***** This thread is now closed, please CLICK HERE to go to Volume 27 *****
{originally titled "Top Gear Returns on Jan 28th, YAY!" but as vol 25 was nearly at 100 posts, it makes sense to start a new thread and call this vol 26 - DD}
I looked but I can't see another thread on this so I'll break the news for once on here.. mwahahahah
www.autoblog.com/2006/12/13/top-gears-back-with-ha.../
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My wife says I don't listen to her, or something like that
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Good news. Hope Richard is able to play a full part.
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The above website also has footage of the Hamster's Dragster crash:
www.autoblog.com/2006/10/09/video-hamster-dragster.../
(Mods - watch before you block - there's no gore and to be honest nothing disturbing, and as they say, Hamster has a sense of humour)
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The above website also has footage of the Hamster's Dragster crash:
Can't view it at the moment, but is it the same one mentioned here?
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=45208&...e
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It is indeed the same footage. Good news for Top Gear fans though.
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Great news. That will keep the wife happy!
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Hope Richard is able to play a full part.
Personally I wouldn't be so sure about it. They will definitely make him look nice as usual etc. but keep in mind that's a TV thing. I mean, we're talking serious brain damage here - possibilty of a seizure, multimple "flashbacks", memory loss, who knows what else. Not to mention the long-term effects. It's not like he's recovering from a flu or something... Each and every neurologist would tell you the same thing and it would go along like this: we're only just learning how the brain operates, we're trying to find out this & that, but it's a slow process.
Yeah, it is, indeed. Star Trek's doctors would cure Hamster with ease, even purge the incindent from his mind this instant, but for now we're here on planet Earth. These days they can't even treat mental illnessess properly, not to mention neurons reconstrunctions and so on.
It's really kind of hopeless at 98% of times and really sad, I've heard enough from my friend, who is a neurologist.
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Free enterprise is the basis of western economy.
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For goodness sake he was on TV in an interview claiming that he could not remember two weeks of his life but joking. Was it Jonathon Ross' show? Only saw tit-bits on news 24.
Check out:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6201247.stm
with option of the video clip :-)
Yes he was very lucky and thankfully well now. Is this a wind up Vincent de Marco??? He's well.
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V de M is my neighbour in Poland and extremely unlikely to be watching Jonathan Ross
However you do sound like you've got a bit of serious brain damage yourself this evening V de M, which in Poland probably means you'll end up in a tin of dog food or something (I'm guessing) since I haven't seen any mentalists since I got here
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Relax people, I'm just trying to point out that human brain is a complex thing and even specialists aren't certain about many, many things. As for Hamster himself, I wish him all the best.
BBD: tin of dog food, brain damage... would you please clarify because I'm not sure I can understand the meaning of what you were attempting to say.
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Free enterprise is the basis of western economy.
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From the BBC: First bike ride 'elates' Hammond
"Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has said it was "fantastic" to ride a motorbike for the first time since his near-fatal jet-car crash in September.
He told Motorcycle News he had taken his Honda Fireblade around the streets of London just days after being given the all-clear to ride by doctors"
More here: tinyurl.com/sp7fp
But like V d M I assume he'll only be presenting on the programmes apart from the bits that have already been filmed.
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Well it's back tonight as promised.............
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I for one sincerely hope he doesn't play a full part, if that means taking part in risky stunts that only
fully paid-up (..and 'qualified' ) stunt drivers with the resources of a Hollywood studio behind them should contemplate.
The more I see of the recent trend in TV, i.e. 'reality' shows, people 'doing it for real' or presenters being the
surrogate Everyman for our fantasies, the more I wonder at the physical & psychological dangers
they're , apparently, willing to put themselves in for our 'entertainment'.
It's getting more & more like the Roman gladitorial arena, with the audience/viewer a simulacrum of the baying mob.
Just my take on things.
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Good on Richard and I wish him the very best. I expect the viewing figures for tonights show will be higher because of Richard's accident and I'm sure that means that someone, somewhere in the Beeb will be cynically thinking that it was a fortuitous accident. We live in the real world and in TV it seems that anything goes in the battle for ratings --- even at the complacent lcence funded BBC.
