Top Gear show 4 preview
Posted by Andy Wilman at 11:30AM on Friday 11 July, 2008 11 Comments
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 Nat West.
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 shit, 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…
Read show 4 preview.
Read Jeremy Clarkson’s show 4 blog.
By law, foreign automakers seeking a foothold in China must form joint ventures (JVs) with domestic “partners.” As we’ve outlined before , there’s an immediate downside: China’s scant regard for intellectual property rights (IPR). For example, GM found itself suing Chinese automaker Chery (whose name middle-finger salutes Chevy) over the QQ, a blatant copy of the Daewoo Matiz. The case was settled out of court, but the issue of IPR remains unresolved. And now that Chinese automakers are consolidating and striking out on their own, what’s going to happen their foreign partners and their IPR? What do you think?
