[12x03] November 16th, 2008

[12x03] November 16th, 2008


  • Total voters
    574
Not the best stitched together episode, 7.99/10 (8 would imply a good episode that one would add to definitely rewatch list)

The V8 was totally funny and extremely pointless, <3'd it, just like him stitching pants and making a washermobile.

The Renault thing, they should have done it proper, it would've been epic, they probably wouldn't have beaten it, but getting down the low 30s would've been nice. Should've done some better engine upgrades + JC mentioned exhausts but they didn't say what exactly.
 
Wait a sec... being "man showish" is what TG is about. Three blokes cocking about and having fun while talking about and driving exiting cars... i think TG is the closest we'll ever get to a real-world "Tool Time", so overly macho manly manlieness, done in a very male way is exactely what it's about ;-)

42!

But The Man Show was a bunch of horrid writers who would be lucky to get a job on a Night Court remake trying to be funny. There is more to a good bit than "cocking about", there needs to be real substance or it falls under the waste of time concept in my book.


You're right, it was a very "tool time" segment, but those skits in Home Improvement were meant to be awful and funny. "but I gave it more power" than a catastrophic failure, that's where the funny came from. It wasn't funny because Tim put a huge engine in a dishwasher it as funny because it failed and shot the dishes all over.


It's great people liked it, personally I hope the idea is done forever just like that "how many x can we jump with y" they had in the early series.
 
Not an all-time classic episode, that's for sure. Not a bad one either. Just ... weird. As everyone else has pointed out, the lack of a proper car review seemed highly irregular. I know, the Challenge Specials (i.e. first US special, Africa special etc) didn't have proper reviews as such, but we were kind of expecting that. We were primed for an epic road trip peppered with the odd fact or two about whatever shitbox they happened to be driving at the time.

The Toyota Wheelchair bit was amusing, although it did seem a little like filler to me.

James' driving lesson with Mika was awesome. I really REALLY want to go to Finland now. :D Some of Mika's replies and facial expressions were priceless!!

V8 blender = I LOLed, and LOLed hard ... although it did seem a bit more Brainiac than Top Gear.

Marky Mark = what a tool.

Renault Avantime tuning ... again, quite amusing but it seemed a bit odd they didn't actually decide to go all out for power gains. Whilst it was interesting that just a little bit of fettling from May was able to unleash an extra 50hp, I dunno ... it just seemed like there was something missing in that piece. It almost had a bit of a Top Gear Australia feel to it in places, only with a bigger budget. The Avantime is a fucking cool car though, I want one :wub: ...

As an episode, I'd give it 7/10. As a collection of bits, it ranges from 2/10 for Marky Mark to 10/10 for James & Mika.
 
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A message to the cretin who tried to negrep me for using the TG host faces in my post about this episode:

negrepfailure.jpg


You know what that grey blob there means? It means you can't be trusted to give out reputation. I'll bet you've got three or four posts on the board and a huge red blob underneath your username. Haven't you? Go on, surprise me.

Viper? Quiky? Can we have a new forum feature that allows us to beat idiotic newkids to death with a chair? Think of the fun we could all have with that.

Learn *THWACK!* to *THWACK!* use *THWACK!* the *THWACK!* forums *THWACK!* properly *THWACK!* before *THWACK!* you *THWACK!* even *THWACK!* think *THWACK!* about *THWACK!* touching *THWACK!*...

...my chair's broken. Will someone get me a new chair?

Right, got it...

...the *THWACK!* reputation *THWACK!* button *THWACK!* *THWACK!* *THWACK!*

Whoever said violence never solved anything has never watched Bottom.

I didn't have any problem reading this post in question. On a side note I've had two neg reps for my last two episode reviews. Looks like this forum is plagued by keyboard warriors like any other..............shame. notice they don't have the stones to leave their name on the neg rep. Would be nice if the system forced you to leave your name. Might put a stop to pointless neg reps :mad:
 
I really missed a car review this episode. If there had been just one review in it I gave it an 8, but because there wasn't any I'm giving it a 6. Can't wait to see James testing the Pagani Zonda F next week :p
 
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One of the best episodes ever. The part with H?kkinen was great but also the Avantime tuning was funny.
They should have more stuff like the V8 blender in the show. They might have skipped the toyota wheelchair section. I didn't even notice that they didn't review any car in the show :D
 
about the new toyota , not that i think it is a perfect solution , but just think the traffic problems that could be solved if there was an infrastructure built to handle cars of that size and a majority of people used them . vehicle impact systems would need to change to protect within the dimensions of the smaller vehicle , though . perhaps external airbags .

one other thing i must admit is that it would have been more in the spirit of top gear to add more power to the avantime . or to add more power to a front wheel drive car , with the other mods , of course .
still, the other parts make it a 10 for me :)
maybe they can bring out the avantime again for another challenge : see how fast it will go around the track with more and more power before it blows up .
:lol:

i think the extra stuff like siarpc,challenges ,blender ,etc . add more flavor to the subject . it is like having condiments with the main course , and dessert with the meal .
 
I loved this episode!!! Yeah they should have done something like Mythbusters though, and maybe said, well how much money WOULD it take to get the Renault round in the same time as the Evo! Then they should have gone bonkers and kitted it out fully. But yeah, not a suitable car, but I realllllly like that Renault and especially how much "fresh air" it has inside! Similar to the Citroen C6 in a way. Beautiful car.
 
I'm just working on that one... give us a minute while I edit the "News Outtakes" post which I'm keeping well groomed.

EDIT: Done it. Take a look.

EDIT AGAIN: For those of you who don't look at my new post (though I'd appreciate it if you do), the whole "hitting with chairs" comment was supposed to be funny. Those of you who have watched the News Uncut for 12x01 will know why. At least one forum user has got the joke at least.

Eh, where can I watch them?
 
I really enjoyed this episode. I gave it 9/10.

I'm surprised that a lot of people found the interview with Mark to be a bad thing. To me he looked pretty at ease and told some funny stories. Naturally I didn't expect him to know what was going on with the show but I think he was a pretty good sport about it all.

The other segments were great, including the V8 blender which cracked me up completely. I loved it. I did note at the end of the episode that it felt like it had gone for well over an hour (a good thing). They seemed to pack a lot of interesting and fun stuff into the episode.

I don't think there was a dull moment for me at all.
 
Sorry I didn't read all the pages, but can someone answer me what the "Back to the Studio" comment was all about?

I guess it's just a TV cliche that he's wanted to use for a while, but never had a TV show where that line would make any practical sense. I assume he saw that moment of fail as a good chance to say the cliche'd line, but James beat him to it :)
 
Can someone explain the whole jacket thing in this season?
whyd everyone clap for jeremy when he came out in his blue jacket in ep1? and what are they talking about, are you wearing that for a bet?"

:?

Is it jsut something that is ongoing in this season, like the I went on the internet this week" last season? and btw..what did he actually show in those segments, aside from the dude who loved his car too much? haha
 
Can someone explain the whole jacket thing in this season?
whyd everyone clap for jeremy when he came out in his blue jacket in ep1? and what are they talking about, are you wearing that for a bet?"

It's just their running joke for this season.
 
A rather creative one at that!
 
Finnish members on this board like Posmo can probably verifgy, waiting 2-3 years to get a license must be a bummer and all the skidpad training & night driving training must be bloody expensive.
The phase 1 B-license for a normal passenger car does cost quite a bit. I think it is 1300-1700 euros for the whole thing including lessons, permits and tests. Luckily there are lots of driving schools so you can choose the cheapest.

To get the license you need to take 20 hours of theory lessons and 15 hours of driving lessons including skidpan. The night driving lesson takes about one hour and in the summer you can't do it because it never gets dark enough.
Alternatively you can have your parents teach you but usually the driving school is the better option.

You have to be 17? yo to start taking the lessons. And when you turn 18 you can take the tests. The theory test is done on a computer which shows you some pictures and questions and you just press a button to choose the correct answer. You only have a few seconds to answer each question. After passing the theory you can take the driving test which takes 45 to 60 minutes depending on traffic. It can be a real nightmare if you have to take it in the afternoon rush. I failed my first attempt due to this - some idiot almost crashed into me and even though it was completely his fault and I did everything by the book, I failed the test.

The phase 1 license is valid for two years. The only limitation in phase 1 is having to retake the tests if caught breaking the traffic law twice during the first year or three times in two years like Posmo said.
You can start the phase 2 training 1? years after passing the phase 1 test. There is no test in phase 2 - just some driving and theory and the skidpan with your own car. If you didn't take the night driving test in phase 1 you need to do it in phase 2. The phase 2 license is valid until you turn 70.


It really isn't as difficult as it sounds.
 
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Over here in bumfuck India, all you have to do to pass is drive down a road at 40mph, without crashing. I think a toddler could do that, if only they had longer legs.

fixed that for ya

I wonder if the driving tests in India are still this easy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGfLNqjh4j0 <---- embedding was disabled on this video so you have to click on the link
 
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Ok, so what is this `are you wearing that for a bet?` joke all about?

As for the episode: enjoyed the Mika Hakkinen part, but not the race itself. The news was ok, still don't get that dressing gown joke. Everything else was quite entertaining but not exquisite (I'm not sure if this is the proper word here). 7/10.
 
You're right, it was a very "tool time" segment, but those skits in Home Improvement were meant to be awful and funny. "but I gave it more power" than a catastrophic failure, that's where the funny came from. It wasn't funny because Tim put a huge engine in a dishwasher it as funny because it failed and shot the dishes all over.

In other words, Tim's tuning efforts were... ambitious, but rubbish!.
For me the V8 blender was Tool Time-pointless and a massive failiure (c'mon, vibrating everything off the kitchen board while blending?), even if the fun came more from the pointlessness than from the failiure.
 
Gave it a 9. This is was one of the best episodes I've ever seen, despite not having a supercar review. That film with James in Finland was brilliant, the avantwhatever film was also great. And that V8 blender thing, they should do this sort of crazy stuff more often, the last one I can remenber was that cheap bond car thing.
 
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