As said though -- Good luck Richard.
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Aside from Richard, I do think TopGear is good entertainment --- which is really what it is intended to be. However I think they spend too much time on the 'exotic' cars which most of us can't afford. I suppose though that ordinary cars are pretty boring so I can see why.
What I reaaly love though is how politically uncorrect JC is ------ I'm fed up with PC and it's so good to hear a bloke's bloke sounding off about things he doesn't like. I think in the last series he refered to the French as 'the cheese eating surrender monkeys' How did he get away with that? Glad he did but oh dear we don't want to hurt anyone's sensitive feelings do we? Course we do -- carry on JC!!
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I've seen a couple of repeats this weekend from 3-4 years ago. They actually reviewed 'normal' cars then including the 407, Jag X type estate and the Volvo V50!
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It's nothing new woodbines, look how many died on the early 1980s TV show - Late Late Breakfast Show with Noel Edmunds!
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look how many died on the early1980s TV show - Late Late Breakfast Show with Noel Edmunds!
One person - when a bungie jump went wrong. Out of respect for that gentleman's family though, lets move on from this particular subject please. DD.
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Good to see the team back, especially the Hamster. Thought he didn't look like his cheeky self, but the present SWMBO summed it up - he looks frail.
Hope he gets his mojo back for the rest of the series, I guess the whole weight of the crash discussion gave the show a subdued feel.
Thought the road thing was a bit rubbish, not as good as the MPV cabrio that opened the last series and Jamie Oliver came across as a right {word I can't use on here}.
Looking forward to next week then
Still about 20,000,000 times better than Vroom Vroom I watched before it mind
-- He\'s a cheeky wind-up scamster and he\'s on the radio....
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Usual mixture - some worked some did n't. Good to see them back!
" he looks frail " - Actually, I thought JC looked more battered than Hammo.
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Top Gear has now morphed into Fifth Gear - watched the whole lot with sound off except for Star in Car - somehow I don't think I will be up to watching it again.-I often wonder why I have to pay for a TV license
Dave
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>>I often wonder why I have to pay for aTV license Dave
So we can watch top gear, thanks Dave
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Although its TV etc, the feature on the road works, well you can just see that happening in reality can't you!
We had a road being resurfaced near to the M8. Road had street lights but no houses within a mile of it. So did they do the road closures and work at night, no they did it during the day!
Had another set of temporary lights where the building of a new housing scheme had resulted in a large hole being dug on the main road. However this was on 20 Dec and they were there till 8th Jan, presumably cos the workers were on holiday.
As Jezza says, we the motorists should be treated as customers!
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The road thing did proove a point that yes the work could be done in one day but as was pointed out the financial cost was higher especially getting the tarmac shipped from ashbourne or wherever it was! was a horrific crash of the hamsters but i think incredibly brave of him to comment on the clips as they were shown! I personally am glad to see top gear back and will be watching it next week, true its real life motoring value may be minimal if not non existant but i do find the majority of it good entertainment.
--
Temporarily not a student, where did the time go???
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Owner of the crashed car is blaming Hamster for it
uk.news.yahoo.com/29012007/140/hamster-crash-tv-st...l
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This story is an oldie and has been regurgitated several times. I think some of JC?s questions to Hammo last night were aimed at quashing these rather tired accusations.
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Ok we can see the that tyre started to de-laminate, and perhaps immediately at that point parachute deployment and shut throttle might have saved the day. I only saw it because I knew that tyre burst and caused the accident, so i was looking at it all the time. Hammond probably had two seconds to see it starting to go.
It was an accident. This seems to be a word that no-one is prepared to accept exists these days. Everything must have blame attached to a person. There always has to be a scapegoat or scapegoat in everything!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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It was an accident. This seems to be a word that no-one is prepared to accept exists these days. Everything must have blame attached to a person. There always has to be a scapegoat or >> scapegoat in everything!
I couldn't agree more.
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I'd have been content with just one run in that car - on the basis that I'd got out of it alive. Then there'd be the matter of having to nip into M&S York for some new underwear.
