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The first episode of Top Gear Australia – the first Top Gear franchise to be produced and filmed outside the UK with a cast not called Clarkson, Hammond and May – has just aired on Australian TV.
And the good news is: There is hope. And Saab had a nice little cameo role, too.
In place of the aforementioned British crew were Charlie Cox, Warren Brown and Steve Pizzati, pictured at left. The scripts were pretty good, as were the filmed episodes. If there was anything lacking, maybe it was a bit of training for the Australian audience. Either Clarkson and Co are much, much funnier, or the Brits cue laughter from the audience much better. The Aussie audience were a pretty quiet bunch, which took a little away from the atmosphere of the in-studio parts of the show.
Outside the studio, we had a mixed bag of stories.
The big story of the night was a two-part film of all three members testing ’soft roaders’ from the surf to the snow (Toyota Rav4, Subaru Forrester, Nissan X-Trail). They started with a race around some huge sand dunes, which saw the first near-disaster of the show as Charlie Cox ignored the finish line and kept flying – literally – over the top of the dune where they were supposed to stop the clock. His Toyota Rav4 stayed airborne for some time until it landed safely on the steep slope below. It was either totally spontaneous or very, very well acted.
There was also a review of the new Porsche 911, the one with the new twin-clutch gearbox.
They tested a number of vehicles around their test track, including a Hummer stretch limo. And yes, we have an Aussie Stig, which they were tempted to re-name Stiggsy, or Stiggo, but didn’t. The fastest car was the new Nissan GT-R. besting the BMW M3, a big sporty Merc and a Lotus Elise by over two seconds.
There was a pointless and way too short session with the Maybach 57S.
And finally, a great story where Warren Brown tried to see if he could feed a Mini Moke to a great white shark. They fitted the Moke with a safety cage, dropped Warren into it and then lowered the car into the ocean off Port Lincoln in South Australia. Just to make sure the sharks came in to play, they also dumped a bucket of fish guts and blood into the water.
The Moke and Warren both survived, despite the bait attracting some very, very large White Pointers.
So down to the Saab cameo.
The inagural “Star in a bog-standard car” featured an Australian actor named Vince Colosimo. He’s a young Italian guy with a great reputation in Australian TV. His most recent role was a brilliant part in a dramatisation of the Melbourne underworld war, a series called Underbelly.
As they discussed Colosimo’s motoring past, going through the expected list of Holden Commodores, Cox called for a pause when Colosimo stated “then I went through my Saab stage”. Colosimo waxed lyrical about his Saab 900 Aero and how it was the perfect blend of sports car and luxury car. It was the perfect testimony to the greatness of the Saab 900 and I couldn’t help but feel a warm little glow somewhere (or maybe I just wet myself).
Anyway……. The Top Gear mothership has launched its first satellite, and it seems to be flying on its own without too many problems.
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15 responses so far ↓
1 alaero
// Sep 29, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Said Silver 900 is now owned by Lee T of Triple S motors in South Melbourne,
and has made its way to Tassie for the SCCA club trip a few years back.
a.
2 Drew B
// Sep 29, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Recall seeing that car, was pretty clean from memory.
Thought new show was flat, much preferred the episode of South Park that followed!
DB
3 swade
// Sep 29, 2008 at 11:37 pm
It wasn’t as stellar as the current UK show, that’s for sure. But of you’ve seen episodes of the first one or two Series from the UK, this was pretty good for a first effort.
I’m sure SBS are going to be honing the production values as it progresses.
4 Mag-X
// Sep 30, 2008 at 2:40 am
Torrent of said episode: http://www.mininova.org/tor/1859705
From the comments on the torrent, people didn’t like it.
5 Dan9-1
// Sep 30, 2008 at 4:19 am
hmm i think they need to sort out their camera angles on the lap. By the way i’m not australian so i don’t really get some of the humour
6 Matt
// Sep 30, 2008 at 5:06 am
Great site. How come there isn’t an entry for the 9-5 in the cars tab, though? Just curious.
