[11x02] June 29th, 2008

[M3_Powered]

Awesome episode, 10/10 for me!

Evo vs Sti was very good, shame the evo lost though, but didn't they say they used the less powerful one?
News was great and the Audi RS6 review was very nice, the skiing was very cool.
TGSM was very good this week, ALOT better. The stars were much better as well, no complaints there.
The Cool Wall. LMAO, great to have it back and seeing the M3 finally Cool!
And the Merc Black was a nice finish!

[SL65]

Originally Posted by M3_Powered

The Cool Wall. LMAO, great to have it back and seeing the M3 finally Cool!

Yeaahhhh, about that; what was Jezza thinking changing it to Cool

It wasn't just that which surprised me - I thought the Citroen being classed as Uncool by him was bonkers. Not nearly as surprising as him NOT putting up a fight to Hammond on that one...

[airmenair]

8/10 for me. I think rating Top Gear is far too subjective to just give it a 10/10. I don't think I'd give any episode a 10/10.

CLK Black was a great review, one of the best Clarkson has done in a long while, thoroughly enjoyed it.

To me, both the STi and EVO X are hideous. The EVO X looks awkward and pigly.

Was that damn in the latest Italian Job where their car is knocked over the railing into the frozen lake in the beginning of the movie?

[Arctor]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

I've been a WRX STi fan for years and years, but I think I'd actually get the Evo instead now.

I'm sort of in the same boat as you on this one. After they discontinued the GC8 models the gap closed more and more for me but the Evo X is just an incredible car to drive. I really wonder why it got such a poor lap time, it's definitely capable of being 2-3 sec quicker than the STi. Neither is particularly hard to drive but the STi is just boring. You look at it, bland. You get in, bland. You start driving, bland. You're so far removed from the driving experience in that car I'd wondered if Audi or Merc had bought up Subaru.

[IceBone]

Evo lost to the equally powerful scoobie, but I'd say, the 0.02 second margin was down to the scoobie being set up in almost completely RWD mode, so it didn't bog down at the start (you can see that in the video too, the evo had to set off much slowly) and that gave it a few tenths of a second head start. I bet that on a flying lap, the Evo would be quicker. All previous reviews point into that direction as well.

Cue Jayhawk rebuttal in 3... 2... 1...

[controlspecimen]

Originally Posted by lesnessman

I honestly have to agree with Arctor. The Evo/STI review was interesting precisely because they weren't completely ridiculous and untouchable cars. The RS6 review, in addition to being a less interesting redo of Clarkson's RS4 race a couple of series back, involved a car that's completely out of reach and the less interesting for it. Same with the Mercedes review, though it was bookended by some great mood pieces and a touch of Goldfrapp. Perhaps my bias is a bit weird, though--one of my favourite Top Gear reviews ever was of the last Focus RS (the one where Clarkson holds up the burberry camera filter to explain the Focus's outlandishness).

Something else: can someone explain the appeal of the Cool Wall? It strikes me as generally the same formula driven into the ground--Hammond makes a tentative suggestion about a car, Clarkson tells him off. (Optional: Hammond eats the card.) Add in a sprinkle of embarrassing an audience member (admittedly the funnest part of the segment!) and you've got every single Cool Wall segment ever. Perhaps it's something you have to be British to appreciate; personally I don't care at all what celebrities or cocks drive, bad or good. Cool Wall's not nearly as bad as, say, Tiff slowly typing lap times into the Fifth Gear computer systems, but I don't know why so many people think it's a solid 10.

Anyways. Much better than the dismal first episode, but frankly there's a lot of work left to top the high points of last season (Africa, the British Leyland episode and the epic London race--good mix of interesting car stuff and cocking about). Scripting the news bits so heavily and keeping James May in the background aren't helping!

I agree with this post largely. I didn't think the first episode was that bad, but it wasn't a "top 10" or anything either. The Police Car Challenge was probably similar in quality to the cheap van challenge, which was also "meh". The Africa race last season was incredible, but you can't expect that routinely. The London race on the other hand was brilliant.

