[12x01] November 2nd, 2008

[Sovereign001]

gt2 wins = same in drag as the lambo, jeremy clearly lies, let's finish him!

 

[Twerp128]

6/10

LP5000-360FQ/GT2 review - Loved Jeremy's review of the GT2, I thought it was spot on until the point when it just suddenly cut off. The Lamborghini review was good, but it's a car that evolves more slowly than the 911, as in it's not all that different than the Gallardo. If Clarkson thinks the GT2 should be easy to drive then he's missed the point. Correct me if I'm wrong too, but Top Gear has never tested a GT2, hell they only gave the Turbo four minutes. The fat man completely blew it off, and then not showing the lap time! Completely ruined the next half-hour of the show as I was pissed off. Minus two points.

The news was average, not a whole lot of information or jokes.

The trucks was funny, the first half was a bit boring but I got into it in the second half. Torque is cool and Top Gear proved it's funny as well.

Hammond better knock Wilman in the back of the head with a hammer, and get the GT2 lap time on the board next week.

 

[Dr_Grip]

three Opel Cadets (or is it a K?) to achieve this strange world record....

Nope. No way anyone would use notoriously hard to find, 40+ year old cars for anything other than them being classic cars. Even the C-model Kadett i drive, which is 10 years younger than Oliver, is notoriosly hard to come by. More likely, they used D- or E-model Kadetts (aka Vauxhall Astra) as they are notoriously cheap used cars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Kadett#Kadett_D_.281979.E2.80.931984.29

And of course they used Oliver, as it was in the script that Hammond would throw the challenge

And about the sadist writing Jeremy's accident into the script... as far as i know the head scriptwriter of TGUK is one Mr. Clarkson, which would make it a masochist

 

[Jupix]

Gave it a 7. Seen 911 and Gallardo too many times now. Film was pretty though.

News was best since, oh, about season 7. Couldn't understand much of what Parkinson said.

Trucks bit went on and on. Funny at first and then started dragging. I wish they'd done another car review after siarpc.

 

[mclarensmps]

It was a good start to the season. I really wanted to know the time the GT2 did... bloody Clarkson :lol:.

Liked the news, liked the lorries, had a good laugh at the end of the day .

Funnily enough, I found the 560-4 review slightly underwhelming :\. I love that car, though!

 

[gfc-julian]

Am I the only one thinking: "WTF was that"
1 car review, just one car reviewed in a whole hour-long episode. (the GT2 doesn't count, showing a car for a minute and declaring it a dog isn't a review).

Then when that pesky car business was over and done with the head straight into a massive film about TRUCKS!?!? I'm sure it's all good fun playing around with trucks, but did they have to dedicate the whole eposide to it?

Starting to loose interest in these ever more far-fetched used vehicle challanges.

agreed... some of the truck film was funny. i.e. the special cargo and the hill starts but most of it i was like when is this going to finish. i was like omg not another porsche when the episode started and thank god it was not a lengthy review, lambo looked good but to review 2 cars for a whole episode ridiculous, SIARPC segment was ok.

this episode has to be my least favourite!

 

[MattW]

Gave it a 9. The major problem I had was that I couldn't get a blinding word from what Parkinson was saying! :lol: That Yorkshire accent is terrible for a non-Brit.

The real problem was that Jeremy, AS USUAL when it comes to Porsches, forced the GT2 segment through too quickly and moved on to the LP560-4. They should have had the Hamster again alongisde him for the GT2 segment to give a Porsche lover's opinion.

Other than that, great, and the lorry segment was fabulous. As usual for TG, "Ambitious but Rubbish!"


EDIT: Has anyone noticed something on Jezza's tricked-out Avantime in the series preview?

http://img260.imageshack.**/img260/2364/vlcsnap57074xk2.png

Yes, a rear wing off a Super Aguri F1 car.

And as I said before, if they destroy that wing, someones going to die.

 

[nEx]

It would annihilate the Lambo.


- Stop mocking 911's for being "jumped up Beetles". In truth they, as we've just seen, rape every single other supercars.

Despite all this, I still think TG is very good entertainment, but it can be vastly improved.

That's exactly the point....Clarkson's driving skills are just rubbish.
Like many reviewers I would have love to see Richard in the GT2..

 

[Brother Michael]

Riiiight....I didn't read through all the 12 pages, but here are my two cents.

