The "Top Gear", Season 24/25/26 thread

Yeah, using your own car definitely makes sense but it is a big up front expense, to get an MG ZR similar-ish spec to what I raced (which was far from class winning spec) would be £4k, which is probably cheaper than building it but not by much (without having done the full figures, and dependant on initial car cost). Getting a class winning spec would be, well, a good amount more :-p

But still once you've got a car it's 'just' race entries, fuel and 'wear and tear' :)

Quite a few clubs/series race at Donington, so that'd be an option, and you wouldn't be a million miles away from Oulton or Cadwell... Saying that one of the reasons I race at Castle Combe is because it's so convenient (like ~25 mins drive away), tempted to go further afield but not sure I want to start sleeping in tents so the cost just ramps up even further :p
 
OK that's me sold on a new hobby! I'm going to make it a resolution to start at least doing track days this year and begin tarting up the mini... although I'm currently sinking most my cash into a new property so perhaps towards the end of next year when I've got funds again :D

I'm going to tag you in a thread one day next year for more advice :)
 
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Le Clandestin Brun said:
OK that's me sold on a new hobby! I'm going to make it a resolution to start at least doing track days this year and begin tarting up the mini... although I'm currently sinking most my cash into a new property so perhaps towards the end of next year when I've got funds again :D

I'm going to tag you in a thread one day next year for more advice :)
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Sounds like a good plan :D

I only started doing trackdays (after years of saying I would) about a year ago, mid-December on a wet and slippery Brands Hatch and then went a bit stir-crazy during lockdown and things escalated quickly! Done several trackdays at various tracks in my MX-5 and also my Motorbike (I did used to race bikes ~12 years ago!), then the racing, and also done some sprints/hillclimbs in the MX-5 too...

Just finished the year with foolishly doing another December trackday at Brands on Friday, wet and slippery doesn't even cover it! :p

Oh, and just cause I'll plug my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpk0SfpUSif5SzjDDC0fesw I do videos from pretty much everything and add a GPS overlay, not always the most interesting tbh but hey :p

We can probably get back to Top Gear talk now!
 
Just finished watching it, ARDS is easier than they make out, but other than that seems pretty bang on with everything else. It's super addictive once you get into racing...but the costs are insane!

City Car Cup cost me £1k+ per round using my own car. That accounts for entry, test day, fuel, food etc.

MX5 Supercup is closer to £1500+ a per round.

We done the race of remembrance this year,.which the entry alone was £2600!

I recently done a track day at Donington in the MX5 and done 100 litres of lovely 99 Ron fuel!

But I absolutely love it
 
Interesting episode, that last one, was nice to see some oldies being thrown about although wish they'd taken them on a roadtrip - but I guess covid would have made that hard.

When that kid made Freddie feel old had me laughing, and then made me realise just how old I was too :D :(

Miura piece was interesting, I wonder what made it so attractive to the rich and famous? Simply the looks and speed, or perhaps there was some effective marketing at the time?
 
The Aston Martin "Meldrew". Was stunning, but the cost was totally "I don't believe it".....

Just unimaginable money to spend. If rather have a caterham or Ariel for track days and a Tesla for everyday. With the money saved you could even build your own race circuit!
 
I thought it was a bit of a silly wrapper. Surely they could think of better reason to buy 40 year old cars and have some fun? Much like they summised at the end, who on earth would recommend their kids to buy a 40 year old car? It was quite fun still, just annoyed me a little, like they were actually trying to give new drivers advice and it just seemed really bad advice...
 
Sorry to be that guy (don't watch it then moaner boy) but I have found this serious utter tripe.

I watched them in iPlayer and find myself fast forwarding. Couple of decent bits, but mostly just tripe with shouting and fake laughing that is not meant for my generation (that was the Clarkson, Hamster, May lot I suppose) that annoys me more than makes me laugh.
 
I just recently got back into TopGear and caught up. I liked the tribute one they did. I found some of it mildly entertaining and they clearly have ok chemistry. I think the format even revamped over and over is a dying bread as it's hard to do something different with it now. It's mostly been done. Same with the Grand tour. I'll probably keep watching but I don't look forward to either nowadays as we used to when we tuned in on Sunday evenings to the OG Top gear. Now I just watch them on demand as and when I have a chance.
 
Recently watched the Christmas special and I don't want to sound like a moaner and the reason I am is because I love watching TG but that special episode was far from special.

Found it actually dull and boring and kept looking at the time to see how much more was left. And yes, we know Paddy loves the Ford Escort but how many times is that going to feature in TG? Currently looks like every other episode!
 
IAmATeaf said:
Recently watched the Christmas special and I don't want to sound like a moaner and the reason I am is because I love watching TG but that special episode was far from special.

Found it actually dull and boring and kept looking at the time to see how much more was left. And yes, we know Paddy loves the Ford Escort but how many times is that going to feature in TG? Currently looks like every other episode!
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The Christmas special was one that I fast forwarded through. It was just rubbish. I like Chris and Freddy has his moments, but Paddy needs to go. He’s overexposed as it is and he’s just rubbish.
 
Looks good fun.

Stu999 said:
So they immediately backtracked on their “don’t need to travel abroad to be interesting” stance?
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How is that back tracking? The statement can be true and you still go abroad and be interesting. The two are not mutually exclusive.
 
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