[01x02] November 28th, 2010

[01x02] November 28th, 2010

  • 10

    Votes: 6 2.1%
  • 9

    Votes: 25 8.8%
  • 8

    Votes: 81 28.6%
  • 7

    Votes: 80 28.3%
  • 6

    Votes: 40 14.1%
  • 5

    Votes: 20 7.1%
  • 4

    Votes: 15 5.3%
  • 3

    Votes: 3 1.1%
  • 2

    Votes: 5 1.8%
  • 1

    Votes: 8 2.8%

  • Total voters
    283
I think he would have been a better Stig than presenter (unless he IS the Stig already).

My issue with Tanner is that while he may be a drifting champion, drifting is to autosport what rap is to music. Anyone can do it and it takes a minimum of talent. It takes far more talent to keep a car from drifting on a highspeed racecourse than it does to make it lose traction. Hell...I used to drive drift-style all the time when I lived around Chicago and there was any snow on the roads. Yes, I know doing it on pavement is harder, but I don't have the money to waste a set of tires to do much practicing.

Tanner's also a stunt driver in many hollywood movies (Bourne Ultimatum, Iron Man, Dukes of Hazard, Fast and Furious, several TV shows), and competed in X Games winning the gold medal for rallying (ahead of Ken Block). He became the first American to compete in the European Rally Cross Championship. Just this year he won 2 gold medals in rally racing at X Games.

I understand the dislike for drifting, but Tanner's got skill.

Watch this head-to-head battle v. Ken Block for the Gold, you'll have a new respect for Tanner.

 
Last edited:
I don't like that so much of the track is coned-off. Seems like there's margin for error because I'm sure they take down and re-set the cones regularly.

I see your wager of unsubstantiated speculation and counter with some of my own.

I'm sure that if the cones are being moved they would have marked the track on the ground with paint or other striping, the same way The Hammerhead is marked out on TG:UK.
 
There was improvement, but still the hosts are boring. the Bryan Boytano remark was a complete rip off of a recurring joke found in South Park.

You do know he was a famous figure skater before south park mentioned him once in the 90s, right?
 
Tanner's also a stunt driver in many hollywood movies (Bourne Ultimatum, Iron Man, Dukes of Hazard, Fast and Furious, several TV shows), and competed in X Games winning the gold medal for rallying (ahead of Ken Block). He became the first American to compete in the European Rally Cross Championship. Just this year he won 2 gold medals in rally racing at X Games.

I understand the dislike for drifting, but Tanner's got skill.

Watch this head-to-head battle v. Ken Block for the Gold, you'll have a new respect for Tanner.


I already conceded to the fact that he's got skill in drifting and hooning, and rally situations, however I'll still maintain that real skill in car handling is being able to drive on the ragged edge without breaking traction. On tarmac, the fastest way around a circuit is to not break traction. I compare him to these guys who can do trick shots in bowling, golf, pool, etc. Yes, they can do amazing stuff under limited circumstances, but you never see them in true big-league competition.
 
Last edited:
Apologies to those few who won't get the reference to FG's "sabotage" of TGUK several years back.


motivatorc20aa98635d620600109213f87f55a2b40b65e33.jpg
 
The V8/V12 Vantage segment was good, damn good...I felt like I was watching the UK version. And so far Rutledge is my favorite, I think he will grow it to a great host.
 
I quite like it so far.
Sure, the hosts are not up to the british, and the cinematography isn`t as well. But for me it`s already pretty good, and miles away from anything i can watch in german TV.
The voice-overs and commentarys are not as refined as the BBC ones, but I think they can grow into a good team.
There are parts, esspecially in the 2nd episode, that I really enjoyed, like the Aston Vantage Review. There was a lot of that what I like TopGear for,like fantastic emotional Audio/Video compilations, but there were just some plain and intelligent informations weaved in as well, without ruining the entertainment. For some reason I was quite stunned when they compared both cars, just standing with the bonnets up, showing the engines. It was just like: "Yes, that was a useful information, delivered nice and simple without being boring." It`s a fine addition to all the entertainment and aggressive scripting, just going a bit back to the roots of a car review. And that is something that I sometimes miss in modern UK Top Gear reviews, cause I know that the guys from the BBC could do that even better. So for me, it has got potential.
 
problems for TG-US... sad jokes...sad host...and sad editing. Comon with quotes like... "You look good in that helmet"..and"This car is a hunk of junk" even the guest cant come up with something more original.
so far nothing i've seen so far compares to TG-UK.
another thing TG-Uk is coming to a close... even i feel they are slowly winding down. which is sad but after 15 seasons its expected.
One thing that Pissed me off... was the sad lame intros they give the STIG and for that matter the Stig's Copy. as far as i am concerned there is only one Z-STIG

OMG" You realize top gears reputation rest solely on you."
I just sliced my wrist

you need to read earlier in this thread, i think/hope that you understand the reason for the bad jokes. this show will take time to come together. please read back.

Then the Aston Martin bit. The Vantage is an amazingly beautiful car, it's proportions are spot on, the interior quality is excellent and it's high tech as well. There was not enough beautyshots and an awful amount of bullshit. What was the number one complaint about the V8? It's UNDERPOWERED!? 420 hp? 0-60 in 4,7 sec? 180mph? Slow? Really?
Also, what was it about all that "BRITS ARE LYING!!!"-nonsense just because the car doesn't drive as fast as the last number written on the speedo? My car actually does empty it's speedo (Porsche 911 (996) - Top speed 280kph, but indicates a nod over the final number which is 300), but very few other cars do. I'll bet you'd be hard pressed to find any American car that does that. And is that a criteria for judging if the car is good or not? Sillyness in Top Gear is ok, but STUPID sillyness? That was fuckin' annoying.

i tink most of what was said during the aston segment was a rip back at Jezza for all the "fat american" jokes (IMO). im fairly confident youll see alot more of this. as far as the show, keep watching, you must have faith!
 
I already conceded to the fact that he's got skill in drifting and hooning, and rally situations, however I'll still maintain that real skill in car handling is being able to drive on the ragged edge without breaking traction. On tarmac, the fastest way around a circuit is to not break traction. I compare him to these guys who can do trick shots in bowling, golf, pool, etc. Yes, they can do amazing stuff under limited circumstances, but you never see them in true big-league competition.

There are two schools of thought at work here. I agree in many forms of racing on a track drifting is unnecessary and in others it's a requirement. I've been on a track a few times myself and while I've gotten some compliments on my car control drifting through corners, I understand it isn't the fastest way around a corner (and in my case it's unintentional, the result of coming into a corner too hot and still fighting my natural reaction to lift off which causes oversteer, and in one case having a rear swaybar that was way too stiff).

I do think it's out of Top Gear character to have a pro driver as a presenter, and I *would* like to see Tanner face off against the Stig to get a comparison of times. Who knows, Tanner may be a good road course driver too.

On the other hand, I can think of another Top Gear host who has made a living shouting "power" and throwing his back out with incessant powerslides. In fact, in his latest DVD "The Italian Job", said host gets yelled at by his driving instructor for drifting instead of going around a corner the right way.

There's a reason the Top Gear hosts never know their time around the track, they don't want to know, and they are hooning the cars not trying to actually go fast.

And besides, cars on film look slower than they are going -- powerslides look exciting, lots of smoke and drama, and that makes for good TV. Think how low SIARPC looks until you get Michael Gambon or Tom Cruize getting up on two wheels. That's why they put the stationary camera at the tires, to get the "woosh" sensation during the straight.
 
Last edited:
Finally getting around to this thread. This episode was, as promised, much better than the first! I am looking forward to the next one.

One thing though - two episodes, and nary a crtical remark on any of the featured vehicles, that I can recall. I hope it isn't out of fear from advertisers, as has long been a concern...
 
Big improvement from last week. Rutledge as interviewer was a big improvement. Still a super short segment, but of course, the episodes are 20 minutes shorter, too. (I'd wanna see a longer interview if it was someone I cared about, though) All in all, it's coming along nicely.
 
I agree with most everybody above. 01x02 was a vast improvement over 01x01. Everybody's personality seemed to come out a little bit more in this episode. Hopefully the improvements keep coming because I really think that, once they become comfortable hosting the show, these guys will do a damned fine job. I'm really looking forward to 01x03.

plus...lying IS a British thing... ;)
 
I don't think brits lie more than other people. Besides, what a thing to lie about, if the speedo can be maxed or not. As I said, that was silly, but not in a good way. I am hoping for 01x03 to be better though.

For the record: I'm Norwegian and drive a German car.
 
Hey, that was really pretty good. Yes the "ski vs car" thing has been done, but I liked this version better. Mostly because Faust is a truly excellent driver, some of the drifts through snow were pretty incredible.

The high point of the episode was the Aston review, though. I'll go as far as saying that the sequence on the dry lake bed is just as good as anything the UK version has done.

BSSC is standard fast forward territory for me.

the blind drift sequence was also pretty enjoyable, if not up the the standards of the first two films.

7/10
 
I don't think brits lie more than other people. Besides, what a thing to lie about, if the speedo can be maxed or not. As I said, that was silly, but not in a good way. I am hoping for 01x03 to be better though.

For the record: I'm Norwegian and drive a German car.

which reminds me... some series ago.. clarkson mentioned about how Aston Martin lied about the horse power of a few of their cars decades ago, and possibly other makers too. so, TG:USA isnt exactly setting some new precident here.
 
Well, a few decades ago Rolls Royce put "adequate" in place of horsepower and other performance figures in their official sales and marketing material. Aston Martins of late has been owned by Ford and now a group headed by David Richards (Owner of Prodrive). Hardly the lying bunch.
 
which reminds me... some series ago.. clarkson mentioned about how Aston Martin lied about the horse power of a few of their cars decades ago, and possibly other makers too. so, TG:USA isnt exactly setting some new precident here.

they all do it, watch the UK episode with the Shelby that Richard dyno's.

Well, a few decades ago Rolls Royce put "adequate" in place of horsepower and other performance figures in their official sales and marketing material. Aston Martins of late has been owned by Ford and now a group headed by David Richards (Owner of Prodrive). Hardly the lying bunch.

It was a joke...a joke
 
they all do it, watch the UK episode with the Shelby that Richard dyno's.

Err, no. They measure bhp on the engines crank. Measure at the wheels (like they did on TG with a dynamometer) and you'll get the WHP or Wheel Horse Power. Remove the power lost in the transmission and drivetrain and you end up with a number some percentage lower than the given figure. The amount lost depends on lots of factors like the kind of transmission, amount of wheels driven, and so on. Typically 5-15% is lost just by the mechanicals required to put the power to the wheels. The 500 bhp Mustang with 447 whp ammounts to a loss of almost 11% which is ok for a rear wheel drive front engined car. Hammond could have explained that on the show though.


It was a joke...a joke

I know, it just wasn't funny.
 
Quickly skimmed the first 8 pages of this thread and didn't see a mention of this.
I'm currently watching the episode for the first time, and right off the bat, I noticed that when they show the Evo switching from Tarmac to Snow or Gravel or whatever, the cluster shows a nice 74F outside. Yeahhhh..... Snow, 74F, :rolleyes:
 
Top