The simple answer is that everyone is waiting for the original intently and Top Gear Australia (TG:AU) was just a stop gap to keep people a little less disgruntaled about having to wait so long or Top Gear (TG:TOS to use a Star Trek term). But it brings up a great question as to why TG:AU had a steadily declining number of viewers yet TG:TOS and even Fifth Gear (FG) have kept a great number of viewers and even slightly increased their number despite being around for 12 seasons (with the new format). Much can be said about the repeat of cars reviewed as compared to the original series. Many have complained that both the track is inadequate (the original track was designed and used as a test track by Lotus Cars which gives it as much street-cred as any track in the world) and Stig isn’t driving in as consistant a manner as the Stig(s) that run around the runway at Dunsfold Park, in Surrey, England.

However, none of those things make Top Gear the wonderful show that we all know and love. It’s, in the end, the personalities. It’s a combination of chemistry, impromptu banter, a solid script and polorizing characters. We as Americans (and much of the Westernized world) can related to Clarkson, Hammond and May. Even when they mention words or names not common to our dialect, we can muddle our way through it. And the humor is along the same lines of the dry wit of Monty Python, which is universally loved. The Australian episodes have a rough dialect, a chemistry that I don’t quite buy (though Australians may love the combination of two race drivers and a comic/cartoonist). The three presenters come across as the same person three times and diversity is what I want. The TG:TOS cast represent a certain cross-section of the societies of Britian and America. They appeal to our more edgy side and our passion for cars. You can tell the Three Muskateers of Motoring have a deep and passionate love for cars (that verges on creepy at times) that doesn’t come across as clearly in the Australian show.

In the end, this post was just a round-about way of reminding you again that Top Gear will be back with season 12 in less than 4 days. You won’t have to watch the three jolly blokes down under because the real McCoy’s are coming. Just a few more days…

After watching yesterday’s Top Gear Australia, I got the Ford GT bug again and thought, “What the heck, let’s see what eBay’s got in it’s inventory these days.” After doing a quick search and organizing Ford GTs by date (sure, an original 1966 Ford GT40 would be sweet, but the premium these cars bring is huge and as much as I love the rawness of the old ones, I would drive the car daily and stuff like AC would be nice in GA) I came up with this Gulf Color’d beauty. The colors are a throw back to the original GT40s in the 1960s and the performance is as much race car as the original too. This particular car has had a 3.4L Whipple Supercharger upgrade, upgraded diffs and axles, big brake kit, uprated adjustable suspension and performance tuning, among other things.
This car screams speed, handling and “meant for extreme track use.” Truth be told, I would love to have this car for something like the One Lap of America or the Targa Newfoundland. However, until the time comes when I can drop $375,000 on a whim, this car’s going to have to sit on my desktop as inspiration for the future.

By the way, if you happen to be looking for a nice new GT, check these Ford GTs out.

In the past 3 months there has been quite a bit of hemming and hawing about if there was going to be a NBC Top Gear, who are going to be the hosts, then back to no show, then if Jay Leno would be a possible host when he left the Tonight Show, then when he said he wouldn’t, how even he admitted that the show could be lame. For those of us who really care about Top Gear, it was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster. Now that we know the show will be around NBC in the coming months and the fact that Adam Carolla, Eric Strommer and Tanner Foust, we’re starting to get more details about the show strait from Carolla’s mouth. According to Carolla:

• The NBC adaptation will follow the BBC format: guest segment, stunt, test drive and, yes, the Stig (casting for that crucial role is still pending).

• The premiere episode will feature a race from Las Vegas to San Francisco, ending in a “mammoth stunt.” (NBC isn’t insisting on copycat stunts or episodes, a la Season One of The Office.)

• Carolla is pushing for an on-air drive of the just-unveiled BMW M1 Homage concept as soon as it’s available, as well as the Aston Martin DBS (though that would be a reprisal of a Clarkson drive).

• Clarkson and Carolla recently met face-to-face, but Carolla promises to focus more on improv than the heavily-prepared Clarkson.

• Officials from Top Gear in England, who are producing the show, along with “everyone involved,” have assured Carolla that he will be able to speak his mind on any car “without fear of reprisal” from advertisers, which he fully plans to do.”

The format looks great, as it’s based on the UK version. However, the unique content is really great to hear. At the very least, even if the show doesn’t live up to the UK version, at least we’ll have some unique shows that aren’t just a carbon copy of what Jeremy Clarkson and the rest of the British team has done.

Source: Popular Mechanics

For those of you who watch Top Gear (perhaps the single most watched TV show around the world), the seasons seem to sporadically come and go due to the creative nature of the television show and the fact that the producers and hosts don’t want to water the show down by “just getting episodes made and shipped out”. So, though it’s been quite a few months, the first episode of Season 11 aired yesterday on BBC television. If you don’t live where the BBC are all your primary channels, there are various sites on the internet (YouTube) to view the episodes.

As for a quick rundown of the episode, the most notable bits were filling up half a dozen super cars (Audi R8, Aston Vanquish, and a few others) with a gallon of gas and racing to see who was the most fuel efficient. Another race between a new BMW M3 and a Toyota Prius showed the M3 to be a more efficient vehicle when driven around a track at the same speeds. The 3 hosts were tasked with creating a “better, cheaper” police car for the average bobby and a few other standard bits rounded the episode out with a strong, albeit lacking first episode. The preview of this season did show some particularly exciting episodes which should be on par with previous seasons.

Source: FinalGear