Top Gear US Version

[buxnut]

Anybody else watch the US version of Top Gear on the History channel Sunday night? i watched it on the DVR last night and all I can say is meh. I am a huge fan of the UK version of the show. the camaraderie that James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond have is so much better than these three bozos. The Cobra vs. Viper segment was neat but it was just not what it could have been. the Lambo segment was interesting but there is something missing. I will give it another go for a week or two, but I don’t see this doing anywhere near as well as the original. Anyhow, that’s just my two cents.

Thanks,

Bill

[ross]

The US version sucks

[The King]

I thought is sucked...

The Cobra/Viper thing was stupid and a rip off of the UK TopGear episode where Jezzer does the same thing in a Boxster..

[f4isvt]

yeah i wasnt a big fan of it. I especially didnt care for all of the explaining they did about the track and the star in a resionablly priced car I am pretty sure anyone who has seen the uk version already got the basics of the show.

[Beegreenstrings]

That guy that looks like silent bob... I just want to walk up and punch him in the face.

The other losers on there are pitiful. Why use 3 actors. Do auditions and use three average joes. Me for one... Some redneck and another addition. That would be perfect. I could honestly access any car except a 65 cobra R. That is just what everything else would have to live up to.

I should verify that I have never heard a puss whine so much when he was riding in that viper. What a biatch! Now everyone would have rather been driving that navigating and he could not even do that right. Bitch.

Edited November 23, 2010 by Beegreenstrings

[redkow97]

I agree that the US version sucks so far, but the UK version didn't start out awesome either. I'm willing to give them a season to get their shit together.

Frankly, I'm not sure how i feel about them flatly copying the UK version. On the one hand, I think you need to have The Stig, but I don't know if he needs to be called The Stig. And what's wrong with the "reasonably priced car?" why "big star, small car?" Just because it rhymes doesn't make it better...

Tanner Faust can drive, but I've never liked him as a host. "Supercars Exposed" was a flop largely because of him; at least I've always felt that way...

i guess my major beef is that if they're going to copy Top Gear UK, they have to do a good job of copying it, and they're not. If they're going to try to make it a truly "new" show, then go ahead and try that ...but this middle-ground is craptacular. They're just similar enough to the UK show to make it look like they're trying and failing to replicate it.

[Steve Butters]

I could honestly access any car except a 65 cobra R. That is just what everything else would have to live up to.

cobra r's werent released until 1993...the only 65s that had cobra anything, were Shelby GT 350s, and they only had a cobra on the steering wheel...first cobras werent till 68 and they had the gt350 and gt500, then packages like super snake and kr...ending in 1970...next cobra didnt come out until 93, they had the cobra and the cobra r...there was fox body cobras, and the mustang II cobra...but those dont count lol

but i think i know what ya meant lol

you would have loved my ministers car... it was an authentic 68 gt350 with a fully built suspension completely set up for road racing...it would tear up road courses with modern day cars and beat them

he didnt mind hacking up a gt350 since he had another one that was pristine like it just rolled off the showroom, a regular fastback with a shelby appearance package, that was driven by carroll shelbys person assistant, a 1970 boss 302, and a 70 chevelle ss (odd car to have in the mix)...plus a few other misc like a 1g lightning, 60s lincoln, etc

**edit, unless you meant actual AC cobras, but there wasnt an R model so i got confused

Edited November 23, 2010 by Steve Butters

[Goldie]

Tanner Foust is obviously a good driver but has no personality at all. When he was going through Buzz Aldrin's lap, it was the most boring emotionless thing I have ever heard. It was awful.

Also, do the other two guys have anything to do with the auto industry at all? Foust at least has something to do with cars, but I have never heard anything about the other two.

Just like many of you guys, I will give it another week or two to see if things improve and if not I will cut it loose. I'd rather watch The Walking Dead at 10 on Sundays anyway.

The chopper segment was sorta cool but when they were sitting on the bridge "looking" for the chopper, it was the worst acting I have seen. "Oh, gosh, where is he, I can hear the echo, but can't see him". "Oh, wait, there he is, directly to my right where I just looked, how could I have missed him, lets get outta here". LAME!

[jgetz524]

They have to "copy" the UK version. It is like going to mcdonalds and complaining because they didn't come up with a new name for the big mac. I mean, They just copied the other mcdonalds. If it is Top Gear, then it is Top Gear, just a new one down the street with cleaner bathrooms.

As far as the hosts...

