Top Gear Live Mystery.....

[FERRARI MAN 2222]

Hi PistonHeads, I am a little confused about the Top Gear Live show which is being held this weekend. I am visiting tomorrow and was interested to know what the 'Special Announcement' was. On the Top Gear Live website it has said this for the past few months.....

In the Exhibition you can also see a superb array of some of the most amazing cars on the planet including:

Ferrari 250 GTO
Mercedes CLK GTR
Audi R8
Ferrari 458 Italia
Koenigsegg Agera R
And a few very special announcement coming soon.....

The 'Special Announcement' still hasn't been announced and it's Saturday! Does anyone know what it is?

[Monty Zoomer]

FERRARI MAN 2222 said:

The 'Special Announcement' still hasn't been announced and it's Saturday! Does anyone know what it is?

No

[wijit]

The Agera isn't there. There was nothing overly special other than already mentioned.

[RichB]

There used to be a car show (for moderns as opposed to the classics) alongside this at the NEC, when did this stop?

[wijit]

MPH Show was there last year, next door to the Classic Show. That was quite good, but I suspect money entered the fray and Top Gear decided to take completely over. In my opinion it was nowhere near as good as MPH. But the Classic Show was, as usual, extremely good.

[RichB]

I'm a classics chap myself but used to spent half an hour in the moderns before going home, I wondered if I had inadvertantly missed it this year.

[wijit]

Don't get me wrong, there was some interesting stuff in the Top Gear exhibition, but personally I think they really missed a trick by not filling the hall with cars. Too much dead space, and for those in that bit I would think they'd want to see far more supercars than were there.

[FisiP1]

The number of modern cars was a letdown for the TopGear section, only 1-2 manufacturers had a presence(Citroen is the only one i really remember), and the selection of Supercars was sparse and very limited.

Not to detract from those that were there, they were lovely.

[CivicMan]

RichB said:

I'm a classics chap myself but used to spent half an hour in the moderns before going home, I wondered if I had inadvertantly missed it this year.

Me too - searched and searched but thought maybe my mind was playing games. What was the Top Gear Live exhibition of moderns? In a hall of it's own? Confused!

[john3883]

from what i saw all the super cars for the most part were in the sporting bears charity dream rides.

[FERRARI MAN 2222]

Did that Ferrari 250 GTO belong to Chris Evans?

[wijit]

The Sporting Bears did a far better job of supercars than Top Gear. In fact, the Classic show did overall anyway. Infiniti were there too.

Ferrariman; I was under the impression Chris Evans had his in white, was the one there yesterday not red?

[ecs0set]

I ummed and ahhed about going to Top Gear Live yesterday. In the end, I wasn't convinced it was worth £75 in petrol, £50 entrance tickets and knowing the NEC, £15 parking just to watch an episode of Top Gear.

For those who attended, can you advise if you think it's worth going to the London one (which will not have the added benefit of the Classic Car Show)?

Cheers,

Ian A.

[wijit]

ecs0set said:

I ummed and ahhed about going to Top Gear Live yesterday. In the end, I wasn't convinced it was worth £75 in petrol, £50 entrance tickets and knowing the NEC, £15 parking just to watch an episode of Top Gear.

For those who attended, can you advise if you think it's worth going to the London one (which will not have the added benefit of the Classic Car Show)?

Cheers,

Ian A.

In all honesty I would say no. The Classic is what made it worth going to the NEC, but unless there is something spectacular at London which wasn't at Birmingham I would give it a miss. Obviously it depends on what you're looking for, but the show and exhibition for just Top Gear (which had an awful lot when the three stooges weren't there, and comprised of a lot of live adverts) was missing an awful lot in my eyes.

[chrisga]

Agree, wouldnt say that Top Gear Live was worth the entrance fee they charged. We were lucky, live fairly local to the NEC, and were given some tickets.
Apart from a few stunning cars, there wasnt very much to see in the single hall of exhibits. There were some simulators to have a go on at £5 a pop and some of the cars from Top Gear TV shows. We had never been before so didnt know what to expect and thought there could have been more to see and do in this bit, but maybe thats just us. The track show had a good selection of cars (inc my fave 205T16) but the acoustics were terrible, we could hardly make out a word the commentators (Tiff Needell and a couple of others) were saying. Drift cars made some crazy noise too!
The main arena show was ok. The three amigos were fairly amusing, and some of the driving (not by them) was very good. Ford display team showed some precision driving. The three presenters trying to run over radio controlled mice was tedious though. Plus I got told off for taking photographs with a flash when every other person with a camera also had flashes going and there were fireworks going off all over the place!

All in all I'd save money and go to Goodwood!

[FERRARI MAN 2222]

Was it Nick Mason's GTO?

Edited by FERRARI MAN 2222 on Monday 14th November 16:55

[DoctorX]

ecs0set said:

I ummed and ahhed about going to Top Gear Live yesterday. In the end, I wasn't convinced it was worth £75 in petrol, £50 entrance tickets and knowing the NEC, £15 parking just to watch an episode of Top Gear.

For those who attended, can you advise if you think it's worth going to the London one (which will not have the added benefit of the Classic Car Show)?

Cheers,

Ian A.

The show and track session are on YouTube, judge for yourself. The live show was meh, the track session had some good stuff. The classic car show makes the day though, wouldn't bother if that wasn't on at the same time.

[Jem0911]

FERRARI MAN 2222 said:

Was it Nick Mason's GTO?

Edited by FERRARI MAN 2222 on Monday 14th November 16:55

What was the registration of the GTO in question?

[Warbbby]

It was a 250 GTO Allegretti which from memory is a rebodied lesser Ferrari that they valued at £1,000,000. Did look nice though.

[Warbbby]

Don't think it had a number plate on.