Much better! i was impressed

 

I was extremely disappointed with the evo segment.

I could not believe they had Tanner drifting an evo on an obviously open public road.

Traffic accidents are the largest killer of young adults and this show is glorifying reckless driving on public roads.

I can't remember a BBC version of top gear that is quite so reckless.

 

How about most of them? Almost every segmant they do was on open public roads. The time they took the veyron from one part of the country to another. Do you think he was going the speed limit the whole way??

 

They were travelling across several countries with several different speed policies. They also addressed that in the show and did not openly show any "reckless" behavior.

Implying a little speed is much different than drifting a busy mountain road with oncoming traffic.

 

I believe the show producer has more concerns on public safety than we do because of the liabilities. Each segment is put together by pieces and often what we see is not what it looks like.

 

I was half asleep, so I may be mistaken, but didn't it seem like he was the only one on the road when he was letting the back out. I think they spliced together the traffic scenes with the ones where he was getting crazy. My money says that the roads were closed for his more "spirited" driving. Either that, or the production crew and History Channel don't have a single lawyer on their whole staff.

As far as the episode being better, that's probably because Adam Ferrara barely spoke. I think he's great on Rescue Me, but terrible on this show. His interview of Buzz Aldrin was horrible, that line about the Lambo with "the rear is made out of glass ... so you can see the engine" was about as technical as it seems he can get, his flat out fear of acceleration when doing a standing mile was humorous (and not in a good way), and his failure to do a burnout in a 370Z was an embarrassment. (James May would've put down 80 feet of rubber.) It seems like when Leno was detached from the project years ago, they figured that they could just swap a different Italian comic into the seat. They ignored the fact that Leno is a huge car guy who can give a good interview, and Ferrara just isn't. Again, I think he's great on Rescue Me, but he doesn't seem to be a car guy from what I've seen so far.

I'm not a huge fan of the big guy, either, but at least he knows cars. Not much needs to be said about Foust. I think he'd make a decent addition as a fourth on the BBC show. They could make fun of him for being an American and he could drive the wheels off of any car on that track. Episode 2 was slightly better than the first, but I just watched the Top Gear Winter Olympics which showed just how far apart these two shows really are. I understand the budgets are completely different, but that's not my problem as a viewer. I want so see the best show out there, and I don't care what it costs them to make it. I'll give Top Gear America another episode to win me over, but it's not a "must-DVR" for me by any stretch.

 

I'm more concerned with the perception than the reality of the producers. I this show wants to live on US tv it should be concerned with it too. I wish I could find an on line clip of it. You can see traffic going the other direction just after one of his drifts, they show the speed limit sign and that he is obviously not obeying it.

Compare this to the exact same race on the bbc version with the Rs6 and Hammond. ( which brings up the whole point of reusing ideas instead of doing their own thing)

 

The second episode was better than the first. However, it just seems as if all the presenters are half-asleep or annoyed that they have to actually speak. Serious lack of enthusiasm. The chaps on the UK version seem to actually be excited about cars. They need some passion, some excitement, and they need to loosen up a bit with each other. They did take a pot shot or two at each other but it was clearly scripted. They need a guide script, not an absolute script...improvisation would do wonders.

 

b/c the road isn't big enough to drift in England. lol, if it's not this show it's something else. I remember in the early/mid 90's when drifting became popular, I see kids trying to drift on exits. So it's no different, Teenagers will do what they do.

 

Then I guess we should not try to be good examples, no need for schools, education. Those silly sports or after school activities. "Say no to drugs" campaigns. We should just let them do it and glorify the activity making it look safe and more attractive?


It would be simple enough to take the higher ground and edit it to say "we have access to a closed road", etc. With VERY LITTLE effort the show could make it entertaining and not cross that line. Lazy producers.


Maybe I'm just too sensitive to this topic having seen too many dead kids due to driving.

 

I agree with everything said - having seen the second episode last night, I was most impressed with the Evo opening act. Tanner is the bomb!!! Some of those drifting shots were pretty amazing. I don't know about the safety factor, but I was thinking to myself as I watched it - how do they get away with this!?!?! The hosts are going to all end up in jail if it's open road driving as they portray! I think the editing is a mix of open and closed roads but they don't seem to want the viewer to know.

Yes, the scenes are all scripted - like the skiiers jumping over the Evo as they raced down the hill, just like the helicopter scenes in episode 1. Despite the cheesey drama, I love watching great cars on TV so two thumbs up!

 

It would then it'll make it boring and we wouldn't have this conversation. TG UK does the same, it's all for 'show'.

 

Hardly the same.

Compare the same episode on the UK version for example.

Implying a bit of speed is MUCH different than "Reckless" driving. Find me a UK episode with actual recklessness on the road and not "implied" speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaJlZFKYNrE

 

It's been getting better for sure, but "the honda hybrid gets to 60 mph in just 8 seconds" was too much for me tonight. I literally let my wife change the channel to Kendra.

Ill catch the re-run.

 

I actually think its getting worse.

Ita more like "jackass" goes drag racing than "Top Gear".