BBC Top Gear 2017 Thread
Discussion
PapaJohns said:
I think the Clubsport S is kinda special, just look at the Nords lap times
I don't dispute that it's quick, but I just couldn't bring myself to spank £34k on what is basically a souped-up shopping car with its rear seats removed, just because its performance looks good on paper. I'd rather have something that felt special overall and wasn't preoccupied with chasing a set of numbers as so many modern cars are.ZX10R NIN said:
The star in a car segment is far too long but it won't get any shorter that way the BBC doesn't have to spend money on actual content, it's not the presenters fault they're working within the constraints.
And who's fault is it the BBC doesn't have as much money as it did?Lots of laugh out loud moments for the missus and myself. Really enjoyed it. Some bits were pointless (muck spreader) but a thoroughly enjoyable program on the whole. If you've been to the Nurburgring then you'd know that in large part it's not what you drive but your knowledge that counts and will have had your arse handed to you by locals in base diesel Golfs as you get to know the track, let alone the latest Golf flagship thing. And it wasn't any old local driving, it was Sabine. I did question why the 911 didn't reel her in and they exited onto the main straight at the end of the feature though.
topsprayer said:
schmalex said:
bobbo89 said:
schmalex said:
This show is now dull and so cringeworthy
You're either being honest or playing to the PH stereotype but either way you are wrong!I only watched it from half way though, but it was just so... vanilla.
The Golf segment was utterly stupid. Clearly, it's a quick little car but the feigned excitement as they "overtook" the other cars was just cringeworthy. The fact was, the other cars were going so slowly, I would have been able to "overtake" them in my old L200 double cab. It was cringe-inducing. The ONLY relevant bit about that interview was where they said it was £30whatever K, had no back seats to lose a paltry 30kg but had missed the ethos of a hot hatch in the process.
The star on the track segment just showed Harris up to be an extremely poor teacher (again), simply wasn't funny and took far too long.
The muck spreader bit was simply pointless and just filler material
The Fiat / MX5 segment was good. The old 124 spider looked sublime. I'm sure someone could iron out the flat spots in the Abarth's performance and make it a lovely car to drive. To my eyes, it looks so much better than the MX5.
The new show is trying to ape the original but, in doing so, has lost all of its originality and entertainment value. It's simply just a bit crap (albeit less crap than the last series). In my opinion.
Cobnapint said:
Don't know whether to be shocked or say to Rory 'nice one, you had us all going there mate' - but every fooker knows what HD stands for.
Except surely in the context of the muck spreader, HD stands for "Heavy Duty", rather than "High Definition"? Or did I miss them making that comment on the show? Pointless filler it may have been, but it was amusing and impressive to see it rip through a car even if the car didn't have an engine (we know it was scrap already). Edited by Cobnapint on Monday 20th March 00:30
I very much enjoyed most of that episode.
Yes, the studio segments are still awkward, and the delivery of scripted bits during the interview segment doesn't quite flow naturally.
However, the bit that grated on me the most, was that we had to suffer yet another description of what the Nurburgring is.
We get it. It is 13 and a bit miles with a million tricky corners. Top Gear et al have been telling us this, for 20-odd years now. We don't need a full explanation every single time you take a car there.
I enjoyed it a lot, it's really getting into it's stride.
The Aston / Merc film was nicely made, looked great - Poland wasn't it? It's the first time I've seen an DB11 and thought it was a good looking car, it always looked too tall in my eyes compared the DB9 era cars It might cost £20k more than that Merc, but I imagine full ownership costs would make it cheaper - big Mercs still shed value like nothing else don't they?
Enjoyed the Golf bit, yes having Sabine driving is more of a performance advantage than removing the rear seat, but it was proper quick, would I buy one? No, I've always thought the 2 seat hot hatches were taking it a bit far, but I suspect that's not the point, it'll help sell a lot of normal GTis - how many people will be on VW Website and Dealers soon thinking "wow, I can have that super fast Golf, with back seats and a tiny bit less power for £5k less, suddenly a £28k Golf seems good value.
Enjoyed the Fiat film.
I think the studio parts are getting better every week, I think I'm getting used to MLB's flat delivery, Chris is Chris and Rory is getting used to TV I think.
The Guest bit, I can still take or leave, the farm machinery thing, not for me.
I think this is the first time in maybe 5 years when I've thought there might still be life in the format yet.
The Aston / Merc film was nicely made, looked great - Poland wasn't it? It's the first time I've seen an DB11 and thought it was a good looking car, it always looked too tall in my eyes compared the DB9 era cars It might cost £20k more than that Merc, but I imagine full ownership costs would make it cheaper - big Mercs still shed value like nothing else don't they?
Enjoyed the Golf bit, yes having Sabine driving is more of a performance advantage than removing the rear seat, but it was proper quick, would I buy one? No, I've always thought the 2 seat hot hatches were taking it a bit far, but I suspect that's not the point, it'll help sell a lot of normal GTis - how many people will be on VW Website and Dealers soon thinking "wow, I can have that super fast Golf, with back seats and a tiny bit less power for £5k less, suddenly a £28k Golf seems good value.
Enjoyed the Fiat film.
I think the studio parts are getting better every week, I think I'm getting used to MLB's flat delivery, Chris is Chris and Rory is getting used to TV I think.
The Guest bit, I can still take or leave, the farm machinery thing, not for me.
I think this is the first time in maybe 5 years when I've thought there might still be life in the format yet.
Marty Funkhouser said:
Poorest episode of the new series. Why oh why do they feel the need to invent a "story" for the AM vs MB piece? Just film them flying up some mountains - that cars speak for themselves - you don't need a dreadfully wooden script and pretendy acting. I FF through the last 5 mins as it was getting on my nerves.
