[13x04] July 12th, 2009

[Quiky]

http://www.finalgear.com/shows/topgear/13/4/

[Aston Martin]

"Not very much."
Hammond had a hot chick near him again.
Wasn't expecting a Panamera... it does look better in 'real life'.
It was an interesting race.
Rolled three times the roof looks perfect... carbon fibre roof FTW.
Army was too scripted.

[hajj]

Yeah army was too scripted... looked good though.

Not a mega strong episode overall I think.

Missed the Bolt bit though, will have to rewatch that.

[babyjoe]

James was actually alive this episode!

[Yanster]

Good all round episode this.

Loved the army part, although I'm positive JC wasn't in the EVO when it was crushed. I may be wrong though.

Gave 9/10

[Amie0403]

I'll agree with Jeremy that Porsches look ugly, but I went in a Carrera the other day and apart from there not being enough headroom in the back, it was a great run! Loved it!

I'd use a 39p stamp anyway, but offer me a go in the Panamera and I'll say 'yes' any day!

For the Ford Focus RS review, I'd have that over the Renault any day. I liked how Jeremy pronounced Renualt - with the T at the end. Ha ha!

A good episode. 9/10

[SickGuy]

Anybody see the sign for Twatt?

[Amie0403]

Yeah, I laughed at the sign for Twatt.

I love how the cameramen shoot their angles. XD

[nate_bartlet]

9/10 really enjoyed this episode. There seemed to be more News in this episode than there has been in the 3 previous episodes.
The Royal Mail/Porsche race was good however i really doubt that the Royal Mail is truly faster. I'd really be putting money that the Royal Mail pulled 'favors' on that one to get it there so fast. Whenever i order anything from Play.com or Amazon.com. I've always said "i have every amount of faith in play/amazon.com, its the Royal Mail i don't trust."
The SIARPC segment was good. Usain Bolt seemed to come across as being uninterested at first but then really seemed to lighten up towards the end and you could just tell that he was going to do a fast time.
The Ford/Renault car review was a lot of fun and as always cinematography was way ahead again. The weird thing was that it reminded me a lot of the Audi R8 review (which is too date still my favorite Top Gear review) and the Le Mans style race had me laughing.
Finally the Army race. Obviously it was scripted right from the beginning as soon Clarkson said "we'll be using live bullets." No way was Clarkson in the Evo when it was being crushed. If he had been there would have been footage inside the car as it was happening. Still, despite all the recent press about the British Army and their equipment. This does say a lot about our armed forces. Just hope to god that some of the stuff featured in tonights episode is being used by our boys in Afghanistan. Stay safe lads.
Good episode and very enjoyable. Laughed a lot and still when it comes to my license fee, good use of my money.

[Sovereign001]

8/10.

The panamera, it's porsche oke i agree about that and it had a v8! BUT, what is the point of the car if you can't hear it. It's like the turbo of porsche, it's a supercar and you cannot hear it. This one too, it's not a sportscar but porsche tried to make a family sportscar and richard said, it's damn fast and it has a v8! But i never heard a v8, i even heard more sound coming from a bike!

Panamera goes down!

Love the army scene though!

[freefall]

Rubbish.

Rubbish scripts, rubbish camerawork, rubbish music. None of the hosts seem interested, nor do they pretend to be. It's a bit like 'milking it' stage is in full swing. The army segment was okay, but there's something not quite right with it, still. [edit: oh yeah, cause it's all fake inside out, thats what]

Well, at least we got one decent episode this series so far (13x03), thanks for that...

[rikthoff]

I've given it a seven.

Focus ST vs R28: Yeah baby! Test cars against a competitor presentor! Bantering ensured, and a great outcome!
News: Okay. okay as in okay.
Royal Mail: Yeah, the Royal Mail won. Big deal, they would have anyway with those planes. So focus on the car, give me details! One good remark in the Scottish and another on the highway (options list) ain't gonna cut my cake!
SIARPC: Get the best athlete you can, 3 gold medals. You know they're not talkers or talking entertainers. They're sportsman, they do their entertaining on the track, not on some carshow. Amazing time, yet. Compliments!
Army: NOOOOOOOO! It was staged from the beginning, as soon as I heard Jemery shout "live ammo". The faked bridge made it completely useless.
Bombshell: Sure it was a drugdealer car. Setting it on fire won't make it better justice.

Conclusion: it started out pretty great, but ended up short.

[cookiebun]

Originally Posted by Quiky

http://www.finalgear.com/shows/topgear/13/4/

Thanks for the link.

