Charlie Posted November 15, 2009 Posted November 15, 2009 In the first of a brand new series, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May take an Aston DBS Volante, a Ferrari California and a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder to Romania in search of an obscure stretch of tarmac that some hardcore drivers claim is nothing less than the greatest road in the world. Meanwhile, James makes a rare appearance on the track as he compares two absurdly powerful limos, the BMW 760i and Mercedes S63 AMG, and gets into a strange card game with The Stig. Plus, Star Trek, Troy and Hulk star Eric Bana is the Hollywood legend in the Reasonably Priced Car. This has come about very quietly, I'm surprised there isn't a thread about it already somewhere. I haven't actually seen it yet; will catch it on iPlayer tomorrow at some point but thought I'd just make the thread so anyone like me who had no idea it was starting tonight (8pm, BBC 2 I think) will be able to watch it and remember for next week. Anyway, if you did watch it. Impressions?
Charlie Posted November 15, 2009 Author Posted November 15, 2009 I'm positive I've seen that episode before... If you're just reading the sypnosis, they went looking for the greatest driving road in the world before but went somewhere else.
The fish Posted November 15, 2009 Posted November 15, 2009 I thought it was pretty good, nice to finally, after years of waiting, see the beast that is the Dacia Sandero get look-in. A pretty good episode, all in all. Nothing special, but certainly worth watching.
danny Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 I enjoyed it. There wasnt anything to stupid and it seemed more about enjoying cars. Would loved to have beenin them tunnels under the palace in romania looked brilliant.
Jimbob Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 I have to admit, this was a great episode. More on enjoying the cars than being stupid to be fair. Romania reminded me a little of the Vietnam special. And in case you are wondering, there will be a Top Gear Christmas special. It is to be set in South America.
Sec Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 And in case you are wondering, there will be a Top Gear Christmas special. It is to be set in South America. Sweet! the christmas eps are usually good, a caravan should be destroyed at some point in it. hopefully gettin to see em when they come to Ireland in December!!
Retro_Link Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 "Did you shrink that man gypsies" I didn't think I was gonna enjoy this episode, but I really did!! Been loosing faith in Top Gear recently, well largely off of the last series, and I thought they'd rushed this one out too quickly so it would be much of the same... but it was a great episode! Good focus on cars, really funny without being stupid, Stig was great, great guest... Great Episode!!
Chris the great Posted November 17, 2009 Posted November 17, 2009 WAY better then the last series! even though im not that into cars, it actualy was nice to just see them genuinly enjoy the cars, and man that road looked fun! i think they got the mix right, it was funny, a bit silly but it was definatly about the cars.
Jimbob Posted November 23, 2009 Posted November 23, 2009 Pretty good last night i thought, half of the episode had me in stitches. Mainly when they were building the car and testing it out. In case anyone is interested, here is the review of the car from Autocar
Sec Posted November 23, 2009 Posted November 23, 2009 Thanks SO much for that, you've now made my day
Retro_Link Posted December 6, 2009 Posted December 6, 2009 Top Gear inspired by the Dairy Milk advert.
Sec Posted December 6, 2009 Posted December 6, 2009 Went to see the Live show in Dublin, man it was amazing cars, explosions, exploding cars the works!
Dante Posted December 27, 2009 Posted December 27, 2009 (edited) Top Gear Producer, Andy Wilman On Complaints There are still three shows to transmit, but they’re all shot and cut now – we’re just tidying up the South America special – so it feels like a good time to reflect on the run. Personally I’ll be glad to see the back of it. We’ve done some good stuff this series, but we were too rushed and too knackered to get everything right. I’ve never ever ever seen a production team, from presenters to film crew to editors to production team, work so hard over three months, and I think only this lot could pull off what they do. However what the viewer sees is what they see, and I notice on the interweb that there is a grumble and a rumble in the air from some of our regulars: we’ve lost the plot, we’ve disappeared up our arses, we’re scripting everything, we’re predictable etc etc, so let’s deal with that. From what I can work out, the main complaints are that there’s too much cocking about for the car lovers, and that we’re trying too hard on camera. I think, if you consider the tastes of the Final Gear folk and the TG diehards, they’d probably say we’ve only done a couple of memorable films in the last year or so – Bonneville Flats, Commie Cars, Japan Race probably. Well, we do know where you’re coming from, and personally I have massive sympathy and empathy for a guy like that Monk chap, who clearly cares, and judging by the way he fills up the worldwide web, is clearly frustrated by what we do on a show he used to love. However, although we understand the complaints, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to do anything about them. Believe me that’s not arrogance on our part, but the fact is we’re not wedding DJs taking requests, and for good reason, because no good telly in the history of man was ever created that way. You have to make the programme you want to make, and people then vote with the on or off button. So although not many on Final Gear liked the electric car, we actually loved it, and we’ll make more of those any time we get the right idea. However when we do agree with where the viewers are coming from, then we could be in business. Personally, for example, I do believe we’ve now got the presenters playing to their TV cartoon characters a bit too much – Jezza the walking nuclear bomb, Richard the daft Norman Wisdom, and James the bumbling professor. I like those characters, but I too would like to see more of them as they were in Bonneville, or in Botswana or in the US Special. I miss the three mates who mooch along – there were flashes of it in the Lancia film, and it’s there in the South American Special, and yes, it’s nice to have it back. I know James definitely feels that way, and Jeremy and I were saying the other morning how the Lancia film was a bit of a wake up reminder that we can actually