[18x05] February 26th, 2012

[18x05] February 26th, 2012


  • Total voters
    282
Second very good episode in a row. i'm happy!

Nice first bit with Hammond, with a lot of stunning photography. Not informative at all, but I don't care, because it was fun and worth watching, and it has a right to be in the show.
Funny news.
Very nice review of the Maserati and Mercedes, like the old ones from 5 or 6 years ago that made me became a fan of the show.
Still have to watch SIARPC...
Very nice bit on SAAB. I enjoyed it a lot.

So, in a word: excellent!
 
Very enjoyable episode :)

The something versus car race wasn't that interesting. Was it me or did it feel like Top Gear of the past? And in this case the past wasn't better. Never really liked those random opponents, don't really add anything to the program.
News was good. Jemery looked better this week (and not only in the SAAB segment :lol: ), younger and healthier. He must've cut his ear off, but he didn't mention it of course.
The track test was ok, but also a bit pointless. Jeremy tested a beefed up Maserati, only to conclude that the beefing up was pointless. A Maserati GT is supposed to be exactly that, a Grand Tourer. This was just another rather average (surprised at how slow it was) wannabe sports car, which serves no purpose. If you want a sports car, buy a Nissan GTR. Actually I want them both, the Nissan GTR and the standard Maserati GT.
The Maserati had a very good sound track though. Give me a naturally aspirated engine any day of the week. I'd much rather have a normal engine with 250bhp than a turbo with 400, although I should say thus far I've only driven an example of the former and a smaller version of the latter. Still, don't like the driving style of a turbo.

Except when it's a SAAB. Brilliant film. The beginning reminds me of the first time I (tried to) drive a Saab, a 9-3. All the electrics failed, took an hour to get it back to life. But the 9-5 drove brilliantly, and the turbo gauge is even better. It's a bit like pop-up headlamps, you just want them. Also, the 9-5 is only one out of two cars that looks properly beautiful in the station wagon variant (the other being the Alfa 156/9 Sportwagon). Anyway, very interesting piece of Top Gear and I wished it could've been longer. As mentioned in the topic, there was more to tell and James' story about one way of turbo versus another (?) also sounded like an interesting story. It's some time ago I really regretted the end of an episode.
Is this becoming a new thing, the Jeremy and James pieces? Give me more of it! Is it the producers secretly confirming the Hammond problem there is at the moment? In which we first see a rather pointless (sorry to say) Hammond film and after that carry on with the real show? I really like it though, I even enjoyed (contrary to most here I believe) the VW advert episode.

Oh, and someone should tell the SIARPC to cut his hair. I hate people who grow their hair, one one side or both, and then start to continually try to put it in a place where it doesn't bother them. Seemed to be a nice guy though.
 
Meh, pretty dull. The Hammond thing has been done before (Cayenne in Cyprus), the track test cars were not interesting in any way, and the Saab film was a missed opportunity. Could and should have been better.
 
after watching it a second time, I would change my vote from a 9 to an 8.
I didn't really enjoy the Rocket-man v. Rally-spec Skoda all that much.
Everything else was just fine! ;D
 
No, and a quick Google search didn't turn up anything. Got a link?

Not really. When I was interested in Explorers some months ago, I read up on http://www.offroad-forum.de, maybe others. The upshot being they're ultimately killed off early by frame corrosion from within the beams. I don't want to stray too far off-topic, you don't have personal messages enabled.
 
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Er, what?

Er, what?

The Hammond thing has been done before (Cayenne in Cyprus),.

I get the fact some are disappointed because they have seen it on a DVD before the segment was aired - but you are not seriously comparing that?

A gliding parachute to a JET PACK? A complacent Cayenne to a RALLYE CAR? A (non-Stig) TG presenter to a FINNISH RALLYE DRIVER?

Some might say there's only a gradual difference but to me, it appears like Jekyll vs. Hyde on steroids. Aka "Kawasaki sport button": http://www.topgear.com/uk/richard-hammond/richard-hammond-top-gear-magazine-column-2012-01-13 ("Kermit had gone crazy, pulled out a death ray, bitten the head off a chicken, drunk eight litres of tequila and shagged Miss Piggy in a skip outside a nightclub. Now that is a split personality." R. Hammond)

From a purely "bigger is better" perspective - if you go for that sort of thing - a far better case can be made for Rocket Swiss Man than for most Hollywood sequels and remakes.
 
I get the fact some are disappointed because they have seen it on a DVD before the segment was aired - but you are not seriously comparing that?

A gliding parachute to a JET PACK? A complacent Cayenne to a RALLYE CAR? A (non-Stig) TG presenter to a FINNISH RALLYE DRIVER?

