What did you think?

Phil

.....has an episode shown?

i dunno, jeremy, richard and captain slow make the show......are the aussies going to test a different commodore each week? like we get enough supercars over here.

They tested "soft roaders" and a 911S. BORING. It's the first show, it should have been HUGE!

They put the new GTR around their track and showed all of 5 seconds of it.

And that presenter? Have a shave for f***s sake!

Let's hope it gets better.

Phil

It was aweful. The presenters are shocking and their car tests are very lame. Didn't look like what I would expect an Aussie version of Top Gear to be.

The presenters were trying too hard to be like the UK guys and it wasnt coming off well at all - all the gags seemed rehearsed etc

it was unbearable to watch, basically it cant get any worse so lets hope next week is an improvement.

yuuuck

how was the photography (/cinematography?)

rubbish

it won't last unless they significantly lift their act

- Stooge007 out

Very disappointed. Charlie Cox's voice started to grate on me in the first 5 minutes. I don't know why they feel the need to yell everything they say.

It will always be a weak, decaf, skinny version of the real thing.

Live long TGUK.. fade away TGAUS.

whinge whinge whinge! it's there first show FFS!

this is the reason why there is no good aussie motoring shows cause you all are a bunch of whinging f*cks!

let them do there job and get comfortable with it.
if you guys thought you could have done better why didnt you apply for the job?

i enjoyed it, but i didnt make comparisons with the UK version

I would have if I knew about the job.

Being a good motoring show doesnt mean you have to blatantly rip off a good show - I expect that from channel 7 or 9 not from SBS. I personally dont necessarily think that its the presenters fault as much as I think it might be the producers who are pushing for it to be a replica of the real thing.

Admittedly WTF was going on in that softroader test? are you guys on drugs?
And the GTR was the best vehicle on the show and they showed it for 0.3 of a second.
At this stage the show it turning out to be more like Glen Ridge's The Car Show presented as Top Gear.

Oh and what the hell was with the shark thing - its a car show not "get away" - swim with the sharks special...

here's a good article that answers some of those pesky questions....although it doesnt answer the one about the program being sh!t...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainmen...1935644983.html

Fudd, I do understand where your coming from, however if they wanted to make it a "stand-alone" program, they wouldn't have followed the UK version so closely; ie, same studio design, show structure, host count etc. So you are forced to compare the 2.

I do hope it improves, that said I will still watch it.

*wonder what TGUSA will be like!!

i wish they'd just stop trying to force so much australian stuff in there....talking about kangaroos's and crap..then trying to be funny ALL the time. also their reviews arent as in depth..like that review on the maybach or wateva "heres a car....its got headfones...the end" they went to all that trouble with the armoured car and crap to say it has headfones.
it just seems like they are trying to force it to be successful, by trying to hard. and that test track is crap! its got nothing on the UK track.

It was o-k.

Biggest issue was the lack of interesting content. For the first show they should have really had some draw car wheels but they didn't! Had it of had an exciting variety of sports cars I don't think it would have been as bad as it was.

I was actually falling alseep to to the end of the show....

hope it gets the ass, it sucked big time, not worth watching again!

Only one of you has caught the big issue here... Two of the presenters have face hair. That's just not TG.

Intended to download and watch the Aus version when I felt good and ready, but ended up flicked over for a sec anyway. It was Vince Colosimo as the SIARPC, and if that wasn't bad enough, they started eulogising 80s Commodores with 253s. That was pretty much the end for me.

Been downloading and watching the real Top Gear since season 4 (2004). One of the main elements of the UK version is the continuous run of supercars and the ridicule of anything that isn't a gold-plated Ferrari. Australians just can't muster up that kind of snobbery, and it kind of loses its value me there.

Brady get some of the eariler ones, ie s2 and s3, some gold TG moments.

I have every episode ever made and the early ones are still as good as the newer ones.

Way ahead of you my friend. Since I saw (and loved) season 4, I downloaded 2 and 3. Been on the train since (before the bandwagon might I add...)

Ditto, 6 years and counting here!!

It's a start... I found it a little too forced and a bit mimicking, with not enough technical review.

Will reserve judgement any futher until a few more episodes have aired. Could go either way at this point.

Has the entire series been filmed yet?
Hopefully not so they can take a bit of the publics criticism on board as I do believe that the show could be successful in time if they listen to reasonable public opinion

Wtf is with the celebrity car sonme bloody proton or something. couldn't they have got something thats a little more common in aust like a corolla/focus/barina.

i think they're trying waaaaaaaaay to hard to be like clarkson and the boys...

bit like trilogy movies, the first movie is usually good or great, the rest that follow just suck...

lol, yep.

I thought they tried too hard. And who are they? I thought they should have employed some former motor sport pros, be it from any kind of motor sport. Would be much easier to sell that way. These three toffs have no cred.