The Cool Wall is usually much better than this past week IMO. It just seemed slow and boring, but I do like its earlier incarnations.

I think your first point is the most interesting. I agree partially, but Top Gear has never done cheap and attainable cars as its focus. In the "old days" (scary thought) they tested super- and hypercars, but they tested the most desirable and "bedroom poster" quality cars, just for fun so fans could say theirs is the best. But I don't understand why they recently got into these fast station wagons. Who cares about having the fastest wagon? Maybe there's just a dearth of new supercars recently and they're struggling for material. I just think their reviews now aren't really reviews at all--they barely mention any specs and they don't talk about price or anything. One of my favorite Top Gear reviews was Clarkson driving the M3 CSL on the Isle of Man way back when. That's more like what the Black review should have been.

[Arctor]

Originally Posted by controlspecimen

I think your first point is the most interesting. I agree partially, but Top Gear has never done cheap and attainable cars as its focus. In the "old days" (scary thought) they tested super- and hypercars, but they tested the most desirable and "bedroom poster" quality cars, just for fun so fans could say theirs is the best. But I don't understand why they recently got into these fast station wagons. Who cares about having the fastest wagon? Maybe there's just a dearth of new supercars recently and they're struggling for material. I just think their reviews now aren't really reviews at all--they barely mention any specs and they don't talk about price or anything. One of my favorite Top Gear reviews was Clarkson driving the M3 CSL on the Isle of Man way back when. That's more like what the Black review should have been.

If you go back and look at the first 5 seasons or so they had a nice mix of supercars and everyman cars. Unfortunately the past 3 seasons it's been just one very expensive car after another. While I love watching supercars around the test track, I honestly think the reviews of the 'normal' cars are a lot more honest and enjoyable.

[WillDAQ]

Originally Posted by Arctor

I honestly think the reviews of the 'normal' cars are a lot more honest and enjoyable.

I think they missed a trick on the fuel economy section to be honest, they should have compared to the prius to a VW Polo blue motion. 75mpg combined and 88 extra urban out of a normal diesel engine. Could even have bolted a Polo review on at the same time.

[LurkerPatrol]

EVO X & Impreza: Funny as hell actually. I love that JC was wrong at the end and completely denied it 8/10
News: Not bad 7/10
Audi RS6: 11/10
SIARPC: It was ok, better than last week's shitheads. 6/10
Cool Wall: 10/10 Pretty pretty funny shit, I missed their fights at that CW.
CLK black: Eleventy billion/10 That noise is just godly.

Overall: 9/10 (reduced from 10 for SIARPC and lack of usual top gear energy and silliness in the non-review convos).

[efoolution]

8/10 ... very good and solid episode. Didn´t care about the guests, but even they were quite nice ... and finally the cool-wall is back ... liked TG-Stuntman better ...

[Brian]

9/10. I've never been a Mercedes fan, but the Clarkson segment with the AMG Black was unbelievable. Right up there with James May in the drophead last series for pure cinematic and musical perfection. I even enjoyed the guest segment (I've been a Spooks fan for years).

[ChaoZ]

It's probably closer to a 7.5 for me, but I voted 8.
Fairly good overall, but the stuntman needs his own quirk to work. Pretty good stunt though.
And I agree about the show feeling more scripted. Come on, puling Hamster's mic off, then having him find an old school commentator's mic? Who buys that?

It did recover itself with the car reviews though.

[juicebox12]

I think Jeremy had a little too much fun in the Black...

[Ziggy Shadow-Dust]

I'd give the episode 9/10.

The Subura/Evo reviews were top-notch.

The airborn-barrel roll part was miles better than last weeks stunt. At least it stood a fair chance of succeeding, whilst last weeks was just simply a waste of James May's breath.

Even the race was gripping. Even though in every car vs. human race the car always loses, I actually thought Hamster was going to win. And he did. The result was fixed, just to keep up traditions. I still enjoyed it.

The Mercedes drive would have been brilliant hadn't it been for the cool wall before it.