The Golf piece was ok but was anyone convinced all those other cars were trying even 50%, in one aerial shot as they went past a car it was clearly doing about 30mph.
The SIARPC was very dull and the F-eye-at piece with MLB was ok. Unfortunately he has no pedigree as a journalist so his pieces come across more as meandering observations rather than a decent critical appraisal of the car.
I think you've probably overlooked how these things are filmed. I would not be surprised if the fast lap was filmed with only on-boards and then they went round in an orchestrated fashion later for the filler shots. The Golf piece was ok but was anyone convinced all those other cars were trying even 50%, in one aerial shot as they went past a car it was clearly doing about 30mph.
The SIARPC was very dull and the F-eye-at piece with MLB was ok. Unfortunately he has no pedigree as a journalist so his pieces come across more as meandering observations rather than a decent critical appraisal of the car.
Shakermaker said:
However, the bit that grated on me the most, was that we had to suffer yet another description of what the Nurburgring is.
We get it. It is 13 and a bit miles with a million tricky corners. Top Gear et al have been telling us this, for 20-odd years now. We don't need a full explanation every single time you take a car there.
Did we? I must have drifted off at that point (I've got a cold and I'm a bit away with the fairies at times) - I thought the one thing they didn't do was the usual "13 miles of green hell, 38 corners, the carousel, claimed the lives of blah blah blah". We get it. It is 13 and a bit miles with a million tricky corners. Top Gear et al have been telling us this, for 20-odd years now. We don't need a full explanation every single time you take a car there.
p1stonhead said:
Section 8 said:
I don't get people on here at all. The Golf is about as practical as an R26 R and people raved on about that plastic fat arsed thing like it was the second coming. VW do something similar and the haters focus on the negatives instantly. Over and and over again people moan their tits off about fast Golfs being boring and bland and not fun to drive and then the Clubsport S appears that puts an end to all the dross they spout and thay go all Chris Goffey and say it has no back seats making it useless to put shopping in .The mind boggles.
The R26R went for it fully though shedding 125kg from the base car - no rear seats, cage, plastic windows etc.The Golf is basically just 30kg down due to the lack of rear seat. May as well have kept it. It still weighs 130kg more than the R26R.
I think the Clubsport S is an excellent car.
It offers the performance equal to (or better than maybe?) to the R26R with NONE of the daily drawbacks. OK, you don't have rear seats, but that's not really an issue.
It isn't too loud, it's not too uncomfortable, it doesn't have stupid plastic windows, it's still a proper car and I love it.
I've driven a normal MK7 GTI and it really is as good as the mags say.
Anyway on the topic of Top Gear
I watched it and was meh.
I like the presenters but the studio segments feel very awkward, even compared to 5th Gear! And that's saying something.
I don't understand why the guest hangs around as they don't really chip in with anything car related , they just sit there looking like the unwelcome friend (trust me I know how that feels
) and then bugger off.I watched some episodes of CHM Top Gear on Netflix afterwards as I usually do when I fall asleep, it was the episode with the Nova, Fiesta and Mk2 Golf.
Everything was just better and while TGT haven't quite captured the same spirit, BBC New TG is far of the mark as well.
The last few episodes of TGT were brilliant and a real return to form and were better than any of the BBC TG's so far.
Not to take away from BBC TG, I still enjoy it, but it just feels unpolished and like someone has described Top Gear to some Chinese people and the Chinese people have employed some British people to re-make it....
Enjoyed it. The only thing that jarred slightly was the Golf passing stuff on the straights given it strength is in the chassis/brakes. Had they filmed Sabine out braking and getting out of the corners quicker than the supercars it would have made the whole piece a little more believable.
Aston & Fiat pieces were good. Yes they were clichéd but these cars have been out and while and anyone interested in the cars will have read/watched countless reviews on them already. What can TG do other than blinding cinematography and excellent choreography? Mission accomplished if you ask me.
Harris is clearing being scripted as a grumpy, overly serious, old man (ironically like most of PH it seems) to contrast with the 'nice guy Joey' character. Reid is being typecast into the 'young upstart' which is a little disappointing as this is the default position for the BBC when they write for anyone young and/or non white male.
I like the heavy machinery segments as a joke. Looking forward to the bike review too, even though I don't like bikes.
Aston & Fiat pieces were good. Yes they were clichéd but these cars have been out and while and anyone interested in the cars will have read/watched countless reviews on them already. What can TG do other than blinding cinematography and excellent choreography? Mission accomplished if you ask me.
Harris is clearing being scripted as a grumpy, overly serious, old man (ironically like most of PH it seems) to contrast with the 'nice guy Joey' character. Reid is being typecast into the 'young upstart' which is a little disappointing as this is the default position for the BBC when they write for anyone young and/or non white male.
I like the heavy machinery segments as a joke. Looking forward to the bike review too, even though I don't like bikes.
Otispunkmeyer said:
I think you've probably overlooked how these things are filmed. I would not be surprised if the fast lap was filmed with only on-boards and then they went round in an orchestrated fashion later for the filler shots.
I'm pretty sure you could see outside shots where people were wearing (blue?) full face helmets, while the onboard showed open face ones.Shock!! Sequence is spliced together with footage from different sessions... as you say it's how these things are filmed.
Plus it was all artificial anyway.
Either way it was an interesting feature but I can't say I'd ever get too excited about a 'special' built to do a hot Nürburgring lap, but otherwise not actually very special as a car.
Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff