[15x06] August 1st, 2010

[15x06] August 1st, 2010

  • 10

    Votes: 54 14.1%
  • 9

    Votes: 113 29.5%
  • 8

    Votes: 117 30.5%
  • 7

    Votes: 55 14.4%
  • 6

    Votes: 24 6.3%
  • 5

    Votes: 9 2.3%
  • 4

    Votes: 5 1.3%
  • 3

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • 2

    Votes: 2 0.5%
  • 1

    Votes: 3 0.8%

  • Total voters
    383
And the British Car Industry, what is there to learn for them? Nothing. China and India are ready to kick even more ass.

Ummm....wow.

Do you realize how contradictory these two sentences are? If you truly think that nothing is to be learned from the British Car Industry, I hope you enjoy driving your 2020 Geeley sh***ox, which'll make those 80s US cars look like Veyrons.

And...If you don't care about Senna, you don't understand anything at all about Top Gear.
 
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I don't know if it was intentional...but when James was telling Jeremy off for eating chocolate in his car...his face was twitching. :p
 
It was intentional, but acted. There were other things he did to exaggerate his OCD during the filming of that link, but they cut them for the final show.
 
Not that there's anything wrong with the stunts. The Vauxhall explosion was funny because no one saw it coming.

Someone needs to be watching more top gear... When they panned out to include all 4 cars at the start of their journey, I definitely thought either something will fall on it or it will explode. I thought it would've been funnier if stig actually followed them and then they tried to distract him during the "picnics." Oh well...
 
9 or 10 - it wasn't over the top, or epic - but it was just very nice and balanced. Wonderful.
 
I thought the explosion was funny. Honestly, CSI is way more predictable than Top Gear and there are a kajillion people watching that so.
 
This episode was very much of a mixed bag for me. Generally, I liked all the segments, but they also had, in my eyes, unnecessary letdowns.

The 458 piece had some of the most beatuiful cinematography I have seen on Top Gear in a long time. The beginning was just epic, I turned the sound up and enjoyed it very much. Also, the segment was well-balanced and long enough to make good points about the car without rushing through the review. And I liked the comparison to the 430, with the exception of it being James' car (no matter whether it actually was) and the connected jokes. This spoiled the piece a bit for me, because it turned the whole thing into a laughing matter. I got nothing against a couple of good jokes and fooling around, but this review certainly could have done without.

The news were mixed, too. There were a couple of great jokes, but except a pair of bits there were no actual car news to talk about.

The classic British roadster bit was written in the same book as the Ferrari piece: a good and interesting basis which was spoiled by a couple of stupid jokes and questionable tests. This review had its serious sides and would have been a great piece to watch again and remember about the British roadser as such if they hadn't ditched the actual info for a range of gratuitous tests. Instead, they could have told and shown more about the British roadster and their individual cars.
Remarkable was the spontaneous "Don't say that ever to me again" Hammond sentence and Jeremy's laughter. This demonstrated clearly that the guys are best when they are let free which they were in earlier series. All this scripted funnyness is not for me, it is too artificial and thus doesn't work for me at all.

Goldblum was an "interesting" SIARPC, he is a bit weird. Interesting to see that he has little understanding of technology when he often plays a geek in movies. And a good laptime considering he was driving in the rev limiter all the way through and after followthrough.

Conclusion: 7/10

Regarding season 15, it certainly improved over 13 and 14. And I hope this trend will continue, and they will start to do serious and intelligent television again.
 
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Also since you're american, and pay absolutely nothing to the british government who owns the BBC and ultimately pays for Top Gear, then you have no right to claim TG is there to entertain you.
If you stopped watching it, nobody would give a damn.

Err... The BBC isn't owned by the government.
 
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8/10. Very solid ep, a bit vanilla from the epic-ness of last week but that was to be expected.