This episodes sucks. Badly. I gave it 1/10, which is frankly a bit overkill but I truly didn't like it, didn't laugh once.

Now the Gallardo vs. GT2 was quite well done, but treally very predictable, since Jezza hates Porsches and loves (and used to have) a Gallardo. It wasn't a bad review, not at all. But just a bit boring, save for the very beginning with the shouting. That was good.

Now the trucks.....ehhh.......

flame me all you want but it was seriously stupid. From the very beginning it was obvius this is going to be yet another White Van Man -fiasko. Utter nonsense and I felt ashamed watching that. This wasn't the Top Gear I like.....yesyesyes, I know..."Go watch Fifth Gear", "Well don't watch it if oyu don't like it" "BlaaBlaafuckin'Blaa"

Now give me a break with all the fanboyism. I do NOT think that even at it's worst Top Gear is the best TV there is and therefore I don't want this sort of cocking about to continue. I want cocking about with and around cars, for example both times when the trio took 3 supercars on a roadtrip. Now that is entertainment. Or the police car bit. Or all of the cheap car challenges.

And furthermore, and this is my biggest point and the reason why I didn't like this at all (and my brother agrees for the same reason):

I actually can drive a truck and have a license for it (so does my brother). I am not a truck driver, so all the fat-pornography-rape jokes don't bother me. I just felt absolutely uncomfortable watching that....that....thing. They seriously know nothing about this kind of stuff and for me they only made total fools of themselves and not in the good, usual Top Gear way.

So there....I know I will get neg repped for this, but so be it. Top Gear, at least for me, is still about 3 blokes, cocking about with and around cars and just enjoying themselves. That is entertainment right there. Now if I want actual comedy, I'll put on a Friends DVD, watch South Park, or Frasier, or anything actualyl comedic.

I truly hope the series will pick up from here on.

 

[nameless1]

good episode , I can never get bored of these three working together

I loved how Clarkson has painted his truck in black..

These lorry crashes at the end looked spectacular!

and I wonder why Clarkson was dressed like Steven Seagal during the news? :lol:

 

[nate_bartlet]

Gave it a 8 out of 10, great season opener and from the series preview it looks like more great stuff is to come.

The Porsche GT2 and the Lambo Gallardo review was interesting. loved Clarksons Stig intro "some say that he has had sex with Russell Brand's answering machine." was left wondering what the GT2's true time really was.

The news kept me going, liked May's reaction to the Sandero and also "how much have you lost on your car" bit.

The Trucks from what i've read seem to be a thorny issue on the forums and i've always found Top Gear to be a more entertainment program than a car review program and having said that i don't mind the trucks being on the show and there were many parts i enjoyed, Hammond trying to hook the cab up, May clipping Clarkson at the corner and May's attempts at breaking his truck at full speed. Also for some reason when i saw Clarkson's painted truck all i could think of was 'transformers.' The Segment had enough to keep me entertained and that's enough to make me enjoy the episode.

The SIARPC segment kept the episode ticking over and was probably the only point where i thought it lagged.

Great season opener, looking forward for more from the Top Gear Trio.

 

[Bartg.pl]

I actually can drive a truck and have a license for it (so does my brother). I am not a truck driver, so all the fat-pornography-rape jokes don't bother me. I just felt absolutely uncomfortable watching that....that....thing. They seriously know nothing about this kind of stuff and for me they only made total fools of themselves and not in the good, usual Top Gear way.

They also doesnt know anything about vans, tractors and farming or caravaning, good thing is they want to share that misery with us Afair Jezza's opinion on gt2 in siarpc with J-Kay and Thriller is, that the worst parts are front end bounce, understeer in corners which when trying to deal with it turns into death dealing immediate oversteer, which in rear engined 530bhp Turbo 911 is hard to control ( + the fact that Jeremy is not the Stig and probably ran out of talent while driving Gt2 ). And cant blame him that he doesnt like 911's ( in fact he really wants one based on few of his columns in newspapers ) and wanted to concentrate on a Lambo. And blaming TG for being scripted is getting waaay to annoying, dont you people laugh at a great comedy movie, which is guess what ? No youre wrong , its scripted...

 

[dino_martini]

I gave it an 8

Loved the LP560 and the little bit of the GT2

News was good, hearing about people loosing their shirts on the cars they bought recently.

