[11x04] July 13th, 2008

[11x04] July 13th, 2008


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Best episode, hands down, for this series. Possibly one of the best I can remember at the moment. Truely epic race and review. The pictures from the 8C review are nice, and I even watched the stars in cars part. I haven't done that since.... long time ago.

10/10 -Its just Biblical.

Edit: Its either that, or we just haven't seen a good episode for too long.
 
I was expecting there to be the scene with May driving the Mitsuoka to be in this episode. Maybe next week?

Overall, it was a great episode. I was very surprised that the Alfa was so slow, they had potential to make a great sports car it seems. What's weird is that the 8C was actually .2 slower SLOWER than the old Maserati Coupe in the wet. Also it's only a few seconds quicker than the previous Arnage T. The 8C does look damn good though. The race was enjoyable and the guests weren't bad. 8/10
 
One of the most epic episodes ever! A+! 8C brought the perfect blend of car pornography into the mix. The images from Japan were awesome, and the GT-R was and is amazing. As much as it may be a faux pas to admit this on here, I loved the Japanese public transport system as well, the bullet train was fantastic.
 
Does anyone remember how James May pronounced "Oh Cock" in Japanese?

great episode, the whole race had me glued to the tv. 9/10
 
What an epic episode in every way. 8c review was just inspired, and the Japan Race was nail-biting, with plot twists at every corner, whilst still managing to feel real, not in a scripted sense, these races really do happen, but as if you're actually there. Brilliant.

C'mon, the Sandero has been mentioned every episode this season and it is very reasonably priced... and such a crap car that i'd rather invest the same amount of money in a late-70s saloon. The perfect RPC if you want to see two wheels falling off during the same lap.

Dacias aren't sold in the UK, so I doubt it.
 
I didn't really like this episode until the end.

* Started off with fellating yet another awful Alfa. He admits it has all the usual faults and isn't good looking from some angles (nearly all of them, to me) but "none of this matters". No points for that.

* The news was formulaic, except for the impossibly uglier 8C vert being this week's porn. Half a point there.

* The first part of the race wasn't much to write home about either. Hammond and May took to the train system well, but Clarkson didn't really seem to be behind the car rather than just awed with the bumf and gadgetry. The final few minutes were really good...but...and I don't care what Clarkson or anyone else says. The only word that came to my mind when he lost 45 minutes because of the sat nav blinking out was "convenient". It looked like a blowout for Jeremy, but one button press erased it all. The second part was much better, though. Jeremy enjoyed himself more and the finish was incredible. It took up a lot of the show, but it was worth it. 4 points.

* The Stars portion wasn't so bad. I'd give it 1.5 points.

Total of 6 out of 10. Nothing too special. So much wrong, especially in the first half. Worst of all, the show still seems completely unbalanced. It's basically become what I've feared since Series Eight, "The Clarkson Show". He always used to be dominant, but now even more so.
 
Dacias aren't sold in the UK, so I doubt it.

Renault actually announced the U.K. launch of the Logan for early 2008... don't know or care what delayed them. The Sandero is just too good a RPC to be wasted as a running gag... or the running gag is not mentioning the car, but making people like me speculate... whatever.
 
Epic is a word that gets thrown around here too much when describing episodes or segments.

But that race was awesome. Even though its an old format there was plenty of new stuff in there to make it interesting and enjoyable. Japan is an amazing place and I wanna go there more now and stuff like the Bill Oddie mask and James with a translator machine were hilarious. Looking back at the Alfa segment last week, even though it was amusing, there was nothing really new.

The Alfa test was OK, I'm just a bit fed up with it always being Jezza testing cars which really, no one is ever gonna be able to buy.

SIARPC was actually pretty good this week but I felt it that it punctured alot of the suspense of the Japan race. When it came back I'd lost interest a bit and Richard losing James and the sat nav getting turned off didn't seem as funny as the older stuff. Hopefully that will not be the case with repeat viewings.

News was pretty good too.

All in all a great episode, easily best of the series.
 
THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!

-the alfa romeo review (not the car) was perfect. The things he said, the way he put it together. I haven't seen a car review on top gear like that for a while.

-not sure why tokyo was traffic free? It is usually a disaster. Maybe it was sunday?

9.5/10. Just because I didn't laugh as hard as convertible people carrier, which was 10/10 ;)
 
-not sure why tokyo was traffic free? It is usually a disaster. Maybe it was sunday?

I think they mentioned in the commentary that it was thuresday afternoon... maybe he just avoided rush hour by a few minutes. At least here in Berlin the difference between being in a terrible jam and having a traffic-free city can be less than fifteen minutes.
 
[...] I loved the Japanese public transport system as well, the bullet train was fantastic.

True, and I wasn't really surprised when I saw the queue lines on the platform where James and Richard took their first train. It's a brilliant idea that would't work in any other country (not even Germany :D)
Japan really is a fascinating place.

Hammond's silly expression when he was talking with JC on the first train in loudspeaking mode after the samurai haired guy complaints was epic. You can also notice there the latest flowery fashion in shirts as presented by James May :lol:

EDIT: I'm currently watching it again and trying to understand a bit more (since I'm not an english speaker). What was it that tv presenter (Fiona was her name) said at the end of the interview? It caused a funny expression on JC's face but even after watching for the 21st time I can't make it out.
 
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Hmmm, really enjoyed this! Loved the race (although not my favourite race ever) and the ending was absolutely nail biting! So, so close! Cannot believe James and Richard got separated. Scary! Poor James all alone with his handicam.

Great episode, but I actually think I liked last weeks better (the Alfa challenge).

I didn't even watch the stars in a car bit :p Naughty me....
 
At the end of the interview Fiona Bruce said "I think you should stick it up there, definately" then winking at JC. Another example of good ol British innuendo's
 
Loved the episode.

I am however very urious about the music played as Richard and James are about to board the bullet train. Anyone have any details on that amazing piece of music?
 
i'm fairly certain its from the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age
 
That was a great episode, loved the race. Also, it's interesting to see how Jeremy has completely changed his mind on the 8C. I was watching episode 2 from series 3 the other day and when they showed a pic of it during the news he said it was horrid and terrible, now he's drooling all over it.
 
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