New Top Gear (2011) BBC 2 8PM!

JonnyT · 21 Feb 2011 at 23:42

Khaaan! said:
I honestly think it's Clarkson at fault here. He spoke nothing about the 3 modes the steering has along with the other settings that change the handling. Other video reviews I have watched go into some detail about them but I wouldn't be all surprised if JC just left it at default especially when he talked about the EDC settings on the M3.

He does have a hate for Audi after all!

He loved the RS4! Remember the (oft-repeated on Dave) race against the climbers?

Housey said:
Odd how the RS5 wasn't understeering to any noticeable manner when driven properly. Whilst there is no doubt it does, 90% of the 'public' watching Top Gear last night will now believe all RS5's will wash out by 20 feet when you simply turn the wheel off centre. The amount of times I've had someone at work, in the pub, in a shop talk about something utterly stupid they saw on Top Gear as if it were fact is beyond scary. Cardboard boot in the CSL etc etc etc

It was a little odd that. It was Clarkson at his lazy-review best, like when he did a hatchet job on the Vauxhall Vectra VXR by simply turning the wheel and flooring the throttle and acting surprised when a FWD powerful car understeers :rolleyes:

I heard James May on Christian O'Connell's 5 Live show on Sat morning and he admitted that one reason they don't do 'normal' car reviews is that he doesn't actually know very much about them! Whether that was said tongue in cheek is another matter...

I thought the show was not bad, but perhaps a little below par. That said, as Fox and others have said, haters gonna hate & I MUCH prefer this Top Gear to the old style with Chris Goffey reviewing the Almera diesel and Quentin Wilson going on about used car prices. Perhaps that was one reason why Jason Dawe was binned after S1?

Scania · 21 Feb 2011 at 23:54

Housey said:
The amount of times I've had someone at work, in the pub, in a shop talk about something utterly stupid they saw on Top Gear as if it were fact is beyond scary. Cardboard boot in the CSL etc etc etc

Yes, too true, that said, I guess

The boot mat is made out of a recycled cardboard material and is about 2 kilos lighter than the chunky boot MAT you will find in the normal M3.

simply does not make for good telly banter......

ubersonic · 22 Feb 2011 at 08:45

TBH I thought it was a very good show because for the first time ever they did somehting very very useful, as comical as the snowbind harvester was its a very good idea. People ay laugh at the notion but people laughed at the idea of a stylish coat with a waterproof lining that you could turn inside out and it would become a raincoat.

The combine the used was from the 80's and if a manufacturer actually made a purpose built 4WD or tracked (or interchangeable) machine that could be used to harvest in the summer and plow/grit in winter then farmers could buy it and rent it to the government in the winter (or vise versa) as TG suggested.

Janesy B · 22 Feb 2011 at 08:54

JonnyT said:
I thought the show was not bad, but perhaps a little below par. That said, as Fox and others have said, haters gonna hate & I MUCH prefer this Top Gear to the old style with Chris Goffey reviewing the Almera diesel and Quentin Wilson going on about used car prices. Perhaps that was one reason why Jason Dawe was binned after S1?

Thing is no one wants to sit down and watch 1 hour of car reviews and a comparison of the best Korean washing machines. Anyone can now go online and get reviews of whatever they want without having Chris Goffey boring the **** out of them.

Firestar_3x · 22 Feb 2011 at 09:38

Housey said:
Odd how the RS5 wasn't understeering to any noticeable manner when driven properly. Whilst there is no doubt it does, 90% of the 'public' watching Top Gear last night will now believe all RS5's will wash out by 20 feet when you simply turn the wheel off centre.

Yep, but the truth comes out when the Stig does a lap in the car, i've got no idea if Clarkson is a poor driver or if he simply does it to illustrate a point more graphically.

JonnyT · 22 Feb 2011 at 09:43

Janesy B said:
Thing is no one wants to sit down and watch 1 hour of car reviews and a comparison of the best Korean washing machines. Anyone can now go online and get reviews of whatever they want without having Chris Goffey boring the **** out of them.

Yes, which was my point! As silly as 'new' TG can be, it is far more preferable than the old 'magazine' format with the old duffers...

Firestar_3x · 22 Feb 2011 at 09:50

Janesy B said:
Thing is no one wants to sit down and watch 1 hour of car reviews and a comparison of the best Korean washing machines. Anyone can now go online and get reviews of whatever they want without having Chris Goffey boring the **** out of them.

Indeed but a happy balance would be nice, something like a feature on the history of the 911 (factual entertainment) mixed in with all the messing around would be nice, i know TG can do this sort of stuff because they've done it in the past.

Heck the shows like the steam train vs car / bike are great, but perhaps thats because i like engineering detail and facts about how stuff works.

TG seems to be becoming, for want of a better phrase, 'council estate tv'.

peterattheboro · 22 Feb 2011 at 11:30

Why are people telling people to go watch Chris Goffey in the early Top Gear series.

Current Top Gear had it nailed from season 3 of the new format up until season 14 when it started to go downhill.

