Top Gear Live, originally uploaded by magnum_lady.

So this weekend Top Gear Live was at the RDS in Dublin. Jono is a massive Top Gear fan (so am I), so when the tickets went on sale in July we got them.

We were going to travel up today, but the rail line is still closed from Carrick on Shannon to Longford due to the flooding and a bus transfer was operating between those stations but there have been delays. So rather then miss the show we went to Dublin yesterday and managed to book a room at Bewleys Hotel which is near the RDS.

We left Collooney just after 7pm and didn’t get to the hotel until almost 11pm. There was an old couple snogging most of the way during the bus journey (eww).
We were starving when we got to the hotel so luckily they were still serving bar food and we got something to eat. The hotel is in a lovely building although the rooms are basic enough but the beds were really comfortable.

Anyway back to Top Gear. We started queuing to get in at 9.30am and there were already lots of people in front of us. When we got in there was a line up of mini’s. Then inside the hall there were Movie motors, Hamleys, Playstation, Bose, Bulmers, Motor mouse (which we saw on the Dragons Den….and the people are lovely).
There were all sorts of cars and we spent almost two hours looking around.

Outside there were all kinds of events: Wall Climbing, Rally simulators, Dream rides, and the most brilliant thing of all we got to go in a Jeep and it took us over all kinds of ramps and up and down hills. I really didn’t know if we would like this but it was fantastic! Thankfully I wasn’t driving though. You can check the company out here: http://www.irelandxtreme.ie/

Then we made our way into the show. It was great to see James May, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and The Stig in the flesh. Richard really is tiny.
They had all sorts of things going on. There were fireworks, stunt drivers, a game of football played by cars (Ireland vs France…..luckily Ireland won).
Reliant Robin racing, everytime one went around the corner it flipped over!
I love the ‘garden item’ racing. Richard had made a vehicle out of a strimmer, James had made one out of a sun lounger and chainsaws!, Jeremy’s was made from leaf blowers.
It was really funny seeing Mr. Clarkson going all over the place. James won and really made the most of it.
The Stig came out at the end of the show and was battling against other cars and then did a ‘loop the loop’ (death wall), where he drove the car around a circle, which was cool.
Two things surprised me, one was that some people took very small children to the show. They couldn’t have been more then three years old. The one behind us talked the whole way through the show. I also couldn’t believe people in the bars at that time in the morning and people eating burgers at 9.30am.

I’ve done bits of video which I’ll post later. Photos are here. I’m shattered this evening. We got the 4pm train from Dublin (there were two teenager girls sitting opposite us, battering the hell out of eachother, luckily they got off at Mullingar), but when we got to Longford we had a bus to bring us to Collooney, we didn’t get there until after 7pm.

On other news we got a letter from the hospital yesterday confirming Jono’s date

The Top Gear boys make no apology for their unadulterated passion for cars – the faster, the more outrageous, the better.

So strap yourselves in because the boys are heading back this way with another Top Gear Live show. A mix of blokey humour crazy stunts and exotic cars.

Close Up got back stage at the Birmingham show to give viewers a sneak look. Natalie Hayman was shown round by none other than Jeremy Clarkson and James May.

Watch the Close up video from Tuesday 1st December here.

Monte Carlo, the play ground of the rich and famous, nestles on the south coast of France at the base of the Alpine foothills. Its beauty in many ways is outshone by its glitz and glamour.

As a devoted car enthusiast I am an avid viewer of BBC’s Top Gear, however impolitic it is at times and imagine my intrigue when I saw Jeremy Clarkson, in an Aston Martin DB9, take on James May and Richard Hammond in the TGV train.

So I and three friends arranged to meet in a secret location in the south of England, not far from the Top Gear track and decided to race my car against the Eurostar and the TGV.

In the Nissan 350Z were I and Anders Hanson, unfortunately the budget didn’t run to a DB9 and Steffan John and Nick Radford in on the train. 