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It was okay. The road works 'sketch' was amusing. Jamie Oliver was okay (not that I like his image). The Jaguar bit was dull. I can't say I ever drive a car like they do, and I doubt many owners of said car do either. The crash bit was interesting.
Although it is the best thing on TV, that is more a comment on the low standard of TV than a compliment to TG.
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It can't be classed as a classic episode but it's the normal topgear,some good some bad.
Nobody can watch it for motoring news as there really isn't any, just thrashing around in cars that most people will never get to drive.
If it loses the chuckle factor then i wouldn't watch it any more.
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Overall reasonable entertainment I thought. I wish I could remember JC's comment re the ghastly Jade from BB. Probably against forum decency to quote it in full but it was something to with pigs plus "a waste of blood and organs"!
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I would imagine that Hammond´s focus was about half a mile up the runway bearing in mind the speed he was travelling - I can´t see how any mere mortal could have spotted the tyre deflation and shredding until it was too late.
I was really disappointed in the whole segment - thought the articles and interviews on the crash in this month´s TG mag were miles more interesting.
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With so many millions watching, two seconds to acknowledge the skills and efforts of everyone involved in getting him back on his feet might have been a nice touch.
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He did ! Hospitals, Air Ambulance, Well wishers etc
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I only saw the bit at the end and I didn't hear him, but i was reading the paper at the same time.
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Nsar, you would have missed the Grand Entrance as well then!
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My mate works for the company that did the roadworks bit,and he tells me that the safety speech that you saw at the beginning,does actually take place.
I thought the chucking of Jezzas megaphone under the roller,and the fish and chips 75 times,were hilarious.Oh that Q in the chippy.
Ken.
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I want an XKR and a Vantage.
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HJ,
The bit of the programme (the end) I saw didn't include any thanks as far as I could see/hear hence the posting - the omission seemed odd, rude even. I'm now told it did and I missed it.
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Nsar, you would have missed the Grand Entrance as well then!
Not when someone has posted it on youtube (excluding the praise missed due to the newspaper reading, but I'm sure that'll be on youtube somewhere as well)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPEd5YtwqGY
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I wonder if the BBC will have that removed too like they have the crash footage that 2 people I know have uploaded & then its vanished with a message about copyright appearing instead?
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Perhaps Top Gear is now on the downward slope. There's only so much interest in watching Germy sliding a car, it might be a different car, but it's the same track with the same camera shots. The 3-middle-aged-men-cock-around-on-the-continent programmes are much more interesting. Germy is certainly ageing, but perhaps he doesn't use make-up.
There was nothing else of interest on the main channels last night.
I want to see Stig drive a rallycross car (with suitable gearing, suspension and tyres) around the test track.
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Hard to believe, but JC is at number 70 in GQ magazine's annual top 100 of the most powerful men in Britain.
news.scotsman.com/entertainment.cfm?id=148552007
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I don't normally watch this, but I was at a loose end and I remembered that they'd be showing Richard Hammond's crash and I thought that would be an opportunity for general rejoicing so I tuned in.
I realise it's more entertainment and less analysis than it used to be, but I was still baffled by one thing.
What's the point of all the driving sideways and making your tyres smoke? It's not something anyone would do in real life on the road and - judging by all the rubber marks on the tarmac - they had to practice a bit in order to get it right.
Is it just entertainment, or was there some point?
You probably don't need to know I drive an elderly Honda Accord.
--
Stevie
Lakland 44-02 Sunburst
Yamaha YTS-23
{Moved to the current TG thread - DD}
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What's the point of all the driving sideways and making your tyres smoke? It's not something anyone would do in real life on the road and - judging by all the rubber marks on the tarmac - they had to practice a bit in order to get it right. Is it just entertainment, or was there some point?
Let's say that you are a car journalist, and you are given a new fast car to test. What would you want to do? Pootle down to the local supermarket to do some shopping, and other realistic tests, or soil your kegs by hurtling round a race track? Tough one that. I'll let you sleep on it.
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I'm a big TG fan and have to say I was a bit disappointed with it last night.
