BBC Top Gear 2017 Thread

[Emeye]

ClockworkCupcake said:

Adam B said:

unless he was referring to some subset of the 150, eg RHD and purple and owned by a singer who is a bit of a knob

It could be as simple as there only being 3 RHD SE30 Jotas.

Edit: Also this article on Top Gear's website suggests that only 12-15 example of the SE30 left the factory in full Jota spec, so it's feasible that of those only 3 were RHD.

Edited by ClockworkCupcake on Wednesday 26th April 11:29

I am pretty sure he was talking about there only being 3 purple ones - he said it had to be purple for the Cosmic theme of the song title.

[HustleRussell]

Didn't JK seem a dick? I liked the music he made 20+ years ago so I am not predisposed to dislike the chap, but the whole 'too cool for this' sunglasses indoors arrived by helicopter thing... He seemed like a Matt Berry parody of himself.

I thought the 'SIR Chris Hoy' bit descended into a bit of a circle jerk but the way they all fell about laughing when JK quipped that the Dodge muscle car wouldn't be so fast when it got to the first corner...

I was dreading the fevered fawning in the unlikely event that JK went faster than Hoy so in the end I was glad he didn't.

Looking forward to both shows reaching new heights in their second seasons.

[ClockworkCupcake]

With Sir Chris Hoy being the closest thing to a professional racing driver that Top Gear have had as a guest, eclipsing even "gentleman driver" Rowan Atkinson, I would have been surprised if JK had beat him. I'm sure JK has done plenty of driving in his impressive collection of lovely cars, but I would imagine Chris Hoy's racing experience helped him here.

[p1stonhead]

ClockworkCupcake said:

With Sir Chris Hoy being the closest thing to a professional racing driver that Top Gear have had as a guest, eclipsing even "gentleman driver" Rowan Atkinson, I would have been surprised if JK had beat him. I'm sure JK has done plenty of driving in his impressive collection of lovely cars, but I would imagine Chris Hoy's racing experience helped him here.

Finishing 17th at LeMans in LMP2 is more than 'close' to being a professional racing driver (in my opinion )

[DonkeyApple]

Tyre Smoke said:

Hmm. I liked TGT, to the point where I was waiting for Friday. I never missed. I like CHM, and their humour, forced, scripted or off the cuff.
A lot of other people clearly do too. Hence their popularity.

This season of TG has been carried by Matt. Harris I can't take to. Something about his arrogance, which admittedly he toned down along with his aggression as the series progressed, I dislike. Rory is just there to make the numbers up I think. To do the Mayesque bits - banging on about driving a Renault Twingo and dressing up like a ship's captain,etc. That doesn't work.

To sum up, I can't wait for TGT to start up again, I can wait for TG. But will watch both.

Both are perfectly watchable and enjoyable and different enough, given their origins to be equally good.

What you do notice about the original three is that much of the infill dialog is just natural mates' banter whereas for the current three it remains mostly scripted for the time being.

[E65Ross]

Dog Star said:

I think the BBC did well to salvage TG this year after last years showing. Le Blanc really has saved the day - I think he's excellent. Roll on next series.

TGT is really going to have to up it's game to compete.

All just IMO, of course.

If the last 2 episodes of TGT are anything to go by, I think they certainly are capable of doing well. Those were very good episodes.

[PhantomPH]

Anyone else think that The Stig is Anthony Davidson (particularly thinking about the Merc AMG lap from Episode 6)? He is his physical doppelgänger!

[HustleRussell]

p1stonhead said:

ClockworkCupcake said:

With Sir Chris Hoy being the closest thing to a professional racing driver that Top Gear have had as a guest, eclipsing even "gentleman driver" Rowan Atkinson, I would have been surprised if JK had beat him. I'm sure JK has done plenty of driving in his impressive collection of lovely cars, but I would imagine Chris Hoy's racing experience helped him here.

Finishing 17th at LeMans in LMP2 is more than 'close' to being a professional racing driver (in my opinion )

A professional sportsman certainly. I don’t know exactly how he and his Olympic money plus Nissan work but I wouldn’t assume he was a professional driver, if Nissan wanted a professional driver I don’t think their first call would’ve been to a famous cyclist with a few years in Radicals under his belt. I think he’s essentially a privateer with a lot of money plus Nissan works racing team backing through his Olympic sponsorship.

Just goes to show how quickly professional sportsmen (or women) can turn their hand to a new challenge and get pretty good at it in a relatively short period, albeit with all the money in the world and works team backing / sponsorship which would be any professional racing driver’s wet dream. (bitter, twisted and jelly? Moi?)

Yes it would’ve been a surprise if JK had beaten hoy but not inconceivable, it’s not exactly a controlled conditions competition and JK is probably pretty quick plus lighter… so on a cooler day with a tailwind…

[qube_TA]

p1stonhead said:

Dog Star said:

I think the BBC did well to salvage TG this year after last years showing. Le Blanc really has saved the day - I think he's excellent. Roll on next series.

