Autoblog

With all our mouths salivating over the upcoming NBC version of the hit BBC program Top Gear, the guys over at Autofiends got a chance to sit down with Tanner Foust. As we revealed a couple of weeks ago, in addition to being a drifting and rallying champion, Tanner will be one of the three hosts – alongside Adam Carolla and Eric Stromer – who will be anchoring the Americanized show.

The interview makes for an interesting read, and in the process Foust casts a bit more light on what we can expect from the show. For example, while the BBC's publicly-funded format allows for full-hour shows, the NBC program will run closer to 42 minutes with commercials breaking up the shorter segments. The show's test track – en route to which Foust got lost with Jeremy Clarkson in a Callaway Corvette – is based in Orange County, California. And to the best of his understanding, Foust and his co-hosts will be free to speak their minds about the vehicles they'll be reviewing, which he promises will run the spectrum from budget automobiles to supercars, alongside "epic" challenges in true "American style where bigger is better". We'll be looking forward to seeing for ourselves. Follow the link to read the full interview.

[Source: Autofiends.com]

When I was a kid there was this terrible car show on television that was sponsored by a certain automaker that shall remain nameless. Every week – that is, every week I could bear to watch it, at least – the hosts would review a car from that company, and guess what? They always liked it! And that's what makes Top Gear such a hit. Because the BBC is publicly-funded, they don't have advertisements. (Notice that downloaded episodes of Top Gear run an actual full hour, instead of the usual "hour-long" shows that run 45 minutes.) Without advertisers, Clarkson and company are free to say what they want about whatever car they're reviewing, and so journalistic integrity remains intact, even as they catapult caravans and play soccer (sorry, "football") with hatchbacks.

With NBC "gearing" up for its own version of the hit car show, reportedly to be called simply "Gear", the fear was that, as the show would be dependent on commercial advertisements, the recently-announced team of co-hosts would be reigned in by the bean-counters regarding what they could and could not say about the cars they'd be reviewing. Thankfully, on a recent episode of his radio talk-show, Adam Carolla revealed that no such limitations would be imposed by NBC on the show's editorial autonomy. You know, this may just work out yet. Thanks for the tip, T Bray!

[Source: FinalGear.com]

Not quite. While we've gotten word from credible sources that El Toro has, in fact, been chosen as the location for the supposed filming of the U.S. version of Top Gear, the test track above ain't it. To begin with, the SCCA and a handful of other track-day organizations have been using the runways at El Toro for years, not to mention that Motor Trend performed it's infamous 3.2-second 0-60 sprint in the Nissan GT-R at the decommissioned Marine Corps aviation base.

Aside from those facts, just look at the layout. Compared to the course that Lotus engineers setup for the Stig, this makeshift circuit looks positively pedestrian. A few chicanes and some long sweepers does not a test track make, so until we see the Hammerhead and Follow Through, we're chalking up these rubber marks to weekend hoonage.

[Source: Final Gear via Jalopnik]

Performance figures don't give an accurate picture of just how well a car performs overall. A given car may be the fastest to sixty, but that doesn't mean it has the highest top speed, tightest cornering or sharpest brakes. Lap times around a given track paint a more accurate, comprehensive picture of a car's abilities, but picking one track as the gold standard is dicey business. That's where Top Gear's Power Lap board comes into play.

Although weather conditions can vary, BBC's Top Gear puts all the cars through the paces at the same test track outside their studio, and what's more is that they're driven – or at least, so we're lead to believe – by the same driver: The Stig.

The latest high-performance supercar to make a run for the top of the record board is the Caparo T1, which, at 1:10.6, easily trounced the previous record holder, the Koenigsegg CCX, by an astonishing seven seconds. Unfortunately the Caparo was disqualified because, in its track set-up, it lacked the adjustable ride height to enable it to clear a requisite speed-bump. Caparo insists they deserve a second chance with a road-spec version. If the show's producers give the Ultima GTR an official run, meanwhile, the Caparo's reign as king of the Power Lap could be short-lived, adjustable shocks or not.

[Source: PistonHeads]

Ultima, one of several dozen independent British sportscar companies and makers of the GTR, could only take so much rejection. The cottage automaker claims it offered its road-legal race-car to the producers at BBC's hit TV show Top Gear several times, only to be repeatedly refused. So Ultima took things into its own hands, brought its latest fire-breather to the same converted airstrip that TG uses for a test track, retained a Stig of its own, and undertook to beat the fastest lap on the track.