The hamster did look very frail as you say and not suprising really - but at least he's not dribbling.
It is successful IMO becuase it managed to re-invent itself after each series.
If they feel the need to do a comedy sketch each week (Toybota, S Class interior design and road laying last night) then I think it will diffuse into 5th gear.
They need to keep testing cars as well.
Hopefully it will continue to get better and I am looking forward to next weeks which is all about:-
It?s business as usual this week on Top Gear.
We perform a public service by smashing a really big train into an aging French people carrier. Trust us, it?ll all make sense when you see it.
James makes the definitive bid to rid himself of his ?Captain Slow? nickname, by attempting to max-out the 252mph Bugatti Veyron at Volkswagen?s top secret test-track.
An A-list Hollywood star comes to our studio and has a ride in our distinctly C-list reasonably priced car.
And Jeremy, Richard and James try to decide on the best small coupe by taking the latest offerings from Audi, Mazda and Alfa Romeo to two of their natural habitats ? a design museum and a golf course.
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"Hard to believe, but JC is at number 70 in GQ magazine's annual top 100 of the most powerful men in Britain"
Probably as he planted the kiss of death to the Vauxhall Vectra - a car that didn't do any more harm to anyone than any other mass produced motor. Some ex-Vauxhall employees in Luton view even saw him as the person responsible for the closure of their plant.
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The footage of Hamsters crash was awesome - he?s a very lucky fellow (assuming he really is out of the wood for brain damage personality change etc). Pity they did not take the opportunity for a serious piece on brain injury in road accidents instead of making pathetic ?jokes? about dribbling and hallucinations.
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8.5 million people watched Top Gear on Sunday.
5.5 million watched Princess Shilpa winning BBL
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Yes, the new TG is certainly as much about entertainment (sometimes painfully slapstick and contrived) as it is about motoring journalism. However, this shift has obviously widened its market appeal, re last posts. Overall, it's great family entertainment and the higlight of my young son's viewing each week!
PS .... Comments, as requested, on Jade Goody were thus .... (having just watched this 5 mins ago!)
'Some say that he once threw a mircowave oven at a tramp (Stig) .... and long before anyone else he realised that Jady Goody was a racist, pig-face waste of bood and organs ....' HUGE APPLAUSE & CHEERS!!
Quoted in the spirit of HJ fellowship.
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The repeat is at 7pm on Wednesday.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Geordie,
100% agree since I learnt to watch it in the right frame of mind. Laughed at the "Jade" thing as well. Up until last week I thought that Jade was a rare but of Eastern stone stuff.
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Yep ... all those bemoaning this week's episode can always change channels.
(I note that Clarkson is in trouble over his 'speed kills' remark). No other programme could 'get away' with such comments and skewed observations on the march of the PC brigade. For this reason alone, I hope TG continues.
Jade .... Jade who??
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>>I thought that Jade was a rare but of Eastern stone stuff.
Some typos just amuse me.
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PU, are you sure you know what a Beatle is?
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PU, are you sure you know what a Beatle is?
Isn't a Beatle a pretty rare beastie from Merseyside ?
Anyway what about tonight's dumbed down drivel ? With some dire actor with an affliction that caused him to use some schoolboy terms for bodily parts to punctuate each sentence and sacrificed what diginity he came in with. Even JC seemed not to be able to believe in what he was doing. Went to do the washing up so I could watch 24.
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You mean Hugh Grant? They haven't made you a judge have they PU? You'll be asking next who the Rolling Stones are, and whether we would want our wives or servants to watch this unsuitable programme!
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Sorry but SIARPC is well past its sell by date, its boring, tedius anre repetative
If big C is reading, drop it - this is now the part of the prog when we put the dog out for a wee.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Y'mean that Huge Grunt was on - and I missed it?
[Was he doing a piece on how far back you can slide the passenger seat....?]
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I thought tonights show was pretty much lacking in something, they also didn't show the train going into the people carrier, even though it says so on the website and they promoted it last week, the golf course sketch was ridiculous to be fair, I hate saying this because i have loved top gear since the start but this last 2 weeks just are not up to thier normal high standards!!
