New series of Top Gear tonight

It looked like JCs helmet was stuck against the roof lining of the Lambo.

It was enlightening to see the Italian version of the AA helping the Noble.

What a fat waste of pasta he was.

Running over 200mph on the Nardo bowl and those lap times at Imola take some skill & bravery, there is more to them than is let on.

+1

Running over 200mph on the Nardo bowl and those lap times at Imola take some skill & bravery, there is more to them than is let on.

You’d like to think over the years they’ve been taught fairly well by whoever the Stig was at the time. Imagine having your own test track, an ex-F1 or F2 driver and a very fast car you can thrash and hand back to Ferrari/Porsche/BMW in bits afterwards.

Bet there’s not many Veryon owners who have had their car flat out like James May has.

Clarkson has said in the past numerous times in interviews he’s done the normal car testing/reviewing and has no interest in doing that any more and on one interview pointed to 5th gear (never seen it myself) if you wanted to see that sort of program.

Ever seen old repeats of Top Gear and Fifth Gear? TG stays relatively ‘fresh’, 5th Gear dates terribly whilst testing the ‘latest’ 2002 Fiat Punto.

I suspect that’ll be why TG never goes back – endless replays in other paying countries that don’t even get the bog standard cars.

I makes me cringe how people watch it just to complain about it. Get a life!

I thought it was really good, fast cars going fast, that’s how it should be.

It was quite a good show on the whole. Much better than the disappointment of the Christmas special.

I don’t quite understand how they got the supercars to over 200mph round the race circuit, while only just managing the same feat on a huge test ring. Seeing how twitchy they were getting them close to 200mph going round in a big circle, how did they have the space/confidence/ability to get 200 mph out of the cars on the circuit….?

I reckon they need to bring back some entertaining ‘normal’ reviews – like the Fiesta they beach landed with a load of marines from an amphibious craft that then got chased around a shopping centre by a Corvette. Or the Yeti where they landed a helicopter on the roof….not many, but just here and there….

It’s a bit like watching David Blane levitate. I’d like to see a full lap on board of what they can string together rather than clips of a Lambo roaring past then Clarkson screaming ‘come on!’. I know it wouldn’t be as entertaining but I’m not 12 and I’d like to know how fast they can really drive.

Other than that I thought it was better than watching Midwives. Could tell Clarkson had been told to reel himself in a bit. I actually prefer him to Richard ‘should stick to Total Wipeout’ Hammond now.

@stumpy01 Mainly the reason for not hitting higher speeds on the bowl is because, as alluded to in the piece, corner constantly on a fairly significantly angled bowl scrubs considerable energy from the cars forward velocity.

Therefore, you’ll find that all cars lose a percentage of top speed on a bowl test track such as this or Millbrook.

Par for the course, and knowing the Imola track and the length of it’s pit straight before the first left hand corner, and having hit 200mph as a passenger several times in similar cars, I know that such cars can easily hit 200mph in less that 1.5 miles.

they should have filmed Hammonds face when he was told “no you can’t bring a porsche”.