Chris Evans was the shouty WURST.
FACT.
Now with 100% less test track:
After years of rumors, the U.K. government has approved plans to bulldoze Top Gear’s famous test track. The development group for the area announced last week that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, gave it the approval to bulldoze the track to make room for homes, parks and businesses. The current airport runway will even become “Runway Park.”
But losing the track is more than a nostalgic thing. Top Gear has used the airfield track for its time trials of cars and various laps for almost 20 years, and it makes for experimental control—a loose experimental control, since weather and track conditions change all the time—when testing abilities of different cars. Losing it would mean a total reset on lap times and handling observations from testing.
That’s a shame. It was nice having that track back again last season.
But the show is getting better and better each season, because of the improving chemistry of the new hosts. So losing the track again won’t be too bad.
I’m watching the latest season now. Episode 2 had a flying car you guys! A real one, that was good on the ground, and then it actually flew! It did require some painful prepwork afterward, because you have to gather the parachute that deploys when you want to fly.
I’ve watched up to part of Episode 3 so far. Great season. And they still have a Star in a reasonably Fast Car segment. It makes me really want to drive that car on the same track in Forza.
I wonder which Forza game I should get for that? The track is there in Forza 5, 6, 7. Let me look up if the games have the car, the Toyota GT86, is in there.
Hmmm, it looks like Forza 5 and 6 have the car, but Forza 7 does not. I do own Forza 5, but not Forza 6. The advantage of 6 is that you can do the Top Gear test track in wet conditions. I’ll have to pick that up on the cheap one of these days.
This was mentioned in the Grand Tour thread, but Season 26 was the last season for Matt LeBlanc. It was a great season. The chemistry between Chris Harris, Rory Reid and Matt LeBlanc was really great by this point. I love LeBlanc’s love for heavy lifting equipment, and Rory’s love of small city cars, it contrasts nicely with Chris Harris being the serious racer in the group.
Anyway, I’m finally catching up on Season 27 now. After LeBlanc left, they also pushed Rory Reid to the show Extra Gear it seems, so joining Chris Harris were two northeners with really heavy northern accents (commented on by Harris). After a couple of episodes, I’m not really enjoying this. The two new blokes tend to bully Chris Harris more than josh him with friendly cut-downs. There’s some good moments, but mostly the show just puts me to sleep so far.
Season 28 I believe is still airing in Britain, so I have that to “look forward to”. Hopefully the new crew have better chemistry by now.
Oh, and also, I read that Matt LeBlanc says he changed his mind and wants to come back to the show. So negotiations have re-started with him. Hopefully if he’s coming back in Season 29, I hope they bring Rory back too.
Can’t stand Flintoff, typical poshboy alpha male douchebag and dime a dozen in the City. Paddy is the guy who does crap UK prime time gameshows and not keen on him either. I noticed the bullying thing and havent watched more than a few sections of their seasons since.
The bullying got really uncomfortable to watch by the 3rd episode. Jeez, just let them bully Chris Harris off camera, why do they insist on showing it us? He’s a grown man, he’ll find a way to deal with it. Just no need to show it to the world.
Anyway, the fourth episode seems to have set things straight. Chris Harris is in Britain, reviewing a Rolls Royce SUV, and the other two idiots are in Borneo making fools out of themselves. I’m guessing Chris Harris asked not to go on that trip with them. Good for him.
I enjoyed the Top Gear Special in between Seasons 27 and 28. They went to Nepal for a long overdue special. That was a pretty entertaining trip.
Similarly, they went to Peru in Season 28, which was another amazing road into the mountains. It’s a shame that none of their cars made it in that one. That one was just too tough for the cars they chose. I do wonder if more modern cars would have made it.
Also this season, they went to race the Baja 1000. Apparently it’s a thousand mile race in Mexico! These two (Harris and Flintoff) made it 17 miles. Now that I know about this race, I wonder if a game like DiRT can ever give us a video game track that massive? A thousand miles? Are you kidding me? I’m still not convinced that would actually make for a fun game. I think there was that game called Fuel with a massive open world that might have had a thousand drivable miles in it. It wasn’t fun.
I started watching the Nepal special, but it felt too scripted to me. These big trips have always been thoroughly planned and not as “spontaneous” as they want them to look like, so not a big surprise. Just felt a bit off to me. Perhaps because the presenter team was still new to these big trips? (haven’t watched the rest of the show, so no idea if thats true)
Maybe I should check out that Peru special see what that ones like!
Speaking of Fuel, I remember a fun Rock Paper Shotgun article where Jim Rossignol attempted to circumnavigate the huge map in 8 hours.
I was, going to see what it would take to drive around the world in a single sitting. It would have to be a single sitting because, without unlocking the game, I could not easily return to where I had driven to, or save my location. I was going to drive without the safety-net of a saved game, or even a checkpoint.
Could it be done before my girlfriend got home from work? Would I still have time to do the washing up? Would so many hours non-stop off-roading mean that my brain ended up as a kind of rotisserie chicken, cooked and slowing turning inside my skull? What could I possibly learn from this strange road trip? These were all questions that would be answered in the next eight hours.
Off topic, but that reminds me of how much I miss when Rossignol (and Gillen) wrote for RPS. I used to visit that site a few times a day, now maybe a few times per year and only if someone links something interesting. I remember a similar Tim Stone article about flying over the Atlantic in real time in a flight sim which I think RPS published as well.
Awwww man. :( Fucking Cancer.
We’ll always have the Ford Transit :(
I’ll admit to having a not insignificant crush on her after watching that episode… Damn.
Fuck.
Yeah, this news ruined my morning. So much energy and enjoyment in Sabine whenever she was driving.
Here she is doing the last-to-first challenge, only in real life.
Hooooolllllllyyyy shit. That’s some driving. I hadn’t seen that before. Thank you for sharing.
RIP, Sabine. May your passion continue to shine.
That’s what happens when you don’t let the AI use rubberbanding.
I watched the Sabine vid Bismark posted. Wow. Then I looked up the backstory. She started last due to a penalty. Then in the wet conditions they went with slicks. What a master class in driving!