[13x07] August 2nd, 2009

[kurthest]

Meh, disappointing ending to the series, much like last season.

Why would anyone want an australian car with ugly exterior, american engine and 3rd world interior?

News segment was somewhat funny, Coolwall was alright, and I loved Jezza's "Berlin to Warzaw" Scirocco ad.

Jay Leno seemed old and tired...

Looked like a nice Aston Martin. Is it the last AM model they will make?
The music from "28 days later" seemed fitting, and the segment was very nicely shot.

Overall 4/10.

 

[TheRanter]

Why not just use the electricity directly? Hydrogen fuel cell cars are electric cars anyway, and using electricity to create hydrogen wastes a lot of energy in the process.

I'm not talking about Hydrogen fuel cell powered cars, I'm talking about internal combustion powered cars that burn Hydrogen. And FYI: Where do you think they get the Hydrogen for those fuel cells? They use electricity to zap the Hydrogen molecules out of water.

Also, as I've already stated, I'd rather be DEAD then drive a car that goes "whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr." for the rest of my life.

When I drive a car, I want to hear and feel the symphony of hundreds of explosions coming from the engine beneath the hood which signal the impending speed I'm about to experience. An electric car, I don't care how many gadgets it's got, will never ever be the same as an internal combustion powered car. It can never match the experience.

 

[Dr_Grip]

I don't think it was green screened, I think that it was filmed with a Camera mounted on some sort of computer controlled tripod, which can repeat the exact same motions over and over again without fail.

I don't think such a motion control device could easily be fitted onto the passenger seat of an Aston.

We're all talking about the camera movement ca. at 58:15, when the camera pans across the dashboard to Jeremy's face and then again around 58:55, i think? There's one main reason why i think it, in fact, is a greenscreen shot: quite exactely at 1:00:00 you see that the car, according to the speedometer, is moving at exactely zero mph.
The transition effect could have been possible by simply "masking" the window area and replacing the scenery in post production instead of using a greenscreen, but the zero mph reading from the speedometer is a dead giveaway.

 

[kubomon17]

well it's already been said here many times, but that ending was somewhat unsettling and it made me think - what the hell would I do without my top gear!?

 

[diti]

I thought the voice-overs were the guys themselves, though deliberately using appropriate "ad-type" voices. Certainly, James' sounded like him, though pitched slightly higher, lighter and smoother. (I'm a Drama teacher - I know a little bit about these things. Though I'll probably be immediately proved wrong!)

 

[Phen0m]

Can i just say that jay acted kinda werid in that episode specially while jeremy was reading his car list. And he kept on turning hes head to the side. Wuteva it was a great show, and that last bit with the vantage, kinda saying, we are going to say good bye to supercar, and top gear itself soon... sad

 

[chimi]

For me it was a classic episode, it had a lot of funny moments (the pie key joke made me fall of my chair), fast cars, great guest (Jay was somewhat boring compared to his own show) and the end was just so moving, it almost made me cry

That last clip in the V12 just really shows the love they have for cars, and specially Jeremy, he actually feels sad that the end of an era might be coming, all the regulations and environmental concerns might bring the end of the great cars that will go down in history, we might never see cars like the veyron or the enzo again. I think he is afraid we maybe in the way of what happened in 80s where almost all the cars were rubbish and had no excitement, almost no car from the 80s could make you feel 5 years old. This just shows me how much passion they have for cars and I have massive respect for that

 

[ozgirl]

I think Jeremy knows full well that a nice man coming into a woman's house and actually fixing her boiler (i.e. not hitting it with a hammer) would turn her on more than any other kind of pornography.

Especially that nice man! +1 for you!

A couple of things i forgot to mention in my review (cos i was still stunned by the AM film!)
Heaps of people complained there were no road tests this series well there you go, lots of road!

I think everyone's so used to Jezza being - in James' words - "a boorish buffoon", that they forget this is an intelligent, thinking, feeling man. His documentaries on eg, the VC or WWII , and his patronage of Help for Heroes, show that he does feel things deeply, despite his normally flippant manner. I enjoyed the AM segment because it was different.

BTW did those deer that ran across the road in the AM film look CGI? Someone better with computers could analyse it but it think they were, put in as an "up yours" to all who accused them of it in the Merc Black review

ANOTHER edit - here's the answer form TG http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2009/08/03/the-end-of-top-gear/

 

[Ephexis]

Wasn't a bad ep, but wasn't really anything special either.

The Aussie cars were probably the most entertaining part of the show.

The advert making would have been a lot better if they actually took it seriously and tried, the forced cocking about is really tiresome as much as it can be amusing.

The interview could have been better, this is a guy with so many wonderful cars it would have been nice to find out more about what he has and why he has them.

