[18x01] January 29th, 2012

[18x01] January 29th, 2012

  • Total voters
    520
Rex Luther said:
Considering the rather "ahem" thorough preparation Ferrari put into any test cars, I think the chances of getting near the 458's time were buckleys and none.
Great ep.
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Furthermore, the person driving the 458 probably knew the track and the car very well (I didn't even think about Ferrari setting their car up specifically for Imola on that occasion, but it's not unreasonable to assume so). Three guys who had been driving their cars for just a couple of days and none of them in a racing situation (except the long curve at the beginning, which must be as different to Imola as swimming is to walking), probably not knowing the track all that well, never stood a realistic chance of beating that 458 (only if their cars would have been miles better than the 458 - which they weren't, they were "only" just as good). Considering Jeremy spent a lot of time at Imola for his last DVD, he probably had a bit of an advantage and only needed to adapt to his car, not track+car. Buuuut who cares, it certainly made for some great television. It's also nice to see that they were really trying hard, and not going for the "failing for the sake of failing" approach. Also the funny bits didn't seem forced and there was just the right amount of them. Nearly perfect. I'm very pleased :)
 
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noticed a couple of things in the Imola segments

- I like the "pep talk to the cars"....very Days of Thunder :)
- Hammond was the only one wearing full race gear - perhaps a lack of confidence in the Noble? The look on his face when he has his little "moment" under braking suggests so... ;)
- the fire out the back of the Lambo and the glowing exhaust shot - v.v.cool :mrgreen:
 
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Can someone explain to me what happened during the tow truck scene, why did the tow truck driver talk on the phone then just drive away?
What is because the car was too expensive? and they won't tow it?
 
laxmax613 said:
I would like to know how a camshaft works :(
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Try Chat Roulette :tease:

Thanatos said:
the pep talks with the cars seemed forced and cheesy.
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They could have had Jezza kneeling behind his Lambo making thrusting motions, I guess. He seemed to have fallen for it enough.

Fantastic episode. I gave it a big fat 10. The SIARPC segment is always my least favourite part, and so it was again, but Jeremy's right (oh my, those words are difficult to write...), the efforts of his guest (whatever his.na.me.is) to create jobs in his old neighbourhood are pretty damn inspirational. The world could do with more people doing more things like that.
 
Thaw Daggerslash said:
Recorded, because I wanted to see the end of the Rolex race, which was brilliant.

Haven't been feeling excited for Top Gear since the Indian special and I was so ready to give this a poor rating again. But I can't, because I actually enjoyed it.

The whole road trip film was good. Several real laugh out loud moments and not too many forced moments either, so generally very good. The Imola section was very well shot, you could tell there was real emotion and fear involved in that. The walking around the cars talking was a bit cringey, and bad show not to mention Ratzenberger's death as well as Senna's, but otherwise, enjoyable.

SIARPC I skipped. No interest in a boring man with a stupid name and stupid glasses who does stupid things to perfectly acceptable cars. I so wish they'd stop this segment, it's boring. As I've said before, the only ones I'm interested in are the F1 guests. Otherwise...meh.
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With you there. I knew Ratzenberger wouldn't get a mention. He rarely seems to. Which is a shame but it's not TG only who made this mistake. Many others have too.
 
The last bit with the racing times was epic! the cam view of the lambo flames made me freak! I honestly clapped when it ended! Best top gear to date for me
 
I don't think I can say anything that hasn't already been mentioned. What a great "start" (this is 18x02, as far as I'm concerned ;) ), to the series. Proper cars. A proper road trip, and they managed to make it appealing to the masses, AND to us gearheads:

I see they used the same trick in this episode that they did in 17x02, i.e., no background music for certain scenes, which increased the tension. I love it!
I ADORE how they integrated racing history (i.e., the crashes at Imola) into the last bit of the episode! Bravo, fellas! This was a spectacular episode, and as someone else already mentioned, NONE of it felt forced. The only points I deduct for this one was the SIARPC, because well..... he was just a dullard.

Bring on next week!
 
This was proper Top Gear, I actually preferred it to the American trip as the challenges were actually hard and interesting. I was literally puckering up when I saw Richard and Jeremy trying to go for Top Speed on the bowl. For a short, angry bloke with a bad high speed crash behind him, driving a car that smells of glue, Richard really has cojones :lol:

The drama and humor is just so much better when it isn't manufactured, like the Noble's breakdown and greasy recovery guy #1.

Agree the star was...well, boring. I think they're getting too many Americans because they're "stars" rather than people like Ross Noble or Rowan Atkinson who are genuinely interesting in interviews. A solid 9.
 
OK so having slept on it I'm going for 8/10. Full marks are reserved for absolute perfection, News was good but not the best and SIARPC while less disappointing than I had been led to believe rather let the rest of the show down so a mark dropped there too.

Looking at the poll results (certainly enough now for a decent indication) even if you scale all the votes down one to factor out the "OMG TG is back!" euphoria it still represents a marked difference to the classic bell curve that the Christmas special got.

TG crew please take note of this and the comments on your own website. If you intend to give the people what they want then it's stuff like this and not "Last of the Summer Petrol".
 
aaurora said:
Yeah, I noticed this too and wondered why. Perhaps he's just being cautious.
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I thought it may be due to the lack of electronics to help out should things go wrong. For example, I don't think the McLaren would have ended up in the gravel in those circumstances.

Either that or Hammond was the only one who remembered to bring his race suit. :lol:
 
hi guys i really don't ever post on here but after seeing that episode i have to say top gear is back on form (well except the SIARPC that was boring but hats off to him for doing something inspirational) i gave it a 9/10 due to the guest but apart from that nice to see it back greatness
 
Well what can I say?

After the India special I was so glad to read the synopsis for this episode, it look perfect. Did it deliver? Permission to say, oh God darn YES!

It was great to see them dive into the supercar trip straight away. I liked all the cars but I must say the Lambo really does it for me - the looks, the noise, and the looks - WOW.

The Imola segment was incredible, you could really see how much effort they were putting in and how terrifying it looked. When Hamond lost the Noble my heart skipped a beat :blink:

SIARPC wasn't bad, but again it was the weakest segment and stopped it from being a 10. Because of the rain and the fact that the Cee'd was the auto model his lap was pretty much irrelevant.

It was all about the road trip though, and it was epic from start to finish. Well done lads, can't wait for next weeks (which sounds great as well) :cool:
 
aaurora said:
Yeah, I noticed this too and wondered why. Perhaps he's just being cautious.
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After his crash in that jet-powered thingy, who would blame him? I certainly would want to wear some racing gear if I went for it in any of these three cars on a race track ;) It might just make that little difference when things go horribly wrong...
 
CD82 said:
Furthermore, the person driving the 458 probably knew the track and the car very well (I didn't even think about Ferrari setting their car up specifically for Imola on that occasion, but it's not unreasonable to assume so). Three guys who had been driving their cars for just a couple of days and none of them in a racing situation (except the long curve at the beginning, which must be as different to Imola as swimming is to walking), probably not knowing the track all that well, never stood a realistic chance of beating that 458 (only if their cars would have been miles better than the 458 - which they weren't, they were "only" just as good). Considering Jeremy spent a lot of time at Imola for his last DVD, he probably had a bit of an advantage and only needed to adapt to his car, not track+car. Buuuut who cares, it certainly made for some great television. It's also nice to see that they were really trying hard, and not going for the "failing for the sake of failing" approach. Also the funny bits didn't seem forced and there was just the right amount of them. Nearly perfect. I'm very pleased :)
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If by set up for Imola you mean it is not really stock in the engine and tyre department, then yes.
Ferrari are pretty shameless with loaded test cars provided to journo's for a comparison tests.
But, I digress. Ep was very entertaining, especially the season preview at the beginning.
 
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Mind blowing episode, I loved it from end to end. After a long time, I've seen an episode which has been this good!
 
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