I completely agree with Hammond. All Premiership footballers are seriously uncool. Hammond may have been in a big accident, but it's Clarkson who needs his head examined. Just because it's an Aston doesn't mean it's always cool.

Didn't he put a Bentley or a Rolls-Royce, or some kind of car in the uncool section 3 or 4 years ago for the same reason as Hammond's?

As a result of Clarkson's reasoning, I'm giving this episode 7/10 instead of 9/10.

[emil_t]

quite nice episode, star in reasnob.... is still long, the rs6 segment wasn't that good put together, so was the CLK segment, but for almost 3 years of cocking about, it's still a leap forward,

altough the Subaru-Mitsu segment was GREAT, a real Top Gear Classic and the CoolWall was back, that too was a great pice of entertainment another TG Classic

[der_jackal]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

Anyone else notice the hot brunette over Clarkson's right shoulder?

Yes I did....*sigh*

[TopGear_Fan_NY]

Hello once again guys/gals, i know that for majority of people, the favorite presenters rank like this

1. Jezza
2. Hammond
3. May

As for myself, i lately find James May's reviews the most sophisticated/witty/clever and of course funny with the unmistakable classic May's style.

Jezza of course is also pretty clever, after all he is Mr. Clarkson!!!

As for Hammond, i might agree with Simon Cowel, and for me he is there because he is "small, but cute" and i rarely remember what he said after the did a car review.

So my concern is why i still haven't seen a proper James May car review???

It's been Clarkson in the;

- Supercar Fuel Economy bit
- Jezza in Ferrari 430 bit
- Jezza in Evo vs Subaru bit
- Jezza in CLK bit

Hammond only did one Audi review.

James May have not done a single proper car review in two episodes (wouldn't be that big of a deal i guess if a series had 10 episodes, but we only got 4 more to go) *And please don't tell me that Stuntman bits with May featured in it, counts for something...

IMHO We get too much Clarkson, if it was up to me, (and of course it isn't)

- Ferrari bit could be done by Hammond
- CLK bit could be done by James May
- Fuel Economy Could also be done by a sensible May???
- News could be done in a way that all 3 presenters are engaged, Jeremy is doing 85% of the talking, and May is often told to shut his mouth....

Next week episode we'll yet again see Clarkson in that Bentley, and there is no man more perfect to do a Bentley review than James May!!! (After all his first ever review on Top Gear was of a Bentley that he owned, and he did a marvelous job with that Rolls Convertible last season)

I'm getting sick of seeing Jezza over and over, and would like to see more of James May, (& Hammond even!!!)
- just my few thoughts...

[salguod]

Just been watching the Stunt Man bit again, and I'm going to say that they could easily have pulled it off, the only thing which the Stunt man had to do was not give it as much power whilst the car had taken off and was in the air as the increase in revs means the front wheels spin quickly, which in turn causes the front of the car to rise up too far, a brief complete lift off from the accelerator or just reduce the revs a wee bit would have slowed the rotation down (front to back not the induced lateral rotation from the ramp) and it would not have landed at such an angle to cause it to crash as much as that.

Little anorakish to say this? yes a wee bit, didn't learn about this in Physics though, just through experience from remote control car racing and with my Monster Truck where you use throttle control to help the truck land level to reduce suspension damage or other damage which may be incurred from a landing no matter how poorly you take off on the jump.

Still good though. Hope he manages to do one successfully by the end of the series.

[Buba]

I really liked it 9/10.
And yeah, I have to agree, May should get to to a bit more... And I hated Jezza calling the AMG CLK Black Series "the Black" even though it says series on the badge as well (thought at first they might market it different in the UK)...
All the rest was fine, awesome cinematography, even better than ever...

[alexgti]

Thoroughly enjoyed this weeks episode. Wonderful combination of cinematography and well selected music. The reviews all seemed genuine, especially the STi vs. Evo test.

Not sure I'd like all the episodes to be completely serious (after all, who doesn't like a bit of cocking about?) but if the reviews stay as good throughout the series I'll be very happy.