremy hits door*
Me: Told you...
BADOING!
Me: *blinks*
Me: *falls over laughing*

Agreed. This was a nice touch - a welcome relief from the usual predictable outcomes.

Overall, I thought it was better than previous episodes this season, but the Airship/Balboni thing left me a little cold. It was almost like they were two seperate scripts that were awkwardly combined. And the whole 'drifting into restricted airspace' thing made me cringe, firstly because it was completely planned and secondly because Top Gear starts the piece by bemoaning how caravans are always holding up traffic and then turn around and chuckle when they're holding up traffic on the runway. Surely, if this was 'real' Top Gear, they'd have roped in the RAF to blow that caravan out of the sky (with an Apache or Harrier etc) before it got anywhere near restricted airspace. Admittedly, it would be scripted and phoney, but it's a bloody caravan, so to hell with it.

The Lancia bit was interesting, but it would've been nice to celebrate them a bit more. Perhaps some kind of restoration challenge of a Intergrale etc...;)
 
I originally gave this episode a 7 in the poll but after thinking about it some more i'll actually give it an 8 as it really was quite good and well balanced in consistency.

The caravan airship part was excellent and really liked how they used a lambo to go along with it. I dont know but every time I see a lambo these days the more I like them even though I originally hated the look of them.

The news was relatively good but a bit average for Top Gear news though I do predict they will get some flak by some critics over the comments of Jesus, gay dog, speed cameras.

The Lancia segment was quite good, camera work was good, arguing and testing was good. But I have to say I reckon it dragged on too long which was one of the reasons I originally gave the episode a 7. Yes it does have the essence of a good Top Gear segment but I personally felt that it could of been shorter or maybe a tad more interesting as by the time we got to the last Lancia if was getting a bit off. Though it was great to see the Stratos and I really thought the Lancia Beta Coupe that they were driving was the one from the Botswana special but unfortunately it wasnt. I was happy to see another Morris Marina destroyed though!

The guest was er... interesting and did seem to like his cars, no idea who he was but i'll give it an average for a top gear guest.

Finally the Stratos replica test; personally I felt this was unnescessary and dragged the Lancia related segments too far. Though it was a nice car to look at and was interesting to watch as it broke down I really would of preffered more variety and have a full on test of another car rather than just a kit built replica. Though the laptime was one of the most exciting ones ever it was a pretty rubbish car overall even though it looked great.
 
I enjoyed this episode- for me it was perhaps on a par with the first two, although it was different due to a bit less cocking about generally, but still funny.
I found the Lancia stuff interesting, and the race was entertaining. The Lambo/Air-caravan was also good - nicely filmed in HD, but didn't show much of the car; would have been nice to see it on track. The airport stunt was funny, although obviously pre-prepared of course.
The kit segment was also nice to see- having built a "kit" myself I know that you pour a lot of time into the things and having it made look bad on tv would be a real downer, so I don't blame the guy in the other forum post for having a rant. Having said that, I could have told you how Jeremy would portray it before having seen it, and tbh he did finish off by saying effectively that it looks right, and that's what really matters! I thought it looked like a really nice build in any case, and it wouldn't put me off having one.
 
For the first time in living memory it didn't seem to sparkle for me. And I don't really know why.

The caravan piece seemed to be missing the first 'act' where they have the crazy idea and build it. It just appeared from somewhere. And the Stratos replica thing was odd. Couldn't they get a real one? There seemed no rationale behind driving an old replica.

And having the Stig fallible and spinning the car was totally out of character. He's THE STIG, surely that means no car can beat him!!

6/10 :(
 
You do realize that the more you get your panties in a knot over that word, the more people are going to use it to piss you off right? This is finalgear. :p

Yeah, but at least if I HAD neg repped, I planned to leave my name unlike the gutless little troll who thought it was soo clever to copy my words and not leave theirs.
In other news:
Plissken, are we going to see a new gif for your avatar? :p
Also I agree that any publicity's good publicity, so I'm sure the guys in the Lancia forum will still get increased orders - after all we all like to think "I could do it better than that" don't we? So people will still want one, but maybe they'll be more likely to put it together themselves, which I think is a good thing. And I'm including girls in that too ;)
 
One thing I forgot: The priceless :shock: reaction on the faces of the audience when Chris Evans told the pricetag on his Ferrari. :D
 
I gave it a 5. I was so sick of Lancia's I skipped ahead hoping for something else and found more Lancia's.

Ford is still the right choice in my opinion.

The Gallardo was nice but they never let the Stig drive it. Would have been nice to see how it compared. Boring episode.

I Gave it a 6 and yes i got sick of Lancia's as well!

I wished i could see the Gallardo on the track instead.
 
Jesus jokes are starting to get annoying.
The cheapest jokes are done by the worst comedians and Jeremy is starting to repeat himself.

Those lancias were awesome and the blimp was nicely done.

Still haven't really had a proper challenge "lets each make a " thingy :-/
 
I thought this was a weird episode, therefore I gave it a 4. The only thing I liked was the Lancia Delta.

What happened to the news? They were so funny in the last 2 episodes, but now they were hopeless!
 
Agreed. This was a nice touch - a welcome relief from the usual predictable outcomes.

Overall, I thought it was better than previous episodes this season, but the Airship/Balboni thing left me a little cold. It was almost like they were two seperate scripts that were awkwardly combined. And the whole 'drifting into restricted airspace' thing made me cringe, firstly because it was completely planned and secondly because Top Gear starts the piece by bemoaning how caravans are always holding up traffic and then turn around and chuckle when they're holding up traffic on the runway. Surely, if this was 'real' Top Gear, they'd have roped in the RAF to blow that caravan out of the sky (with an Apache or Harrier etc) before it got anywhere near restricted airspace. Admittedly, it would be scripted and phoney, but it's a bloody caravan, so to hell with it.

The Lancia bit was interesting, but it would've been nice to celebrate them a bit more. Perhaps some kind of restoration challenge of a Intergrale etc...;)

Couldn't agree more. It was nice to see a focus on cars again but it would have been nice to see the Intergrale or the Stratos go up against some past or modern rally cars.
 
Gave it a 6; apart from the Lancia review, it was very...bland. The caravan-blimp story line dragged down the quality, IMO.
 
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