458 review was typical Grade-A Clarkson. I think he liked the car too. The 456 was pretty too though.
News was a little less LOL than it has been.
SIARPC was good if a little odd. I really like Goldblum as an actor, and although parts of the interview were a tad strange - ie. how much he loves theatre - as far as the usual American big star interview he was actually pretty decent... most of them are utterly passive, confused by their surroundings and need to be led by Clarkson... Jeff had plenty to say and at least tried to be interesting. The fact that he could post a lower than 1:50 time driving around in third shows he probably would actually be pretty fast... if he could use a manual transmission.

I found the British sportscar thing to be a good amount more subtle and less slapstick than the usual challenges. Yes there were plenty of jokes but there was none of the crash-in-James jokes usually expected. Clarkson's one-eyedness regarding british cars is hardly a secret, and while there wasn't much emphasis on exactly why those cars fell out of favour (it's all been done before) they instead just decided to focus on the good aspects. The final scenes as the boys picked around the bones of the old TVR factory, and Jezza's "It's not that we don't make cars anymore - we don't make anything" made their feelings known.

Of course the worst thing about the episode is that it is the last of the series and now I have to wait again. Sometimes I wish Top Gear was filmed in Soviet Russia so they had to produce an episode every week without fail.
 
Great series. Better than 14, which is weird because you had less cars this time round.
 
Anyone else noticed the Stig sleeping in a van in the background of Clarkson who's sitting on the ground at the petrol station (~ 31:40) ?
 
So let me understand what you're saying...

I give you a hint. My posts are opinionated, they're a statement like the hair on my avatar. If you want to make a point and have your opinion heard, you have to generalize and blow things out of proportion, to come across. You cannot say (or write) "I think that I might agree, and maybe, but on the other hand..." Cause nobody would care. It would be like quoting the phone book.

Strong opinions are a threat to people who have nothing to say. The ones that just drift along with the tide, and don't like any distraction from their simplistic view of the world. Reactions that barely exceed a naive "no, you're..., you're..., you're wrong", are the best proof. Those people are oblivious to the many references, and they don't get the joke. But anyhow, succ?s de scandale.

I wrote it before, that almost everything is Made in China these days. Basically the whole consumer market is in the hands of Asia these days. What is not made in China? And India is next in line, they're just getting ready to copy the success story of China. And the Western Countries? They can't complain, cause they handed it over. That goes way back into the VCR era, when the Western Countries decided that they were too dumb to manufacture these products. Or should I say too good? Low-Level-Mobility based on efficiency is next. And, while the uppity Western Companies are still fumfering around, and making plans for "2020": Vehicles like electric scooters are regular on the streets in China.

If the Chinese or India come up with a Smart-like thingy on four wheels (petrol or electric) for $2000, the streets will be full of it. And Western Companies will be (once again) hapless bystanders. And that's the region where the REAL money is to be made, where the jobs are, for many people. A DB9 or a 458 doesn't have any far reaching impact on the industry. The very few people who drive those cars are insanely privileged! "Oh, I've seen that car on Top Gear, I know what it means to have..." Blah, blah, no you don't. Get back to your PlayStation.

First and foremost, mobility is about getting from A to B. Simple and efficient, everyday reality. Top Gear is the dream, it's a fantasy land. That's why it should stay in fantasy world, and not try to give us reality in 300 seconds. Some guy wrote that we can learn from the demise of the British Motor Industry. Ugh, commence the romantic bologna. Since when do people learn from their mistakes of the past?! Are you smoking a little somethin' somethin'? I need to know what it is. :mrgreen:

...you have no right to claim TG is there to entertain you.

You're right. Why should they? :D Clarkson should use that argument, when he negotiates with the BBC, how high the budget for the next series will be.

That response is a classic. I love it. :lol:
 
So let me understand what you're saying... you want more electric cars, preferably from China and India featured in Top Gear?

Also since you're american, and pay absolutely nothing to the british government who owns the BBC and ultimately pays for Top Gear, then you have no right to claim TG is there to entertain you.
If you stopped watching it, nobody would give a damn.

