11PM GMT / 00:00 CET.
The Grand Tour
- Thread starter LiE
- Start date
11PM GMT / 00:00 CET.
Man of Honour
I was about to go to bed as well... Oh well 
Soldato
Actual lol at James's steering 'knob' 
It's more the point What causes the drone crashes each time.
It is a different reason each episode and the reason is linked to the location.
The first episode in USA the drone got shot down (Americans love their guns)
IIRC In south Africa a lion caught it (obviously Lions in Africa)
And celebrity Brain Crash is purely because the BBC has banned The Grand Tour from any celebrity Interviews as they regard it as a direct rip off of Top Gear.
Maybe the humour was a bit too subtle on that one
I believe its also a reference to it being an amazon show using an amazon prime drone
OMG! Is that why they do that rubbish section? Did not know that. They need to lose that immediately. It's utter cringe. Why can they not have celebs?! Seems ridiculously harsh. You can't stop other shows having celebs to come on surely? So BBC have the right to say to any other car show made in the world that you must not invite a celeb on as it would be copying!? Wow.
In terms of TGT. I watched since day one and have seen every episode (not today's though...not sure when it goes live each day actually). I would agree with some of the points already raised. I find it totally entertaining enough to keep watching but there are bits where it's way too forced and they are trying to prioritize comedy over real action and car related stuff.
As a format my comments would be:
- Little intro about the location and partial audience chat and banter. All fine.
- Minor audience participation like when something is actually IN the tent, like a car obviously. Fine. The fake fights need to be dropped and never done again.
- The main reviews on decent cars. Obviously a necessity.
- The challenge ones.... Fine, but a tad less childish would be good. Difficult to get these right. Some work, some don't. Some I think they looked good on paper for the three of them to lark about and do, but for viewing material...not so much.
- Conversation street. Generally worthwhile. Basically "The News" of old. A bit less ranting maybe.
- The laps round the track. I think a ban on all wet laps should take place. Utterly pointless and a waste of time. Gives no info. I'm sure there was a time they could have found to do a dry run. I see that as a priority. Stats matter and makes it a better show when they are done properly.
- The American. Cringe. Get rid. Hate him. I guess they want you to be annoyed by him but I think that's a rubbish acting role he's been given and very tiresome. The STIG with dodgey (fake) music/sounds was much better. Not sure where they can do with this other than to just let someone drive. Hell, just show us the on board, would be much more exciting than the drivel that comes out of his mouth.
- Celebrity brain crash. Needs to be dropped. It's so bad, I have nearly turned off before, but just wound forward. Total waste of time. If the above is true, then I get it as a protest piece, but that's not been well communicated and I suspect nobody knows about that so the joke is on them for it being an awful part of the show. Drop it and move on.
- Video/audio/scenery. Stunning as ever. No need to change.
Soldato
Poor episode I thought. 124 Spider bit was nice and liked the start of the Maserati bit but once the race started it got silly.
should have had a genuine race back to the UK.
should have had a genuine race back to the UK.
Thought James was being slow because he'd be last on the boat and then first off
It was all part of the very strict legal restrictions the BBC placed on Clarkson Hammond & May when they left the BBC, in regards to what they could or could not do in any future car shows they presented.
They also cannot have any celebrities drive a car on the track and a couple of other regular segments from Top Gear.
Conversation Street, was added as a supposed , comedic reference to Coronation Street the most popular show on ITV, BBC's main rivals.
If they get given a car by the manufactures for only one day and its raining they get no choice,
The lap has to be done there and then, there will be no other opportunity.
Blame Amazon, they insisted the race driver HAD to be American, no if's and's or but's.
The Stig is tied to the BBC, and the legal rulings from the BBC said nothing/no-one giving perception of "The Stig" or similar could be used.
http://www.grandtournation.com/1891/bbc-legal-threat-forced-the-grand-tour-to-kill-off-celebrities-nd3687/
All the info here.
