Top Gear on US TV

[pretzel]

Spent an interesting, if somewhat cold, day at Dunsfold Aerodrome on Tuesday as a guest of a friend of mine at recordings of the BBC Top Gear programme. One of his cars has already been featured a couple of times on the show.

Ther purpose of the recording session was to update programmes already shown in the UK and to tailor them for the US market, so Clarkson, May and Hammond were there to record links between pieces of Video, quoting prices in $, slagging off the French, Germans etc. whilst we in the studio audience clapped, laughed and whooped in a US show stylee....

The producer stated that the revised programmes will be going out on one of the Discovery channels (he wasn't specific, but I guess there's one that caters for this type of thing) and that broadcasting of those being recorded that day would be around April time.

I am not aware if Top Gear has been shown on US TV before but would reconmmend it to our US cousins if they have not seen it - it's one of the better UK motoring related shows.

Now for the request - As the recordings are only for the US market it's unlikely they will be screened over here. If there is anyone over the pond who may be interested is seeing these programmes and has a DVD (or video) recorder I would like to obtain a copy of the programme featuring my mates car (mainly 'cause we're all in shot for a while of course). His company remanufactures series 3 Jaguars and XJS's and it's an XJS that was taken for the feature.

All costs incl. blank media and postage would of course be reimbursed, either in cash, or beer at Le Mans.

Oh, and for anyone in the UK that gets the opportunity to attend one of these recordings - GO. It's great fun, Clarkson & Co are crude, funny, approachable (when not recording of course), and the BBC put on reasonable quality refreshments including lunch.

[Matt Harper]

Didn't they stop building the XJS about 12 years ago? In reality it wasn't a particularly popular car over here, being rather expensive, a wee bit unreliable and slightly lacking in the trousers department - even though it had a 5.3 V12.
I always had Jeremy Clarkson down as an irritating arsehole, but I suspect that the US audience will find him quite amusing, given that auto-journalism (TV) here is fairly humourless and biased.
I'll certainly tape it for you when it comes up here.

[bblohm]

Hello all,

I'm from Detroit, but when I am in England I always try to
catch Top Gear.  I particularly liked the sessions with the
indestructible Toyota pickup!

I'll be watching for the show and try to record it as well.

For any other fellow "Yanks", if you're a motorhead WATCH FOR IT!

[pretzel]

Didn't they stop building the XJS about 12 years ago? In reality it wasn't a particularly popular car over here, being rather expensive, a wee bit unreliable and slightly lacking in the trousers department - even though it had a 5.3 V12.
I always had Jeremy Clarkson down as an irritating arsehole, but I suspect that the US audience will find him quite amusing, given that auto-journalism (TV) here is fairly humourless and biased.
I'll certainly tape it for you when it comes up here.

Indeed Matt you are correct, the XJS has been discontinued for quite a while, along with the series 3 XJ saloons. My mate's business is sort of half restoration/half improvement, the overall purpose to create a car which is nostalgic, but with modern performance (or more if required) and good handling and reliability.

The XJS featured went down quite well with James May - the more cerebral of the Top Gear presenting trio, and is proving quite popular with a certain type of person here in the UK who hankers for a real Jag, not a rebadged Mondeo. Not my type of car either - but each to their own. At the risk of my posting being removed because of advertising take a look at the site here: www.kwejaguar.co.uk for more details.

Clarkson came across as less irritating in real life than on telly and was quite sarcastic and irreverent. At least he doesn't appear to be in any particular manufacturers pocket.

Thanks for the offer to record the broadcast when it is shown.

[Simes]

If you go with friends who aren't having their car shown you get some coffee and crisps for tea.

Still worth going down we had a laugh.

[Andy Zarse]

I went last week, and as you say Pretzel, it was a reet good laugh.  You'll be delighted to know Matt that I was in a close-up shot with Jeremy Clarkson, whilst he was discussing the pro's and con's of the new hardtop Morgan Aero 8.  The headlights have been modified on the new version and it now looks slightly less as if it is having its bollocks tweaked.  You'll be even more delighted to know that JC decided that it had no pro's and plenty of con's.  Basically he  gave it a right old slagging. It really is a truly hideous car.  So hideous, in fact that Richard Hammond has got one on order. Oo-er!

As far as the lunch goes, I hardly call a bag of cheese and onion crisps and a Mars bar a well-balanced meal.  Still, it was a very interesting day out in TV-land. I went there fully prepared to hate Clarkson, but I have to say that all three presenters were entirely charming.  I even managed to have a cheeky fag outside with JC during an interval and he told me he reckons all ex-smokers are cowards.

Definitely a recommended day out for the discerning petrol head.

[Mr. Rick]

Ever seen/heard Mr. Clarkson speechless?? I have!!

Rewind to Lemons 1996 and an hour or two into the race we're wandering back to base behind the ACO grandstand etc when we spy JC heading our way.

One of our crew just happens to mention that his mum plays tennis with JC's mum, so we insist he tells him that fact (seemed relevant at the time!!).

Dear ol' Jeremy was totally stumped and for those brief but immortal few seconds was rendered utterly without words. We then did the obligatory "team" photo and by then he was back to his scathing self .. top chap!!

 

[pretzel]

Just wanted to resurrect this briefly.

Any of our US based contributors heard or seen whether this programme series is being broadcast yet? Should have been around early May time on Discovery (I think).