[11x04] July 13th, 2008

[mazdaddy]

its my fucking picture. whats the deal?

[Stefano1337]

the 8c review wouldn't have looked out of place at a paris film premiere, the race was epic as promised, funny as ever. siarpc was not too brilliant imo, but i've come to expect that, all in all, brilliant, 9/10 on my watch :>

"he can spot your beaver from about a mile away"

[otispunkmeyer]

i dont get why people complain about race scripting.... theyre not scripted per se but they are worked out so that (with things going too wrong) its a close race. remember the SLR race....that one went wrong coz the boats kept braking.

after all what kind of spectacle is a race where one team gets to the finish and can go back to the hotel and catch a flight home before the other team arrive? its not good tv.

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally Posted by mazdaddy

its my fucking picture. whats the deal?

if u are logged on to facebook it shows ur picture ... log out and refresh to see what i mean. good joke i thought.

[Kangaroo]

Originally Posted by Nuieve

How did JC manage to program his GPS to take him to the final destination when he couldn't even find out how to turn it on?

Well, some Sat-Navs remembers the last route you had put in when you turn it off and not have reached your destination. Therefore, he just had to get it going again.

Originally Posted by Nuieve

The car always wins. All the races are scripted this way. Overscripiness makes them a bit yawny. This race was short and didn't feature enough variety in locations or situations. Seemed like the same station, the same road all the way. Nothing happened in it too, except that moment when they all got lost synchronously. It would be nice if they could make it so that Hamster got permanently lost for a change... or if JC ctashed the car at the end of it... and spare us one of those 3-min "close" finishes

This was probably the most unscripted TG-race or Challenge ever.

Great episode. Liked the Alfa-review. The car not being perfect just adds to the fact that it is an Alfa. The news didn't feel as scripted as they have felt the last couple of shows. And the race.. Great footage. Amusing part while Richard losing James while trying to find a vending machine. Not so scripted, just an effort to win, from all sides.

But there were something missing, wasn't there? Something just didn't feel right about this episode. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's just the fact that I watched in the morning and the initial hype about a new TG-episode had calmed a bit. Just rambling anyhow. 9.5/10

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by mazdaddy

its my fucking picture. whats the deal?

It shows everyone their own Facebook picture...

Log out of Facebook and you'll see it goes away.

[NooDle]

9/10. very very very good episode.

The Alfa 8C was just perfect. It's like they read our thread and stopped doing all the weird visual effects and just showed the car in all its beauty in B/W. And yeah, who cares if it's slow around corners, it's just too pretty to not like. Sounds rather good too

The GTR race was again, EPIC. It had everything : unpredictable result, things going wrong for both of the "teams" and a close finish that seemed genuine. Also, the satnav woman and the pump attendant being super cheerful were moments of laughter

I didn't even mind the SIARPC bit, it was rather good!

9/10, would have given 10 but a perfect episode is impossible. And that Alfa 8C looks brilliant in any color

[tissot]

Originally Posted by Frederic

What's that phone Hammond has? Is it a razr? Looks quite nice!

It's those Japanese phones. No sorry you can't use them here as they use different frequency in Japan than Europe and rest of the Asia

[MP5A4]

Originally Posted by skylock

What is this?

that mneas beware of animals.
it have a lot of different types of animals on the signs (bear, deers, cows whatever) but the words means the same

and that FB thing was funny i was like huh?!
And i dunno. in Japan it is unethical to use a phone on trains/bus/whatever and NEVER EVER leave it on anything other then slient mode...

[pixelsalad]

epic race

[upyourego]

oops wrong thread

[jones1328]

Originally Posted by otispunkmeyer

not sure whether your being jokey or actually attacking me?

that is actually my FB profile lol

and why did i get some less than positive rep for getting badger/beaver mixed up?

EDIT: oh wait.... i see if ur logged on to fb....it puts ur face in the frame lol good one

thats my facebook account your referring too!!!

[Scott]

I was sooooooo hoping that Jezza would lose this one, how in the hell did he not catch any traffic in Tokyo????

[Richmondgal]

10/10! Yes I gave it that.

The Alfa review was what all I expected to be. Forget about the flaws and look at the beauty, soul and passion this car has. I would sell my soul to have that car.

The News Segment was scripted but so what? It's funny, witty and has information on the cars that we wanna know about.

The SIARPCs were quite good actually. I don't think I could see Clarkson as a newsreader or an Antiques Roadshow host, however. Kate's quite a good driver, even though it was in the rain. Which reminds me about the Alfa's time, which was very slow but like I said, it's all about soul.

Speaking of Soul, that Epic Race had lots of it. IT WAS MASSIVELY HUGELY F**KING EPICFUL OF EPICNESS! (sorry it was so good that I had to say that)
Everything about it was excellent. The car, the transport, the culture of Japan, the weird signs, the customs, the language, the translators (oh cock at the end lol), the Sat Nav chick, the people, getting lost in tranlation and in Japan (Blair Witch Handycam with James lol ), the views and the result at the end was just unbelievable.
I just still don't know why people think it's scripted and faked. It's bloody well not as shown in this race. I loved it. Every single second of it. Epic stuff.

[Richmondgal]

Originally Posted by Scott

I was sooooooo hoping that Jezza would lose this one, how in the hell did he not catch any traffic in Tokyo????

i'm guessing he went around the really congested part beause Tokyo is huge and has lots of motorways which is where Jezza was for most of the time.

[Ironlord]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

I did!
Checked the BBC web site straight away and it tells you nothing about the programme apart from "Debate and analysis on the day's big talking points, plus big-name interviews from the worlds of film, entertainment, sport and politics." Very helpful...
I'm glad I caught the announcement!

And now I hear that gay American bishop is also going to be on the show, and given how much he's been in the news recently, I'll bet this means they spend most of the show chuntering with him and about two minutes with Captain Slow. Still, I will be ready with recording equipment to catch what little there might be of the spaniel-headed one.

Originally Posted by Aston Martin

I hope they do a full Japan episode from top to bottom... Imagine the cars for £1000.

Last I heard, the Japanese equivalent of the MOT test is so strict that most cars over six years old have no hope of passing. Which is why the Japanese load their six-year-old cars onto a boat and send them to be sold abroad as grey imports... while a load of them end up on our shores (and a few other right-hand-drive markets), there's also a significant number finding their way to eastern Russia. After all, if you lived in Vladivostok, what would you rather have: a six-year-old RHD Toyota with another 200,000 km left in it, or a Lada that will have to be brought in from much further away (despite not having to cross any borders), which will take longer to arrive and drop to bits within a couple of years?

Originally Posted by BlaRo

Fiona Bruce is a classy dame. Are newsreaders as influential in Britain as they are in America? We've made heroes out of Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jennings, and an entire generation listened to those three men tell us about the fall of the Berlin Wall, Princess Di's death, etc.

We made a hero out of Trevor McDonald. And I'm still annoyed to this day that Martyn Lewis and Moira Stewart were shunted off to graveyard slots.

Originally Posted by warren

The producers then have to pick out the best few minutes, both in terms of the quality of the filming itself (since they only get one shot at some of the important stuff), and in terms of what the presenters are saying.

I read Andy Wilman and Jezza's blogs beforehand and one of them mentioned the camera inside the GT-R flickering red and green the way an old VHS tape has a habit of doing... and they couldn't film it again. I was watching out for that bit - turns out I didn't need to look specifically, because it was right at the beginning of the race and it was incredibly obvious. Never again will I get annoyed at my ageing tapes of Scrapheap Challenge...

[NooDle]

Originally Posted by Nuieve

How did JC manage to program his GPS to take him to the final destination when he couldn't even find out how to turn it on?

I thought about this too, but of course he could have had someone set it up for him so he has the destination and everything ready to go.
He said himself that he daren't adjust anything because he may kill the GPS alltogether...which he does later on...

[Numer0bis]

Originally Posted by Frederic

What's that phone Hammond has? Is it a razr? Looks quite nice!

it looks like the new sony ericsson model only avaible in japan: SO906i or something like that



I think its the red one but obviously I could be totally wrong maybe its a motoral but I thought because they are in japan they would obviously have a japanese phone.

[Defcon]

The 1st time Amy pipes up in her cheerful sexy little voice, Jeremy's face and cry of 'help' is priceless These are the little moments that actually make the whole thing worth watching even if the rest of it were crap.

Although I have to say as much as the whole race for Jeremy seemed to depend on Amy, I don't get how he was able to follow her directions since her voice as well as onscreen info was in Japanese. Was he simply follwong the turn arrows?

I would've liked to see a whole 1hr Japan special, there's so much untapped comedy gold in Jeremy and the boys trying to interact (and failing) with the strangeness that is Japan.