Tanner - he has been doing shows for too long now. He's not a natural, but he's better than that idiot Paul Tracy (which I REALLY hope is not the Stig)

Rutledge Wood - shows promise an an entertaining figure

Adam Ferrara - seems to be trying too hard to be someone that he is not

The biggest problem is they will have is having their hands tied by the all-mighty advertising dollar to give honest reviews of cars we'll never own. Which is what makes the UK version so good. Hearing that so-and-so-supercar has massive understeer just like my 01 Buick.

I would have liked to see the ill-fated 2008 version with Adam Carolla, Tanner Foust and Eric Stromer.

Edited November 23, 2010 by jgetz524

[Casper]

I won't watch another episode.

[dorifto240]

They couldn't get any good celebrities to host it seemed like. The BBC version is so popular over here, why try and compete with a sub-par product?

[Disclaimer]

The BBC version can't be better, it's funded by SOCIALISTS!

[e-flores]

I didn't even watch the show mostly because I knew I would be disappointed, the only way you're going to make a good car show in the US is by not ripping it off of an already existing car show. Be original, that's how top gear got to be where it is today. And if tanner I'm a DB foust is on the show I'm sure as hell not watching it.

[scottb]

I did not see the show, but saw a few of the previews. The UK version is cool because they have the cars that we dont usually get to see over here. Not sure I will waste my time watching the US version.

[redkow97]

I would also have liked to see them acknowledge that the UK version exists... It seems like they were trying to "replace" it rather than simply honor it.

they're a Top Gear UK cover band - getting the original cast to be the first 3 stars in their reasonably priced car would have been a nice gesture, I think.

[f4isvt]

Ill give it a few more weeks to see if it improves. I have tried watching it off the dvr and still havent finished it in 2 days it dont ever take that long to watch the uk one. I am disappointed that all the episodes look like uk rip offs. the racing two skiers down a hill been done already. think of something new like the dukes of hazzard looking episode coming up

[Anden]

I would also have liked to see them acknowledge that the UK version exists... It seems like they were trying to "replace" it rather than simply honor it.

they're a Top Gear UK cover band - getting the original cast to be the first 3 stars in their reasonably priced car would have been a nice gesture, I think.

I don't think the UK cast is allowed back in the states. You Tube the episodes. I think they have been stateside maybe 3 times.

As for the video it looked too crisp and clean. The camera shook in the viper never noticed it in the BBC version of the show. They saved all the fancy videography for the last segment.

As for the rest of the show it all seems very very staged. But maybe it will get better after time. Tanner is a DB and I'm pretty sure thats why the other two fools don't seem right either.

[jbot]

i haven't watched it just yet, but before you judge too harshly, watch the first few episodes of the UK top gear and fifth gear. everyone starts like ass. also, it was super 80's (or whatever it was). give them time to get some chemistry, and learn to "act naturally". tanner is a bit of a douche though, so I dunno how much better he'll get.

[fusion]

It sucks. I would give it some credit for being a premiere but it's not an original series starting fresh. Even the first season of Top Gear was good and then just got better. They can't take a show as good as the original is and only doing a mediocre job with it.

[Cheech]

I got just past Buzz's lap before I had to turn it off. I'm willing to skim the first few episodes to see if they start to gel, but I will be watching classic UK episodes as mental bleach soon thereafter.

All the other assessments here are dead on.

[BennettR32]

Give me a camera crew and a couple "disposable" super-cars and I will make American car television history by doing sadistic things that only Jeffery Dahmer could imagine.

No really though, American's will be interested in anything that can be fucked up, or ran balls to the walls. They didnt do either of that...

[jbot]

i just watched it, and my thought is that i think they need more practice, more personality, and better writers that aren't essentially fan-fiction type writers that glanced at the original top gear and had too much money for their own good. if they're not total douches like they seem so far, it has some promise.

so far, tanner is like a less talented, less charismatic tiff needell... and when i say less charismatic... well, it's almost keanu reeves bad.

[bigd]

i can't believe that they didn't mention the UK version either...considering that the whole show is ripped off - they should have just owned up to being the American version of the hugely successful BBC show..it would have been much easier to take the lameish hosts if you knew they were just trying to mimic...

[jporter12]

So I watched an episode tonight. I'm not impressed. It was the drifting episode. The most entertaining part was the dog pissing on the stage at the end.

[scheetz31]

So I watched an episode tonight. I'm not impressed. It was the drifting episode. The most entertaining part was the dog pissing on the stage at the end.

+1