Un-official GTPlanet BBC Topgear UK ThreadTV 

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You do have to remember that Top Gear really does make fun of EVERY country. Britain included. Heck, they make more fun of Britain then anywhere else.
 
Ok latest episode, the only segement I saw was the bit about the Subaru the RS500 and the Volvo Polestar.
What I think was wrong was Clarkson moaning about the "huge turbo lag" in the Subaru. He is on the track and says something like I am in x gear at x mph, foot to the floor and nothing happens, pause, nothing happens, still nothing happens, then eventually something happens a lot later and he accelerates away. What he is demonstrating has nothing to do with turbo lag, he should know better, all he is showing is that he is in the wrong gear for accelerating in.
An example of turbo lag would be like letting off throttle mid corner, already in the power band and in the correct gear, then hitting the throttle again and there being a slight delay on the throttle/power response until the turbo spools up again putting the power down.. Which is completely different from what he did in my opinion. Anyone else think the same?
He alluded to the RS500 not having this "huge turbo lag".
Subaru CS400 has 400ps at 5,750rpm and 542NM of torque at 3,950rpm
Ford RS500 has 350ps at 6,000rpm and 460NM of torque at 2,500-4,500rpm.

He is barking up the wrong tree here, and needs to think about gears.
 
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TB
Out of the millions that watch Top Gear, hundreds complained? Hundreds.

Shift gear, shift gear... That's just good stuff. :lol:
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The time that was on I was in a job where I would deal with around a hundred truck drivers a day and every one of them found it funny. Some people literally have nothing better to do and like to play devils advocate and the worse thing you can do is entertain them and how ridiculous they are.

Tonight's episode was a good one. I like the fact that when they are mocking a stupid stereotype they come right out and say it because they, and the people it's about should know it's harmless and meant in good fun, but when it's one that has a lot of truth to it like tonight's diplomatic discussion on car theft they turn on the irony :)
 
Yeah, liked the ending :lol:

This episode was better than the previous two in my opinion. I laughed when I heard what The Stig was listening to during the Focus/Impreza power laps.
 
People need to stop reacting to things and just take it, if you know that Mexicans aren't lazy then why bother crying about it, you know the truth and thats something no one can take away from you. All this outrage is for what a joke that lasted less than two minutes and was just typical stereotyping that TG is known for. The world needs to grow up stop taking things personally, Mexico is becoming like America. I thought we lived in a free speaking world.
 
blaaah
Ok latest episode, the only segement I saw was the bit about the Subaru the RS500 and the Volvo Polestar.
What I think was wrong was Clarkson moaning about the "huge turbo lag" in the Subaru. He is on the track and says something like I am in x gear at x mph, foot to the floor and nothing happens, pause, nothing happens, still nothing happens, then eventually something happens a lot later and he accelerates away. What he is demonstrating has nothing to do with turbo lag, he should know better, all he is showing is that he is in the wrong gear for accelerating in.
An example of turbo lag would be like letting off throttle mid corner, already in the power band and in the correct gear, then hitting the throttle again and there being a slight delay on the throttle/power response until the turbo spools up again putting the power down.. Which is completely different from what he did in my opinion. Anyone else think the same?
He alluded to the RS500 not having this "huge turbo lag".
Subaru CS400 has 400ps at 5,750rpm and 542NM of torque at 3,950rpm
Ford RS500 has 350ps at 6,000rpm and 460NM of torque at 2,500-4,500rpm.

He is barking up the wrong tree here, and needs to think about gears.
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And yet you have completely over-analyzed the segment. The car does have turbo lag, however for comedic effect, Clarkson just takes it to a new level. This is nothing new.

Are you going to complain next about the drag races?

I learned a long time ago that a lot of the reviews that come from Clarkson (whether it's a car or not) that he likes to really exaggerate & come up with crazy ways of describing something, which happens to be his niche. That's why 90% of the stuff in this show isn't all that factual.
 
McLaren
And yet you have completely over-analyzed the segment. The car does have turbo lag, however for comedic effect, Clarkson just takes it to a new level. This is nothing new.

Are you going to complain next about the drag races?

I learned a long time ago that a lot of the reviews that come from Clarkson (whether it's a car or not) that he likes to really exaggerate & come up with crazy ways of describing something, which happens to be his niche. That's why 90% of the stuff in this show isn't all that factual.
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Clarkson is massively biased in his views. He should seriously consider a career in political spin.
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/07/top-gear-offensive-albania-mafia
Top-Gear-presenters-008.jpg

After Mexico's ambassador's to the UK won a BBC apology for the characterisation of his country as "lazy and feckless" you might think Top Gear would go easy on the national stereotypes, at least for a week. Not a bit of it.

True to form – and to the admittedly grudging BBC apology, which claimed such generalisations were a "playful" part of British humour – it was Albania's turn to receive the Top Gear treatment, with Jeremy Clarkson and co-presenters using an episode filmed mostly in the country to give extensive mileage to the "joke" that it is a nest of mafia car thieves.

"Apparently, what happens is Albanians go to England, get a job, buy a car and then bring it back with them," Clarkson said in one segment of the programme, in which the three presenters had gone ostensibly to road-test cars for a mafia boss.

"And it is quite traditional when you bring a car back like that, that you drive it around with the door locks pulled out and sometimes little marks along the back of the door," chimed Richard Hammond, amid clumsily mocked surprise that some of the imported cars might be stolen.

Luckily for the BBC, it seems that Albanian diplomats take such slurs more phlegmatically than their Mexican counterparts.

