[10x09] December 9th, 2007

[Necx0]

^^^ fair enough then, my bad.

And congrats on getting caught on film

[Goose+]

10/10!

[Frederic]

Originally Posted by Necx0

People seem to think that because Jezza mentioned the Ferrari being filmed it was going to be in this series. WRONG!!!! You think they film everything in the week before going to air??? The F430 Scuderia would have been being filmed for NEXT season.

No, because in the text the BBC sends out the week before every episode airs, it said there would be a F430 review. So the F430 was really planned, but something spoiled the lot

[siogyumolcs]

okay, i have a bias, living IN BUDAPEST, but the rest of the ep was great too!!

i wish i knew james was here, i would have wanted an autograph on a gay flag 8)

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally Posted by Frederic

No, because in the text the BBC sends out the week before every episode airs, it said there would be a F430 review. So the F430 was really planned, but something spoiled the lot

im pretty sure they said on the show that some one stuffed the scud so that meant they couldnt have it for filming.

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally Posted by TimB

The canoe joke was in reference to some guy who faked his own death (wife got the insurance money) by "dissapearing" while canoing

The teddy bear joke was in reference to the school teacher in some Muslim N.Afircan country that was given jail time and deported for naming her class's teddy bear "Mohammed"

There, now your caught up on British current events and you thought you were just learning about cars

small correction... i thought she didnt name it?, the kids she taught did, which makes the whole case even more unbelievable.

[EJ25RUN]

This episode best shows why i cant live without seeing the next episode.

I promise that watching the britcar segment really put me into that "please god please" mode i get when watching le mans24, daytona24, sebring12. great job guys on your first attempt at an endurance race......JOB DONE!

Ascari vs daihatsu segment,.... i must say, it really helped influence my decision on purchasing of my future vehicle. Jeremey is absolutly right " its a public service we provide here"

overall.... i hope the show never ends!

[lip]

[GodGell]

What an episode! The race was simply amazing. And the Fiat 500 bit, just because of the location it was filmed in, was beautiful. Didn't care much about the car itself though.

Actually, as I started watching the show I had a suspicion there was going to be a segment filmed in Budapest, because I recognised the tunnel the 500 was coming out of (when the bikers jumped over it), the top of that tunnel exit is a great place to hang out at (especially if you've got a deathwish, it's dangerous).
Then the intro to the Fiat 500 bit, in the snow. I somehow really had a feeling that "that road must be in Hungary!" and was surprised when it turned out that it was!
I live in Budapest, and *really* love this city, and was really happy that it was given some much-deserved attention - and by Top Gear, no less! I hope they are going to come here again (and please tell me beforehand so I can meet 'em! )

10/10

[BlaRo]

Amazing episode. Probably the 2nd best next to the Italian driving roads episode, as both have massive sweeping emotions that just can't be described. Both episodes nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Budapest looks beautiful, I'll have to visit someday.

[STANDARD_911]

Did anyone else see that they are airing more footage of the race on bbc two on wednesday? I read it at the end of the photo gallery for the britcar pictures on topgear.com. Can some rip this?

[Masternate2071]

Good episode, Britcar was awesome, the Fiat thing was cool, but I want to know more about the car itself. Didn't reallly like the Ascari review.

But what I loved the most was my favourite song by Battles was in this episode. And my favourite Joy Division song was in last weeks. Good music.

[Autobahn]

Being a bit of a Le Mans nut, this was this seasons most anticipated show for me.

While I do agree what's been said earlier, that they really should have done this as a special & dedicated the whole episode to the Britcar segment, I can sort of understand why they didn't. Because if they did, most of the episode would have been about how rubbish the car was, how rubbish the drivers were and so on, and that would have been boring.

My fascination with endurance races as such, is that you get to see a whole lot of different cars battle it out, getting worn out, being fixed in record speed (I can still remember one of the Audi R8's getting a complete transmission change in 15 minutes a few years ago) and then at the end, you're down to hoping that whatever gaffer tape has been used to glue the car together will last to the end.

However, had Top Gear done that, I feel it would have either distracted too much from the challenge at hand (taking a second hand diesel through 24 hours of racing) or it would have taken too long. I would have love to see what happened to the Mosler, the car apparently on fire (right after Hammond's 'Don't wreck the car!'), the one that more or less went right into a wall and so on, but then they would probably have needed 24 hours to cover all of that

I have box-set somewhere with 2 hour recaps of the last couple of Le Mans races, and in just about each of them, I can remember one or two episodes that got left out.

As for the the episode as a whole:
The Fiat peice was kind of nice, though it was pretty apparent that large parts of it had been re-shot (all the stunts they did & so on). I would have preferred if they did it like the race in Lisbon, which off the top of my head was done in one take more or less (camera on the bike helmet, camera inside the car and off they went). And I sort of follow his point, in that it's too expensive for what it is. In my opinion, the only reason someone would buy that over a Panda, would be to show off (like the new Mini & new Beetle).

I skipped the SIARPC part since I had no idea who he was. I would have liked to see them bring in someone familiar with endurance racing, there's plenty to choose from (Darren Turner or Johnny Herbert from the Aston Martin teams, Allan McNish from Audi team & so on. Personally, I would have loved to see Tom Kristensen, but then, I'm biased ). Would have been a nice tie-in with the overall theme of the show.

I sort of skipped the Ascari part as well, as I wanted to get on with the Britcar bit, but you have to give them credit for hitting the top of the board. Now bring on the Veyron! 8)

The Britcar was indeed epic, it really gave me a lot of respect for people who take part in this stuff. Especially the nighttime driving must have been hell, with so little light to work with. And especially if you're like Hammond and have no clue about where you're going! Shame about the fog in the morning, I would have loved to see May trying to keep up the pace in the 'Happy Hour' (The part of the day where there's still some heat in the track, but where the air is still relatively cool, allowing for maximum performance)

Overall, I'd say 8 / 10. The SIARPC did nothing for me & they were trying too hard with the stunts in the Fiat segment. But the rest was gold

Originally Posted by otispunkmeyer

small correction... i thought she didnt name it?, the kids she taught did, which makes the whole case even more unbelievable.

She asked the kids to come up with names and then they voted for it. The worst part was that it wasn't even intended to be named after a certain islamic prophet, but instead it was one of the children who suggested his own name. And that name won.

[Ghostwolf]

Originally Posted by Martyn

^It was on all the listings that this episode was going to feature the F430 Scuderia.

Anyway, I've just watched the rip and I've found myself one TV! Hurray!

Notice the way the audience stares at you, or was that just the camera angle?

The media did make quite a big fuss when Hammond crashed again, which wasn't a
big crash at all but a minor collision.

[Santah]

Yeah the media talked it up, which was obvious even just from reading the early reports. As soon as I found out he "crashed" in a 24hr race I was like, whats the big deal... it happens. I wouldn't exactly call it a minor collision though.

[THGL]

What flag was next to May's name on the car? Clarkson and Hammond had the Union Jack next to theirs was May's was different.

[pepitko]

loved the episode, race was fantastic, I love how TG team can always get into trouble and get out of it again (diesely BMW getting broken, reminded me of Africa challenge, how they had to fix the cars all the time) I felt like I was part of the team and almost sentimental as Jeremy passed the finish line.

I liked the 500 review, and the Ascari, you just have to love the cinematography of TG!

I gave the episode 9/10 just because they got rid of the news, but still had a star in reasonably priced car.. in my view it should have been the other way around, I'd much rather see the news (even though, they are mostly cocking about) then another "celebrity" noone knows about.

Overall, this season is just jammed-packed with brilliant segments good times

[maateuszz89]

Originally Posted by pepitko

I gave the episode 9/10 just because they got rid of the news, but still had a star in reasonably priced car.. in my view it should have been the other way around, I'd much rather see the news (even though, they are mostly cocking about) then another "celebrity" noone knows about.

That's right.

Originally Posted by THGL

What flag was next to May's name on the car? Clarkson and Hammond had the Union Jack next to theirs was May's was different.

It has already been posted in this thread.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag

[tone76]

That was EPIC!

The Britcar race, the Fiat 500 vs BMX challenge (which was breathtaking, if obviously staged), the Ascari A10 vs that Daihatsu thing .... all good stuff. The only minor gripe is that the news should have stayed and SIARPC could have been dropped.

The standout episode for S10, definitely ... all I need now is to find out where I can buy a packet of Larsen's Biscuits ...

[jimmy_s]

How many people want to know now fast the race prepared 330d goes around the track?

--Jimmy