7 cj
// Sep 30, 2008 at 5:11 am
Wrong toppics but some pics of the 9-4x at Teknikens varld…
http://www.teknikensvarld.se/bilspionen/nyheter/080929-saab-9-4x-94x-2009/index.xml
Looks good to me
8 Saabseller
// Sep 30, 2008 at 8:32 am
I’m over and out on the first episode. When the idea of a US Top Gear was mooted, it was decided to leave it, and that is the way it should be. Bit like an Australian Seinfeld with some local yokel in the lead … yikes
9 Simon A
// Sep 30, 2008 at 11:10 am
Well I liked it. It reminded me of early UKTG, when they hadn’t quite settled into their roles, and were still experimenting with things like the camera angles for the track (good point Dan9-1). I think it shows a great deal of promise, and if SBS get a chance to run a second season, I think that it will grow into its own entity, and not just a franchise.
People need to give it a chance to grow, and not just to give up because it’s not a polished as the UK version. Remember that it’s only been 1 episode!
10 Jeff
// Sep 30, 2008 at 1:34 pm
saabseller – Er, the US version is on track for a mid-season debut next year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear_(U.S._TV_series)
I’m excited, I like Adam Carolla. Of course, it all depends on whether the hosts are allowed to crap on any car they want like in the British version. If they can’t do that, the show will definitely suck.
11 Jeff
// Sep 30, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Aw. Well, you get the idea.
12 1985 Gripen
// Sep 30, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Thanks for the info, Jeff. I didn’t know this show was in the making. I’m surprised that the wikipedia listing makes no mention of the failed earlier attempt to bring Top Gear to the States. Discovery Channel a few years ago aired episodes of the U.K. version which were heavily edited (especially Clarkson’s anti-American sentiments and cars not available for purchase in N.A. were edited-out) and then Discovery Channel started casting for a homegrown version of Top Gear which would have starred three American motorsports drivers I’ve never heard of (one was from NASCAR, one from IRL or CART or something, and I think the other was from that dirt track circuit thing). I believe a pilot episode was shot (at a track in the Mojave Desert outside of L.A. – I bet that heat would have been great for forced-induction cars like our Saabs…) but never saw the light of day. I’m guessing the project was abandoned (thank goodness). I really like the U.K. version even though I have to admit it’s disappointing to see so many cars we can’t buy here in N.A. (Alfa, FIAT, Peugeot, Citroen, Skoda, Seat, Vauxhall, Opel (excepting the Saturn versions of the latter two), etc.).
I hope on the U.S. version they feature some cars like the Tesla Roadster and Saleen S7 and maybe the Fisker Karma, American cars not likely to be featured on TGUK.
13 Mag-X
// Sep 30, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I just finished watching the episode, and I didn’t think it was that bad really. It wasn’t as good as Top Gear UK, but that show’s that’s to be expected. It’s still 100000000% better than Car and Driver TV, or whatever it is that they show on PBS and Spike TV.
The show seemed very rushed. It’s like they tried to cram too much in one episode.
I’ll be waiting for the next episode, and I cannot wait for the American version. Even if it’s not the UK version, more Top Gear is always better than less.
14 Big Ramifications
// Oct 1, 2008 at 8:08 pm
That whole shark scene was fake. It was just stock footage, fake backgrounds, and fast editing. What an absolute effing disgrace by the Top Gear morons.
“Let’s start with a stupid idea and then lie about the execution. Yeah, that’ll be a TOP IDEA for our first episode!”
Count how many times you saw the whole moke and a shark in the same shot.
15 PT
// Oct 9, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Well if episode one was passable, # 2 was a shocker. The ideas are ok and the photography is good but the hosts are proving to be idiots. Basically they all need to shut up and listen to each other rather than carrying on like a bunch of drunken footballers at a wake.
Cox is particularly annoying and comes across as a boorish, macho idiot. Anyone who refers to themself as a racing driver ( hes done it in each show now) without being a paid up professional is taking themselves far too seriously.
I’d fire the lot right now and start again with HG & Roy.