I didn't like the fact that the main test was about three soft roaders. And they didn't really get into any detail about the cars, peculiarities or anything. It just looked like a couple of yobbo's driving slowly in snow and sand. I mean I've cracked 140km/h sideways in my WRX at our local beach! Surely something like that would be better? And the kicker? The dark haired fellow echoed my sentiments perfectly - soft roaders are a compromise vehicle, too compromised in every area to actually be good at anything....

Lets see some performance machinery and cars we don't see everyday, rather than a bloody Rav4!

And to those criticising the shows 'copycat' format: have you seen Big brother, Australias next top model, Project runway australia etc? They all try to emulate the successful shows they are based on.

They didnt even follow the TG recipe.....

On TGUK, they usually only have 3, maybe 4 different stories. Each around 15-20 minutes in length with maybe a quick 5 minute one. Thats how they get into detail talking about the rides.

TGAUS seemed to have filmed 9-10 different stories, and crammed them all into the same timeslot. I mean, no-one drove the Lambo, and all the fuss about the Merc and all we saw was some pissant headphones.

Even the 'challenge' wasnt really a challenge. The Rav was 20k more expensive for gods sake, and they never really 'scored' like TGUK do (where Jeremy always wins...)

Word was that the presenter roles were rigged.

My cousin entered etc etc etc then a rumor was going around saying that they already had the presenters lined up before they advertised them. Something to do with creating a buzz about the show etc

I heard an interview on ABC radio today with (can't remember his name) the James May clone-wannabe. Word is, as its an actual franchise of the uk version (hence the similarities), the BBC already knew who it wanted the presenters to be a long time ago, as at least two of them have done quite a bit of work in the uk writing columns and so on.

Also learnt that TGUK started waaaaaaaay back in 1978. Clarksons has been on since 1997 (i think), May, I'm not sure, and the guy with the big teeth since 2002.

I'm going to give it another chance, maybe two or three. I can't imagine the first eps of TGUK being any better. But, as its a direct copy of the uk show, they have set the bar very, very high.

didnt like it that much. needs to be more 4wding. we dont have supercars but we got plenty of 4wds.
what i did like was the photo in the herald sun this week of the boys in victora driving a tractor thru toorak. a big fing toorak tractor. lol.

it's looking better so far tonight!

Well maybe I jumped the gun.

Why can't they post some meaningful test results?

Phil

i never thought id say that i actually MISS jeremy and the boys....these guys are awful....what were the producers thinking.....put their photos up on a f***ing wall.

Hate it.
Rest of my family hates it.
All of my relatives hate it.
Never watching it again.

.... That is all.

I actually think its getting worse, its like a bad curry, that keeps repeating, and burning the entire way up and down.

The "Smart-car" hearse, was the stupidest idea. I was watching it, when my mum said "are they meant to be funny?" I think that summed up the show perfectly.

I'd watch Topgear Austalia over and over again than experiencing that ever again.

i only managed 2 mins of that crap!!! right when they were turning the smart car into a hearse.

G'DAY I THINK IT WAY UTTER CRAP MYSELF.

pretty sure i missed it again

dont think you missed much

I didn't see the point of the FORD/HOLDEN comparison.
I was hanging out for for some real results and all I saw was two idiots doing doughnuts and drifting. (not that I don't like that stuff, they just didn't show the cars real potential)
How but some specs and indication who actually won the drag race and the lap times????
The camera work on the Black Ford 2000gt thing was terrible, and once again I didn't learn anything about the car and it's ability.

The best part about the UK TG is, you actually learn something, very infromative and to be funny at the same time.........

"WHAT ARE THEY THINKING??"

that's it, i think they missed the point

Here's to them getting the can! Bunch of wankers!!

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=642767

anyone read the 100+ comments people made on the 1st episode? http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=639129

time for presenter swaps, maybe the only thing that will save it...

So we're not alone.

Most of the Aussie based forums I'm a member of have a thread just like this and 95% of the posters feel the same way! Everybody I talk to during the day agree the show sucks!

You gotta remember there have been only 2 eps. they were possibly shot before the airing of the series so haven't had time to make changes to public response. I'm still giving them time before i pass final judgement. but i do agree, it is pretty arse so far. here's to hoping it gets better!

I have to say this: atleast we didn't bugger it up as much as the americans buggered up kath and kim!!

^
x2

+1

my thoughts exactly

The problem is, no matter what, it will always be compared to the UK version. If they didn't want it to be compared to the 'mother' version, it should have been called something else. I haven't watched it at all, as I'm not around on Monday nights, but it seems I'm not missing much.

I doubt it'll really get good/interesting until the end of Season 1, and into S2 if they get that far.