[14x06] December 27th, 2009 [South America Special]

[14x06] December 27th, 2009 [South America Special]


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My wife hates Top Gear and leaves the room when I turn it on. She watched this whole episode and loved it!
 
Great show. 10/10
Very scripted though (land cruiser, passing on the death road with one of their support vehicles)
But very funny and scripted shows can be funny. Some jokes are getting old though and need to be retired.

I know two people (Mark and LT from Metal Tech) that were sent down there to help work on the FJ40. It was bought in terrible condition so they could use the "only toyota in the world that doesn't work joke" and they weren't allowed to change any of that just keep it running.

Three companies were actually brought in for this Antofaya Expeditions, Wild Trackers and Metal Tech.

Here is one of the statements that LT made
"For those of you that don't watch Top Gear on the BBC, Mark and I were privileged to be apart of the show. It started out with them contacting us about a roll cage which spiraled into loading on a pallet a cut and turned FJ40 housing, spring over parts, high steer, trail ready bead locks, 30 spline longfields, metal tech nose guard and stinger.

Mark flew down to Bolivia initially to help prep the 3 vehicles, '74 FJ40, '84 Range Rover, '91 Suzuki Samurai. He then proceeded to head down into the jungle along with 2 other British mechanics to help keep the vehicles going. I got a call from Mark right after I got home from Offroad Expo saying I needed to book my flight in two days and head to Bolivia. I met up with them just as they were doing the death road. Mark and I did all the work on the FJ40 for the big build up and I proceeded to continue on with the production crew into Chile while Mark flew back home. It was quite a challenge for both Mark and I since the hours were long and hard but if asked to do it again I would do it in a heart beat. "


Seeing the year difference in the vehicles is refreshing and should have been brought up in the reliability wars (which the suzuki really won).
Had they all been the same vintage it would have turned out differently.

Some pics from Mark

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Nice home made snorkle in the Rover
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And what Jarek from Antofaya Expeditions in Chile had to say.
"And of course Travis aka LT. How could I forget. You guys should see him fixing the cars in the field in Putre at Chilean Altiplano at 12,000ft in the night when everybody else went to bed after a day of hard work. It was an adventure indeed.

The LC was OME lifted, split rims were mounted with over-sized tires, winch bullbar with a winch was mounted, roll cage with off-road lights was added too. The mods were chosen both for safety and looks as TV is a visual thing, isn't it? I am sure Travis LT would be much better than me at explaining the technical details of the mods as this was him along with Bob & Karl from Wildtrackers who actually installed all of it.

And I will answer Packer doubts with a question itself. Is Top Gear a documentary series? It is definitely fun to watch.

Jarek. "
 
I tell you what's interesting, as time goes on the % of tens is dropping, which tends to suggest that those watching it via slow illicit means rather than as broadcast are less impressed.

if there was access to this show in america (non downloading means) i think ratings would be alot higher, i know i would tune in religiously every sunday
 
Excellent episode. I agree it deserves the epithet epic. My only worry is it will overshadow the rest of the episodes to come and make the rest of the season feel anticlimactic.
 
Some cable channel could do worse than buy the challenges and show them in the US as a series on its own - be a hoot.
 
Excellent episode. I agree it deserves the epithet epic. My only worry is it will overshadow the rest of the episodes to come and make the rest of the season feel anticlimactic.

an episode of top gear will be watched no matter if it's epic or anticlimatic by most of the people here, it's still good t.v. no matter what.

:mrgreen:
 
9.99

The whole episode I was wondering where "south american stig" and the "usual if your vehicle dies here's a hated piece of crap to help you along" bits were, but they never came.:(

Other than that the show was epic.

I agree with you. They could have had a VW Thing as the back up car, and South American Stig. The question is: What would South American Stig look like?
Wearing a Bolivian Poncho?
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Riding an Apaca
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Also, being that I sell Toyota's I was rooting for the Fj...but I was pleasantly surprised when I say that the Rover was the best considering we had a used (couldn't have been more than 4 years old) front seat electrics catch on fire.
 
I think it's just one snake. Two specific shots one where the snake is being shot in the shade. It looks dark they pan to another shot where they get the snake in some sunlight coming through the window. It's the same snake.
 
and that's 'cause people want to escape their every day life and go for adventure


back in the day, every episode was an escape. ;)

Its was refreshing to finish a sunday night and get on with life come monday.
 
Sorry if repost.

When they film the intros to these specials (in the studio). Do they get an entire new audience for that week or do they film the intro the week before at the last filming.

If the first option, what appart from the experience entices people to go all the way to the studio for 5 mins? I.e. do they show the film on the screens etc?
 
^ They generally film the intro with the audience for the previous week's show, I guess. Easier because there's no studio bits of significance in specials.
 
^ That is the most logical answer however im reallly looking for conclusive info. Has anyone ever been?
 
Yeah.. I thought it would have been an obvious waste of time to go there for less than 1 minute of actual film time, then go home.
 
^ That is the most logical answer however im reallly looking for conclusive info. Has anyone ever been?

If you look closely you can see it's the same audience. Of course they tell them to re-group, but you will still see familiar faces in the audience of the episode before or after.
 
Plus Richard's hair is exactly the same. Which it never normally is from one week to the next! :p
 
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