Lorry bit was awesome. Felt like a true Top Gear adventure. None of them really broke down though, and thats a shame. :lol:

The real problem was that Jeremy, AS USUAL when it comes to Porsches, forced the GT2 segment through too quickly and moved on to the LP560-4. They should have had the Hamster again alongisde him for the GT2 segment to give a Porsche lover's opinion.

That would have been better. I really enjoyed the R8 vs 911 review with Hamster in his Porsche.

 

[PaperBiro]

EDIT: Has anyone noticed something on Jezza's tricked-out Avantime in the series preview?

http://img260.imageshack.**/img260/2364/vlcsnap57074xk2.png

Yes, a rear wing off a Super Aguri F1 car.

You think Clarkson might have brought Super Aguri? Are they still up for auction? I haven't heard of them for a while now.

Anyways, good opener, 9/10. I'm not going to nitpick, overall it was pretty good. Whoever would watch Strictly over this would be mad.

 

[Brother Michael]

They also doesnt know anything about vans, tractors and farming or caravaning, good thing is they want to share that misery with us Afair Jezza's opinion on gt2 in siarpc with J-Kay and Thriller is, that the worst parts are front end bounce, understeer in corners which when trying to deal with it turns into death dealing immediate oversteer, which in rear engined 530bhp Turbo 911 is hard to control ( + the fact that Jeremy is not the Stig and probably ran out of talent while driving Gt2 ). And cant blame him that he doesnt like 911's ( in fact he really wants one based on few of his columns in newspapers ) and wanted to concentrate on a Lambo. And blaming TG for being scripted is getting waaay to annoying, dont you people laugh at a great comedy movie, which is guess what ? No youre wrong , its scripted...

Now that you mention it.....vans, tractors, farming and caravan......all of those are my very least favorites of Top Gear ever. Exactly for the same reason: they are trying too hard to be a pure comedy show, which in my opinion they definetely should not do !!

As for the 911 vs. Lambo, I already said, I didn't think it was bad. I just think it was simply more of the same old story. I would have liked something new put in the mix.

And not once in my post did I say anything about Top Gear being too scripted. I am not a total idiot (only some) and therefore I do know, as do most people around here, that it is scripted. And again, that is NOT my problem. It is exactly things like "Oh it's James's old reaaaaaly valuable antique grand piano".....I'm sorry, it just wasn't. It's just too obvius, they haven't even tried to make it funny, they just assume, and looking at the comments, assume correctly that people find it funny. I just think it is too much.

And "don't you people laugh at a great comedy movie". I'm sorry, that is just a stupid thing to say. Top Gear, while being scripted, should NOT be a comedy show !! The comedy should be a by-product, and very least the main goal.

I am a bit steaming here, so I apologise if I seem a bit rude. I'll write something a bit more thoughtful later today when I have gathered my thoughts a bit.

 

[Bartg.pl]

The simple fact is, that they are heading more and more into casual viewer, who wants to watch funny and part-srcipted segments including more popular cars than Lambo and Ferrari and things like amphibious car or how to crash a Lorry into brick wall.

 

[tedb43o2o3]

So GT2 did beat the Lambo. too bad clarkson burned it

 

[Interrobang]

Don?t really know what to make of it for now ...

The Porsche vs Lambo bit was great for eyes and ears ... but I would have wanted a more serious review, with a Laptime of the GT2.

News ... not good. A real letdown.

SIARPC ... skipped it.

Lorries ... in parts very funny and very brilliant ... in others too staged and I was really shocked by Clarksons crash (not shocked in a positive way). I think you can clearly see that this went wrong, that somebody really didn?t think that out properly. Looked like Clarkson was close to a heartattack too. That?s just irresponsible and I think they shouldn?t have shown it that way. Having an accident like that on purpose, then showing it in detail and having a laugh about it ... that?s just not right. They went a bit far there ... I hope TG doesn?t turn into some sort of "Jackass with old guys" ...

 

[Tranquillizer]

only 7 from my side. not what i had expected from first show of new season. i liked the lamborghini though.
curse you may and clarkson on putting the oliver behind hammond's truck.

 

[Interrobang]

I wonder if they had a book running on how long it would take someone here to figure out that the morse wasn't just random and to decipher it?

... well, who?s at it? I?d love to know ... sure it?s something awsome ...

Maybe start a new thread for that?