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I've just gone back to read all of your bitching, I guess it is because they didn't show the SLS? As far as I know, sales haven't even started yet, why would Top Gear be testing one? The 458 already has costumers all around the world, it's only reasonable they left the SLS for the next series.
I can understand you don't like serious things shown on a show you regard as some sort of car related circus (funny how you mention you want clown cars, right after you want to make it seem TG is for immature 17 year olds who play Playstation), but the Senna homage was welcomed by everyone. This one with the British roadsters, it had a lot of fun moments in it. I don't see it as a "baaawwww" moment, and certainly it was more interesting that if they went and did a road trip with chinese and indian electric cars mate.

im going to agree with you here (even though your a ferrari fan)
 
and yet another very good episode.

the old brit cars piece made its points very well while still being entertaining.

Also since you're american, and pay absolutely nothing to the british government who owns the BBC and ultimately pays for Top Gear, then you have no right to claim TG is there to entertain you.

well i am Australian and the Nine network pay the BBC licensing etc to air it here(SBS did before that). i would assume either BBC America does as well or is at least partially owned by the BBC.

so in those cases actually the BBC is making the show for us as well as a secondary market and getting money for it. so you have no right to tell us we cant comment on the shows.
 
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I wrote it before, that almost everything is Made in China these days. Basically the whole consumer market is in the hands of Asia these days. What is not made in China? And India is next in line, they're just getting ready to copy the success story of China. And the Western Countries? They can't complain, cause they handed it over. That goes way back into the VCR era, when the Western Countries decided that they were too dumb to manufacture these products. Or should I say too good? Low-Level-Mobility based on efficiency is next. And, while the uppity Western Companies are still fumfering around, and making plans for "2020": Vehicles like electric scooters are regular on the streets in China.

Okay that's a strong opinion right there. And I have to say I disagree. Yes, much of the manufacturing of things is being done in 3rd world Asian countries. But manufacturing is different from design. My laptop is made by Sony, which is Japanese, and assembled in China. I'm gonna go out on a limb right here and say that Sony keeps most of the profit, not the chinese factory workers. Same goes with my mobile phone, a Sony-Ericsson, I bet most of the profit goes to Sweden. And actually, I can't see anything around here that has a chinese brand on it. My other computer is hand built, it has an Asus monitor last I checked that's taiwanese, an AMD processor and ATi video card which are canadian, the disks are Western Digital...
My point is, these countries have cheap labour, yes, but not much pedigree in the design and innovation area. They're hired to build things, not to invent them. And this isn't a racist statement, it's just how it is, because their economic and social situation allows for very cheap work force.

As for this:

If the Chinese or India come up with a Smart-like thingy on four wheels (petrol or electric) for $2000, the streets will be full of it. And Western Companies will be (once again) hapless bystanders. And that's the region where the REAL money is to be made, where the jobs are, for many people. A DB9 or a 458 doesn't have any far reaching impact on the industry. The very few people who drive those cars are insanely privileged! "Oh, I've seen that car on Top Gear, I know what it means to have..." Blah, blah, no you don't. Get back to your PlayStation.

India has come with a Smart like thing and it's called the Tata Nano. What you don't understand is that their own markets are already appealing enough for them to basically "stay there". They prefer owning other western brands (Tata owns Jaguar Land Rover) than trying to make a name for their own Tata brand over here, I think. Why push for expansion on a market of 300 million people, where there are already well established brands with many loyal costumers, when you can just stay around your area and sell to about 2 thousand million?
Also I don't have a PlayStation, I like PC games more. Stop projecting.

First and foremost, mobility is about getting from A to B. Simple and efficient, everyday reality. Top Gear is the dream, it's a fantasy land. That's why it should stay in fantasy world, and not try to give us reality in 300 seconds. Some guy wrote that we can learn from the demise of the British Motor Industry. Ugh, commence the romantic bologna. Since when do people learn from their mistakes of the past?! Are you smoking a little somethin' somethin'? I need to know what it is.

This goes against everything I observe around town nowadays. They sell Fiat Pandas here for 10,000 euros (Yes, cars are very expensive in Portugal cos of taxes and shit) and yet I see new Meganes, Peugeots, Mercs, a ton of BMWs of all series including an X5 parked near my house... This doesn't seem logic does it?
I don't think people are JUST interested in getting from A to B. I'm sure some manufacturer even here in Europe could grab a design board, design a basic chassis, grab the cheapest 1.0L engine they find, make a less than inspired body work design, fit it with nothing but a steering wheel and some seats, and sell that for a profit at 3000?. It'd still get you from A to B, but nobody would buy it.

Then again, are these cars you want featured in Top Gear? Instead of the british roadsters (which looked fantastic, and to me they were interesting because I would never see one around town here) what would you have? They already did a test of all the pacific rim cheap cars that you claim are going to zerg rush our roads. They're here for sale, they're cheap, they just don't appeal to people that much.

I'd go on about how the cultural differences make some cars appealing to asians (remember that Nissan cube looking thing Clarkson reviewed some series back), others appeal to European and others to Americans, and rarely there are car companies that take the trouble of making different cars for the different cultures and needs, but I cant be arsed.

Err... The BBC isn't owned by the government.
Yeah I know, it's just that the way the BBC works is too long to explain, licensing fees blah blah blah, taxes, royal charter, blah blah. Just simpler to say its 'owned', think we all know what I meant was "it's funded by the british public by means of a mandatory tax"

well i am Australian and the Nine network pay the BBC licensing etc to air it here(SBS did before that). i would assume either BBC America does as well or is at least partially owned by the BBC.

so in those cases actually the BBC is making the show for us as well as a secondary market and getting money for it. so you have no right to tell us we cant comment on the shows.
Yeah I thought about that, but in this case I guess it's in Top Gear's best interest to keep the show appealing so it sells to as many networks as they can, but still, the british public is allowed to demand more for their money, where you can just stop watching the show and you shouldn't feel like your money is being wasted. Cos they're commercial stations and what they care about is keeping you as a viewer so you see their advertisements, which is what gives them a profit, but in the UK households are taxed to fund the BBC.
By that I don't mean we can all make suggestions, I like to say what I liked and didn't about each episode, but I can't really complain cos I pay nothing at all to watch it and you don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
 
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I liked this episode. I especially preferred Jeff Goldblum to the two fakes he had interviewed the week before.

The Brit sports car segment was especially brilliant. That's pure Gonzo journalism. I still marvel nobody has ever pointed out that JC's style mirrors the late and great Hunter S. Thompson. And if watched as just that then it's pure genious.

The new Ferrari(sorry, Porsche, Lambo and Ferrari are a subject of supreme indifference to me) looks like engineering fail. The controls are all wrong, the dashboard and the two displays are all mixed up. That's not what I would want in my car especially if I plan to drive it at an insane speed or in an urban setting. Yet he managed to point out that flaw and how it didn't matter to him.

The only thing that keeps bothering me is how they use their TV personas. If you watch the outtakes and vids on their website you can get a glimpse who they really are. JM got the umpteenth makeover and they seem to have settled with nerdy, awkward and OCD. The only guy who seems to be the real deal is RH.

Top Gear hasn't lost its touch. It still is one of the best shows on TV wether you care for cars or not. Don't overanalyze it.

8/10 when compared to other TG episodes(which includes some epic specials). 10/10 when compared to anything else.
 
well i am Australian and the Nine network pay the BBC licensing etc to air it here(SBS did before that). i would assume either BBC America does as well or is at least partially owned by the BBC.

so in those cases actually the BBC is making the show for us as well as a secondary market and getting money for it. so you have no right to tell us we cant comment on the shows.

Top Gear is Britain's gift the world. In return, the world will be ready and willing to bear arms in English favour should France try to invade Guildford.
 
RH: "Nothing... I've parked over an oil spill."
JM: "You've parked over a bit of hanging-off bodywork as well..."

:lol::lol::lol:
 
I'm sad to see this season end. The Ferrari piece is absolutely beautiful. And the Hollywood celebrities are a plus this season.
 
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