Agreed but that's down to virtually the exact same production and film crews as Top Gear had, so visually the programmes are very alike.
Soldato
It would be interesting to see an equivalent discussion thread in an American forum talking about this. Their interpretation of and reaction to much of the content is likely to be significantly different from the UK. And they're the prime audience (no pun intended) - not the UK.
Watched today's episode.
Pretty good. The gear knob thing though...not really funny two episodes in a row. Also why can they not have an actual race/drag and log some genuine times when they do "comparisons" as part of the challenges. Got a bit silly.
Clarkson acting like he did not know the car was gone....I mean....my kid will laugh out loud I'm sure and I guess for a lot of people they are loving all that stuff but...it's a bit slapstick at times. Dunno.
Clarkson acting like he did not know the car was gone....I mean....my kid will laugh out loud I'm sure and I guess for a lot of people they are loving all that stuff but...it's a bit slapstick at times. Dunno.
Man of Honour
The Bulgarian ringing "*******" was a major eyebrow raiser, because as I was watching earlier, at that exact moment my phone started ringing as it sat on the charging pad and I was sat there thinking wtf.
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Soldato
I know that the "reviews" are never to be taken seriously, but with a Mk4 MX-5 parked outside, some of the crap Hammond spouted during the Abarth review made my teeth itch.
Hammond said the Abarth has a proper LSD, which no MX-5 has. Aside from the 2.0L cars. Which have the same LSD as the Abarth. He also under-exaggerated the price difference to a top spec MX-5. Finally, the Abarth is only built in Japan to a point, the engine, ancillaries and bodywork are built and installed in Italy.
Maybe it's a minor point. Maybe there have always been inaccuracies like these that I simply wasn't aware of. Either way it's still annoying.
The rest of the episode was a bit disappointing for what would normally be my favourite segment (cheap car challenge). It started ok, except the "the track isn't wide enough for the drag race" bit, but the section after they reached the dock was unfunny over-acted dross that was as see-through as air. The only saving grace was the pretty nice driving on show from Hammond (or at least his car).
Hammond said the Abarth has a proper LSD, which no MX-5 has. Aside from the 2.0L cars. Which have the same LSD as the Abarth. He also under-exaggerated the price difference to a top spec MX-5. Finally, the Abarth is only built in Japan to a point, the engine, ancillaries and bodywork are built and installed in Italy.
Maybe it's a minor point. Maybe there have always been inaccuracies like these that I simply wasn't aware of. Either way it's still annoying.
The rest of the episode was a bit disappointing for what would normally be my favourite segment (cheap car challenge). It started ok, except the "the track isn't wide enough for the drag race" bit, but the section after they reached the dock was unfunny over-acted dross that was as see-through as air. The only saving grace was the pretty nice driving on show from Hammond (or at least his car).
Caporegime
Not to mention he was bleating on about how the Abarth has more power when in reality it is only 10HP more but is turbocharged. I would take N/A any day over a 10HP deficit in a car like this. I also think the new MX5 is a far better looker than the Fiat also. Infact I fail to see any reason to pick the fiat over the MX5 apart from "Italian sports car innit" tag.
Man of Honour
I was chuckling throughout that last episode. I'm getting into it now and just not putting my cynical / critical hat on. Good fun. 
Soldato
Not necessarily. I always change my bike exhausts, but have never done so on one of my cars. Yes, I would prefer it comes with a nice sounding exhaust.
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Well no not really? Loads of people enjoy how cars sound but would be completely uninterested in modifying. Especially those who buy new.
I would imagine the number of people changing exhausts on brand new cars is absolutely negligible personally
The exhaust sound is therefore extremely valid.They've always had this issue, it's like the writing is done by someone else for them. The biggest one that made my **** boil was Clarkson reviewing the 458 on Top Gear and claiming that a major flaw was you can't use the sat nav AND the speedo as they share a screen, an outright lie and you could even see in a later shot of the same feature he had both a speedo and navigation working together.