Some might say there's only a gradual difference but to me, it appears like Jekyll vs. Hyde on steroids.
In the first version, Hammond drove a high-powered car for rough terrain on a rally track to beat a guy in a wing suit that jumped from a helicopter. In the second race, Hammond was driven in a high-powered car for rough terrain on a rally track to beat a guy with a wing on his back that jumped from a helicopter. You have to admit that the ideas are very similar.
 
You have to admit that the ideas are very similar.

Possibly even a little more similar than a glider to a jet, or Hammond's driving to that of the Finn in question :lol:

But it's not what would have put me off the segment if I didn't happen to like the resulting footage.

That would have been the contrivedness of it all. If you need so much time to explain why it's a race and why it's fair and when it's over and when it starts, and possibly where the track is or why one racer takes one track and the other another and it's still a race that supposedly has a point, AND you still need to have your presenter say "Trust me on this" after all that talking and CGI superimposing, you need to ask yourselves if that's really the best way of doing it.

http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/60hx-31.jpg

Especially if, despite all this exposition, you don't include a single shot of the guy with the BB gun that supposedly penalizes any cheating on the part of Jet Pack Man.

It's as contrived as the Eurofighter vs. some car or other "on the Top Gear Track".

I think there's a point where you're better off admitting you're only doing it for the hell of it, just to gain some cool footage of something cool, and save your breath and your audience's patience. Like they did with the completely pointless horsing around on that aircraft carrier when they got rid of Black Stig.
 
I am no Saab fan but I kinda enjoyed that section.
Didnt feel as connected as they did the Lancia section thou.. XD

As for the whole "oh this is done in the DVD" bit... well I didnt watch the DVD so No comment on that from me XD
 
Good episode.

I must say, I like the James and Jeremy stuff. May with his seriousness and Jeremy with his slightly arrogance, makes the perfect martini, in a manner of speech. (or how you say it).

I really liked the Saab part, it was somehow funny but still interesting!

AMG vs Maserati stuff was nice, great sounds.

The richard stuff.. To be honest, he is getting on my nerves. The older he gets, the more childish he starts to act. Shouting like a child in a car for no reasons.. Yes, i know, they are driving fast and hard but this is just over-acting like a bollywood movie. There is a limit and the limiter is not into the red anymore, it has fallen off.
Also, in some parts like the news or a segment he changes his voice much more to high level to make it "funny", but it isn't working anymore. It has been done a thousand times and it just spoils it imo. In the old days, Jeremy was the child more, May was the genius, Richard was a bit of the small "normal" one. These days May is still the same, Jeremy a bit overdone hardcore powargh man, but he is still the same, but richard just changed from "normal" to the small child imo.


Just my few cents, and euh, don't give me neg rep. I'm colorblind, i don't see the red bars or the green one :p
 
This was a pretty good episode by current standards. Hammond's piece was good (for what it was) with the exception of him referring to the guy as "rocket man", when it was already established he uses jets. The Merc v Maserati "test" was just the usual burnouts on an airport runway, but since I'm not interested in either of those cars, the fact they didn't test them in the real world didn't really bother me. Once again though, it was the Clarkson/May duo piece which was the highlight. I could watch that again and again, which is my measure of a good episode. Oddly, the first episode of this series (which was rated so highly here) was on free to air TV a couple of days ago. I tried watching it again, but couldn't be bothered (they weren't in interesting cars, nothing interesting happened, no interesting conclusion or observations were made, there was nothing to learn) ... so I would rate this episode (#5) higher.
 
Not really. When I was interested in Explorers some months ago, I read up on http://www.offroad-forum.de, maybe others. The upshot being they're ultimately killed off early by frame corrosion from within the beams. I don't want to stray too far off-topic, you don't have personal messages enabled.

Not sure how to turn on personal messaging, might be a post count limit or something. Either way, all I can find is some issues with the paint on the roof and a crack in the plastic panel on the tailgate (which mine is afflicted with). Nothing about frame rust or corrosion, maybe the earlier models had an issue?

Are you in Germany? Do they sell the same model over there?

*edit* figured out the PM system. You have to specifically ask for it to be turned on nowadays.
 
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Gave it a 6 simply because they reused footage from the Top Gear at the Movies DVD. To me that's completely unacceptable to try to pass that off as an original episode. It reeks of laziness that all they did is press play. The rest of the episode was good which is the only reason I feel it deserves a 6.
 
Gave it a 6 simply because they reused footage from the Top Gear at the Movies DVD. To me that's completely unacceptable to try to pass that off as an original episode. It reeks of laziness that all they did is press play. The rest of the episode was good which is the only reason I feel it deserves a 6.

I thought the complete opposite: it's nice to see some young JC talk, brings back the memories quite well, and it was like what, 20-30secs?
 
I thought the complete opposite: it's nice to see some young JC talk, brings back the memories quite well, and it was like what, 20-30secs?
You're thinking of the wrong bit of footage. The reused one from "Top Gear at the movies" DVD was the whole rally car versus jet-powered glider bit.
 
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