[02x03] December 22nd, 2017 - Bah Humbug-atti

[02x03] December 22nd, 2017 - Bah Humbug-atti

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  • Total voters
    53

DanRoM

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What, no thread yet? RdKetchup on Christmas vacation or what? :p

Anyway, third ep of the second season. And I quite liked it, in stark contrast to the previous one.
  • James' Stinger film: Unfortunately, they didn't really tell anything about the car. Which is a shame, because it's supposed to be quite good. I hope it does well on the market, because we need more sporty RWD sedans. Especially from non-German car makers. The film also didn't go into any detail on high-speed skateboarding. In the end it was just a well-filmed race up a mountain - but at that it was good.
  • Conversation street/Christmas presents: It was obviously heavily scripted (having a hammer handy) and also quite heavy on taking the piss at Hammond, but even though, it was good and made me laugh lots. But I can't shake the feeling they're using laugh tracks.
  • Celebrity F*** Off: I actually liked it in the previous episodes, but this time it just fell flat. Segments with guest obviously are highly dependent on the quality of the guests, of course.
  • Lunch break racing: This was brillant. It became more and more obviously staged (was the woman with the Elise a deliberate shout-out to he-he ? :D ), because the collection of cars was just too fitting and also the racing around a public car park with lots of obstacles like parked cars and barely any spectator safety was too spectacular for it to be "real" in my opinion. Anyway, it was well done. I like it for the blatant promotion of street racing in highly inappropiate places. I don't like it for the equally blatant promotion of the two companies - except they may be fake, but I just can't be arsed to investigate that.
  • Chiron: The weakest part in my opinion. Beautiful car, but frankly I am really tired by their "with a supercar you can travel fast" bullshit. At least this time they acknowledged that with speed limit, this doesn't really work. Also, Clarkson seemed not to be doing his best effort, which let the segment down.
My verdict: 8/10.
 
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The lunch break racing looks awesome. The stinger episode shouldn’t have been a that Kia. Usually the “James races some kids” is with a car that’s not so exciting. The stinger actually seems like it will be really good.
 
The Stinger segment was supposed to be Richard's, but because of the accident he couldn't do it. He always did the "car vs. something that's not a car races" on TG. And always did them quite well, IMHO.
 
I gave this one an 8. I really liked the locations and vehicles involved, and the very end with the C'était un rendez-vous remake was pretty good.
 
I fell asleep so many times trying to watch this one I got beaten to the punch to start the thread.

I also lost the 9 hours timezone advantage I had in the previous weeks, and the lack of family responsibilities :p


I am basically agreeing to all of DanRoM 's points.


Another week, another 7 for me, but for different reasons.
There was a lot less badly scripted toilet humor, the banter was better, yet 2 of the 3 films were boring. They managed to make a film about the fastest car in the world boring!

One thing I did like was the hommage to Rendez-vous.

The parking lot racing was silly, but they made it work.

Besides shagging with a bear, who was the American celebrity? Why invite the Paddington dude if he's not into cars, by is own admission. That segment was the worst so far this season.
 
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Kia Stinger: Considering that CHM Top Gear usually makes fun of Korean cars, this is a pleasant change. Plus, given that James failed to beat cyclists with a Fiat 500 and parkour jumpers with a Peugeot, it's not completely out of place for him to be happy whipping skateboarders with the thing.

Lunch break racing: actually this is pretty important. CHM always had a health dose of "playing with the people" that TGT only barely touched on; stuff like The Cool Wall and the India Special hill climb. This helps re-establish that relationship.

Bugatti Chiron. Honestly Chris Harris did this better, but you do get the sense that the Trio wanted this to set up a Chiron vs Aircraft race, and with Hammond WIA it couldn't happen this series.
 
Felt like classic TG again. Fine by me. Hammond and May have something to do, unlike the previous season.

Brilliant reference at the end of the Chiron review.

The Chiron bit might feel a bit boring, because the Chiron is supposed to be a bit boring. And that's Clarkson's point. Progress is not only going faster, but going faster effortlessly. Ludicrous mode in the Tesla S is the same combination of fast and boring.
 
That’s something I’ve noticed in my own cars. My wagon needs a lot of focus over 65mph. It gets really floaty and moves around a lot. Mustang is effortless up to about 100mph and newer cars anywhere from a Subaru Outback, Ford Edge, Chevy Cruze, or Nissan Altima can go even faster without a worry.

That’s also the difference with the incredible budgets and time spent with R&D. Everything is engineered to hell and back to the nth degree. So, now you can do everything the sales brochure said with such little effort or concern. It’s magnificent.
 
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So far so good, second season seems quite 'TopGeary', and the guys seem to feel more comfortable.

Am I the only one to find last three weeks' shows better than almost everything that came after TG season 18?
 
Promise was there but the whole episode was forgettable. Meh... so far weakest episode of the season.
 
peta303;n3542917 said:
So far so good, second season seems quite 'TopGeary', and the guys seem to feel more comfortable.

Am I the only one to find last three weeks' shows better than almost everything that came after TG season 18?

Couldn't agree more, the Top Gear feel from the best seasons (6-13) is back, sure there will be some lesser good episodes but since dumping the American, Celebrity Brain Crash and some of the most oversripting they have severely improved the show.
There are some minor tweaks left to do, but all in all it's much better this season.
 
93Flareside;n3542913 said:
That’s something I’ve noticed in my own cars. My wagon needs a lot of focus over 65mph. It gets really floaty and moves around a lot. Mustang is effortless up to about 100mph and newer cars anywhere from a Subaru Outback, Ford Edge, Chevy Cruze, or Nissan Altima can go even faster without a worry.

That’s also the difference with the incredible budgets and time spent with R&D. Everything is engineered to hell and back to the nth degree. So, now you can do everything the sales brochure said with such little effort or concern. It’s magnificent.

I don`t know what car is the "My wagon needs a lot of focus over 65mph" or how well maintained it is, but most of the acceptable cars made after the 90s can do 65 mph (or more) w/o any issues or extra focus from the driver.

Well, after so many iterations of the same components and sub-components, some manufactures managed to make some cars that actually work :)
 
Weakest episode by far, still enjoyable. pros: cstreet, lunch races, chiron. cons: everything else. 6.
 
+:
  • Kia Stinger segment, i like a lot. Reminded of the old TG races. Well done May. As for the car, it looks astonishing, performs very well in all the areas and if i didn't have a Range Rover, i would buy one immediately.
  • Conversation Street was alright
  • Bugatti Chiron segment was reasonable ok, not very good, not bad. I imagine it would be awesome if it did include the race with Hammond on his helicopter.
+-:
  • Lunchtime Office Car Park Racing, mehhh
-:
  • CFO(Celebrity Face Off) ​​​​​​
R: 7/10

PS: The best episode so far.
 
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Enjoyed immensely in spite of obvious fakery - the car park racing was definitely staged, for a start fleet managers don't have 9 year old Vauxhalls as company cars, it just doesn't happen! - but it still felt like proper, classic TG pretty much all of the way through. Solid 8, bordering on a 9.
 
I have to agree with MWF, that was a very good episode. And I think most of you know that road on Mallorca from this video:

 
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