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You may have heard me or other folks talking about a car oriented show from England called Top Gear. Well I just found out that it is now airing on the Discovery channel at 10pm on Wednesdays. So check it out and then contact them and tell them that you love and want to keep it on.

Shawn

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OK so I'm back in. Now which tire should I buy??

I have seen it and its not as good as the one they show on Speed "5th gear"

The show they did where the train raced the Bently Continetal from London to Monaco was pretty cool

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Yeah, I saw it last week with the Porsches and the McLauren 'Benz spaceship of a car. It was an automatic though.

The guy that hosts it is a riot.

I have been waiting on them to bring Top Gear forever; however, I have to agree with Ryan. I like Top Gear, but I think 5th Gear is better.

I actually think that Top Gear is better than 5th Gear. To me it seems like 5th Gear was the "copy cat" show.

Plus, it is the only car show that my wife will watch with me. Mater of fact, we were busy last Wednesday and SHE was upset that I didn't DVR it!!!!

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

would they do this on 5th gear?

http://www.dd.ag/sus/Minifilme/TopGear_RingTransit.wmv

Now THAT was awesome!!!

You should see the video of her driving the black M5...

(I have a copy at home)

Too bad they are airing edited episodes of the LAST series on the US airwaves.
<cough>BitTorrent</cough>

The last episode of this series aired this past Sunday. No Monday evening Top Gear fix until the fall when the next series begins (UK has a different TV schedule than we do).

...when is Fifth Gear coming back online...

Top Gear is the original show in the UK which has always been on the BBC. The earlier format of the show had both Tiff Needell (former racing driver and now presenter of Fifth Gear) and Jeremy Clarkson (current presenter of Top Gear who is more of a journalist/auto-enthusiast) as presenters.

A couple of years ago, Top Gear's ratings were slipping, so JC took over aspects of production, put together a new format (which is the present format) and almost immediately, Tiff was snapped up by Channel 5 (www.five.tv) and teamed up with Vicki Butler-Henderson (mmm....) as co-host of Fifth Gear. There's your quickie history lesson of "Gear"....

That is good news! I will have to start recording Top Gear. I kept waiting for BBC America to add it to their lineup, but they never would.

From what I have seen, I tend to like Top Gear slightly more than 5th Gear, but I still love 5th Gear ( Tiff is great and well with Vicki I would have a crush on her if I wasn't married. ). The problem with 5th Gear right now is that it is all re-runs that I have already seen.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

That does pose a problem.

They just need to get cracking! I could suggest some test vehicles.

I thought another reason for the beginning of 5th Gear was to be a little more 'American friendly' so they could broadcast internationally.

If you watch REAL episodes of Top Gear (where the show has not been editied to remove material that American's would not understand/get/be familiar with), you get a small hint of how much automotive hate/sarcasm there is for American attitudes in general.

I dont know how many times I have seen episodes making fun of 'yank tanks' or comment after comment about how American cars cant corner (see the Top Gear cross-country episode with the 'new' Mustang GT ). I just feel like they watered down Top Gear on Discovery, but I really like seeing it on TV. Now, if they could only show it in HD.... .

It's always nice to see an Evo FQ-400 beating up on a Lambo though... I never get tired of that

- brian

Ps. Welcome back from the dead, Shawn!!!

You know that attitude toward Americans driver me nuts. Not that they make fun of us (I can deal with that), but that we have to get the sanitized version. Like we are little children and that we will "not get it", or have that they have to talk slowly to us.

There are some who said that the initial version of "Iron Chef" that was shown in the US was the best. It was in Japanese with English subtitles. I never had a chance to see it like that, but I am sure it would have been great! But we got the dubbed version instead.

When 5th gear did a road test of the H2, they talked a bit about the "yank tank" type of thing. But Tiff actually liked the car.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

I don't think it has anything to do with us being treated like "children". I think it has more to do with the majority of the US wanting to be P.C. and not piss off anyone. When that happens, you get crap . The only way we can beat it is to stop watching American TV (which seems to be really difficult to do) and start watching more European.

Just my thoughts on the situation.

HOLY CRAP THAT CHICK CAN DRIVE!!!!!

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza