What do you all honestly expect? IMO even the original show isnt even that great, everyone talks about how amazing it is, but seriously, its like the hangover, its watchable, but you end up feeling like "okay, that wasnt anywhere near as good as everyone said"
I really enjoy TGUK. I love the British humor displayed in the show, the cars are all cool because most of them are not seen here in the U.S., and the way the hosts review the cars is entertaining because its both informitave and the opinions seem very honest. As stated before, they have great chemistry with the hosts and most of the challenges are truly entertaining. TGUS was a bit of a let down in its first episode. I suppose this is so because I'm comparing it to the more polised TGUK. I really hope the hosts gain a bit more chemistry but they really did seem to be forcing the dialogue. I'll keep watching it to see how it evolves. The one very annoying thing they have is the stupid mini-map shown at the bottom of the test track runs. That mini-map is very distracting and I find myself focusing on it more than the actual car and driver action.
Kind of like subtitles ? If they're on, I just can't help but read them, even if I can hear the dialogue clear as a bell. When I was at university, we watched the original La Femme Nikita, and had a couple of French friends with us at the time. Even they said they couldn't keep themselves from reading the English subtitles, even though all the dialogue was in French. I'm sure there must be some sort of psychological explanation for this.
Vietnam special and Chili SPecial are my all time 2 favorites of TG-UK I never stopped laughing... but I also understand their humor more like Stuart would... http://www.finalgear.com/shows/topgear/ for downloading the whole 14 seasons...
EP 2 aired tonight. It was better than EP 1 but still has a bit to go. I loved the surprise ending on the stage. You can't script that.
It's great to see them not edit out the dog. That will get some laughs and attention. I thought it was a good episode.
Still not there. They are still reading from a script. And exaggerating a bit. I did like the blind-man drifting bit, even if there were a little bit of shenanigans involved with his 180 degree parking.
Wayyyyy to many commercials, its like anything else on history, discovery, tlc, etc... They all cut to commercial right in the middle of the action to make you watch the commercials, its kind of rude, maybe put the breaks in between the segments. Also the camera work sucks compared to UK Top Gear. For now I'm sticking to Clarkson, Hammond, and Captain Slow. They seem more genuine if that makes any sense.
Last nights episode was great. It had me rolling in laughter a couple times. I've always loved the "challenges" that the other show did. Good to see the new one pull off a fun challenge.
It's starting to come together better. It felt like they spent more time on the challenge this time around, and it was good! Still need to ditch Ruttledge though, and maybe Ferrara. Foust seemed annoying at first, but I'm liking him more and more.
I usually skip the interviews unless it's the rare occasion that I actually give a care about what that person has to say. I do always watch their test lap and see where they place though.
The interviews are one of my favorite things about tguk. I get that the typical american viewer would rather watch the other stuff or would rather tune in to a talk show if they wanted to see an interview, but the way they are currently doing the interviews on tgus (really fast, little content, not connecting with the interviewee) is half-assed. I don't know if they are editing them shorter or what, but they either need to make them a lot better or just get rid of them entirely imho.
It's starting to come together. But The News was horrifically weak. Perhaps they should have a think about that ahead of time instead of trying to do improv. I think Adam is eventually going to come good. He seems to be really enjoying playing with cars, and while his delivery and material still need a bit of work, he seems to be genuinely getting into the spirit of it. There's certainly no doubting his commitment after that jump in the Caddy.
I'm enjoying it, I don't see it as a comparison between the Uk and US. Besides how much more can you really say about cars. They got me laughing plenty of times. I also like the fact that the US Stig is short and stubby, way cool in my book. Looking forward to the next episode.
You can still talk about handling, performance, compare types of cars, weigh pros & cons of sports cars on the market. For instance the new 2011 Cadillac CTS coupe vs the 2011 Camaro SS. Alot of this info can be entertaining when put to test as opposed from reading motor trend magazines. Which creates room for debating and thus bringing up more challenges to entertain us. Again i'm surprised their test track car is a suzuki (JDM FTW)...why not an American car?
My point exactly! I enjoy watching some clowns try and show me me other qualities about a car. Sitting there looking pretty is just simply boring. It's funny though when I watch Topgear I don't have much to debate about since for me its purely for entertainment. But when I watch dumb shows like Motortrend there's a lot of debate that goes thru my head. Ever wonder why. LOL
last night corvette had a test drive show on speed channel they displayed how the z06, zr1 & the factory zr1 race car handle on the track. and with good experienced drivers it was entertaining and at the same time gettin feedback from all 3 drivers as they pushed these cars. but the key take away was that the street versions handle close to what their race cars does. If I was rich I wld be conviced to pick up a z06 having seen what it is capable of doing on the track...again, tgus needs to give those 3 guys some drivin skills so we can enjoy more of the cars in action.