While sources at the Albanian embassy admitted last night that the mafia stereotype could be a trying one, they noted that the ambassador himself had opted to accept the insults without complaint. His view was sought after two embassy staff attended the filming of the show's studio segments and one was understood to have become angry at the tone.

The previous show, which included Hammond's assertion that a Mexican car would be "lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus", provoked a storm of protest. Comedian Steve Coogan weighed in with an Observer article calling Top Gear's humour lazy and its presenters "three rich, middle-aged men laughing at poor Mexicans".

While there was some outraged reaction to last night's show on Twitter, others claimed the programme had inspired them to visit Albania, a country whose scenic beauty Clarkson acknowledged – but only after drawing laughs from the studio audience with stories of how an Albanian government minister had been embarrassed after his car was found to be stolen at a Greek police checkpoint.

The BBC said it had no comment to make last night when contacted by the Guardian.
 
I never get why people complain about things they find offensive. If something is actually inciting hatred that's a different matter because it's dangerous. But making silly little jokes based on prejudiced stereotypes, who cares? Vote with your remote and don't watch it if you're upset by it don't expect every one else to be as well.
 
akiraacecombat
Conclusion,Mexico doesn't have a sense of humour,apparently.
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I'm just linking the stories found on the guardian since it's a daily read for me. I have no qualms with them mocking other countries since it's something they've been doing pretty much since day one.

Just figured relevant top gear news would be appreciated in here and not everyone reads a UK news source. I can stop if not everyone appreciates it..... :nervous:
 
Well,is not that they are inadequate,but they seem a bit "fox newshish",I known this might sound offensive but is my personal view,I get a lot of this situation on my daily basis,I'm aware that some reports of this nature are correct,but some of them are just magnified and manipulated,but I do like see this kind of posts,lets you have a good reference for arguing and discuss,which is what forums are all about.

Maybe I should re-quote myself,I do known Mexicans,in fact one of my friends is Mexican and I can assure that they are very proud of their culture and nation,the references that top gear did are "offensive" in some level,just like the other "offensive" jokes about Germans, French, Americans, Australians,etc...

But this offences are not very often in mass media and mass-viewed TV shows,making them sort of "banned" according to the programme and audience,TG jumps this aspect very often,and that makes it an easy target for politicians and "informative media".

My point is that the whole top gear issue is magnified by some "scavengers" who wants to get some attention out of it,this practice is very often in western countries and I do understand that is just with the purpose of calling the attention and not making a valid point,similar to all the regulations in Australia about games, so with that I mind my posture is that people should not make a big issue about this,BBC apology,and the issue was latter point out and then left behind in the programme,and the Albanian population is not very interested because none of their media wants to take advance out of it,that's all.
 
IMO, sadly it is another embarrassing attempt at self-publicity by a formulaic show that lost its edge years ago. Lowest common denominator stuff by people that should know better. For me it just simply ain't funny anymore.
 
Hey I am new to the Top Gear show. I just saw an episode on TV last night where they were building that electric car and taking it through those tests and whatnot. I thought that episode was very entertaining, I was laughing.

Anyway, like I said, I am new to this show, and I was wondering, where is a good place to start watching it? Like what season? I searched around for dvd's of the first seasons, but couldn't find them anywhere. So which season would be the best to start with then?
 
The first few seasons aren't that good in my opinion. I would start watching from about season 5 as I found that some of the episodes from that series were pretty good. Seasons 8 to 12 are probably the best, some episodes from season 13, 14 and 15 are ok as well. Many people feel that the most recent episodes aren't as good as they used to be.
 
The first five seasons were literally just car reviews, which is what it should be. But it's not nearly as entertaining as the stuff they've done since then.
 
So where could I find dvd's or bluray versions of season five and so forth? The earliest season dvd set I've seen was season ten...
 
Do they do season box sets? They've done a few DVD's of various challenges they've done and such. I'm not sure about complete season DVD's, at least not in my region.
 
PeterJB
Do they do season box sets? They've done a few DVD's of various challenges they've done and such. I'm not sure about complete season DVD's, at least not in my region.
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Yeah I saw on amazon they have season dvd sets, but the earliest one I saw was season ten. Should I just start there then?
 
Mcjoz88
So where could I find dvd's or bluray versions of season five and so forth? The earliest season dvd set I've seen was season ten...
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I don't think episodes that far back were HD either. In fact I think the first HD episode was the polar special.
 
seeing that Zonda R on the track made me drool a bit, such a loud beast, smashing the ariel atom V8's time (but it's not a road legal car :()
the rest of the show was ok, a few good laughs
 
"Personally" the best episode in this season,They getting back to roots,and the show now feels less scripted,apart from that,is the first time that I heard about the Zonda Tricolore,overall nice show,I like it more than the previous episodes somehow.
 
Rue
IMO, sadly it is another embarrassing attempt at self-publicity by a formulaic show that lost its edge years ago. Lowest common denominator stuff by people that should know better. For me it just simply ain't funny anymore.
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I have to say I agree with this. I actually prefer to see them testing cars I might, just might, some day be able to afford. It's nice to see Zonda's and the like from time to time but it does get a bit boring. Don't get me wrong, I like Clarkson's musings on the whole but there's just a bit too much drivel on the show. I particularly dislike the "stunts", very naff. On the other hand their "travel" shows are some of the best television you're ever likely to see.
 
The most exciting and entertaining part of yesterday's episode was the interview with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Past that it was just boring, even the Pagani segment wasn't thrilling...cool car though.
 

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