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Shite on Top Gear


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I think Jeremy just does what is required to keep the majority of his audience entertained nowadays. Sadly, the majority of his audience aren't really interested in cars.Shame, because he can be a good motoring writer/presenter if he's not constantly trying to amuse 51-plate Mondeo owners. On a mid 90s Top Gear he did a surprisingly unbiased review of three imported Kei-cars, nowadays it would be "Oh tee hee look how small they are! Tiny! So we've arranged for 3 morbidly obese people to drive them..... around a go-kart track!"I think I'm the only person at work who doesn't watch Top Gear, yet I'm the only one there who has more than a faint interest in cars. Work that out.

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I thought Clarkson's enthusiasm shows through well when he does other programmes, the one about the WW2 raid and the ones about Brunel were very watchable.It just gets a bit tedious when he's driving the XYZ GT "forget everything you know about acceleration, this car is just amazing!!" Well that's funny, because last week's car was the same, as was the week before's car :roll: And they're still all slower than my £1500 motorbike (Bugatti Veyron excepted)I saw Chris Barrie's Massive Engines series on Channel 5 and that's quite good because he's clearly a real petrol head but sometimes his presentation skills aren't that great. However it's just like chatting to a petrol head mate and it's good that he covers so many different machines.As I don't have sky / cable / millions of channels I only get to see another series when I'm visiting friends (is it a bit rude to watch the telly instead of talking to them? It's a modern moral dilemma!) It's got that bloke from the fast show, Mark Williams I think? He seems like a good bloke too, doesn't have to put on an arrogant facade like Clarkson often does.What were we talking about again? :oops:

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I actually like Top Gear, yes they can be a bit controversial, well certainly in the eyes of car anoraks. However, it is the only television programme I watch regularly.Yes I do find Clarkson and his ‘power’ trips a little tedious at times. But most will admit; he can be hilarious. Ok, yes it is the equivalent, to most 17 year olds, of a televisual copy of nuts magazine. But surely that is what it should be about. No I’m probably never ever going to drive a Bugatti Veyron. No, I’m not going to traverse Africa in a Lancia Beta. Though the films and challenges are bloody amusing. But then, nor am I going to buy a brand new mid range Ford Fucus, so really would not appreciate the programme going back to the Chris Goffee era, by comparing a Fucus’s boot sill loading height with 27 of its main rivals. If I was, and need that information I’d buy a magazine.Its entertainment and I bet, despite everyone’s complaints, if they got the opportunity to do the job, they’d snap it up…. I know I would.

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Its entertainment and I bet, despite everyone’s complaints, if they got the opportunity to do the job, they’d snap it up…. I know I would.

Damn right, me too!The thing with Top Gear is is now a humourous light entertainment show based on a theme of cars, not a programme about cars. That said, I still mostly enjoy it and Clarksons ego sometimes gets in the way a bit but its still way better than Fifth Gear for me.
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I think Jeremy just does what is required to keep the majority of his audience entertained nowadays. Sadly, the majority of his audience aren't really interested in cars.Shame, because he can be a good motoring writer/presenter if he's not constantly trying to amuse 51-plate Mondeo owners. On a mid 90s Top Gear he did a surprisingly unbiased review of three imported Kei-cars, nowadays it would be "Oh tee hee look how small they are! Tiny! So we've arranged for 3 morbidly obese people to drive them..... around a go-kart track!"I think I'm the only person at work who doesn't watch Top Gear, yet I'm the only one there who has more than a faint interest in cars. Work that out.

Did you see that segment where he bought a brand new Perodua Kelisa, and completely destroyed it, first with a hammer, then by I don`t know throwing a caravan at it or something. All the while ranting on at it as though these cars are the bane of everyone`s lives, getting in everyone`s way etc. I don`t think I`ve ever actually seen one in real life, so they`re hardly a national scourge, and if they`re anything like the Nippa, they`ll be enormous fun, try dropping the clutch in one of those and you`ll be spinning the front wheels into another postcode. Programmes like Top Gear should be picking up on things like this, instead of just smashing them to pieces without thinking, it reminds me of the Vogons in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, smashing up the amazing jewelled crabs or whatever they were with hammers.
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Did you see that segment where he bought a brand new Perodua Kelisa, and completely destroyed it, first with a hammer, then by I don`t know throwing a caravan at it or something. All the while ranting on at it as though these cars are the bane of everyone`s lives, getting in everyone`s way etc.

Saw that on YouTube after watching the link someone posted above about Clarkson - I'm assuming it came from one of his DVDs as it didn't look like it was part of Top Gear. I think his DVDs are targeted to and bought by a very specific audience, namely Max Power reading, modified Corsa / Saxo driving plebs and thats the sort of 'entertainment' they like.I noticed on another forum that his latest DVD features the smashing up of a Renault Alpine A610 which does seem a shame.
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I saw Chris Barrie's Massive Engines series on Channel 5 and that's quite good because he's clearly a real petrol head but sometimes his presentation skills aren't that great. However it's just like chatting to a petrol head mate and it's good that he covers so many different machines.

 

 

I liked the Chris Barrie one too, and Robbie Coltrane did a very good Trains, planes & automobiles show (and book) a few years ago. As you say, both genuinely know about cars & other vehicles, whereas Clarkson & Co don't exactly get oil on their lily-white hands. If only the late, sadly missed, Fred Dibnah had driven something other than those wretched steam-engines! (though he did have a nice Land Rover).

 

Sorry, messed up the quote thing :oops:

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I saw Chris Barrie's Massive Engines series on Channel 5 and that's quite good because he's clearly a real petrol head but sometimes his presentation skills aren't that great. However it's just like chatting to a petrol head mate and it's good that he covers so many different machines.

 

I liked the Chris Barrie one too, and Robbie Coltrane did a very good Trains, planes & automobiles show (and book) a few years ago. As you say, both genuinely know about cars & other vehicles, whereas Clarkson & Co don't exactly get oil on their lily-white hands. If only the late, sadly missed, Fred Dibnah had driven something other than those wretched steam-engines! (though he did have a nice Land Rover).

 

Sorry, messed up the quote thing :oops:

You just forgot the forward slash before the word quote in the second set of brackets. :wink:
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I saw that Chris Barrie show too, it was very good - you could tell he was genuinely excited by the subject matter.I did indeed see the Perodua Kelisa thing - so pointless! You could do a lot worse than one as a car, the concept of them is perfect in my eyes, a small car with a small revvy engine, yet high enough headroom that even my mate who is near 7 foot tall can sit inside without issue. Seeing as my daily driver IS a Kelisa (but with a turbocharged, intercooled unit and 4WD) I'm a bit biased I suppose.

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I have to admit to being a bit of a fan of G. C. His books are genuinely funny, and he's very entertaining on TV. Yes, he has a HUGE ego, but so do most good TV people, and yes, his taste in cars hasn't changed since he was 18, but he's doing a job I'd certainly LOVE to do!! Having said that, I do have srious reservations about his, "I'm going to do (whatever is applicable) just because I can, and I don't care what anyone thinks." sort of attitude. I can't believe anyone who actually loves cars would do that to a Renault Alpine. I could've weapt! :shock::cry:

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