[Series 11] Top Gear

By RadishTM
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Grand Master

what

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Lol yes. Although about the cheese, he asked for it. Lol their cars were falling apart and May said "my heater is stuck in the on position" :laugh:

But i heard something about a Japan special? Is that this season?

It's the next episode ;) A Nissan GT-R vs a bullet train. Should be a good one.

Grand Master

RadishTM Veteran

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Well, I've just got back from the bank with the presenters' wages, and it took a while because it's a bugger parking a container ship outside Natwest.

Anyway that'll keep them happy for a day or so, which means we can put another programme on air.

Show four of the run to be precise, and we're all excited because we've got one of our big races to show you.

Now the last time we did one was a couple of years ago with the Veyron against the plane, and to be honest it wasn't the film it could have been because it all got a bit silly side up - too big and overblown - and it didn't have the purity of the run to Verbier or Monaco.

Anyway, we shelved the whole idea of big races until we could think of another one that made sense, and then this year Nissan very kindly decide to launch the GT-R, and the clouds parted.

GT-R versus Bullet Train across Japan: one of the world's most hi tech cars against the world's most formidable public transport.

What's not to like?

You'll see it on Sunday, and you'll notice how everything else is squeezed to death, because the Japan film came out at over half an hour, but it's good at that length.

Lots of people ask lots of questions about the races - how do you shoot them so nicely if you're in a race? Are the results fixed? - that's two popular ones.

Well, what we do is shoot the race in real time - car on the road, camera car alongside, no stopping for extra shots - get the result, and then the director and camera crew spend another two days after the race going back over the route to get the pretty shots.

You have to do this because a race shown on telly with just the shots you get on the move during the actual race will look ****, and you and us deserve better than that.

And in answer to the second question, no, the result is the result. If the car wins the car wins and vice versa.

People get suspicious because the results always go to the wire, but what we do is plan the route beforehand, and we always make sure that mathematically both journey times will be close.

It's not rocket science, you just need average motorway speeds and train times etc. After that the presenters are on their own.

If something goes wrong for them - say they get lost, the camera crew can't dive in and help them, because they're only recording the race, not taking part in it.

With the three minutes we've got left in the show, there's a power test of the sexually arousing Alfa Romeo 8C, some news where the three of them talk bollocks, and some rather attractive women in the Reasonably Priced Car.

So, given that there's no tennis or football or crown bowls on the other side, just watch the bloody show.

PS - since I wrote the above I've watched the finished programme in full and don't think I boasted nearly enough.

You know my thoughts on this series so far - the first two shows were solid but not classics, that Alfa film in the third programme was very good but this Japan one is on another level.

If I don't mind myself saying it. So, enjoy...

Source - http://www.topgear.com/blogs/planettopgear...show-4-preview/

Can't bloody wait :woot:

Radish?

Collaborator

Srsly

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Yeah, cant wait till sunday, tv wise :laugh: New blog entry from Clarkson himself:

On Sunday night, there is a race between a Nissan GT-R and a bullet train right the way across Japan.

It is extremely exciting. I think the best film we've ever made.

Unfortunately, it will be spoiled because I shall have to spend the next few weeks explaining how these races are filmed to a bunch of people who imagine they're staged, scripted and pre-ordained.

Of course, the routes are carefully planned so the result will be close but it is impossible to guess what will actually happen after the flag drops.

You may notice if you watch carefully, the on board cameras in the GTR were flickering red and green. But did we stop to fix them? Did we hell as like.

During our race to Oslo, the poor cameraman in the back of the tracking car had to pee in a bottle. We do not stop.

In the Ferrari versus plane race to Verbier, I actually overtook the tracking car, leaving me with nothing but the on board mini cams. I was that desperate to get there first.

And we get back to be accused of fakery by some internet dweeb. It makes my effing teeth itch with rage.

Of course, once the race is run and the result in the bag, the camera crews stay behind to pick up the shots needed to make the whole thing work on television. The details. The icing. But that doesn't affect the outcome.

I hope you enjoy the race across Japan. And now you know it's all for real, every ball breaking moment of it, I hope you enjoy it even more.

Source: http://www.topgear.com/blogs/planettopgear...son-japan-race/

Grand Master

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I enjoyed it all this week - even Star in a Reasonably Priced Car - only because Fiona Bruce and Kate Middleton are rather good looking (and not up their own backsides like many celebs on that sofa) - and the 'lesbian' comment just got my mind whirring ;) That and I laughed out REALLY loud when Jezza said to save the swear words for whenever Gordon Brown was on TV - hahah..

The GT-R race was brilliant. Really enjoyable in every sense.

Oh and the newsreaders were sexy with their accents

Quite. Mmmm...

Grand Master

what

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what was with the "dont use your cell phone " on public transport about?

I think Japanese people find it disrespectful or just generally annoying/antisocial. I can't say I disagree with them either, although to be fair Hammond and May were trying to be as quiet as they could. I'm sure having a whole camera crew crammed into the train/bus would've been a tad more irritating.

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