BBC's Top Gear: Now with 100% Less Clarkson

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#1

This is the thread for the non-Clarkson/Hammond/May Top Gear show.

Full Cast details listed today

All told there will be seven presenters of the show—which means Jalopnik was right in its claims that there would be at least five. Alongside Evans and LeBlanc will be:

[ul]
[li]Eddie Jordan, who was also rumored to be making an appearance. He joins from the BBC’s Formula 1 team.[/li]> [li]Chris Harris, who hosts a popular YouTube motoring programme, and was photographed in a pub with Evans recently, somewhat giving the game away.[/li]> [li]Sabine Schmitz, a kick-ass German racing driver who can drive a van around the Nurburgring very, very fast.[/li]> [li]Rory Reid from Recombu Cars.[/li]> [/ul]
The seventh, of course, is The Stig. Yes, that counts.

#2

Awesome to get Sabine Schmitz. Loved her on old Top Gear.

#3

Yeah, her appearance on Top Gear was very memorable. Pretty cool that she’s joining the show.

#4

Loved some of the reaction shots of the guys with her when she really got going. Like… “whoa” you are intense when it comes to racing. That could be really fun during some cheap car competitions.

We will have to make a thread for the new Clarkmaymond show on Amazon when more details come out about it.

Looking forward to both, really.

#5

Sabine makes me actually consider giving it a shot.

#6

I remember Sabine being a driver and that was it? Is she going to do any presenting?

I’m much more interested in Chris Harris being on TV.

#7

It’s a new car show with a great range of presenters and I’m looking forward to it. I hear very good things about Reid and Harris, I know Sabine can drive and has a great on screen vibe. Jordan is … ok. LeBlanc is an unknown presenter but great driver, and Evans I thought I liked but his recent reboot of TGI Friday shows he jumped the shark years ago.

but does anyone read The Guardian? There must be a hundred articles and ten thousand comments about how thank god Clarkson is gone and finally they can watch a car shows on TV and how glad they are Clarkson will never be seen again and his career is over.

Meanwhile, over at Amazon, on a pile of cash the size of a mountain, Clarkson, May and Hammond are working on Top Gear and I’m looking forward to that too.

#8

Speaking of car shows, did anyone else here watch 5th Gear back in the day? I used to enjoy both shows at one time, and it was funny watching them snidely reference each other and claim themselves superior. But I eventually stopped watching 5th Gear because they were really bland, and Top Gear was just more fun. Still, while I did watch 5th Gear, it was a good car show, and I remember they usually had more useful information about cars than Top Gear.

#9

5th Gear was last on in 2013. Needell, Butler-Henderson and Plato made up the last team in 2013 season. Looking up the wiki i see Sabine Schmitz was testing alongside Tiff in the last episode, I didn’t know that. They should have grabbed Tiff and co for Top Gear tbh, all 3 are excellent and easily stand along side the Top Gear trio in car knowledge and banter, but all are world class drivers too.

#10

5th gear is still in production. Vicky, Tiff and annoying ‘man from the street’ guy. Always liked Tiff Needell and Jason Plato, less so VBH.

#11

Delayed and cut down to six episodes.

#12

This just started on BBC2. 5 minutes in it seems the same as before, just with Chris Evans and Joey.

#13

Yep… pretty much! Curious to see what the public reaction will be. Are they going to give it a chance? Or just moan about the missing old team…

#14

It was exactly the same as before. It felt like they even had the same script-writers.

Enjoyable though.

#15

Was it, thought Matt was ok, Evans wasn’t as goo. Like a cheap Chinese knock off.

Why keep exactly the same look and formula. It needed something different not just new presenters who at present lack the charisma of the old team.

I am actually a fan of Evan’s on Radio 2 and think he can do a good job, just not in this format done by others better.

It needs his own touch not a rehash and hopefully it will happen further in to the series but so far very underwhelming.

#16

The Guardian live blogged the episode, and I read a few of the comments. They hated it.

But this was a good point about 43 minutes into the episode:

Did you ever see the first episode of the last incarnation of Top Gear? It was rubbish. It was just as rubbish as this. Nobody knew what they were doing. James May wasn’t even in it. It took a full year for the last Top Gear to become Top Gear. So judging this new version on 43 minutes of footage seems colossally unfair. It’ll find its footing in time.

Still, this episode is still rubbish.

I do remember the first episode after the show came back. It was only Jeremy and Richard, and it really was rubbish. Despite being a fan of the show now, when I tried watching that season on Netflix, I just couldn’t do it. And I’ve watched the rest of their seasons multiple times.

#17

I was playing TW Warhammer by the time they got to Blackpool. All a bit meh.

Laser lock on at Top Gun have been done (better when it was Clarkson vs an Apache), Robin Reliants have been done (better when Clarkson kept rolling it), driving Blackpool has been done (when Clarkson went across Europe with 1 tank of diesel in a Jag). If first episode is the best the BBC can do a massive budget and a team with decades of producing Top Gear under its belt I dont hold much hope for the rest of the series.

#18

Chris Evans is awful. Matt Leblanc needs a little bit of time but I can see myself enjoying him. Chris Harris was kept entirely out of it and Sabine had a 2minute segment. Nothing in the show made me laugh or smile, and I have zero reason to tune back in next week.

#19

Extra Gear, the spinoff, was better than the main show.

#20

I didn’t bother watching Extra Gear as BBC3 is no longer on-air, but web only. I wanted to watch it, to see what they did with Chris Harris and Rory, but it’s not even on youtube ffs. I probably have to download some crap iplayer spyware to actually watch it.