Cheap Car Challenges

dragonboy3000

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Dec 8, 2007
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126
Location
Perth, Western Australia
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'97 Toyota Camry, soon to be a final gen Celica
It seems that we are getting more and more of them:thumbsup:
When they first appeared with the ?100 cars and from then we would only get one in each series. Then in series 10 we got two of them, the Africa episode and the British Leyland cars.
Now in the latest series 11, we're getting three of them. We've already had the cheap police cars challenge which i have to say wasn't the best out of the lot of these, and coming up we have the cheap Alfas and Jeremy and James' 'old luxury cars for the price of a Mondeo'.
Now i aint hoping that the next series has four or more and then eventually one every episode cos that's just stupid. But if the next series is like the current one with about three or two like the previous series, that would be great.
 
I'm very happy they are doing more of these as it's my favourite thing they do on Topgear.
 
Yah, some of the challenges have made for the funniest episodes.

My all time fave was the one with the Jag XJS (James), Mitsi Starrion (JC) and a BMW 635 (Hammond). I think it was their second, as there was an earlier cheap Porsche challenge.

I couldn't stop crying when they took the cars over the uneven pavement at Millbrook, with open containers of water on their laps.

It'd be fantastic if they had a challenge that managed to repeat the same level of (apparent) spontaneous fun & hilarity - some have gotten close, but that's the daddy IMHO.
 
Yah, some of the challenges have made for the funniest episodes.

My all time fave was the one with the Jag XJS (James), Mitsi Starrion (JC) and a BMW 635 (Hammond). I think it was their second, as there was an earlier cheap Porsche challenge.

I couldn't stop crying when they took the cars over the uneven pavement at Millbrook, with open containers of water on their laps.

It'd be fantastic if they had a challenge that managed to repeat the same level of (apparent) spontaneous fun & hilarity - some have gotten close, but that's the daddy IMHO.

Hehe....yeah thats possibly the funniest moments in Topgear history.

I hope they dont start going the road of what they did with the Leyland bit, when the parts started falling off the car. It was just so obviously staged. No way so many parts fell off so easily.

Like you said, it has to be spontaneous to be funny.
 
I love the cheap car challenges, but the first ones were the best. So far the recent ones seemed forced and are lacking a little originality, taking elements from the first challenges and essentially copying them so it doesn't feel as genuine. I actually find the more absurd the challenges are the less I like them, I find the simple the funniest like just driving the cars from one destination to another and seeing if they make it. I think that leads to the greatest unexpected moments that aren't scripted. That said, I'd rather have one good cheap car challenger per series than 3+ mediocre ones, I hope they don't water them down and overexpose them so they're not as fun anymore.
 
I really enjoyed the ?100 challenge. That whole thing felt much more "real", and the point values made sense and meant something. I also really liked the cheap Porsches, and the ?10,000 supercar challenge had a lot of potential but the challenge to drive to the strip club was stupid, they all just drove on boring urban roads and ran out of fuel. Yawn.

I actually liked the police car bit more than the British Leyland challenge; the segment where they made the "song" was especially stupid I think.
 
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