[Dann]

By far the worst of this serie, started of alright, Ford vs Renault was very enjoyable but after that it went downhill, race bit was ok but they've had far better races in recent episodes, SIARPC is always great for getting yourself a drink but other than that it was pretty useless, as stated above, sporters don't make good guests for an interview. Army bit though... man did that blow! Getting from point A to point B without getting hit by "live ammo" where have we seen that before? kuchrangeroversportkuch. Guess the british army needed some new recruits and wanted a nice piece of propoganda.
5/10

[ozgirl]

Liked the RS vs the R26R, would still rather have the RS! But i am a girl, (well i'm female anyway ) i just don't think i could take a bloke seriously if he rocked up in the Renault.
The race was a bit lacking, somehow, if you compare it to James & Richard in the Smart fourfour, that was much more amusing & entertaining, some of the boys' comments were funny but...And i still think the Panamera is underattractive & overpriced.
At least the news covered a bit more car stuff this week.
The Army stuff was ok.I understand why they keep using the Forces, cos Jezza is a patron of "Help for Heroes", and it's interesting seeing their equipment. Have to wonder why, if they've got all that, do they keep sending guys out in the Viking in Afghanistan etc. From what i understand it's armour isn't heavy enough (underneath at least) to cope with mines or road bombs, hence several recent casualties.
ANYWAY, Bolt was pretty cool, has a sense of humour, and the Heat thing was funny, but i would have James higher than Jezza! (Jezzabelle please don't neg rep me! )
I enjoyed it, always do, but not destined to be one of my all-time faves.
Except i now know there's a place on Orkney called Twatt

[Dieter Cabral]

Oh cock!!

I'm gettina "mininova.org is under maintenance"...!!!

help!?
Edit: Its working now... although Mininova has been a bit off lately

[Speedtouch]

The Ford vs Renault section was a great feature and change from the usual 'I'm Clarkson and this is my view...' idea (even if it did feature this a lot - but this is Topgear, what were you expecting?), what with Hammond being part of it.
As for the segment itself, yet more wonderful filming - I don't know how the guys manage to make something so beautiful that everyone else manages to comparatively make so crap! I love the cuts to/from the dark bits - they really make a nice addition. The review certainly put across the cars' skill and showed them as good cars rather than the usual skim over them.

The Panamera vs Royal Mail bit was very well put together. Some great graphics put in with the map and shots of both parties. Still a hideous car, and they didn't quite manage to show it as such a great cruiser other than 'it has nice seats'. Sounded nice, but not as nice as a V8 can. Overall, I would rather have either an M5 or RS6. But anyway, I haven't driven any of them.

Usain Bolt was a pretty meh guest. He didn't have much to say, and didn't say it. A good lap time, but not quite good enough to be that interesting. The news was, uh, I forget. Answers that question.

As for the finale with the Army, I think using the 'they're using live ammo' line was pointless. Don't even mention they're using blanks - just get on with it. But it was a pretty good 'race', and possibly dare I say it better than the RR Sport vs Tank one? Much better shot, for sure. I loved the fact they could have all those really low flying helicopter shots - TG really are pushing out the boat with the Helicopter filming this series, and I love it.

Overall, I'm going to give it an 8. It was a pretty forgetful episode, to be brutally honest. Still great, but not brilliant.

[nate_bartlet]

Originally Posted by Speedtouch

As for the segment itself, yet more wonderful filming - I don't know how the guys manage to make something so beautiful that everyone else manages to comparatively make so crap! I love the cuts to/from the dark bits - they really make a nice addition. The review certainly put across the cars' skill and showed them as good cars rather than the usual skim over them.

when they did that stuff it funnily enough reminded me of the Enterprise going into warp.

[Werner]

i liked the bit of the focus RS, i'd choose the RS anytime over that plastic renault. but please; when will they stop using those superfast changes of camera angles? it was fun in the beginning but please, nothing wrong with some slower 'run-of-the-mill' camera work for a change during a test or segment.

The news was ok, nothing special, carbotitanium

The Panamera was better than i expected it to be, but i had the feeling it was a bit rushed throughout the segment. but it was 'abeam' good , and the sign 'twatt' was quite funny indeed. I must agree with Hammond that the panamera does look a lot better on video/in real life than it does on the official press photos, but that always seems to be the case with porsches.

SIARPC. Massive respect to Usain Bolt, but he'd get more respect from me if he wasn't such an arrogant arse.

The army bit: Too clearly scripted. nothing wrong with scripting a show, but come on; everybody knows/could guess that jezza was probably having a cup of tea just out of the camera's view while that evo was crushed. Nice display of military hardware though & entertaining to watch.

7/10

[Comedy Stig]

Of course the army feature was heavily scripted but it was still enjoyable, even though pretending to 'hide' was more than a bit useless when up against what the Army has at its disposal. Usain Bolt was good as well, and it was great to have someone who's relatively unpretentious as a guest. The Porsche Panamera does look a bit better when seen moving, but something like a Jaguar or Audi would be better looking and just as good (I'd bet, although I haven't driven any of them yet).

Overall 8/10 compared with 7/10 for last week's.