As for the ending, found myself almost bored waiting for something to happen. The silly sweeping shot of the dashboard was alright the first time but it got immediately dull each time it was repeated. The music was good and the out of car shots were great as always, but it didn't really leave me thinking "oh no end of Top Gear" or "oh no end of motoring" like some must have thought.

Cars have generally been in decline for years now. They banned popup headlights, silly regulations added on the positioning of headlights/brakelights and what kind of shape you can have at the front of the car in order to protect pedestrians. They are getting heavier and chunkier, in addition to a certain decline in new car design.

Jeremy also said a similar thing after talking about the Veyron.

I enjoyed the first episode of this season most of all, the last four have been 7/10 for me, good enough to enjoy but not really exceptional.

If they continue on their current path of forced cocking about at every turn then the series will age rapidly from now on and end up feeling like it should really stop before it repeats itself too much. It's telling that they apologised to you for the lack of 'drama' when driving through France with the RWD cheap cars. Sometimes the banter and chance to see them fall in love (or grow to hate) the cars they bought is enough without anything extreme.

Get the balance back, cocking about, reviews, comedy reviews, comedy challenges, serious challenges and most of all, let the presenters be themselves rather than trying so hard to do stupid things.

 

[mautzel]

Phew - I really misinterpreted the Aston closure film as the end of Top gear itself and am now relieved that it'll continue.
Great episode besides that as was Series 13 in total!

 

[shellygrrl]

9/10 for me because they didn't show V12 vantage lap time

Because it's not gone around the track! I think it'll happen next series.

Actually, I'm curious about this too, and this doesn't fully answer the question.

In America, the last episode during a season is called the "season finale". In England, you call a season a series, so our "season finale" would be your "series finale".

However, here, we call a show's entirety its "series". So the last episode of a show to air, ever, is the "series finale". If you have a series finale two or three times a year, what do you call the very final episode of the show, ever? The "show finale"? Do you not give it a title at all?

I doubt they do. As mentioned, they just make an announcement in the press that a show's not been commissioned for a new series/season. They don't seem to be into giving a show a big farewell as we are in the States. If TG was a US show (thank the lawd it isn't), and it were ending for good, it'd be made into a big deal.

I think everyone's so used to Jezza being - in James' words - "a boorish buffoon", that they forget this is an intelligent, thinking, feeling man. His documentaries on eg, the VC or WWII , and his patronage of Help for Heroes, show that he does feel things deeply, despite his normally flippant manner. I enjoyed the AM segment because it was different.

This!

 

[JleeLink]

Amazing epiosde, loved the Holdens segment and that beautiful supercharger from the Bathurst! The news segment was pretty damn good except for that one blatantly scripted moment where James thought Jeremy said asparagus.

The VW advertisement was also excellent and immensely funny for the most part except for a few of the weird adverts. Especially the last ones which were disappointing.

Cool Wall was good same as always but would of liked to see more cars.

Jay Leno interview felt pretty bland after all this hype of people wanting him on the show and it just seemed average with no clear talking point.

The ending really got me going though. At first I thought "hmm only 4 mins left, how could they possibly do anything in this time" Then as it kept going I thought "Ok something amazing is about to happen I can feel it!, Could they be thinking of blowing up a supercar? cant be??? or maybe a stunt??"

But then once Jeremy mentions the problems of the car market and the photos of past supercars it hit me. This could be the ending! I kept thinking "this cant be!!!" and was constantly on the edge and nervous watching it grasping the edges of my monitor! Thoughts of disbelief ran through my mind as if they did end i would of heard something for sure. But nearing the end I half accepted it that it was the end and it was time to go and was waiting for a final message confirming it. Something like "Top Gear 2001 - 2009" or Jeremy saying "this is the end, its been a wild ride, good bye!"

But overall an excellent episode 10/10!

 

[Solberg]

VW segment was one of my favorite ever. The stuff they made was superb. Really funny stuff.

VXR8 review was great but I would have the Audi over it, if I had to live with it everyday.

Jay Leno was great and I loved the undercover cop story.

Cool Wall was over the top and anyway, all RS fords are cool!

The Aston bit at the end literally had me in tears.

 

[Frederic]

in the monday episode they edited the suicide in the scirroco ad!

 

[Wyvern]

I thought the voice-overs were the guys themselves, though deliberately using appropriate "ad-type" voices. Certainly, James' sounded like him, though pitched slightly higher, lighter and smoother. (I'm a Drama teacher - I know a little bit about these things. Though I'll probably be immediately proved wrong!)

I'm not sure if he did the whole lot, but Richard Porter (TG's script editor), in his Sniff Petrol guise, tweeted this earlier:

Literally three people have asked if there was Sniff voice overy in last night's Top Gear. The answer is yes. Sorry about that.

