3 4 5
irish44j
irish44j HalfDork
11/23/10 8:05 p.m.

TG US is to TG UK as C&D is to GRM Mag.

One is corporate-supported shill, the other actually speaks its mind regardless of sponsorship.

JoeyM
JoeyM Dork
11/24/10 7:24 p.m.
irish44j wrote: Replace Adam F (or big Lurch) with Vicki Butler...... 1. she can drive 2. she clearly knows more about cars 3. she has a british accent 4. she was part of the old TG for retro appeal 5. she's not hard on the eyes 6. Isn't she married to a TG director or something....so she's already intimately connected to the brand....

Carol Vorderman fits at least three of those, and her banter with Clarkson was priceless http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0f6dtPvr2M&feature=related

irish44j
irish44j HalfDork
11/24/10 8:48 p.m.
JoeyM wrote:
irish44j wrote: Replace Adam F (or big Lurch) with Vicki Butler...... 1. she can drive 2. she clearly knows more about cars 3. she has a british accent 4. she was part of the old TG for retro appeal 5. she's not hard on the eyes 6. Isn't she married to a TG director or something....so she's already intimately connected to the brand....
Carol Vorderman fits at least three of those, and her banter with Clarkson was priceless http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0f6dtPvr2M&feature=related

lol, I remember that one. What a freakin great interview.

JoeyM
JoeyM Dork
11/24/10 9:29 p.m.
irish44j wrote:
Carol Vorderman fits at least three of those, and her banter with Clarkson was priceless
lol, I remember that one. What a freakin great interview.

And she still looks stunning
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1327902/Pride-Britain-Awards-2010-Carol-Vorderman-match-teenage-daughter.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1328375/Carol-Vorderman-steps-FOURTH-Victoria-Beckham-dress.html
She'd be a great choice for a host

Feedyurhed
Feedyurhed HalfDork
11/25/10 8:24 a.m.
JoeyM wrote:
irish44j wrote:
Carol Vorderman fits at least three of those, and her banter with Clarkson was priceless
lol, I remember that one. What a freakin great interview.
And she still looks stunning http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1327902/Pride-Britain-Awards-2010-Carol-Vorderman-match-teenage-daughter.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1328375/Carol-Vorderman-steps-FOURTH-Victoria-Beckham-dress.html She'd be a great choice for a host

And make sure her daughter makes frequent guest appearances on the show!!

Twin_Cam
Twin_Cam SuperDork
11/25/10 9:08 a.m.

I laughed most at the "$17,000 of front-wheel-drive acceptableness!"

The closest an American show can get to saying, "This car kinda sucks, and we hate it."

Not at all a replacement for the British version, but a pretty good show in it's own right, I think. Sucks it had to premier during the Eagles-Giants game. I watched it on On Demand.

blaze86vic
blaze86vic Reader
11/25/10 9:49 a.m.

For anyone who has watched all the episodes of the original Top Gear, the US Top Gear is basically a remixed re-run. I have no desire to see the same things over again. There is a reason they don't do helicopter chases for every nimble sports car that comes in, it gets old in about 1 minute.

I wish they would have told me they were filming this, I would have lended them my GoPro so they could have good in-car footage.....how does a show this big with any budget produce AND TELEVISE video footage that isn't even worthy of YouTube!?

And again the hosts of the show are all fairly bland characters. The only thing any of them brings to the table, is that Tanner can drive. And it does never cease to amaze me how people keep bashing him for being a drifter, when he clearly has massive driving skills beyond a lot of pro-racers.

kb58
kb58 Reader
11/25/10 1:39 p.m.
blaze86vic wrote: ...And it does never cease to amaze me how people keep bashing him for being a drifter...

I'll be the first to roll my eyes when drifting is considered a form of "racing", but...

I suspect taking a Drift School would be excellent for learning car control, maybe even better than autocross (runs for cover.) Once trained, all a drifter has to do is back off >this much< and he's then right on the edge of adhesion, right where proper racers run. I'd venture that it's probably safer to ride alone on a big track with a drifter guy instead of an autocrosser, though I realize that's extremely subjective. My point is that the drifter's comfortable with the car being on the edge, unlikely to panic when it starts to slide and/or spin.

(Hmmm I just reread what I wrote... guess it can be argued either way. )

Anyhow, sorry for the hijack, and no, I have yet to watch the first episode... worried about being disappointed.

Teh E36 M3
Teh E36 M3 HalfDork
11/26/10 9:09 a.m.

You know, I watched it... I don't think it's half bad. Here are my thoughts:

-I actually like the hosts. Adam is good and seems genuine. Rutledge is the funny fat guy. Tanner can drive, but I hope that some of the humor rubs off from the other two.
-It was a little wooden, but I think they'll create some repoire if given the chance to do it for a couple seasons.
-I didn't like that they straight copied the helicopter thing, the Stig, etc. It seems like they should develop it into its own show, or at least acknowledge the relation to the BBC show- I know that everyone knows it, but I would feel better if it wasn't played off as if it was their idea.
-There are plenty of great "American" things they could include, like some sort of "good old boys" Dukes referenced dirt trial (maybe star in a reasonably priced car but on dirt).

All in all though, I don't think it was too bad. Give it a chance to mature and see what happens.

stuart in mn
stuart in mn SuperDork
11/26/10 9:21 a.m.
blaze86vic wrote: For anyone who has watched all the episodes of the original Top Gear, the US Top Gear is basically a remixed re-run.

People seem to forget that the vast majority of the US audience has never seen the UK Top Gear. It was a good bit, so why not use it on the US show?

blaze86vic
blaze86vic Reader
11/26/10 6:50 p.m.
kb58 wrote: I'll be the first to roll my eyes when drifting is considered a form of "racing", but...

Well, anyone who actually drifts or enjoys drifting competition (not pretenders, wannabees, and haters) will never call it a form of racing. It is a competition, but not a race.

stuart in mn wrote:
blaze86vic wrote: For anyone who has watched all the episodes of the original Top Gear, the US Top Gear is basically a remixed re-run.
People seem to forget that the vast majority of the US audience has never seen the UK Top Gear. It was a good bit, so why not use it on the US show?

Remember though, at one point in time BBC Top Gear was the #1 pirated video media in the WORLD. So there might be more people than you realize that have watched it. I do think there are a lot of people who haven't....but this is the History Channel....how many people are really watching that at any point in time.....I mean they don't even have commercials for anything except for their own shows. I have to believe that HC is hemorrhaging money for who ever owns it.

irish44j
irish44j HalfDork
11/26/10 7:47 p.m.
stuart in mn wrote:
blaze86vic wrote: For anyone who has watched all the episodes of the original Top Gear, the US Top Gear is basically a remixed re-run.
People seem to forget that the vast majority of the US audience has never seen the UK Top Gear. It was a good bit, so why not use it on the US show?

the US top gear is on History channel, where most of the regular channel viewers are probably not the "into cars" types.

The vast majority of the US audience will never see the US Top Gear either.

Feedyurhed
Feedyurhed HalfDork
11/28/10 6:02 a.m.

Well, it's going to be back on tonight for round two so we'll see if it has improved at all.

jstein77
jstein77 Dork
12/7/10 10:37 a.m.

Well, for those of you who said to give it a little time to gel, it appears you were correct. The third episode provided much more laughs than the first two did. The highlight of the episode was bending the Caddy in half.

3 4 5

You'll need to log in to post.

Our Preferred Partners
YWWBA34zHOEiV9RefKyuLHn4gP1yuZSWoBzC39tZIrR2UF8IzPnlWzHuZHb5NT85