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i suspect disabled people will be up in arms at geremys "falling down stairs in calipers" remark tonight
{Edit by DD}
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i suspect disabled people will be up in arms at geremys "falling down stairs in calipers" remark tonight
I doubt there will be many complaints (or that they will be upheld) because his remark was carefully aimed at the experience not the people. We could all imagine what he meant. Yours however was pretty offensive. {That's why I've since edited it - DD} Complicated isn't it?
Did anyone else hear him re-use his joke (minus the calipers part) in the review of the AUDI? Continuity seems to be slipping.
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thought tonights show was pretty much lacking in something, they also didn't show the train going into the people carrier, even though it says so on the website
Maybe this was something to do with a tragic crash in Scotland this week when a car hit a train at a level crossing, driver died and 2 seriously injured.
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also didn't show the train going into the people carrier, Maybe this was something to do with a tragic crash in Scotland this week
Bobby, that's the reason the tabloid newspaper I read on Friday gave. Apparantly JC has already been in trouble for his "speed kills" comment in the previous episode, and obviously the BBC didn't want even more controversy this week.
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man crashes car and bangs head. lives. appears on tv show again.
so what?
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"If big C is reading" - I reckon this is a big IF. ..................... but if he is a regular BRoomer, which one of us is he?
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Well it made me laugh. It's ennertainment folks, not to be taken seriously. TG used to annoy me a bit as I think there's room for a more serious and technically-biased programme on the telly, but TG is a comedy sketch show with cars. Look at it as that and either enjoy it or switch off.
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I do me old mate I do, except that like all comedy you need to tune it to keep it funny, SIARPC is simply boring.
Oh and by the way FM2R is really the big C, but he doesnt like people to know and gets very upset if you mention it
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I'm getting confused now. I thought FM2R was Capt Slow.
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no no no
FM2R is Big C
Adam is the hamster ( note he has not been on since the accident? he cant remember his password)
I havent worked out who is Capt Slow - there are so many ludites on here its hard to pin him down.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I think Bogush J. Mann is Germy Klaxon. Maybe most of you do not remember that little charmer?
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The three car test was a waste of time. At least in the past they did silly tests with the three cars. Can you use the back seats, will they hold a washing machine etc. A bit of driving around and not much else of substance told us nothing, this was followed by the inevitable - we'd all have the Alfa, but it would break down. £8k of options on the Audi was frightening.
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Re the three car test, as I live in Scotland I am curious as to where they were driving and where the "Scenic" shots were taken? Anyone know? Obviously can recognise the Forth Bridge but other than that, not a lot!
Also, re Hugh Grant and the problems with his Bentley, I remember reading an article last year that the Rangers captain, Barry Ferguson, after suffering lots of niggly pain it was finally put down to the fact that he had recently changed cars to a Bentley and the seating was the cause of it , so had to sell it and that cured the problem!
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I am unsure as to how to react. I am marshalling my thoughts in order to be able to produce the most toe-curling rebuff to Stumpy that I can think of causing him to become a laughing stock.
Until such time as I have developed such a riposte, please regard this as a witty, amusing yet cutting, placeholder.
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Does anybody know who is the the stig? i.e. the new one with the white helmet
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As I understand it, there are several Stigs, one of which is Ben Collins.
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I think we should have Sabine Schmidt, of Nurbirgring fame as a Stig, although the bumps might be a bit of a giveaway! She is one gutsy lady!
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Ok, I just knew it would get out, yes I admit it, Jezzer will kill me though yes, OK its me ...................
;-)
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"OK its me ..................."
No, I am Spartacus!
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When she did the van thing, JC 'offered' her a spot on TG in a jokey-serious way.
On reflection I imagine he regretted it -perhaps thinking she might outshine him & his matey boys.
I thought she was excellent & could imagine her towing a caravan around the test track faster
than any of them - she could talk too!
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Went on a Porsche Induction in Reading and we were told two of the eight drivers there were The Stig... So from what i know, there are a few!
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Was Perry McCarthy, now Ben Collins.
ps, this will be moved to the current Top Gear thread shortly
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