However, as we knew from the Top Gear programme that the car should beat the train, by about thirty minutes we decided to spice it up a bit.

They, whilst crossing London, had to collect a full picnic hamper from Fortnum and Mason and when in Paris had to have lunch at Maxim’s.  A difficult day I hear you say! We, in the car, had to collect Imperial Cigars and a case of Champagne from the Mercier Caves at Epernay.

So, the race was by no means a foregone conclusion.

Jumping in the car still in the dark of a March morning myself and Anders, disqualified from using the Eurotunnel train headed for Dover and the ferry, whilst Steffan and Nick set off for the local railway station.

Speeding towards the Channel on a glorious Thursday morning we encountered little traffic and apart from needing to buy a new video camera, as the batteries had run down on the one we had started with, we arrived one hour early for the ferry that we were booked on. 

Calling our comrades we discovered as we were boarding the ferry, which took just an hour to cross, they were just arriving at Fortnums to collect the hamper that they were due to carry to Monte Carlo for the picnic. 

At this point the car was well and truly ahead, with their train not leaving Waterloo, as it was then, for another two hours.

If you are familiar with the show: Top Gear, you know that the boys, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond are in charge of completing a mission in every episode. In a recent episode they were challenged to create their own answer to the Chevy Volt. And boy, did they.

With solid doors, fixated seating and the ability to go above 50mph, the Volt might give the i-Thrust a microscopic level of competition.

With an elegant plywood and sheet-metal exterior and an interior packed with lawn-chairs, semi-detached radio and rotatable windshield the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust gives the Volt has some fierce competition.

The thing almost runs 30mph, has absurdly oversensitive steering and whoever drives it seems to appreciate the value of safety and life to a whole new level after getting out. We’ll have to wait and see how the Volt does when it comes out. But if it’s even half as good as the i-Thrust, we can all be looking forward to something great.

Here is a review of the i-Thrust as well as a race with some of its competition.

This week, the boys once again took on the caravan, drove a new Lambo, found out the greatest car maker and had a star in a reasonably priced car.

The caravan is the scourge of the British road network. Every year these monstrosities clog up roadways and cause traffic jams that delay other motorists and annoy the general populace. James May has a solution for you. And that solution involves hot air balloons. You see, all you have to do is attach a caravan to the underside of a balloon and you can take to the skies and there will be less clutter on the road networks for the people who actually enjoy driving. So this is what James did, while Richard got to hoon around in the new Lamborghini Gallardo Balboni. As always happens, James got into trouble with the air police as he had no control over where he was going and forgot to factor in that there might be a slight breeze while in the air. On the ground, Richard loved the Balboni, and found that it was the perfect car for buying with your heart, but not your mind. If you think about it too much, the investment doesn’t seem all that great. Sure, it is a rear drive Lambo, but it costs $20,000 more than the standard Gallardo and that means you are paying for less. Less driven wheels, less weight, less power = more money. Well, whatever, Lamborghini will still manage to sell all of them because there are many people out there who still think with their heart rather than their heads.

The star this week was none other than Chris Evans. To say that he is a fan of Ferraris would be an understatement. In fact, he is the person who bought the 250 GTB short wheel base for 12+ million dollars at auction. He seems like a good guy though as he lends out his collection to be driven by anyone who is a high bidder for some charity cause. Plus, his former girlfriend was Billie Piper, and you can’t argue with that. His lap was actually pretty good for it being so dang wet on the track though and he was the best guest that they have had this season so far.

In the final part of the show, the boys went so far as to determine which car manufacturer has made the most brilliant cars ever, thus making them the greatest car company in the world. Out of the millions of people who responded to the question, nine came up with the same answer. No, it wasn’t Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ford or BMW or Mercedes. It was, drum roll… Lancia?! Yes, the Top Gear crew has lost its mind. Sure Lancia has made a significant contribution to the motoring and rallying world with the Stratos, Integrale, 037 and Fulvia. But to say that they made more great cars is a little out there. Now, I am in full agreement that these cars are great, in fact I love the Delta Integrale and the Stratos is a thing of beauty, but they haven’t made a contribution to the automobile world in more than a decade, as the Delta Integrale was last made in 1994. Truthfully, I would have said Ford or Ferrari, but sometimes these guys just have to be different. Honestly though, I was happy to see a show that featured a Stratos and an Integrale because these cars are some of the best there have ever been and, especially the Stratos, are some of the best looking that have ever been produced.