Janesy B · 22 Feb 2011 at 11:40

Firestar_3x said:
Indeed but a happy balance would be nice, something like a feature on the history of the 911 (factual entertainment) mixed in with all the messing around would be nice, i know TG can do this sort of stuff because they've done it in the past.

Heck the shows like the steam train vs car / bike are great, but perhaps thats because i like engineering detail and facts about how stuff works.

TG seems to be becoming, for want of a better phrase, 'council estate tv'.

I agree, they've got the balance wrong. It's just general entertainment now.

Django x2 · 22 Feb 2011 at 11:46

ZG002 said:
More to the point, I wonder how many people googled "Amber heard, The informant" with safe search off.

Probably none, since it's "the informers" and not " the informant"

ironman · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:05

It wouldn't be the same if Fox didn't complain about the complainers, i'm wondering which is more tiresome

"This is a discussion forum", "Why just have a thread where everyone says nice car/episode m8" rings a bell

I thought the show was hilarious, I downloaded it to watch on the train today and I ****** myself when May drove into the snow pile/car, resulting in people looking at me funny

Also Amber > *.girl

[TW]Fox · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:06

gurdas said:
It wouldn't be the same if Fox didn't complain about the complainers, i'm wondering which is more tiresome "This is a discussion forum", "Why just have a thread where everyone says nice car/episode m8" rings a bell

It's slightly different with a TV program isnt it? If you hate it as much as half the people here do it seems fairly odd to continue watching it, its something I don't understand. Not really the same as passing comment on a picture somebody posts on here.

Like I said, I hate Eastenders. With every bone in my body. So I simply remove it from my life, why would I want to spend time watching something I so clearly dislike?

If you like TG and thought that segment X was a bit pants then sure but some of the people in here quite clearly hate everything about the show, every single week. Why bother with it then? Watch something else?

Vita · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:08

[TW]Fox;18522381 said:
Like I said, I hate Eastenders. With every bone in my body. So I simply remove it from my life, why would I want to spend time watching something I so clearly dislike?

You would want to spend the time watching it, so you can come onto a forum and then tell every member how much you dislike it.

Freefaller · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:21

[TW]Fox;18522381 said:
It's slightly different with a TV program isnt it? If you hate it as much as half the people here do it seems fairly odd to continue watching it, its something I don't understand. Not really the same as passing comment on a picture somebody posts on here.

Like I said, I hate Eastenders. With every bone in my body. So I simply remove it from my life, why would I want to spend time watching something I so clearly dislike?

If you like TG and thought that segment X was a bit pants then sure but some of the people in here quite clearly hate everything about the show, every single week. Why bother with it then? Watch something else?

We watch it because sometimes there is a good episode and we can all enjoy it! If you don't watch it you can't tell whether or not it's a good episode! It's a reactive thing. It's only fair for people to comment on their dislike / like of a particular episode, it's what breeds interesting discussions.

Last week's was brilliant (IMO), this week's wasn't so fun for me. I'm sure others will agree/disagree - but I wouldn't be able to comment if I hadn't watched it. People in general like top gear but are left disappointed after certain parts or even the entire episode. Nothing wrong with that is there?

Wicksta · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:29

I wasn't that keen on this week's episode, the combine harvester bit didn't really appeal to me so I ended up watching at fast speed to see if anything different was going to happen but it didn't. The M3 was nice and the chick was hot but it felt like very little content this week.

On the whole though I've really enjoyed this series.

Participant · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:37

I'd quite like them to do panning shots over the dashes of these cars and explain any interesting buttons and features.

Sp00n · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:38

Dkore-DeX said:
but I did lol hard when Clarkson dived face first into the snow.

This was the only saving grace for me

[TW]Fox;18522381 said:
It's slightly different with a TV program isnt it? If you hate it as much as half the people here do it seems fairly odd to continue watching it, its something I don't understand. Not really the same as passing comment on a picture somebody posts on here.

Like I said, I hate Eastenders. With every bone in my body. So I simply remove it from my life, why would I want to spend time watching something I so clearly dislike?

If you like TG and thought that segment X was a bit pants then sure but some of the people in here quite clearly hate everything about the show, every single week. Why bother with it then? Watch something else?

Top Gear isn't that clear cut though, some weeks it's excellent, some weeks it has parts of the episode which are good and other's its just drivel for 60 minutes.

I have now started recording the episodes and skipping through the parts that are boring, I find this is the best way.

Participant · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:43

Is James May gay? They kept making little references, e.g. something about James fantasising that he's the skipper of a ship on a stormy ocean, and his only company is a good-looking male deck hand.

And to pre-empt the 'why does it matter?' crew, it doesn't, I'm just curious.

Wicksta · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:48

Robbie G said:
I'm just bi-curious.

Fixed.

Participant · 22 Feb 2011 at 12:50

Wicksta said:
Fixed.

LOL I had Butters in my mind when I was typing 'curious'. Wondered if someone would say that!