[13x04] July 12th, 2009

[13x04] July 12th, 2009

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EVOLUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Would it have killed ford to put the diff at the rear of the car?

EDIT: +2 for Hot Blond behind the hamster
 
I enjoyed the FRS vs R26R review, especially the split screen Stig laps. They really should look at doing that more. It was good to see some realistic, affordable cars which mere mortals might actually buy, own and drive, reviewed with some proper info and opinions on what they're like. More of that please !!!!!! Starts out as an 8.

The race was a bit bland. Some good camera work showing the car off well considering its compromising looks, but more of the same we've seen many times before. Drops to a 6.

The news was more relative and quite funny. So I'll be nice and go up to a 7.

The guest was a bit dull IMHO. A good lap and he came across as a decent enough bloke, just boring to watch. Back to 6.

The Evo vs Army thing was silly beyond ridiculous, and another rehash of an old TG idea anyway. Live ammo, pah ! They could have just done a feature on the excellent military vehicles without trying to make it a silly race against a silly man. When he spouted, 'I'm doing 70 and here comes the boost' I rolled my eyes, as if any turbo car doesn't spool up until over 70, idiot. Down to 5.

Overall I'm gonna bump it back up one to a '6' as I want to encourage group testing like the opening review. If they don't listen to me though I'll drop it to a '4' next time, so there.
 
I thought the episode came together pretty well overall. I really liked the Ford segment at the beginning, and echo the sentiment that the Stig split screen timing laps should be used more frequently. The post office race was fun, well shot, well cut.

SIARPC I thought showed how well Jeremy can handle interviews with people who might not be the most dynamic guests on camera. I thought Bolt got a little more comfortable at the end. I was lucky enough to be in the audience at the taping: there was a bit during the interview showing a photo of Bolt during his medal-winning run that was... revealing. It was funny live, guess it got cut for time (or content). The pace of the interview worked out well in the edit.

The army segment was fun to watch, though I agree it did feel a bit more rehearsed than most segments. Overall, I thought it was a solid show.

And I'm sort of visible in one of the wide shots. Sort of. With squinting.
 
PettR said:
http://img190.imageshack.**/img190/2986/snapshot20090713011610.jpg
Click to expand...


Momentum57 said:
Hey Hammond! Han Solo called, he wants his vest back
Click to expand...



And his screamy face!


hamstersolo.jpg
 
I gave it an 8.

I can only echo most of what has already been posted. Gawd I wish I could have the RS. Panamera still looks a bit...off. You can tell Bolt was a bit...either nervous or uptight, but afterwards it seems he loosened up. The whole tank vs Evo...yes, it's an idea already played out; however, I think they spun it more education on army vehicles. I'm sure he could have gone on and on, considering some of the documentaries he's done in the past.

Anyone notice how much they're milking the latest Batman score (especially the tanks)? I'm wondering if they are having some issues getting soundtrack copyright agreements and re-using whatever they've used.
 
They had me till SIARPC. The Renault v. Ford review was a great start. news was one of the better ones of the series. The Panamera race was pretty good. I havent seen/heard much about the Porsche so it was good just to see it for the first time. Something told me they werent going to win though and I agree with a few others that a little more info on the car would have been better but overall not bad. Usain Bolt just seemed out of place throughout the entire SIARPC segment. Good lap time though. And the British Bulldogs bit...well... Id say that was the low point for me. I recently rewatched a few of the episodes where you had similar events (ie:Hammond and May playing conkers with caravans or Clarkson outrunning a tank in a Range Rover) and those just seemed to fit in better for their purposes. This just seemed like it needed a "Go Army" sticker on the end of the clip. Overall, better than last time but needs more work. I gave it an 8 because it had me almost to the end. We'll see how next week's episode fairs.
 
I gave it a nine, but then I don't really perform a "critical critique" of the show. ;)

It had two car reviews with a race between them. It had not one, but two challenges. And it had an entertaining SIARPC. That's a 9 in my book.

If it had an epic race, it would have scored a 10. :)
 
I wasn't bothered all that much by the scripted nature of the Evo/Tank sequence. Reasonably entertaining.

SIARPC was so-so; you could tell Clarkson was struggling with this one to get some good jokes out.

For some reason the Porsche sequence put me in mind of Top Gear Australia; the short racer guy and the cartoonist could have slotted in for Hammond & May and they wouldn't have been out of place. Says something about the quality of that piece, I suppose.
 
Hum. I'm not sure.

I loved the Focus/Megane bit. That was excellent and dare I say it almost informative. Loved the warp effect. I'm unsure on the Panamera/Mail bit. With all the hype they presented about it being "really, truly epic" I expected more. Had I not been fed all the drama, I'd have thought better of it. Also, I don't know about in the UK, but here no way does a simple stamp get your letter 800 miles overnight. You can pay probably $10-20 and over night it. I just couldn't get into Usain Bolt. The bit with the army, well you have to think about it for what it was, a highly choreographed ballet. Jeremy clearly wasn't in the car when it was crushed, nor was he in it when they were hitting it with live rounds. It's like a sword fight in a stage play. You know they aren't really going at each other, but it's still impressive. The news was good. It was enjoyable, which I do believe is the point. Made me smile, a lot. :-D
 
I gave it a 6/10. The Focus RS was boring, the Panamera letter bit was pointless and they never really talked about the car(or did a lap around the track) and the SIARPC was the best part of the show. I actually enjoyed Bolt on the show and I think he liked being there, unlike some other guests perhaps. His lap time was quick too!

Edit, I forgot the Army bit! I guess that shows how much I liked it. I didn't.
 
I was PISSED when they destroyed the Evo. Such a brilliant car all to scrap. Even worse, a true measure of ultimate stupidity is the government enabled decision to destroy perfectly good cars in this manner. What waste.

The tards who enable and decide this should be strung up by their balls :mad:
 
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Does anyone can confirm that tonight was the first time that we heard a monty python quote''RUN AWAY!!!RUN AWAY!!!'' from the top gear host ?
 
Gave it a 7.

The Focus vs Megane was pretty decent and had a good point about sports cars. You either get a "normal" car and sacrifice a bit of performance, or you get a stripped down car and suffer when not on a track.

The Panamera vs Royal Mail was vaguely interesting, as I wasn't aware that Porsche had decided to do a 4-door saloon. Then again, I'm not terribly into cars, so I haven't really been following that. One thing did pique my interest: Why on earth did the mail flight from East Midlands go to RAF Kinloss? If the sorting/distribution centre is in Inverness anyway - and the subsequent flight leaves from there - surely it would make more sense to fly there straight away? It didn't seem like a divertion, since there was a truck there anyway.
SIARPC didn't do me much, Bolt didn't really seem like a talkative personality.

The Army vs Evo was quite scripted and, as others have pointed out, didn't really serve a purpose other than showing off some pretty cool Army Vehicles. Having an army logo/slogan/"Call this number for your nearest recruiting office" at the end wouldn't have seemed out of place at all.
 
I can't remember for the life of me which series it's from, but I distinctly remember Clarkson uttering the "let's not bicker and argue over who killed who" line from Holy Grail while arguing with the guys over who knows what. :lol:

Anyway, I give tonight's episode a 6/10. The RS vs. Megane segment was definitely the best part, as it was entertaining *and* informative. The news was pretty "blah" as usual, and the Panamera vs. Royal Mail was one of the most boring (if not THE most boring) races to date. Even though I enjoyed Bolt's lap, I find him just too damn arrogant with the pointing and the celebratory nonsense before the end of his record setting (100m) sprint. Finally, I agree with the majority of posters regarding the Evo VII segment; obviously too slap-in-the-face scripted. The similar Range Rover segment from series six was much more enjoyable, IMO.
 
I liked the focus RS and Renault Megane R26R piece. It was entertaining and fairly well done.

The news was well, the news. That Zonda, wow.

The mail challenge was fine, not the best but that's why it was stuffed in between everything this episode. I hate the styling of the Panamera. Someone in the Porsche meetings should have said, "Let's try a new better design." They might have been thrown out the office building, but well you never know.

I needed to up my Volume to max to hear Mr. Bolt speak.

The army piece was quite sad, as a big fan of the EVO it hurt me a bit. When the claws promptly made it into a convertible it winced a bit, but I still chuckled. :cry:-->:)

I gave it an 8/10 mostly due to the boring/ hard to hear SIARPC segment. I liked it about as much as I liked last week maybe a bit more.

I should have saved the FIRST forum post for a better episode but oh well.

Have a good week Everyone :beer:
-Zero
 
my avatar was my exact face watching the evo get destroyed

i enjoyed the rest of the show though. that focus rs is awesome. wish they would bring that and the fiat 500 over
 
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I gave it a 7/10 because it was not as entertaining to watch as the other ones in the series so far.

Evo part obviously was scripted, Panamera part was eh, but the Focus RS review was what brought it to a 7 for me.
 
liked segment with ford rs and Renault, panamera as a car turned out to be pretty good - didn't expect that, and also doesn't look that bad and race itself was ok. But army episode sucked, don't like those clearly seen staged episodes. When JC said that they're using real bullet it made it even worse. Rated this episode 6.
and also liked segment with Jamaican runner, good sportsman , like him.

Looks like that director or writers or whoever is there are out of new ideas:

lancer vs army - range rover sport vs army couple years ago. exactly the same.
last episode mb sl black vs season 10 brabus sl - exactly the same, except mb looks little different.
 
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