[21x03] February 16th, 2014

[21x03] February 16th, 2014


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Another good episode in my opinion. :)

  • Zenvo ST1: Nice. I like insane cars, and more than 1000 with completely deactivated traction control is properly insane. It's a shame that it really seems undriveable. Even considering the wet track, Stig's lap looked like he was scared...
  • SIARPC: James Blunt seems to be a nice chap, and the jokes between Clarkson and him worked. Plus, nice lap.
  • Ukraine trip: That coastal road hooning was the most fun bit of driving I've seen from them in quite a while. Submarine bunker - awesome. That valley of some battle - the obsession of the British with past wars gets a little tiring, to be honest. Chernobyl: Just wow. Even if the danger was not as bad as they made it sound (otherwise they would not have gone there, obviously, plus you really can book tours there), this place is properly creepy. One of the top-three "you do not want to be there" places on this planet, I reckon.
    But at the end - the fake licence plate on the Fiesta in the studio pissed me off somehow. ;)
8.5/10.
 
Solid 9 for me.

Zenvo - nice to see an over-ambitious piece of junk supercar again. Almost reminded me of the ill-fated Caparo T1. 1000+ horsepower and slower than a Focus ST?! I don't care if it's in the wet, that is ridiculous! Great review.

SIARPC - James Blunt was hilarious, finally a guest worth watching. I never knock an episode for not having a good guest, it's just a bonus if they are good. Bonus given here.

Ukraine - great road trip film. BUT...oh how I wish there was more...much much much more...of them driving through Chernobyl and Pripyat. That part was absolutely fascinating, but it only lasted for like a minute or two. They could've spent 10 minutes at least on that part for the ending.

Still, fantastic episode overall for me. Keep it up boys!
 
The timing of this episode was rather cosmic. I just finished reading "Atomic Accidents" written by a friend of mine. Rather superb read about the history of screw ups and bad design decisions (Chernobyl being one of them). The chapter on Fukushima was epic.

Anyway, the Geiger Counters were a bit much other than it adds to the TV excitement and to show there is some radiation around. It won't tell you what kind of emitter is near though.

The book has a free sample chapter on trains crashing head on into one another for giggles. It rather effectively sets up the rest of the story.

James Blunt. Well, he is a star and in a reasonably priced car. Moving right along, I think a lot of former Soviet Union assets are ripe for further road trips. Kind of like Spain last year. Very sad to see all that but still, worthwhile seeing.

Jennifer... LOL.
 
Looking back on the episode, I have mixed feelings. Seeing a car on fire really, honestly, wasted my time. It kept breaking for the proper review part, and the track was so wet a lap time was pointless. Jeremy mentioned briefly, at the end, how comfortable it was. I know it broke a lot, but a little detail wouldn't have hurt.

The Ukraine drive was interesting. I can't wait to get the 1.0L EcoBoost Fiesta in for review myself; I'm looking forward to driving that car. There was a valid point to be made on their back-road driving. The rest of the road trip (except the very end), was a bit "meh." Maybe I've got it all wrong, but I've seen better. Though, as an overall episode, it beat the first week's.
 
The ending premise of this episode was morbid. I do not like to see things like this.
 
this is what we want! proper car reviews, showing people that they're into cars, and a car doesn't need to have a billion hp and cost more than the moon to be good (even though those things help). Small cheap cars ftw (see also sig)

I even liked SIARPC!

8/10
 
this is what we want! proper car reviews, showing people that they're into cars, and a car doesn't need to have a billion hp and cost more than the moon to be good (even though those things help). Small cheap cars ftw (see also sig)
What car reviews? They started to do one on the Zenvo but didn't actually finish it. I can't recall much about the small cars other than they get good gas mileage and are so slow that you must keep the gas floored to do anything interesting in the canyons. They sure as hell weren't reviewing them.
 
"To be fair it doesn't say 'No Murdering' either."
RH
 
Watched it with the kids this afternoon as I was on vacation last weekend so had to record it.

The scripted bits worked, the chemistry was there, News was funny (Hammond "I want to be a drunk queen" :lmao:), Blunt was a good guest (not a fan of his music but he interviews very well) and they tried their hardest to be nice to the Zenvo even though it is obviously seriously flawed.

Two weeks in a row of proper, pukka TG. I've almost forgotten 21x01.
 
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