TGT is really going to have to up it's game to compete.

All just IMO, of course.

Genuine question, why did you type the bold part?

Is it in case we thought it wasnt your opinion and was somehow a fact that we had to accept?

Genuinely baffled me

Internet etiquette, when dealing with millennials particularly; if you have an opinion that disagrees with theirs then you'll be oppressing them because they will think that your opinion is now a fact, if you then explain that it was in fact an opinion and you're happy that others will have different views then they still might twitch a bit but it will not cause them to be overly triggered.

[coopedup]

PhantomPH said:

Anyone else think that The Stig is Anthony Davidson (particularly thinking about the Merc AMG lap from Episode 6)? He is his physical doppelgänger!

That could be a very good call.......

[p1stonhead]

coopedup said:

PhantomPH said:

Anyone else think that The Stig is Anthony Davidson (particularly thinking about the Merc AMG lap from Episode 6)? He is his physical doppelgänger!

That could be a very good call.......

Would there be any need to have someone so good or well known though? There are many thousands of unknowns who could do it for presumably a lot less money?

That being said, I just watched the lap - does look very much like it could be him....

[PhantomPH]

p1stonhead said:

coopedup said:

PhantomPH said:

Anyone else think that The Stig is Anthony Davidson (particularly thinking about the Merc AMG lap from Episode 6)? He is his physical doppelgänger!

That could be a very good call.......

Would there be any need to have someone so good or well known though? There are many thousands of unknowns who could do it for presumably a lot less money?

That being said, I just watched the lap - does look very much like it could be him....

Worrying how familiar we all are with AD's physique, but I'd swear it was him. As for being 'too well known', he actually has form with the production team as having done segments in the past for TG and Clarkson's Christmas cash-in videos, plus he is likely getting a few grand for the gig and who would say no to that?

[durbster]

Yipper said:

Lol.

Good old Daily Mail snobbery...

It quite clearly states in the article the TGT figures are sourced from GfK, one of the world's "big 3" and most famous independent research houses.

Nothing to do with snobbery. The Mail Online is simply a terrible place to get information.

Anyway, you're right - here's the source of their data:
http://www.gfk.com/en-gb/insights/press-release/am...

Crucially, the 2.3m figure is the total for the month of December, and not a figure per episode.

There were six episodes in December so if the figures are to be trusted, that works out 383,000 per episode. That sounds more likely, and although that's very good for a streaming service it's some way behind Top Gear.

[jbudgie]

MarshPhantom said:

hairykrishna said:

TGT felt like a massive missed opportunity to me. It could have been so much better. TG on the other hand is exceeding my expectations and getting better as time goes on.

I agree with this.

This is my thought as well.

[SAB888]

Adam B said:

anyone explain JK's assertion that his SE30 was only of only 3?

Wiki says "Only 150 SE30 models were built, and of these, about 15 were converted to "Jota" specification (although 28 Jota kits were produced)."

unless he was referring to some subset of the 150, eg RHD and purple and owned by a singer who is a bit of a knob

I mentioned this at the top of page 120. There were more than 3 RHD purple cars, so can't be that.

[768]

durbster said:

Crucially, the 2.3m figure is the total for the month of December, and not a figure per episode.

Not as far as I can see. Although they were looking at data for December and they have a figure for streams per user, the 2.3 million is their estimate of viewers, not views.

[Driver101]

768 said:

durbster said:

Crucially, the 2.3m figure is the total for the month of December, and not a figure per episode.

Not as far as I can see. Although they were looking at data for December and they have a figure for streams per user, the 2.3 million is their estimate of viewers, not views.

A lot of obsessing over viewing figures.

Amazon Prime will be lucky if they have 2.3m UK customers. It was 2m halfway through last year.

380,000 sounds like a plausible number.

Only 0.68m watched some of the most recent games involving big teams on Sky Sports. 6.43m people watched the FA Cup game on Monday 13th March on BBC 1.

That gives a similar ratio of people watching on terrestrial tv v. Subscription tv. 3.2m for TG and 0.38m for TGT.

[ClockworkCupcake]

The Vietnam Special was on Dave recently and I recorded it, and just watched it tonight.

That really was a high point, although the overly-scripted obvious gags were starting to show themselves. It didn't spoil it though, and quite stunning scenery.

[Kitchski]

Finally watched the last one tonight. Enjoyed it again, as though little in the series has shone, nothing's really stunk either.

Lookibg forward to more of them, assuming they continue to iron out the kinks.

[DJFish]

What on earth was that Bernie bit all about?

Overall I enjoyed the new series but I just wish it wasn't so obviously scripted.