[01x12] January 27, 2017

[01x12] January 27, 2017

  • Total voters
    82
Watched this one late last night and I really enjoyed it.
 
They need to scrap the current concept of Grand Tour and start from scratch. Delete tent, forced dialogue, forced jokes and awful acting. Delete pretty much all of the current show.

Start making good road trip videos, it really is as simple as that. Get a camera car, get 3 guys who enjoy driving, and film it. That is all it takes!

If this means firing Wilman, and reducing Clarkson's role as a writer to zero, so be it. You'll thank me later.

edit: I realize Wilman is Grand Tour, but he is also the downfall of it. So is Clarkson, all the dildo jokes, all the destroying of cars, the caricature that Hammond has been reduced to, stink of Clarkson's writing. And Wilman's approval. As long as these two run the show it's doomed.

I'd pay $5 to see Amazon Prime sub numbers. I think Grand Tour is horrible, but I'd like to see how well it sells.
 
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Valgehiir said:
They need to scrap the current concept of Grand Tour and start from scratch. Delete tent, forced dialogue, forced jokes and awful acting. Delete pretty much all of the current show.

Start making good road trip videos, it really is as simple as that. Get a camera car, get 3 guys who enjoy driving, and film it. That is all it takes!

If this means firing Wilman, and reducing Clarkson's role as a writer to zero, so be it. You'll thank me later.

edit: I realize Wilman is Grand Tour, but he is also the downfall of it. So is Clarkson, all the dildo jokes, all the destroying of cars, the caricature that Hammond has been reduced to, stink of Clarkson's writing. And Wilman's approval. As long as these two run the show it's doomed.

I'd pay $5 to see Amazon Prime sub numbers. I think Grand Tour is horrible, but I'd like to see how well it sells.
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Speak for yourself.

There are plenty of mostly free pure car reviews for your viewing pleasure on YouTube. Have fun.

P.S. As of right now, TGT has a 9.1 rating out of 10 on IMDB based on an aggregate of over 30K votes, and a 95% (4.8 average stars out of 5) audience review rating on Rottentomatoes based on 884 votes.
 
fisheye said:
Which off-roaders with the luxury and speed of the Range Rover are you thinking of?
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You'll notice that I never said luxury or speed nor did the bloke I replied to, which is what that off-road capability discussion was about. :D But to answer part of your question, the Jeep Wrangler is every bit as good off-road as the Range Rover as is the Toyota Land Cruiser. The Jeep Grand Cherokee is pretty damn close to if not just as good as the Range Rover as well for a fraction of the price.

The base model Range Rover costs $85,650 in the US and you don't even get a V8--just a supercharged V6 w/340bhp. The base Land Cruiser costs about the same ($84,775) and has all the same off-road goodies as the Range Rover trim for trim, but, you get a fantastic V8 with 381bhp as a starting point in the Land Cruiser. If you want to talk about speed with that V8 the Land Cruiser is faster than the aforementioned equally priced Range Rover by about half a second to 60mph. For grins an equivalent Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland 4x4 with all the off-road toys and a 360bhp V8 you can add costs you $52,430 and its right in-line with that base Range Rover on acceleration and will go anywhere the Range Rover can on or off-road. If you want to compare the most expensive Range Rover w/the supercharged V8 let me spend the ~$60k I'd save with the SRT Grand Cherokee and do a tire change and a ride height adjustment and meet you outdoors. :)

Don't misunderstand I really like the Range Rover, and I'll concede the interior is quite a bit better than the vehicles I mentioned above however what I don't like is the air of superiority some people have with the brand--which include CHM. It just isn't the only game in town for a off-road beast. :D But I get it, they're British and they have patriotism for their country just like we do here so I give them a pass. :mrgreen:
 
Per general rule, when a british show is involved do not expect objectivity regarding anything involving a British brand or Ford (I am...not quite sure why Ford but there you go)
 
Valgehiir said:
They need to scrap the current concept of Grand Tour and start from scratch. Delete tent, forced dialogue, forced jokes and awful acting. Delete pretty much all of the current show.

Start making good road trip videos, it really is as simple as that. Get a camera car, get 3 guys who enjoy driving, and film it. That is all it takes!

If this means firing Wilman, and reducing Clarkson's role as a writer to zero, so be it. You'll thank me later.

edit: I realize Wilman is Grand Tour, but he is also the downfall of it. So is Clarkson, all the dildo jokes, all the destroying of cars, the caricature that Hammond has been reduced to, stink of Clarkson's writing. And Wilman's approval. As long as these two run the show it's doomed.

I'd pay $5 to see Amazon Prime sub numbers. I think Grand Tour is horrible, but I'd like to see how well it sells.
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Exactly.
 
JCE said:
You'll notice that I never said luxury or speed nor did the bloke I replied to, which is what that off-road capability discussion was about. :D But to answer part of your question, the Jeep Wrangler is every bit as good off-road as the Range Rover as is the Toyota Land Cruiser. The Jeep Grand Cherokee is pretty damn close to if not just as good as the Range Rover as well for a fraction of the price.

The base model Range Rover costs $85,650 in the US and you don't even get a V8--just a supercharged V6 w/340bhp. The base Land Cruiser costs about the same ($84,775) and has all the same off-road goodies as the Range Rover trim for trim, but, you get a fantastic V8 with 381bhp as a starting point in the Land Cruiser. If you want to talk about speed with that V8 the Land Cruiser is faster than the aforementioned equally priced Range Rover by about half a second to 60mph. For grins an equivalent Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland 4x4 with all the off-road toys and a 360bhp V8 you can add costs you $52,430 and its right in-line with that base Range Rover on acceleration and will go anywhere the Range Rover can on or off-road. If you want to compare the most expensive Range Rover w/the supercharged V8 let me spend the ~$60k I'd save with the SRT Grand Cherokee and do a tire change and a ride height adjustment and meet you outdoors. :)

Don't misunderstand I really like the Range Rover, and I'll concede the interior is quite a bit better than the vehicles I mentioned above however what I don't like is the air of superiority some people have with the brand--which include CHM. It just isn't the only game in town for a off-road beast. :D But I get it, they're British and they have patriotism for their country just like we do here so I give them a pass. :mrgreen:
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You were complaining on why they had the Range Rover instead of other off-roaders in this episode. This episode was about what CHM think is real competition for the new Bentley, which is luxurious and fast. And more importantly, has the badge of an expensive brand. Toyota's and Jeeps simply aren't in that competition. And they never will. That's why Toyota invented the Lexus brand.

A quote from Clarkson in the episode: "a lot of well-to-do people in Britain, will want to know the result of this race before they choose what color Range Rover they'd like for next years shooting season." And well-to-do-people in Britain don't present themselves on a shooting with a Toyota.

According to www.howrareismycar.co.uk, there are 211,266 Range Rovers in the UK and 2,498 Jeep Grand Cherokees. And to be honest, the Jeep doesn't look very, uhm, European to me. :mrgreen:
 
As good as anything so far -- 9/10 from me. I couldn't call anything perfect so far, but the same pretty much goes for most of the Top Gear years. I don't have much of any problems with the tent -- so long as they don't over-do things, that'll work just fine. Either shut The American up or tone that down a bit, and hopefully we've seen the end of Celebrity Brain Crash. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with TGT overall.

Yes, some of the dialog has been unfortunate -- I don't know if that's strictly Wilman or whoever. One thing I wonder is how Clarkson "agonized over every word in the scripts" back during Top Gear, and I wonder if he isn't taking on that kind of workload anymore. I kind of expect that he's leaving the script up to the writers, and we're suffering a bit for it. But I have hopes for some dialog fine-tuning in the future.

In the end, this was a very enjoyable episode, especially when they finally did what I had been expecting -- showing a bit of the monster out in the Loch.

- - - Updated - - -

You all did see the monster, right?
 
JCE said:
You'll notice that I never said luxury or speed nor did the bloke I replied to, which is what that off-road capability discussion was about. :D But to answer part of your question, the Jeep Wrangler is every bit as good off-road as the Range Rover as is the Toyota Land Cruiser. The Jeep Grand Cherokee is pretty damn close to if not just as good as the Range Rover as well for a fraction of the price.