Since the Times Online doesn’t publish my comments on Jeremy Clarkson’s columns, I’ll spew my views here. Here’s the link: “I’m so dead, shot by both sides in the website wars”

I pay monthly for my internet. Everyone does. Some pay more than others. I pay for a lousy connection, but I’m at their mercy because I also have my phone through them. I also pay for my cable connection-4 tv’s mind you. I could have told them I only had 2 tv’s, but I told them 4. I currently have 6 connected. Ya gotta love Radio Shak!

If the BBC didn’t keep Top Gear’s current episodes all to themselves in the UK, it wouldn’t be the world’s most illegally downloaded tv show. I’ve seen the Botswana episode so many times I can rehearse the script. I know exactly when James May says “Hello Mate” to a cow. I’ve seen Jeremy cruise around Japan in the GTR so many times, I think I could probably get around Japan just based on that episode! It’s getting to the point that I have a pretty good idea where each star in the reasonably price Chevy is going to fall on the Leader Board.

Don’t get me wrong, I can watch those older episodes over and over, but don’t get all hot and bothered when we watch the newer ones on YouTube or some other rogue site.

Talk has been that newspapers are going bankrupt as a result of the internet. I haven’t paid for a newspaper to come to my house in over 7 years. I don’t read it. I don’t really care, either, what’s going on in my local dutchy community of arrogant loppos. News depresses me. My husband fills me in as to what is going on and I do watch BBC World News. I also get alot from Twitter because I’m following three or four news affiliates.

As for Jeremy’s columns in the Times and The Sun, if it gets to the point where they are going to start charging people to read those columns on the internet, then I’m sorry. I love you more than the world Jeremy, but I won’t pay to read your columns.

I already pay for my internet monthly.

And I will agree the internet has become an uncontrollable monster!

And I don’t know what they’re getting their tighty whities all in a bunch for…advertising pays for much of their websites. Relax. Hammer the advertisers…not your viewers.

We’re a society that is already paying too much for things already. Gas is expensive, we’re taxed to death, salaries aren’t enough, food is outrageous, charges here, charges there, clothing, schooling, banking accounts (!), just raising kids eats up most of our earnings. If I can get something free, regardless if it’s illegal, I’m going for it. And I’m not alone. In a way I sort of enjoy it. I like “sticking it to the man”!

So, BBC and Corporate America…..kiss my ass!

“Thank you Romania for having this and … can we stay? Forever?”

Vezi: Top Gear .

Via: @KDoggDracul .

In this week’s episode of Top Gear, the boys built their own car, a guest drove round the track and they performed a test of an Audi and a Chevrolet.

First off, the guest. I had no idea who this guy was, but apparently he is in some Twilight movie that is quite popular. His name is Michael Sheen, and really, that’s all I know about him. Other than he was in Frost/Nixon and does a good impersonation of Tony Blair, he is also very quick around the track. Even though he didn’t seem to be taking the correct line or driving very smooth, he somehow managed to eek out a lap that was very impressively fast. I believe that the whole lap was won in the second to last corner, where he entered at an unbelievable pace that I have never before seen. Maybe more stars should use that tactic.