Not to sound like I'm picking on you Lowrider, it's a great discussion and I enjoy reading your perspective. I guess for me the show Topgear was never about defining how fast cars can go, that's what the Silent driver is for "The Stig." But rather how fun can you make car into be. It's cool to see just how fast some of these expensive machine can go, but how often will an owner of such a machine do so and if you had the chance to drive one would you be comfortable taking it up to those levels. I find it much funnier to see regular Joe's who you can relate to show me just how it's really like. Impressive non the less but not entertaining, at least not in my book. But than I realize its just natural for us guys have fantasies about what they don't have. The Corvette ZR1 is a nice car but I won't buy it and I'm not impressed for the asking price. As far as the three amigo's is concerned, I think Tanner F. brings a lot to the table. He's got quite the background in a variety of different platforms. I think the driving highlights will be left to the spot light of the Stig, as Tanner has multiple shows his currently the driving star.
I'm hoping they post lap times for all 4 of them in the suzuki. I'd like to see how close Tanner can get to (if not beat) the stig. I'd also like to see nascar drivers take on the stig's time like they did with f1 drivers in tguk!
idget-I'd think there be some ramifications should Tanner do so. They can't afford to have any doubts when it comes to the mysterious and invisible man, if you know what I mean. I like what they did in the 2 EP with the EVO, but I have my doubts that a factory EVO X out of the box can do the downhill climb w/o some type of winter tires, but I could be wrong. LOL
Yes, I totally agree with you on this...I was expecting them to factor in what type of tires they were running in the snow! I experimented how my car would handle on Goodyear Allseason Eagle -GT's and the handling was worse than a FWD car.
Remember how Stig I's got destroyed by a bunch of F1 drivers in the suzuki? Even stig II got beat (he almost got beat by Hamilton who ran in the rain!). Maybe they already raced and that's why they aren't releasing the times lol
Not a big fan of the new Top Gear US. Tanner is ok, but the other two yahoos are terrible. But, the show is young. Hopefully it will improve.
I really enjoyed watching the Ford Raptor take on the desert in this form. I really think Tanner is doing a really good job of showing just how hard and how fast they can be driven while making it look fun. It got more intense when they had the Top Secret Military sky diver challenge that got my attention, speeding bullet to floating, than spiraling and finally speed gliding past the finish line. All this is making me want to go test drive one, you know I might just do that; when's the next big snow fall. I was hoping Rutledge would shoot Adam with the paint gun and start running away and have another round by foot. They are clowns but they're fun to watch.
I think the episodes are getting better. The Ford Raptor is really cool. And I actually saw one on the road Monday morning while I was heading to work. They don't look like anything special, but all the goods are under the skin. Neat truck. The Top Gear guys were just on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night. Mr. Leno knows how to conduct interviews, so I hope those guys took a few notes from him. Leno had them talking about their first car, how fast they have driven, what their background is with cars, what their favorite car is, and if they have ever stolen their parents car. All of them have by the way. Pretty good stuff by Leno.
It's staying interesting at least. The hosts are starting to gel more. No Stig on this last episode. They completely ripped-off another idea from the UK version, but still fun to watch. It would be nice to see something new that the UK guys haven't done yet, besides the blind-man drift challenge. The interviews with Tony Hawk and Kid Rock were showing improvements in that area.
I found the show moves along much nicer if you use VLC and put the playback speed to 1.25x. Rutledge talks so slow it's just painful to watch.
I thought the challenges in the last episode had little to do with why GM should build the Roadmaster. They were seemingly random and pointless challenges. Unlike the UK where the challenges have a purpose like buying the best sports car for a 17yo driver - insurance, safety and price all come into play and challenges are based on those parameters.
The blatant abuse of automotive machinery for a few giggles sickens me no matter how much of a POS it happens to be. Some of those cars could have been put to good use by people who can't afford transportation. I guess I am from a different time as I just don't get it. Now idiotic young men who cause themselves pain through stupid antics (Jackass, YouTube, America's Funniest Videos, etc) I find extremely amusing. More groin injuries to this demographic and hopefully they won't be able to reproduce is something I fully endorse.
Why do I have a weird feeling GM funded the last episode....lol I found out things about GM cars I didn't know much about like the high beam light switch on the floor. lol Or that you can fill your car up with tons of gallons of water and still start it up and drive it too. I think if they did bring back the GM Roadmaster Station wagon it would give the Dodge Magnum a run for their money. LOL
after watching some TGUS and Super cars exposed close together i am pretty sure The Stig is Paul Tracy. similar driving style and body language.
I was very upset with them destroying the fiero and that cutlass. WTF people. It was different when the cars they were destroying werent sold here!
I enjoyed last nights episode. The car sales bit was pretty funny. I think those boys are starting to mesh better. Tim Allen was a good guest. I just wish they did a little more in depth questioning with the guests about their personal history with cars. I expected Tim Allen to be one of the fastest around the track because he is a major car enthusiast. But he didn't make the top of the list.