I'll have a listen at some point when my hearing hasn't been mangled by sodding pig flu (it's OK, you can't catch it over the Internet) and see if he did all of them or whether the guys did any of their own, unless another Gareth Jones on Speed listener used to his repertoire of silly voices would care to check in the meantime...

 

[desertgeek]

Having read through some of the comments, here's my thoughts:

VXR8/Maloo- Simply excellent review. You could tell Richard genuinely loved those cars. I agree with what someone said that the whine of the supercharger got quite annoying after a while. I, too, thought th VXR8 would be faster than that.

The news- funniest part of the show for me. That new Ferrari, the 458, is absolutely beautiful. And I was glad to see them talk about Felipe Massa and how similar his injuries are to Hammond's crash injuries. I know that was a topic of conversation in the F1 area on these forums. And the parking accident video is something I could watch over and over.

VW adverts- just went on too long. It was funny as hell, but it wasn't worth the wait just to see that funeral bit from the preview montage. (Should note that it was the last we saw of James, I thought he should've had a bit in the intro to the last segment)

Cool Wall- too gimmicky, though I did get a kick out of the BMW on a string straight to seriously uncool. I agree with their thoughts, but I would've liked to see more cars argued about. But I always feel that way about the Cool Wall.

Jay Leno- agree with most of you, needed more time with him. The McLaren F1 story was just madness though.

Last segment, or as I call it "The Clarkson Editoral"- It wasn't a car review. It was an editoral on the state of the automotive industry. With all the US car companies in deep shit, European companies helping bail some of them out, companies abandoning motorsport, the increasing cost of fuel, and the overwhelming demand for "green" cars, I think he had a very good point.

I agree totally that we are nearing the end of the supercar/hypercar era because of all the reasons Jeremy said. It's sad, but I think it's true. In a way, I relate it to James' review of the Honda FCX Clarity from 12x06. It wasn't a car review. It was a statement on the future. But whereas the Honda was a positive statement, this was a vastly negative one. They made a point with it and made it very well.

A very strong way to end the series. 8/10, losing only because of the VW bit.

 

[Austere]

well it's already been said here many times, but that ending was somewhat unsettling and it made me think

Great! Finally, someone who got the point of the piece! I myself often wonder what will happen if all this legislation keeps sinking the car industry. There has always been a small group of people who believe that the car is the pinnacle of the downfall of society and that cars signal death for us all by way of speed, injury, pollution and fun. Thankfully, these people have always remained on the sidelines. No one ever really listened to them. Well, they'd listen, just to be polite, and then manufacturers would go and put a 6.3 litre V8 in a plodding saloon car with a Baby Killer Chrome Grille up front and a swing axle in the back.

But now, these people are being listened to by a majority of the public. And when that happens, politicians start weighing into things and when they do that everything goes fucko-bazoo.

I remember a few years ago we were all told that the worlds ice was all melting and that cars were to blame. Soon, we'd all be up to our ankles in murky, green shit if we didn't all go back to rinding horses and fucking our cousins. The 'turing point'. The 'point of no return'. Don't think, don't wait for evidence; Just act! Blindly! In a big panic! Now! I was one of the very few people who saw that this was all a load of bullshit. Right from the get-go. I have huge bragging rights! It's like if you've seen the Beastie Boys live... back when there was a girl in the band. You're so fucking cool!

Thank you, I know, I am cool.

I'm cool because the globe didn't warm to shit!

it's been years now and were still hearing the same shit; If we don't act within three years, ooh, this and that.
Nothing is happening!!

Still, it's all very trendy and emo wankers want to buy a low pollution whateverthefuck Blue Tec god damn diesel piece of Hybrid shit.... Just to look trendy.

It's not looking good right now and-hey wait, I just noticed that there's more to your post:

what the hell would I do without my top gear!?

Oh FFS!


Who gives a shit? The cars in the show are infinitely more important and significant than the show itself! You're all supposed to be asking yourselves "what would I do if they stopped making V12 nut-job crazy-as-fuck cars?"

See, this is what happens when you turn the show into a steaming pile of shit for morons to laugh at; Huge numbers of people tuning in who have no interest in cars at all and miss the point of the first serious piece in 5 seasons.

You people make me sick!

 

[kurthest]

BTW did those deer that ran across the road in the AM film look CGI? Someone better with computers could analyse it but it think they were, put in as an "up yours" to all who accused them of it in the Merc Black review

Yes and no. They werent CGI (as in they werent computer generated), however they were clipped out of the Merc Black segment and then put onto the film using computer magic

 

[Amie0403]

Does anyone actually know where the Aston Martin "review" was shot? The scenery was stunningly beautiful.

 

[ozgirl]

Yes and no. They werent CGI (as in they werent computer generated), however they were clipped out of the Merc Black segment and then put onto the film using computer magic

Thanks dude!