In the car test, Clarkson had an Audi R8 V10 on track. He said it was amazingly quick, and it should be. The thing has a Lamborghini V10 in the back that pumps out 520 hp, but it also costs about $150,000. And it doesn’t even look that much different from the V8, except for the little V10 badge on the arches and those horrible looking wheels. Really, those wheels are horrendous and I’m surprised they were approved. Overall, the car sounds good, looks good and goes really fast; but not as fast as the Chevy Corvette ZR1. Though these two cars may not seem like direct competitors, they are actually closer than you might think. For one thing, the Vette has a supercharged V8 that pumps out a ridiculous 638 hp and 604 ft lbs of torque. This means that it is faster than the Audi through the quarter mile and has a higher top speed. It is also surprisingly faster around a track, though you really do have to work at it to make it fast. Also, the Corvette costs only $107,000, and that is a bargain for the performance that you get. However, the Audi is, of course, put together better, will last longer, is faster in the real world, looks better and isn’t made of plastic. Plus, Corvettes have some of the worst seats in the business for being a sports car. Hell, my Subaru has sportier seats that that thing. In the end, the Vette blitzed the Audi around the track, even though it was damp as well. I can’t imagine how fast that thing would be if it had actually been dry.

In the third segment, the boys took a look at building their own electric car and posed the question, “How hard can it be?” turns out, it’s really hard. With Hammond on the chassis, May on the motors and Clarkson (the useless sod) on the body, their work all came together to create Geoff. It turned out to be a big box with a TVR chassis and two batteries for power. The top speed of Geoff was a paltry 10 mph and, as everyone should have seen coming, the boys got into trouble when they clogged up streets, caused slow downs on motorways and eventually left the car alone where it rolled down a hill and into a tree. But that wasn’t the end of the car. They came back in the second half of the segment and remade Geoff as the Thrust Eagle Hammerheadi… or something like that. Anyway, the basic car was exactly the same, with a new bumper and more batteries. They then took the car to the UK proving grounds and put it through its paces. They smashed it into a wall, put it in the side impact machine and performed a drag race with it against tough competition. The car, amazingly, passed all of the tests with flying colors and was given to the auto reviewers at Autocar so that they could test it. Turns out that it actually sucks.

Next week it sounds like they will be making rally cars or something and be figuring out which car company has made the greatest number of brilliant cars. Also, flying caravans; so stay tuned.

Hace algún tiempo Enric González hablaba del programa Top Gear, de la BBC. Uno de sus presentadores, James May, es un personaje curioso, cuyo curriculum incluye ser despedido de la revista Autocar por incluir un mensaje secreto en un número de la misma.

May ha presentado también programas sobre tecnología e inventos (James May’s 20th Century y James May’s Big Ideas), así como otros centrados en juguetes (James May’s Top Toys y James May: My Sister’s Top Toys), en los que ha discutido su interés por alejar a los niños de los videojuegos, interesándolos por los juguetes tradicionales.

Ahora la BBC Two emite  James May’s Toy Stories, un programa con el que May combina estos dos intereses. Cada uno de los seis episodios intenta convertir un juguete de toda la vida en una obra de ingeniería que roce lo faraónica, incluyendo un jardín de plastilina, un Scalectrix a lo largo de un circuito de 4.42 km, un puente de Meccano de 23 metros o una casa de Lego a tamaño real. Los proyectos se completaron con la ayuda de voluntarios (entre decenas y dos mil, dependiendo), que otra cosa no, pero parece que se lo pasaron como los indios.

Por lo que se ve en el anuncio, el programa tiene pinta de ser divertido, ingenioso, inteligente y elegante. Todo ello transmitiendo buenos valores a la chiquillería. Y es que la televisión, como todas las cosas, no tiene por qué ser una mierda.

BBC: ochenta años dándole envidia al resto del mundo.

dupa cum stiti sau ati aflat deja cei de la top gear au vizitat romania si au realizat reportaje prin tara (pe litoral – mamaia, prin bucuresti – casa poporului si prin transfagarasan).

Clarkson, James May şi Richard Hammond au fost profund impresionati in special de transfagarasan.

sunt cateva probleme cu “raportarea” tarii noastre cu cea a lui boran si inca cateva jigniri, dar per total eu spun ca a fost ok emisiunea. citeste mai multe

puteti vizualiza emisiunea aici

vizionare placuta

Have you ever wanted to make a life-sized LEGO car? Europe seems to be the land of giant LEGO models what with James May’s full scale house and the Giant LEGO Man that washed ashore in the Netherlands, it just seems to happen.

Now it Germany, they’ve made the next life size model — a BMW X2.

As everyone who has played with the famous colored bricks knows, with LEGO, nothing is impossible. Not even a full-size replica of a BMW X1 that was created by 800 children aged between 5 and 13 years old (with a little help from the Bavarian automaker’s staff of course) who visited the BMW Welt in Munich last week. The build of the yellow-colored X1 took four days and approximately 165,000 LEGO bricks to complete.

Although not as smooth looking as the LEGO Volvo XZ90 that was made over in the Enfield, Connecticut Model Shop, it still is really impressive. Especially because the XZ90 was made by Master Model Builders and took 3 months to make.

You can see more pictures of the event here.

It’s our habit to review the first episode of Top Gear in a new season to see how well the formula is still working – and this time around we’ve come to rather a startling conclusion.

Increasingly, it’s all about James May.

Why on earth would we think this? Surely the peculiar geeky bloke can’t really be the centre of attention in the face of so much loud and testosterone-fuelled competition.

Well, for a start, watch the first episode of season 14. Who gets the most screen time? Eh? He even does the track test, which is not something you see every week, and subverts it very nicely while he’s at it.

And, for another thing, think about it all in a slightly broader context. The three presenters each have their well-established personalities that have developed over time.

Clarkson is the constantly-undercut gobshite who dominated at the beginning then plateaued – and now has restricted potential for character development, since he’s also thoroughly exploited the trick of being unexpectedly polite.

Hammond with his short bloke syndrome was (with unfortunate literality) catapulted into the public consciousness when he had his accident. The resulting wave of concern and hope for his sound recovery made him the star for the next few seasons.

But it’s May, the latest developer of all, that’s now coming into his own. It’s the ultimate tale of the patient geek come good – and we love him for it.

Here’s an idea about why. May is easily the most three-dimensional of the Top Gear presenters. It seems like he’s hardly off our screens at the moment, what with all those series about wine, space and toys.

Meanwhile Clarkson is contractually tied to only present Top Gear and Hammond has tended to get his most prominent exposure outside the programme’s studio by promoting a certain well-known supermarket brand.

May has also got a surprisingly passionate female following. While this is presumably also demonstrable for both Clarkson and Hammond, their appeal might be somewhat easier to understand.

But read the comments May routinely gets on his Telegraph column and you’ll soon learn he has an indefinable something all of his own and that there are plenty of takers for it.

Which seems like the perfect time to give a polite cough and move on to the actual episode

Another California, another trip to central Europe

What is it right now about driving supercars around Eastern Europe that seems to be fascinating motoring journalists? We imagine the answer to be a very successful promotional drive by Ferrari to promote its new GT model.

In the hands of the Top Gear producers, however, this proposition has become a completely, magnificently surreal road movie that takes up half the episode and proves that the programme certainly can still deliver 14 seasons in.

Notable is the confidence with which all this starts. There are few introductions, little more than a couple of sentences of banter (with Hammond threatening to hold his breath until he turns blue if he doesn’t get his own way) and then we’re off.

The gang has got its hands on two other supercars in addition to the California, which Hammond will be piloting. Clarkson is waxing lyrical about his lovely Aston Martin DBS Volante, definitely the car we would choose from the selection on offer. May, in an unlikely move, will be behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder.

Their mission is to take them to Romania in search of the world’s best road. We don’t have too many details about this at the moment, but the joys of discovery are to come.

First, the gang must take its collection of supercars across a country that has made a rapid journey from Iron Curtain dictatorship to paid-up member of the European Union in the course of just two decades – and they find a few of their assumptions about Borat-style Warsaw Pact countries and donkey carts busted on the way.