The base model Range Rover costs $85,650 in the US and you don't even get a V8--just a supercharged V6 w/340bhp. The base Land Cruiser costs about the same ($84,775) and has all the same off-road goodies as the Range Rover trim for trim, but, you get a fantastic V8 with 381bhp as a starting point in the Land Cruiser. If you want to talk about speed with that V8 the Land Cruiser is faster than the aforementioned equally priced Range Rover by about half a second to 60mph. For grins an equivalent Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland 4x4 with all the off-road toys and a 360bhp V8 you can add costs you $52,430 and its right in-line with that base Range Rover on acceleration and will go anywhere the Range Rover can on or off-road. If you want to compare the most expensive Range Rover w/the supercharged V8 let me spend the ~$60k I'd save with the SRT Grand Cherokee and do a tire change and a ride height adjustment and meet you outdoors. :)

Don't misunderstand I really like the Range Rover, and I'll concede the interior is quite a bit better than the vehicles I mentioned above however what I don't like is the air of superiority some people have with the brand--which include CHM. It just isn't the only game in town for a off-road beast. :D But I get it, they're British and they have patriotism for their country just like we do here so I give them a pass. :mrgreen:
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I'm as much an American car guy as the next, and all you said is true, but when all is said an done, I would still have the Range Rover, there is just something about it that no other 4x4 has.
Car platform based SUV's can all go fuck off, but I love me a good proper luxury off-roader, and when it comes to that it's still Range Rover all the way, high price, expensive repair bills, blingy grill, flimsy bits and legendary unreliability be damned.
 
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I enjoyed. I enjoyed very much. 9/10.
 
Would have enjoyed a road trip using the three cars they drove in the opening sequence; switched off when the knob gags started.
 
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fisheye said:
You were complaining on why they had the Range Rover instead of other off-roaders in this episode. This episode was about what CHM think is real competition for the new Bentley, which is luxurious and fast. And more importantly, has the badge of an expensive brand. Toyota's and Jeeps simply aren't in that competition. And they never will. That's why Toyota invented the Lexus brand.

A quote from Clarkson in the episode: "a lot of well-to-do people in Britain, will want to know the result of this race before they choose what color Range Rover they'd like for next years shooting season." And well-to-do-people in Britain don't present themselves on a shooting with a Toyota.

According to www.howrareismycar.co.uk, there are 211,266 Range Rovers in the UK and 2,498 Jeep Grand Cherokees. And to be honest, the Jeep doesn't look very, uhm, European to me. :mrgreen:
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You have a point about those three and the sales numbers. However, I wasn't complaining. :)

Cowboy said:
I'm as much an American car guy as the next, and all you said is true, but when all is said an done, I would still have the Range Rover, there is just something about it that no other 4x4 has.
Car platform based SUV's can all go fuck off, but I love me a good proper luxury off-roader, and when it comes to that it's still Range Rover all the way, high price, expensive repair bills, blingy grill, flimsy bits and legendary unreliability be damned.
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There is just something about a Range Rover yea? If I see any in green I get the fizz. :D
 
Best episode yet. I even liked the constant silly gags, somehow the silliness was well executed this time. Although their fixation about sex-related jokes now that they can do such things does get a bit on my nerves - the town names just are a good opportunity. And they even managed not to ruin the main feature - up until Clarkson's cheating it was very good indeed.

8.5 / 10.
 
DanRoM said:
Best episode yet. I even liked the constant silly gags, somehow the silliness was well executed this time. Although their fixation about sex-related jokes now that they can do such things does get a bit on my nerves - the town names just are a good opportunity. And they even managed not to ruin the main feature - up until Clarkson's cheating it was very good indeed.

8.5 / 10.
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At least the cheating was related to car's ability to go offroad, not just some "genius" idea by Clarkson.
 
I'll give you that.

Also, I forgot: I nearly fell off the chair laughing about them taking the piss at launch control features. :D
 
7.5 out of 10 - a lot of people seem to think it's way better than last week... I don't think last week was that bad... and this week wasn't that much better = quite good and a bit?

I am coming around to the idea that some fresh blood needs to be worked into the format. TGT is pretty much TG minus some brand identifiers and plus some strange differentiators. It's always going to be 3 blokes cocking about etc., but maybe cocking about in a scenario that draws out better writing and ad-lib. The endurance race episode springs to mind. For once they dropped the "ambitious but rubbish" albatross and actually really tried hard to be good at something, once they realised they were out of their depth. The US road trip... they genuinely didn't realise what they were getting into. Same with the North Pole race. Stuff like that.
 
Anyone else think the Bentley is kinda...y'know...ugly? :p I think that look works for the cars, but for that, no thanks. Feels more like a Chinese rip-off Bentley than an actual one. The bland boxy shape, headlight sizes/configuration and usual posh grille don't work for me as an off-road package.
 
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