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Bit more Damon Hill footage:
They all met up at the lion Inn carpark above Rosedale. Brilliant riding round there.
At the other end of the scale, the posh hotel where they all met in the morning is acutally a Hungry Horse pub car park, normally full of Carling drinkers and kids running riot. Must be quiet on a midweek morning though.
Watched a couple now based on the recommendations here. Utter garbage.
Harris is doing his best with a car review each week but other two just come across as chavs in white trainers. I'm just waiting for them to start shouting "Stag! Stag! Stag!" while jumping up and down.
Paddy seems to be trying to conform to a stereotype and Flintoff is just dull.
It's such a shame Joey and Rory are gone. They had a good car show then. Now it just feels like another "entertainment show" aimed at the lowest common denominator.
I feel let down by STW.
I'm off to misalign my valve caps
Joey was shit, McGuiness still is. Warming to Freddie, though - catching up on the back of the "not so bad" reviews on here.
To be honest TG's been light entertainment with cars chucked in for years. Looking forward to the McRea piece this week, I'll end up looking online for early Imprezas again I'm sure.
Only caught bits of tonight’s as I’m working but seemed brilliant closing episode. Need to watch it again for the McRea section. Caught the end section though well what I can say.
McRea segment was brillaint, grew up watching Group A/Early WRC so brough back memories of going to Clumber Park as a kid
Enjoyed that series. Paddy seems to be the stooge, Freddie I'm liking as well as Chris.
The McRae piece was excellent!
Excellent series finale, back to a winning formula for me
I liked that - with the exception of Loud Paddy. FFs him shouting everywhere is sodding annoying.
Anyway, I’d own that m8 in a heartbeat, it didn’t look as “old man” as the Bentley or Aston. The McCrae piece was very good and to have watched Colin then later learned of his death in my younger years it was a little emotional. I couldn’t have brought myself to sit in that seat though.
Where have 25 years gone since Colin's 1 and only WRC win? Strange Derek Ringer wasn't interviewed as he was his co-driver not Nicky Grist. I've mentioned it on here before but I played a minor part in his win on the Rally GB and thus WRC, I was spectating at a remote section in Kielder when he appeared with a puncture and was 1 of only about 3 or 4 at the spot. We helped change the wheel and get him back on the road, only losing about a minute. As was reported, he won the rally by 30 seconds. I was also on the last corner on the rally in Clocaenog, very emotional. All assumed it was the first of many wins, we didn't reckon on Tommi Makinen and the Mitsubishi.
I had a little lump in my throat during the McRae piece. Up there with the Senna one that Clarkson did. I remember following the WRC closely in the 90s growing up. Along with the BTCC, it was a brilliant motorsport fix on TV every week.
Agreed that Paddy is the muppet in the group. I've warmed to Freddie, and Chris is just at the top of his profession when it comes to car journalism.
Enjoyed last night, Paddy seems to have found his place - jumping up and down an hugging Paramedics and failing to drift M8s.
I'll stick my neck out and say that was the best series of Top Gear in YEARS.
The last couple of Clarkson series were stale and boring, I don't care how thick your rose tinted are, every forum / sm post I saw about TG for years contained the words "scripted, repetitive, boring" I liked Matt, Chris Evans was and always will be a Git in my book and poor Rory bless 'im just didn't work.
You can't pretend it's all new, if you were being cruel you could say it's the same old with new face, but for me it works again.
Lads having a muck about and cars thrown in. Works for me !
This is a great documentary on McRae, and features Derek Ringer quite a bit.
Only seen it up to the end of the McRae piece but enjoying it immensely. I didn't realise Toyota had been disqualified the year he won it though. In 1988 (when the RAC was based in Harrogate) I was fortunate enough to get to a Toyota private event at the local dealership (my girlfriends next door neighbour was the owner of the franchise) so got to sit in the actual Celicas used in the rally. I also managed to blag a pass (again via my girlfriend) to the photographers enclosure at the end of the Rally (ie, the raised pavilion facing the Finish Ramp) so was stood there alongside all the national press with my little SLR and it's 50mm prime lens.
A good end to the series that, especially the McRae piece. It's at times like that that Chris' car nerd comes to the fore and really works.
If they can keep the quality around this level for a few years they're on to a good thing. Had a really good mix of daft, educational and historic stuff to keep it all interesting, just lose the SIARFC bit (or keep it for big celebrities once or twice a series) and keep the mix the same and they'll be fine. Even McGuiness is good as he appeals to a different crowd to the other two, if the cameraderie between the three wasn't there then he'd be a gonner but it's there to see so he can stay.
In the early '90s my father, who had been a pretty good rally driver in the '60s and '70s, decided to enter the Rally GB in a Ford Fiesta and run on a shoestring. Pre-event scruitineering was at Harrogate showground and there was a strict order of allocated times to do this. We were rather surprised to find our little car next in the queue to Juha Kankunnen, the current world champion in his Toyota Celica GT4. He was really pleasant, taking an interest in our car and chatting to my father who was then pushing 60. We joked that our entire budget for the rally would just about pay for 1 set of tyres on his Celica.
I know humour is very much individual, but I just don’t see where or how Paddy can be seen as being funny. I don’t mind loud and brash if funny, but he is just loud. He appears to have to shout to be heard, because no one really wants to hear his humourless quips.
I do really like the other two guys though. Chris really is the glue holding it together, his knowledge and enthusiasm is great to watch. I don’t know who would be better than Paddy, but there must be someone who actually has a modicum of talent and is both amusing and interesting to watch.
(Possibly me being middle aged and thinking back with rose tinted glasses to the main 3 presenters)
I actually don't mind Paddy any more. Just sayin'...
He’s very loud that’s his act but he has some good one liners which the other 2 work on. Freddie at times struggles to keep composed at the quips.
McRea McCrae it's not that hard a name to spell
My daughter and wife are watching it again - which I suppose is job-done for the BBC. I don't have to watch it 2 days after when I have the TV to myself.
It's light-hearted fun for a Sunday night, with some proper laugh-out-loud moments thrown in.
Clearly I was riding in the wrong bit of the Dales today and missed the chance to laugh at Paddy McGuinness stacking his Lambo after hitting 'a patch of oil'.
Ahh the old 'patch of oil'
Used that one when I binned my first car down a ravine driving like a **** back in the day. Looks like it'll be a good feature though, F40/XJ220/Diablo were all poster cars for me.
What a shame. That’s my dream car. ☹️
I'm a bit out of touch, is life back to normal then, disctetionary stuff like this is OK?