However it is, as we are reminded quite early on, the home of the oft-referred-to Dacia Sandero – and here is one, driving innocuously down a road. Also we have plenty of opportunities to laugh at presenters being baffled by the in-car gadgets, a silly nod to the idea that there’s a practical car review going on.

But easily the highlight of the first part of this film is the sheer joy with which the presenters drive their supercars around a network of tunnels underneath the national parliament, formerly the residence of Nicolae Ceausescu. “This is our best game yet,” yells Hammond, before putting down his foot and roaring off.

The bit in the middle

That’s it for the first part of the film and now we are into the programme regulars – the news segment, the track test and the star in the reasonably-priced car, all of which old favourites have made it into season 14. The first couple of items are a long way off being news and give the distinct impression of being chosen more for their humorous potential than their currency – the new McLaren supercar (cue jokes about dangerous prams) and Bathurst booze ban.

But then it veers off into complete surreality again with Porsche fan May rolling out what is said to be his only phrase of fluent German in the middle of an item poking fun at the new Boxster Spyder: “But then it veers off into complete surreality again with Porsche fan May rolling out what is said to be his only phrase of fluent German in the middle of an item poking fun at the new Boxster Spyder: “Aber ja, natürlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.” (“Naturally Hans is wet, he’s standing under a waterfall.”) For some reason, this is laugh-out-loud funny, though it is hard to explain why

Then, in a moment of comedy gold, Clarkson is made to build a cardboard portable loo designed for roadside use with audience participation – which he then sits on and falls through. “Do you know what? Honestly? I think I would rather crap myself.” Hammond: “I think I just did.”

The track test is a comparison of discreet wallets on wheels, presented as a spoof consumer item for newly-rich bankers. It starts with the BMW 760LI (or “the BMW Move Over, Poor Person”) which gives us a rare glimpse of May out on the circuit: “It’s like swimming over a waterfall of double cream.” By the end of the film he’s sitting in the back demanding “dignified driving” from his hired chauffeur, on the basis that if he can afford the car then he can afford to have it driven for him. The Stig is not happy.

Next up is the Mercedes S63 AMG – May and Stig profess themselves unable to choose between the two and have to resort to a game of Top Trumps. Until Stig throws a tantrum and overturns the table. All they can do is race them – the Merc wins out on the track but, in May’s judgement, the Beemer would prevail overall if both cars weren’t completely pointless.

The star in a reasonably-priced car is generally one of our least-favourite bits – but tonight’s candidate is considerably more interesting than many. Aussie actor and racer Eric Bana (a Ford bloke, not a Holden bloke), a veteran of films such as Chopper, Black Hawk Down, Troy, Star Trek and The Time Traveller’s Wife, says the Bathurst beer ban is “a serious restriction – practically teetotal.” He gives Clarkson well and truly as good as he gets on the old England-Aussie rivalry. He’s a bit silent on the subject of the Ashes, however.

But he’s definitely one of the better reasonably-priced guests (and, let’s be frank, sometime you’d get them on for a fee of 50 pence) due to having a bit of a clue how to put the car around the track. The documentary he is here to promote, about racing his classic Ford that he’s had since his teens, also looks good.

“Nice, throaty little warble – a happy little car”

Then it’s back to Romania in search of the world’s best road. After covering all 143 alleged miles of Romanian motorways, and waxing lyrical about the pleasures of driving supercars (nice to know you don’t get blasé after 13 series and one episode) they present May with the keys to his very own Dacia Sandero, which he abandons his Lambo to go and drive.

“Nice, throaty little warble – a happy little car, the Dacia Sandero.”

But not for long. After what looks like a period of pure, unadulterated enjoyment during which he states his manifesto for uncluttered, gadget-free, basic motoring, he stops to rejoin the others in a car park – and an articulated lorry backs over it, destroying it as thoroughly as one of Clarkson’s Austins.

And you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be with May on this one.