make good films just enthusing about cars. I’d like to offer my thoughts on a few other points. Firstly, this notion that everything’s scripted. It isn’t. We went to South America with one sheet of A4, Romania with 2 or 3 sheets about the car particulars, Ice Racing the same. Yes we do set a few things up – You won’t find Careless Air in the phone book, and obviously we rang Norwich Airport before James’s caravan airship pitched up, but no, for the millionth time, we don’t pre-arrange races or challenges or petrol stations in Alabama. I think what you’re seeing with the scripted issue is partly down to the point above about playing to our cartoon characters, partly just old fashioned familiarity, but there’s also a more important issue, and that’s that you’re watching a show that’s lost its innocence. To explain, let’s go back a bit. When we started in 2002, our goal was to make a decent Top Gear, but then, and most important, organically, things took us by surprise. Nobody knew the onscreen chemistry of the trio would be so good, also, none of us saw coming where we could actually go with the films. Rewatch the Cheap Porsches or the Shit Italian Supercars film, and you’ll see what I mean. That was the first time a car show was making tv out of the cars going wrong, and you can see the surprise and delight on the presenters’ faces as it’s dawning on them, right there in the shoot, how much fun there is to be had out of crap car calamity. You, we, shared the innocence. And so it went on. The America Special wasn’t even meant to be an hour long Special – we went there to make 25 minutes, and shit happened around us – the petrol station etc etc – and again, the surprise in our own faces is visible. That innocence has gone now, as always happens, because that’s the nature of TV. You all know the main pillars of our editorial, and we do our best to entertain, but none of us are going back to that first flush of discovery. But although that’s sad, this is not time for glumness because there’s still so much to do. Firstly, please relax if we try this or that and it doesn’t work, because it just means we’re not getting complacent. I can pretty much write that Monk chap’s review of tonight’s show, and boy will he hate Art Gallery, but it is just us pushing in a different direction, because we’re still very much obsessed, as a team, about attempting new things with cars on TV. The flip side of this is that we’re actually the most disciplined of any formatted TV show when it comes to not relying on our old bankers. It would, for example, be the easiest thing in the world to do a big race every other week – I love a race, I can hardly sleep the night before we shoot one – but we’ve done only a couple in the last two years, and that’s because we won’t attempt one until we can find a good one. Jeremy has now shot two of those preposterous tests – Fiesta and Twingo, but likewise he’d be happy to call a halt at two if there wasn’t another one to be done. It’s fair to say this incarnation of Top Gear is nearer the end than the beginning, and our job is to land this plane with its dignity still intact. But ironically, that does mean trying new things to the last, even if they screw up, because, well, it means you never stopped trying. That’s the way it is with content, but as I say, the messages that resonate for me on these web posts are the ones that say: “Can we have our three old mates back?” Well, we will still continue to build electric cars and airships, because we like doing it, but trust me, there’ll be a race the second we find one, and most important we still know how to do a Bonneville, the whole three blokes with cars mooching along, and if you don’t believe me just watch the South America special. And thank you for caring so much. Edited December 27, 2009 by Dante
dan-likes-trees Posted December 27, 2009 Posted December 27, 2009 So. The Christmas special. Pretty fucking awesome.
Retro_Link Posted December 27, 2009 Posted December 27, 2009 It was good, but probably my least favoutite of all the 'crossing countries' specials... Vietnam > Africa > America > Bolivia
welsh_gamer Posted December 27, 2009 Posted December 27, 2009 Enjoyed the 'special' very much. Was on the edge of my seat when Clarkson was crossing the waterfall on the dangerous road, and when they were going down the dune, and laughed out loud a few times thanks to Captain Slow.
BeerMonkey Posted December 27, 2009 Posted December 27, 2009 great special episode looked so scary when clarkson had to pass a car on "death road" and was millimetres from going off the road :O
stuwii Posted December 27, 2009 Posted December 27, 2009 That dune at the end.. thats not real, that can't be. OH MY GOD
Jimbob Posted December 28, 2009 Posted December 28, 2009 That was a good special. How is it that Clarkson is always right with his choice of vehicle??. And what a dune right at the end. I have been on roads similar to that of the "death road" the boys travelled on. Believe me, they are as tretuous as they look.
Dog-amoto Posted December 28, 2009 Posted December 28, 2009 It was good, but probably my least favoutite of all the 'crossing countries' specials... Vietnam > Africa > America > Bolivia What about the Polar one? Can we count that one as a cross country one?
nightwolf Posted December 28, 2009 Posted December 28, 2009 That was a good special. How is it that Clarkson is always right with his choice of vehicle??. And what a dune right at the end. I have been on roads similar to that of the "death road" the boys travelled on. Believe me, they are as tretuous as they look. Even if the guys are idiots, they know quite alot about cars! Its mental, but hey they've made quite the impression. I liked this episode, they take driving to the limits with these things, they have a laugh along the way and I enjoyed it. This one was abit scary though, getting to 7k ft and not being able to breathe. Ouch.
Retro_Link Posted December 28, 2009 Posted December 28, 2009 What about the Polar one? Can we count that one as a cross country one?Oh yeah! Yeah I guess that counts, it was an Arctic 'special'... in that case... Vietnam > Africa > Arctic > America > Bolivia have there been any others, that weren't 'races'? There was the search for the greatest driving road and the trip to Romanis at the start of this series, but they're not quite the same.
nightwolf Posted December 28, 2009 Posted December 28, 2009 I don't think there has been, its only recently they've turned them from races to cross-country stuff. Its more interesting that way, lets face it clarkson won nearly all the time on them anyway because he's a speed freak.
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