[20x02] July 7th, 2013

[20x02] July 7th, 2013


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I gave this a 6. Chris Harris has moved the car review yardstick so far that the Top Gear reviews aren't that interesting anymore.
 
Problem is, they'll do a bit similar to Communist Cars and everyone will just complain about how recycled it is.
The thing is that "similar" is a very flexible word. By default, you leave burned soil when you've done a certain thing already. If you do the exact same thing again, people will remind you of it. So you have to change it enough to be different, try a new spin on it or give a good reason why you're doing it so similarly.

I think the latter is one of the biggest problems of Top Gear right now. They're doing shows as if it's the first one ever or at least the first season, assuming that things they have done previously do not count. Apart from the amount of clowning around, it looks to me like this is the most criticized point of the current format.
 
Like a... "Communist cars that were actually good" segment? I like the idea, not all Ladas/Volgas are crap, I think.
 
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7/10

I liked: the Ferrari F12 review. Usual top gear visual and audio quality - but also some never before muttered thoughts from Clarkson. Made sense to me.

I skipped: the guest.

Not bad: Taxi-demolition. Some laughs, twisted metal ... yeah sure, why not.

could have been worse: the news related segment. Some teasing for the viewer that does not really "get" me. "oh, we might be doing what we do anyway" ... :rolleyes:

Speaking of worse: James May doing a piece that didn?t even seem like a Top Gear piece ... sure that wasn?t for some other program but didn?t get used there? James Mays and Friends running around adenture? Only upside, we got a new "due to the unique way the BBC is run" line ...

Not sure if want: BAC Mono. Clarkson trying to sell a very expensive single seater track-toy. Surely didn?t get me excited, don?t get why they even bothered. IMHO bad choice for a car to review to start with ...
 
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Eugh. I suppose I should give my opinion on it, I think I still remember it...

Mono and Ferrari films were very nice. I love the little Mono, it would be a blast to drive and I think the film was great. Don't know if the Hertfordshire thing was supposed to be a joke but it failed (40 minutes out of London in an F12 is enough to get to Scotland?). Great visuals as always, I can understand why he moans about the controls on the steering wheel but you'd get used to it (a generation used to gaming wheels get on fine with the controls there).

News: Fine, always a nice laugh. I'd personally like to see them in their own racing cars, doing a proper race.

Taxi race was fun to start with, the past races have been some of my favourites. The classic side view of Hammond in the driving seat just works. Great drifting from the Limo and I can handle one cab-office crash gag but as said, it quickly turned to bullshit.

James' race was a fun idea for another show. Sugar glass and fake wall ruined it and I don't like baggy trousers jumping anyway. Bike and bloke were good, he really put the effort in. Locked door BS.

Star: Meh. I'm not a fan of him or his films but Rush looks great. Didn't seem to have much of a clue on the track.

You'll never get a number out of me alive.
 
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The Atom racer whatever was well.. seen it before, couldn't care less.

News were some stuff from 2012 that we've all heard from other sources months ago.

The taxi race? I dunno, fast forwarded after they started running through each other.

Who is Ron Howard? Or How Buford, whatever his name was.

Why should I give two craps about runners in a motoring show, that clearly are performing stunts that are comparable to CGI in realism?

They ran through fucking windows.

And a Ferrari something or other. After that CGI race, why should I give a single fuck about this? Might as well be watching Gran Turismo 5 for all it's worth.

Yeah, 2/10. The point is for nice imagery.

The Butthurt Express has pulled carrying a full load in I see.
 
TG is a playground for perhaps the best production staff in the world. But it has gotten perhaps to the point of overdoing it like with the BAC Mono segment. In contrast, the F12 segment was utter perfection, save the tennis scene. The sound of that car makes you want to cry. Why does every TGUK Ferrari segment end with me wanting to sell my soul 10 times over?

Anyone want to see a F12 vs. LFA segment?
 
The F12 had a license plate 'F12 FNE'. When Jeremy tested the 458 in his DVD 'Powered Up' the 458 had the license plate '458 FNE'. Does anyone have an idea what the FNE means?
 
This really was a bad episode...

BAC Mono was pretty good.

News were alright.

Taxi cars were completely boring (we had enough of these "races", scratch that, we had too many already)

SIARPC was bad, no talking about Rush enough!

2 kids running around was boring beyond description.

F12 was actually great, but they really needed to put it round the track. Too bad it was in this kind of episode :/

I gave it a 4, only for the Mono and F12.
 
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The F12 had a license plate 'F12 FNE'. When Jeremy tested the 458 in his DVD 'Powered Up' the 458 had the license plate '458 FNE'. Does anyone have an idea what the FNE means?

According to someone else on the internets:

"FNE" - Ferrari North Europe.

Which makes sense. :)
 
Top Gear reminds of the Tour de France. Pure cycling enthusiasts don't care for castles and sightseeing. But lots of the viewers do care. And the Tour is too expensive not to attract lots of viewers. So they need the castles and sightseeing.

Top Gear needs to do some stuff to afford the other, pure car enthusiasts stuff. Or as Clarkson calls it, 'serious stuff.'

That's live; it's complicated.
 
Better than the last week episode but still not one of the bests...

The Ferrari F12 and the Bac Mono films were good,but the rest was too much of the same.
 
Wasn't too impressed with this ep. Nothing we haven't seen before and i feel the editing is becoming too fancy, it takes away from the review.
 
The Atom racer whatever was well.. seen it before, couldn't care less.

News were some stuff from 2012 that we've all heard from other sources months ago.

The taxi race? I dunno, fast forwarded after they started running through each other.

Who is Ron Howard? Or How Buford, whatever his name was.

Why should I give two craps about runners in a motoring show, that clearly are performing stunts that are comparable to CGI in realism?

They ran through fucking windows.

And a Ferrari something or other. After that CGI race, why should I give a single fuck about this? Might as well be watching Gran Turismo 5 for all it's worth.

Yeah, 2/10. The point is for nice imagery.

Who is Ron Howard? Bravo. You deserve a pat on the back.
 
Not done watching yet, but really, in a semi-legitimate race of the white hot crucible of motorsport, the Ford Crown Vic would've won. Handily. Not in the looks or charm department, but in the speed/racing department. I smell a set up. ;)

I actually guffawed at "Bus Stop and By the Bins....." :lol:
 
8.

while i do agree with jeremy that the cacophony of buttons on the steering wheel is a joke,
the fact remains the f12 is a proper driver's car.
jeremy,stop whining and get back in your rolls :)
 
It was a good episode overall, definitely better then episode 1.
BAC Mono review was good.
James's BBC building race was OK.
I never cared much about any of the previous races by Hammond, but i was excited for this one because of the Beetle and the Ambassador. The obviously staged accidents where cringe-worthy but i still enjoyed seeing the taxis race around the track.
The Ferrari film was great.



Not done watching yet, but really, in a semi-legitimate race of the white hot crucible of motorsport, the Ford Crown Vic would've won. Handily. Not in the looks or charm department, but in the speed/racing department. I smell a set up. ;)
My prediction was Crown Vic 1st, Merc 2nd, Ambassador 3rd, Beetle 4th, London Cab 5th. Too bad it was scripted, it would have been fun to see the results if it where an actual race.
 
Meh...

The Mono review was good but, as someone said before, a bit boring. It lacked the drama previous single-seater reviews had, like the Ariel Atom or the Caparo. Jeremy didn't looked impressed or scared by it, like he was with the Caparo... It looked like he was driving a pretty normal car.

The taxi race was rubbish and boring, and quite honestly they should stop making those kind of things. Everyone knows already that it will end up in some sort of crash fest. Besides, this time the crashes were so blatantly staged that, for a moment, I considered not watching any more of the episode. The only thing I enjoyed about it was the limo drifting.

The SIARPC was quite good actually, one of my favourites, I must say. Ron Howard looks like a very very nice guy, the names part was quite funny, specially the Volvo bit, and I simply can't wait to watch Rush. From what I've seen so far, that might well be one of my favourite movies ever.

And then we get to the worst part of this episode, and I dare say, one of the worst in the history of Top Gear: the Trial VS Runners race. It was useless, boring, unentertaining, and 2 guys jumping through glass in super slow motion? What in God's name was that? That might look good in some sort of cheap action movie (which I don't think it will, to be honest), but on Top Gear? PLEEEEEEEASE!

But after a storm comes a calm, as they say. The Ferrari review was very good. Magnificent scenery, an absolutely SPECTACULAR car and a jump!... In a Ferrari! :blink: That was good to watch. But nevertheless, it seems that it still lacked something. A review on TG's track, perhaps?


All in all, not a good episode. The SIARPC was my favourite part of the show, and that, believe me, can not be a good thing. They have to start thinking about Top Gear again as what it's supposed to be: a car show, not a series of obviously staged races, crashes, stunts or whatever being filmed in super slow motion. TG isn't supposed to be a movie, but unfortunately it's looking more and more like one...


4/10, that's what it deserves.
 
BAC Mono was ok even if JC showed it before on a dvd so i felt it like a rerun. And that BTCC taxi race...stop those freaking crashing races, please stop them, they're absolute rubbish. And this one was one of the worst.

Parkour/bike race: f*** that, seriously. F12 bit managed to give it a few points to avoid total disaster.

I'm giving it a 4, i can't believe i'm watching 8s or 9s in a TG episode that had a race that did not feature a car
 
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This episode was - more or less - at eye level with last week's for me.

- the BAC Mono piece was okay, what a great car! Looking good, too. However, this segment lacked fresh wind, even the fancy eyecandy is beginning to get old. Doing and saying the exact same things as in so many reviews before and simply replacing the visuals and the car don't really do it anymore, for me anyway
- the news was not bad, quite funny and not cringeworthy. It was on par with last week for me
- the taxi race fell flat for the same reason the "new RPC" segment of last week didn't work: it was a carbon copy of what they did before. I laughed my behind off when they did this with camper vans for the first time, but selling the exact same "It's science!!1!11!! OLOLOLOLOL" thing again was plain stupid. They also completely overcooked it when the stretch limo was split in half. It was obvious this car was in the race for this very reason right from the beginning, the "russian taxi" alibi was weak
- the SIARPC, Ron Howard, was nice to see even (or because?) he was a silent guy. Doesn't really seem like a car nut, too. Was interesting to watch anyway
- the BBC building race was okay for some entertainment show, but not for Top Gear. I don't mind that there was no car, but it felt very misplaced here. Just like the taxis, this also died at a specific point: when the guys jumped through glass ... seriously?
- the Ferrari review was a nice piece that wouldn't have felt wrong a couple of series ago (that's a compliment). It was beautiful to look at (the car as well as the scenery) and had a proper and believable verdict

Overall it was not bad, but suffered the same major problems as 20x01: repetitiveness and playing stupid with the audience. 5/10
 
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