Then it’s time to take a few supercars off-road (if you buy the myth that there’s not a comfy SUV full of handlers just behind the film crew). And to drive hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of automotive luxury over a couple of planks across a stream. And May gets his unspoken, subtle revenge by driving the Lambo into a local taxi. Top Gear – taking you where other motoring programs won’t venture.

At this point, locating the best road in the world looks set to be a McGuffin and the trio ends up parked on a dirt track, supposedly unable to find the hotel, low on fuel and drinking a paint-stripping liqueur that Clarkson found at a petrol station.

And when it comes to sleeping in the backs of cars, the 5ft 7in Hammond has a considerable advantage over the 6ft 6in Clarkson, as you might imagine. In fact, he gets wedged with his folded-forward driver’s seat jammed on the horn, which does not make him particularly popular with his colleagues.

And, wouldn’t you know it, come break of day they turn out to be parked at the bottom of a towering, disused, Communist-era dam. With just four and a half minutes of the programme left, they set out once more in search of the road they came all the way to Romania in three arse-tinglingly expensive supercars to find.

To be fair, when they do arrive at the Transfagarasan Highway, which we learn took 6,000 tons of dynamite to build and killed 40 people in the process, it is pretty special: “From above it looks like every great corner from every great racetrack in the world has been knitted together in one unbroken ribbon of automotive perfection.”

The programme winds up with the perfect feel-good ending with the three whizzing along in their cars, each opining that it is definitely the best one to have brought along.

You go all that way, take all that trouble… and then find yourself in convoy behind Captain Slow. Bloody typical. But even he’s inspired to put his foot down a bit on this occasion.

• Top Gear – Season 14, episode 1. Available on iPlayer until 9:59pm, Sunday January 10 2010
• Read our S13 preview here

Transfagarasan Highway: learn more

• View it on Google Maps
• Read about it on Wikipedia
• Get travel information from InYourPocket.com
• Read a blog post from a biker
• View photos on Flickr
• Read a Guardian article on Ceausescu’s Folly
• Check out videos on YouTube

Se stie ca cei de la “Top Gear” au filmat in Romania, toata presa a vuit pe tema asta. Aveau si motive, showul britanic e una din emisiunile cele mai urmarite la nivel planetar cu audiente de 1 miliard de telespectatori!!!. Desi era programata in 2010, emisiunea filmata la noi a fost difuzata in deschiderea celui de-al 14-lea sezon.

Contrar asteptarilor mele,  per ansamblu Romania este prezentata  binevoitor si i se face o reclama buna. Nu stiu daca blonda doamna Udrea si-a bagat coada, dar imaginea tarii  s-a mai imbunatatit putin.

Singurul minus ar fi exagerarea cu tiganii, dar asta e, e totusi o emisiune de divertisment, trebuiau sa puna si lucrurile comerciale.

Ca tot veni vorba de comercial, Dacia Sandero are un “product placement”  incredibil, e mentionata de vreo 3-4 ori, chiar condusa de James May. Termenii folositi sunt numai laudativi.

Emisiunea pe scurt:

• Din start, moderatorii declara faptul ca se asteptau sa gaseasca la noi o tara in care “oamenii arunca cu pietre in tigani” si erau siguri ca aparitia lor cu cele trei masini luxoase va atrage atentia tuturor.  Prima surpriza o au chiar in primul popas, la Mamaia, unde masinile din parcarea unui hotel de 5 stele ii impresioneaza. Au primul contact cu Sandero, despre care recunosc ca se intrebau de 2 ani unde e fabricata.
• intrecere pe Autostrada Soarelui. Noroc ca avem si noi cativa km de drum bun…Sandero se remarca iar intr-un moment evident regizat: intrece cele 3 boliduri de lux.

Partea 1 HQ

• cei trei decid sa se intreaca pana la “Casa Poporului”, James May se rataceste, ajunge la Arcul de Triumf. Intr-un final, englezii sunt impresionati si spun ca Ceausescu era un nebun daca avea o asemenea resedinta. In schimb adora cursele din tunelurile de sub Palatul Parlamentului, curse despre care recunosc ca nu ar fi permise in Uk.

