TG USA Episode 3 thread. Why not?

alfadriver wrote:

vazbmw wrote: Its like Walmart decided to do a car show. Very low class humor, imagination and host. I stopped watch yesterdays. It would have been more entertaining to go to Walmart and watch the actual funny people and situations.

Just out of curiosity, did you see the episode where the 3 lads drove cars from Miami to New Orleans? Did you consider that as great humor? I thought most of that was steryotypical, and quite poor. Call it H&M humor. Same thing as Walmart, but with a Brit accent.

You are correct. There's certainly nothing sophisticated in playing to stereotypes. I think a lot of the TG UK fanboys think that a brit accent somehow makes the stuff that Clarkson & Co. say more erudite than American car commentary.

Whatever..........It's so much better than anything else I get on cable

Color me impressed. It's improved over episodes 1 and 2 by a good margin. I figure the night they spent in the cars should have helped them bond.

A Nissan winning booze-running challenge: Awesome
A Coupe de Ville catching epic air: Awesome
Adam diagnosing and fixing a stuck thermostat with a pen and rock: Awesome

Only thing I missed was the Stig lap.

In reply to bludroptop:

That was one of my first thoughts, but then I realized they probably bought cars they liked for $1000.

That was a pretty nice TC for a grand, same for the Caddy.

Did see that. It was interesting, but not funny. More frightening than funny. I guess the host did not know how dangerous the South can be. We presented ourselves to the world in a raw redneck, trailer park, ignorant, intolerent fashion.

Then TG American reinforces this with fools jumping a Caddy and amusing themselves with country antics. They didn't have a rebel flag though, which was good since th South lost that war anyway.

alfadriver wrote: Just out of curiosity, did you see the episode where the 3 lads drove cars from Miami to New Orleans? Did you consider that as great humor? I thought most of that was steryotypical, and quite poor. Call it H&M humor. Same thing as Walmart, but with a Brit accent.

rwdsport wrote: I find this kind of unrealistic and negative behavior very common among serious gearheads. These are the same guys that whine about manufacturers not making a 2000lb, 200hp NA 911 RS replica and are baffled as to how that would not sell. You do not make up even 0.1% of the customer base. Not to mention most people are not willing to compromise like your crazy dire needs to have a daily driver that can survive VIR. A price tag of 20k would be nice as well right? ...

are you lecturing me? I don't need a lecture... LOL Just kidding Anyway, my wife doesn't find it entertaining either (yet). She does like the UK verision though. She is not a gearhead, but likes the pretty images and challenges

Show is boring. Just contrived beyond belief. I tried, I really tried.

I've only seen episode 3, and I'm hopeful for the rest of the series.

A couple things I thought of while watching the episode:

It's amazing how strong the Top Gear formula is - it stands up to three clearly uncomfortable hosts and is still entertaining. The situations themselves seem built for success, and currently the hosts are struggling to make it work. The cars, the challenges, etc.

Man, the three TG UK hosts make it look easy. For every uncomfortable pause or poorly-timed wisecrack on this show, I could picture the three UK guys nailing it and sounding like they actually thought up the comment on the spot.

If the UK show is as scripted as this clearly is (it's very obvious when one of the US hosts says something that was written), then again Jeremy, Richard and James are excellent at delivering their lines naturally.

The UK show is just as scripted, but I think the presenters do a lot of their own writing.

vazbmw said: Did see that. It was interesting, but not funny. More frightening than funny. I guess the host did not know how dangerous the South can be. We presented ourselves to the world in a raw redneck, trailer park, ignorant, intolerent fashion.

Yeah, the south is so dangerous. Please. Even in their interviews they tell you all that happened was that some guy came out and told them to get out of there while he counted to 10. Then they ran away making it look scary. Good for TV. What I thought was more dangerous was the guy in Miami handing his gun to Clarkson. Hey they wanted US stereotypes for ratings. It worked.

The person who pointed out that the TGUSA hosts are playing parts (Southerner, NY/NJ guy, Socal ricer) hit the nail on the head. And anyone who thinks anything they see on TV is reality and isn't scripted, edited, and planned in advance is living in a dream world...

"You think that's air your breathing? Hmmm."

Clay wrote: Yeah, the south is so dangerous. Please. Even in their interviews they tell you all that happened was that some guy came out and told them to get out of there while he counted to 10...

guess are not from the South are never dealt with the large number of Klan and hate groups. Living in Shreveport, La. in the late 80's, that Klan made their presents very known on a weekly basis. But, I guess it depends on if the Klan was a issue for you or not... Hell, if it was not for Lousiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Texas 60 Minutes wouldn't have a show. LOL!

Its called the Dirty Dirty for a reason. Oh and don't forget the substandard eduction and poverty. You have to venture outside of your experience and your perspective but there are issues in the South. I am a Southerner, I have experienced it.

With that said, I still love the South, but those 6 dudes made it look bad and they were not funny (TG America and TG UK). But, we played into the sterotypes

In reply to Clay: Pro wrestling is real!!!

The hosts still suck, but in the end it is a show about cars and for that I am grateful. Tanner should be the Stig: he has the same personality and the boy can drive. The guy from New York is truly funny, why is he being so restrained? Let your NYC freak flag fly! And Rutledge should be replaced by me. Immediately.

Rutledge seems to have owned a neat Datsun truck at some point

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/18544-new-521-owner-from-speed-channel/page__p__257808__hl__%22rutledge+wood%22__fromsearch__1#entry257808

That's the first I've heard of Junior Johnson inventing the bootlegger turn. I strongly suspect it was developed and used a long time before he became active in the business.

But then, again, the organized sport we know as "Drifting" may have come out of Japan, but people were drifting cars long before that, no matter what Tanner Faust says. Probably the first time someone overcooked a turn on dirt, panicked, hit the gas instead of the brake, and didn't die.

In other words, don't believe every factoid TG gives out. Just enjoy the show.

slantvaliant wrote: In other words, don't believe every factoid TG gives out. Just enjoy the show.

...as Clarkson himself once stated after gettign an award for Best Factual TV Show: "Quite amazing since we haven't uttered a fact in the past 5 years..."

Tog Gear have never been ones to let annoying facts get in the way of telling a joke or story.

That's pretty.

Hey, I liked it. That's all...

vasbmw said: guess are not from the South are never dealt with the large number of Klan and hate groups. You have to venture outside of your experience and your perspective but there are issues in the South. I am a Southerner, I have experienced it.

Good for you. I'm very much from the South as well. Born and raised just about as Southern as you can get, but having lived all over the country (and outside the country) I constantly find myself having to educate those who think the South is a just a dangerous, uneducated, racist, wild west where you get shot for talking liking a "Yankee". I lived in California for 6 years and the same people who would lecture me about how racist the South was would not have a single black friend and would say racist comments about Hispanics that were as bad as anything I heard growing up. Black friends in California would say they were scared to drive through the South. I applaud people getting out of their comfort zone and experiencing other cultures, but that goes both ways.

Just pointing out that the entire event was dramatized to make it interesting. And I have little sympathy for people who go into any part of the country and do everything they can to tick off the locals and then get an angry response. Were their lives in danger? I doubt it. Like I said, a guy started to count and they ran. Scary!

If I have one complaint about TG USA..it's the production values. TG UK has incredibly good production from the visual perspective. I think TG USA has some catching up to do in that dept.

I do like seeing the classic TG UK bits being done here. I know what $1k will buy in the states. I have no idea what 3000 pounds will get in the UK. This show speaks to me as it's in familiar territory.

slantvaliant wrote: But then, again, the organized sport we know as "Drifting" may have come out of Japan, but people were drifting cars long before that, no matter what Tanner Faust says. Probably the first time someone overcooked a turn on dirt, panicked, hit the gas instead of the brake, and didn't die.

Since they were in the process of giving Tanner a hard time about Drifting as a sport, it would have been REALLY funny if they had started on the history of drifting starting in Japan (80's I think), and then included clips of sprint cars sliding around tracks, and rally cars drifting around corners.

Just to give Tanner a much harder time about drifting history.

I would have laughed at that, for sure.

In reply to alfadriver:

Or Jeremy Clarkson "test driving" a car on their track.

Javelin wrote:

Teh E36 M3 wrote: See, I like James best too, but Rutledge just seems like a dork who doesn't know anything. I'm all for dorks, but at least have some passion for the subject matter.

Que? He diagnosed a stuck thermostat, and fixed it with a pen and a rock on the side of the road. How does GRM *not* approve?!?!??

I missed that part, but if it had a stick thermostat why didn't he just take it out, instead of risking having rocks and pens floating around the cooling system?

16vCorey wrote:

Javelin wrote:

Teh E36 M3 wrote: See, I like James best too, but Rutledge just seems like a dork who doesn't know anything. I'm all for dorks, but at least have some passion for the subject matter.

Que? He diagnosed a stuck thermostat, and fixed it with a pen and a rock on the side of the road. How does GRM *not* approve?!?!??

I missed that part, but if it had a stick thermostat why didn't he just take it out, instead of risking having rocks and pens floating around the cooling system?

It looked like the only tools he had were the rock and pen.