Anyone who's been watching the original Top Gear knows it took a bit of switcheroo to get the chemistry right before things really took off (James May replaced the rotundish Jason Dawe after Series 1 of the current show concluded), and TG Australia is no different. Charlie Cox (the bloke on the left) is reportedly leaving the young show due to commitments in Britain, and word is that he will be replaced by Australian jazz trumpeter James Morrison.
Thankfully, Morrison not only arrives with an instrument, he comes with a revhead pedigree: He hosted a show in the '90s called Behind the Wheel, and he currently holds the quickest time for the Star in a Bog Standard Car on TG Australia. After some ups and downs during the first season, perhaps now the show has a shot at making some real music.
It's incredible that there can be so many goings on around a little car show. There was a spot of turmoil in the last shortened season of Top Gear, a few grumblings of unhappy presenters, and then the hallowed BBC couldn't figure out when the next season was going to begin. But here we are, the date has arrived: Top Gear version 12 will commence on November 2nd, 2008, A.D. I guess then we'll start to find out what they're doing in Vietnam...
Not long after we learned that the famous Top Gear trio was in the U.S., a fan managed to snap some shots of Clarkson, Hammond and Mays testing their favorite examples of American muscle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The hosts made their way to salt flats by way of Reno, Nevada where they had a few modifications done to each vehicle in the name of high speed safety, namely driveshaft loops and fire extinguishers. If you saw our previous post on the subject, you already know that Clarkson is driving a Corvette ZR1, Hamster a Challenger SRT8 and May the super-fast but still luxurious Cadillac CTS-V, a car that shares much of its supercharged V8 architecture with the new force-fed mill in the 'Vette. We can already surmise that the ZR1 easily took top honors at Bonneville thanks to its slippery shape and abundance of power. Now, which car wins the comparison test? We look forward to next season to find out.
The blokes from the real Top Gear are back in the States to test what us 'Mericans do best – big V8s, rear-wheel-drive and powerslides. Clarkson, Hammond and May flew into San Francisco on Wednesday and then made a B-line for Reno before heading south, reportedly to test the out a trio of American muscle at the Bonneville Salt Flats. If you're just as obsessed as us, you don't have to look at the photos in the gallery to know who snatched the keys to a Corvette ZR1, Dodge Challenger and Cadillac CTS-V. But we'll spoil the (lack of) surprise for you anyway. Clarkson grabbed the 'Vette, Hammond is getting his retro kicks in the Challenger and May – the consummate stately sedan man – is piloting the CTS-V. Top Gear is rumored to be back on the air towards the end of October, and we're hoping this segment kicks off the next season.
It should come as no surprise that Jeremy Clarkson is pulling down more cash than his Top Gear cohorts. Not only does Clarkson own a stake of the show's rights, he's more of a figurehead for the series than either James May or Richard Hammond. Clarkson has become nearly an adjective to describe any auto pundit expressing a strong opinion in a certain manner. While May and Hammond seem happy enough with their slightly-diminished status in the show hierarchy, rumors about flat-out contract rejections and threats of departure are flying behind the scenes.
James May's people state that they're not looking for parity with Clarkson's £2-million yearly earnings, but they are aiming for the best deal possible. Arlington Enterprises spokesperson, Annie Sweetbaum, has commented that nascent negotiations are progressing, and that the BBC's first offer is never the one accepted. Hamster's people dodged commenting, but we're sure his representation also aims for the fattest checks it can secure. Nobody has yet publicly threatened to take his ball and go home, but one imagines that it could come to that if no agreement can be reached. Shoot, we'd love to see what the BBC's offering; perhaps we can weasel our way into Top Gear as cheaper alternative hosts – not that we'd be any good, but with the dollar worth about three pence, getting paid in Pounds or Euros sounds pretty good to us.
You may remember Alex Roy from his book, The Driver, about his team's record-breaking run across the U.S. in a BMW M5, but he's also a deep automotive insider that gets information from a number of cloaked sources who wear dark sunglasses and pass manilla envelopes under the yellow lights of parking garages. He's got some new information about Top Gear's plans for the U.S., and what's interesting is that it doesn't involve the TV show. It seems that TG hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond may be developing a touring car show for the U.S. called Top Gear Live. If you're thinking it will be like the famous MPH car shows they do in the UK, you're wrong, so so wrong. According to a document Roy has seen, Top Gear Live will be Circue-Du-Soleil meets Stomp... with cars. We're thinking a stage, lots of ramps, people playing instruments made out of car parts, dancers, etc. So let's recap... the three greatest automotive TV personalities of all time want to do a live, traveling road show in the U.S. that marries theatrical production qualities with their famous brand of car humor and mechanical destruction. Of course, we can't say for certain that any of this is true, but Roy's sources tend to reliable. We're not exactly sure if we want them to be reliable this time, though. Can't we just get new episodes of the original Top Gear here in the U.S. in a timely manner? Is that too much to ask? Click the source below to visit Roy's site where he explains what he knows in his own words.
They really are dragging out the introduction of the 11th season of Top Gear, and we don't mean in the tire smoking way, either. But a commercial like this one after the jump helps to pass the time. There is nothing we could say that could best the BBC trio in this first ad for the telly. As for the second commercial, well, you can't win them all. But tigers racing badgers more than makes up for it, so follow the jump to check them out.
Formula 1 will hit the BBC air waves in 2009 after a long run on ITV. The move will require new figureheads to sit at the desk, and London's Times has said that Top Gear's Richard Hammond is the top man for the job. Economics at least partially drove ITV's decision to withdraw from F1 coverage. The coverage is expensive, so making money is challenging, even with newly rising star Lewis Hamilton making F1 more interesting for UK viewers.
Hammond's presence might help broaden the appeal beyond just racing fans, as would guest appearances by Jeremy Clarkson and James May, Hammond's cohorts on Top Gear. Letting Clarkson and May prowl the paddock could offer priceless moments of color commentary that would set YouTube alight. The BBC also plans to update the look, feel and pace of its coverage, and fans will be able to get at the presentation more easily with races going out across broadband digital outlets in addition to the standard radio and television.
Bionic Woman. Knight Rider. And now....Top Gear? NBC, America's remake network, has ordered a pilot of an Americanized Top Gear. Expect to see all the usual Top Gear conventions, including three presenters; a masked Stig-like driver; a private test track; taping in a hangar before a live audience; and (probably D-List) celebs driving midsize cars. Unfortunately, you won't see the program's British hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. And this is where it gets dicey. You see, those guys are the reason Top Gear is what it is. They're clever and witty, and they endear themselves to gearheads with segments like Clarkson's hilarious Peel P50 "review" (it's pasted after the jump). NBC's going to have a hard time finding US hosts who can replicate that vibe without being relentlessly annoying in the process. As BBC remakes go, we truly hope that a US-flavored Top Gear succeeds like The Office, but we're concerned that it might just turn into another Coupling.
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