TG Australia to Air on 29 September

[sanbar]

Originally Posted by SL65

Theres also a pic of Warren driving the Maybach 57S. Cool camera car as well...

Was out near Tulla the other day and there was a blue Maybach 57 parked at that former BHP conference centre thing. Was that the one? Vic plate, started with "T".
I know Benz has a 57 scratch and dent car, but apparently it's in Canberra. The only two in Vic at the moment are privately owned.
And my punt on the Stig? Dean Evans ... search Youtube for "Lotus" and "Bathurst". The guy can drive!

[Labcoatguy]

Old news, but Topgear.com now acknowledges the imminent arrival of TGAu:

Originally Posted by http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/3198/

Stoke up the barbie, put the tinnies in the esky and participate in other stereotypical Antipodean behaviour: Top Gear Australia is here!

Yes, on September 29 at 7.30pm on SBS, Charlie, Warren and Steve's first-ever TG outing will crash into your telly screens in a haze of tyre smoke and the unmistakable smell of burning clutch.

At least, it will if you live in Australia. And own a telly. If you don't, you'll just have to trust us - it's going to be ace.

The self-proclaimed 'ugliest men on television' have returned from filming with stories of wool vests, top hats and goggles. Not much news about actual cars as yet, but we're fairly sure there'll be a few of those, too.

Oh, and something called The Stig.

A couple of months back, we had a chat with the three presenters and can happily report that they're all thoroughly decent coves. Or ruddy good blokes, as our Aussie counterparts would have it. Read the interviews here:

Charlie Cox

Warren Brown

Steve Pizzati

So that's 7.30pm on September 29 on SBS. Unless you're elsewhere in the world, in which case we'd urge you to spend that hour setting fire to old tyres and shouting 'Strewth!' a lot.

We'd imagine that'll replicate it nicely.

[sanbar]

Originally Posted by Labcoatguy

Old news, but Topgear.com now acknowledges the imminent arrival of TGAu:

Interesting to see the references to "a haze of tyre smoke and the unmistakable smell of burning clutch". A couple of .au car companies and distributors are said to be a bit put out by having the keys to damaged cars handed back, while others have refused to play along.
Or so I've heard.
- sanbar

[stiggie]

Heard from whom?

[SL65]

Originally Posted by stiggie

Heard from whom?

[tone76]

Originally Posted by stiggie

Heard from whom?

For all we know, he's called The Stig ...

[sanbar]

Originally Posted by stiggie

Heard from whom?

Chatted with someone the other day who's had a bit of involvement.

[whitehornmatt]

Originally Posted by sanbar

Interesting to see the references to "a haze of tyre smoke and the unmistakable smell of burning clutch". A couple of .au car companies and distributors are said to be a bit put out by having the keys to damaged cars handed back, while others have refused to play along.
Or so I've heard.
- sanbar

I'd say that is because the Australian motoring industry has gotten used to what currently passes for motor journalism. I watch The Car Show from time to time and am amazed at how little objectivity there is in the reviews, they are basically just long ads for the car.

There is actually a reason for this, The Car Show is funded through internal sponsorships, in other words they have to make money from the show without getting a cent from the commercials shown in it. Basically Nine pay the company who makes it a small amount to show it and then all the money from ads goes to Nine, the only way the company who makes it can profit is to be very nice to the people funding it.

With Top Gear Australia, it will be funded out of SBS's general revenue, so none of the advertisers directly influence what is shown. NBC will probably have a similar set up. There is a separation from sponsors that the previous car shows in Australia haven't had.

Because we haven't had an Australian Top Gear, the idea of a show with critical reviews seems foreign to car companies here, so the fact the car companies don't like it shows they are doing their job.

I'm sure eventually the car companies will warm to TG, considering Vauxhall managed to still sell the Vectra despite Clarkson's views, I think they will realise that there are normally more benefits than negatives to having your cars reviewed by TG.

[Glopaticki]

Caradvice released a article on TGA opening to the media....hav a looksie

http://www.caradvice.com.au/16334/to...ficial-launch/

[Khaki]

I honestly can't believe my luck- I happen to be overseas at the moment and I get back home to sunny Queensland on the 28th of September. That date was set even before TGA was announced.

The driving Gods are giving me a sign.

Excellent article Glopaticki. The presence of a Zonda at the media launch can only be a good thing

It is a bit of a pity the Aussie Stig is in white too though. I was hoping for maybe a green and gold thing. Perhaps I was hoping too much.

[ambermorn]

^ yeah, a green and gold stig would have been a nice touch, but white stig just feels so natural and right, even black stig didn't feel "stiggish"

yeah, if you know what i mean , sorry i'm half asleep!

[dophoto]

Ok, On Triple M in Sydney 2nite on the "Spoonman" program they had a segment on Top Gear AU. He was out at the launch and mentioned a couple things that wont & will be in the program.

Firstly there will be NO Cool Wall, and NO Star is a reasonably priced car. But they will be start a segment called What were they thinking?

Thats all he mentioned, about new news as such.

[Cobol74]

What were they thinking - great idea!!!

[brembo]

If they did SIARPC I dunno how it'd work out, TV "Stars" are usually contracted to a commercial networks, so the networks wouldn't like their stars swapping stations, even if it was a one off. Film stars on the other hand would have more leverage.

[Hidden_Hunter]

I was thinking today that I hope while the show isn't dominated by local products that they at least get their fair share, I can't really see the show being successful if they just review the same cars that Clarkson and co have reviewed.

[Dsemaj]

"What were they thinking"? Sounds quite promising! Actually starting to get excited for this!

[IMSancho]

Has someone volunteered to do the rip yet? I can have a xvid with the ads cut out up within about an hour of the end of broadcast if you're still looking for someone. Any preferences on bitrate/resolution/file size?

[Hidden_Hunter]

Originally Posted by IMSancho

Has someone volunteered to do the rip yet? I can have a xvid with the ads cut out up within about an hour of the end of broadcast if you're still looking for someone. Any preferences on bitrate/resolution/file size?

We're yet to know what the show will be airing in so it's a bit hard to say (HD etc), i'll probably rip it and have it as a transport stream just in case

[whitehornmatt]

Originally Posted by Hidden_Hunter

We're yet to know what the show will be airing in so it's a bit hard to say (HD etc), i'll probably rip it and have it as a transport stream just in case

It will definitely be in SD, SBS's HD channel is 576p and they can't do native content. It will probably be around 50 minutes long, at the most 55 (as SBS can have 5 minutes of commercials an hour, and they will be making the most of them during TG).

[IMSancho]

I've popped the current 30s promo up for the non-Aussies to have a look at:

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1800557

It's a pretty brief glimpse but the visual style seems to be very similar to TGUK, will be interesting to see how they go with the balance of keeping the magic of the original, while being different enough to truly be a new program and not just "TG with an accent"