In partea a doua: imaginea rurala a Romaniei(aici e de rau) dar si minunatele imagini din zona montana si Transfagarasan

Top Gear is most assuredly back! In the 14^th series opener, the boys went on a journey to Romania to try and find the best road in the world, there was a test between a Mercedes S63 AMG and a BMW 760LI and the actor Eric Bana dropped in.

I think the surprise of the night came when I found out that Eric Bana is Australian! I had no idea that he wasn’t an American actor. Well, I suppose that just goes to show how good he is. Also, he is a giant fan of motorsport and races GT cars regularly. It even came out that he has not taken a movie project because he would rather go racing. His prowess on the track really came through when it came to his lap in the reasonably priced Suzuki Liana. Even though it was extremely wet and even though he missed a gear change, he still managed to put in the fastest wet lap of all time, which is damn impressive. All of his lines were spot on and you could tell from the video that he was going to be fast. All in all, a very good lap from a surprisingly Australian person.

The test round the track that took place involved James, for once, testing out some hot super sedans. The Mercedes S63 AMG and the BMW 760LI both feature huge engines, a 6.2 liter V8 in the Merc and a 6.0 liter, twin-turbo V12 in the BMW. Both make generous amounts of power and torque, but the BMW is faster in both a straight line and around a track. This surprised me because I would have thought that the BMW would have been the softer of the two, given that the AMG is usually thought to be a brutish sort of car, and the BMW 7 series generally isn’t thought to be all that sporty. But the Bimmer was better able to put the power to the ground without completely lighting up the back tires around every corner like the AMG. And though the BMW won the battle, it was still decided that both cars were wastes of time and money because they are overpriced and overpowered and don’t know what they really are. They are supposed to be luxury limos, but also try to be sports cars, and that just dilutes them from being truly one or the other. And I have to say, I agree with their verdict on this one. If I want a sports car, I’ll go buy a Porsche or something and if I want a big luxury saloon, I’ll get a Jag, but I don’t need them to be put together and then pay more than I would for both of them combined with the one car.

On to the main event now. In what can only be described as a hair-brained scheme to find a road they could have simply gone to right off the bat, the boys traveled through the country or Romania in search of the Transfagarasan Highway. This is the highest, and most dramatic paved road in the country and looks very similar to the Stelvio Pass that they visited a few series ago. Of course, it wasn’t just about the road though. The cars that they brought were supposed to be the best grand touring roadsters in the world, and so Clarkson brought an Aston Martin Volante, Hammond showed up in a Ferrari California and James brought a Lamborghini LP560-4 Spyder. They then bickered and did what they do best by driving around, getting lost and competing in challenges that don’t really settle anything at all. Of course, since they were in Romania, it was only natural that they should see a ton of Dacia Sanderos. For those who don’t know, James is obsessed with this car. He feels it is a cheap car with no frills that is actually pretty good. So, Clarkson bought him one. And, as happens with all their gifts, you just knew that it had to get ruined somehow. This time, a large semi-truck backed into it and completely destroyed it after James had parked it “conveniently.” I know it was set up, but it was still great to see, because I think that James actually did like that car. After that, the boys followed May and, of course, got lost out in the Romanian countryside where James had a fender bender with his Lambo. But, after all of that nonsense and tomfoolery, they finally reached the road, and it turned out to be an epic thing. Clarkson even commented that the road was a combination of all the best corners of all the best race tracks in the world, and there is no greater compliment than that.

Overall, the episode was a good one for the start of the series and it can, hopefully, only go up from here. I wish I knew what was coming up on the show next Sunday, but they did not tell the audience. I’m assuming that it will be a big surprise. I will say that the one car I am hoping to see on this series is the new Noble M600. I want to see what it can do around the track, because it is supposed to be devastatingly fast.

Resurrecting toys,
Scaled down cars from many a
Boy’s fondest childhood,
Now a race again thanks to
James May’s wonderful toy show.