Aside from the occasional exception like the Renault F1 car, the current record holder on Top Gear's power-lap board is the Koenigsegg CCX (which Top Gear can't spell). After the Stig famously spun the Swedish supercar off the track, the designers mounted a new rear wing to keep the tail planted, and the CCX set a fastest lap of 1:17.6, which was enough to beat the Ferrari Enzo, Maserati MC12 and Pagani Zonda that previously sat atop the chart.

Ultima drove the GTR720 to the track in full road trim and set a fast lap of 1:12.8, which easily beat the Koenigsegg. In fact, Ultima claims that at that rate, the GTR would lap an Enzo every 12 laps. Dang. Shame it would also beat the Ferrari in an ugly contest, though. Ultima says another visit in the more powerful 800-hp version is in the works.

[Source: PistonHeads]

Do you like outtake reels? Who doesn't! Do you like Top Gear? Well, if you're the kind of person who reads Autoblog, then chances are you do. In that case, have we got the video for you!

After the jump you'll find six minutes' worth of your favorite telemotive personalities (that's right, we just made up a word) fumbling over their lines, making each other laugh and cursing like longshoremen. Oh yeah, and plenty of breasts, 'cause what would a British men's "programme" be without that? Follow the jump to check out the Top Gear Boobers Bloopers video.

NSFW: If you work in a puritanical office environment, well... sorry for you, but you might want to wait 'till you get home to watch the video on account of the cleavage and bleeped-out naughty words.

[Source: German Car Scene]

In addition to hosting the world's most popular car show, authoring a library of books and writing regular columns for a variety of magazines and newspapers, celebrity automotive journalist Jeremy Clarkson has turned out a tall stack of DVD specials.

The video after the jump is a trailer of his latest video, called Supercar Showdown. In the new special, scheduled for a November 5 release, Clarkson takes to the road and the track in some of the most mouth-watering and earth-shattering supercars, including the Ferrari 430 Spider and 599 GTB Fiorano, Lamborghini Gallardo and Murcielago Roadsters, Bugatti Veyron, Audi R8, Porsche 911 GT3, Radical SR3, Aston Martin V8 Roadster and Ascari A10. Sabine Schmitz and The Stig also feature in a head-to-head in what looks to be a jaw-dropping orgy of Octane.

Click through to catch a sneak preview.

Kudos to Mike for the tip.

[Source: YouTube]

The BBC was reportedly evaluating producing an American version of its hit show Top Gear with the existing British cast. The show's star lead host Jeremy Clarkson, however, apparently having seen enough of the U.S. after filming the show's road trip through the South, has nixed the idea.

The proposal would have involved Clarkson, together with his co-stars Richard Hammond, James May and The Stig, flying stateside for four months to embark upon a hectic filming schedule, a prospect which didn't tantalize Clarkson, to say the least. On top of other concerns, Jezza reportedly wouldn't want to leave his family behind for such a long period of time.

For their part, the BBC hasn't given up, and will undoubtedly look at other possibilities, with or without Clarkson. Stay tuned.

Thanks for the tip, Derek!

[Source: The Sun via PistonHeads]

If you're reading this from your home or office in the UK, despair not, for all is not lost. To compensate for the bland food and consistently rainy weather, we've got a game for you!

The flash-animation quiz game after the jump pits the Top Gear presenters Clarkson, Hammond and "Captain Slow" against Formula One stars present and past: Nigel Mansell, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton. Chose your player and your opponent, and test your knowledge of all things related to grand prix racing and the BBC's famous car show...er, programme. (Sorry, chaps.)

It's good for literally minutes of fun. Tens of minutes, even, if you get hooked on watching Mansell and May kick the bullocks off each other after each right or wrong answer. Jolly good fun, that.

[Source: VCars]

Britain's Health and Safety Executive faulted both the BBC and the makers of the Vampire dragster, Primetime Landspeed Engineering, for Richard Hammond's dastardly crash. The HSE said that the risk assessment that Primetime gave to the BBC didn't take into account that Hammond didn't have the necessary skills to pilot the car in an emergency. So the BBC, according to the HSE, should have given Hammond enough time to learn how to drive the car and also should have challenged the risk assessment it was given, but it did not.

Hammond crashed the dragster at 288 mph and spent five weeks in the hospital with brain injuries. He has since fully recovered. Neither the BBC nor Primetime, though, will be prosecuted.

[Source: Drive.com.au]