The Car Show on Speed

[buickfunnycar.com]

All these car shows suck...and are insulting my intelligence...pass.

[rustomatic]

I think anybody that is a fan of BBC's Top Gear wouldn't be necessairly an impartial judge, not saying you are, but most fans of that show are and will hold any new car show to a higher standard. Knowing Matt Farah and camera guy Tom Morningstar might make me less impartial, but if anything, it's given me a chance to see how they work behind the scenes and see all the footage that they have shot of our car. If it blows chunks on the show - I will definitely let you know, bceause of the 20 minutes of footage that I have seen with our car, it is good stuff and Tom is good at what he does.

Give this and TGUSA a year or two to work out the kniks and they will both be great! Just remember these first episodes are the pilots (for The Car Show anyway).

At Mr. Vengance - LOL @ the Fran Drescher pic. I think she and Corolla need to have a sitcom together!

I agree--the first couple seasons of the British Top Gear were not that great; the US one is quickly improving, although T.F. may have to retire his Stig gear. The early BBC episodes were quite stiff, but they were given time, and eventually turned into the best thing on the BBC.

People on this site really lack a sense of humor--the best part of the show was Carolla in the Rolls; he doesn't know squat about cars, but that's not the point. Matt Farah does, and so does the writer guy (Neil?). The show wasn't great, but I'll still watch it, because it works for my lame needs for entertainment, motor-wise.

[SRD art]

Real car guys are just too hardcore for primetime TV... start a show with Steve Magnante and Stacy David crawling around a junkyard for an hour and talking about things that matter to car guys...Like building cars, racing cars, rare cars, fabrication..., hell you could even put them in front of an audience behind a fancy desk...

-Sean

Agreed. Where I live we need a satellite dish to get any TV so I've decided to just do without and watch Netflix, satellite $ can go towards much better things. I'm stuck with Street Customs from Netflix. I watch it so that I can see the 5 minutes of cool fabrication amongst the other 36 minutes of drama. I wish there were a realistic and informative show for do it yourself gear heads, minus all the hoopla and garbage. Might almost justify the dish. But I suppose we live in a world that lives for drama so unfortunately something of real value and worthwhile may never surface. I guess that's why I'm back in school ;) .

[absintheisfun]

I think it all comes down to your style of humor. Adam's whiny, raspy, god-awful and annoying voice, combined with his complete lack of comic delivery is like nails on a chalk board to me. The other two guys are even weaker in their comic attempts.

-mind you, this is my opinion.

The American Top Gear, while not as good as the original, pretty quickly gave me laughs and kept my attention. I'm really looking forward to season two. I think that if viewed individually, the three hosts of the American TG would be horrible, but they work together well. With The Car Show, individually the hosts are horrible, and together they are exponentially bad.

[NOPANTS-68]

It must be down to sense of humor. I can't stand any of the guys from American TG. Tanner and his click annoy the hell out of me and the show has yet to produce even a chuckle from me. I'm done watching it.

While I can't quite understand why Sally is there, the Car Show is already more entertaining to me. I'm a Corolla fan in that I have seen him live, listen to his pod casts, and talked with him at length face to face. He is always the first to slam his voice and his awkward delivery, but I'm listening to the content rather than be critical of its packaging. His auto knowledge is pretty strong and his ties to Leno and other real Hollywood car people make him a better asset than a failed comedian as on USTG. The first episode was awkward and rough in spots, but go back and read some of the comments on this very forum about American Top Gear. You'd have thought Tanner ran over somebody's dog with his M3.

[dropit69]

i actually didnt mind it that bad..i used to listen to Caroola all the time on radio and he used to have a bunch of old datsun 210's or whatever model..used to talk about them all time on the show..and the best Top gear bbc ones are the 1 1/2 hour shows where they go on the road trips..lol..too funny..watch the vietnam one if ya can or the south america adventure..

[GrabberGT]

I started watching the show last night but fell asleep 10 minutes into it. I actually like Dan Neil. His other show "Ticket to Ride" is pretty good.

[BADNBLK]

I think the show is pretty shallow also. How about a version of American Pickers but only cars?

I agree!!! That would be sweet, and get rid of the auction setting stuff. I have still yet to see the Car show though

[79-TA]

Well, here's my reaction to each of the hosts:

Salley - irrelevant, knows little, not funny. He already resorted to making a gas mileage joke and a black person joke in the first episode.

Neil - He's supposed to play the technical factiod spewing nerd on the show, but really isn't up to the task at all. He's an obvious troll in some of his opinions and just isn't very interesting.

Farrah - good on camera. He actually doesn't know cars terribly well, but none of that seemed to show through in the pilot.

Carolla - the "unfiltered" part of the show. He's knowledgeable, makes some good quips, and deals with Salley's poor attempts at jokes well. His determination to make spontaneous dirty jokes will drive away a lot of family viewership, that is, watching the Rolls segment with my grandma was pretty awkward.

[TT302Z28]

Maybe it'll get better? Can't get too much worse!

[cheapta]

I think you gotta give it a chance.I didn't care for TGUSA,either when it debuted but I'm looking forward to the second season.I don't care for Corolla and I have no clue who any of the other guys are but I'll keep watching and hope they find their stride.

[NJSPEEDER]

I think it is the best shot at an automotive show anyone in the US has made in a while. TG USA is absolutely terrible(all the production value of a 3rd grade play), MotorWeek (if it's even still on teh air) was a boring and predictable formula, Forum Wars is completed retarded, and I can't remember any other shows lasting more than a season.

Salley is known in the custom car/DUB crowd, Corolla(even though he is annoying) is a huge car guy, Dan Neil(the old dude) has been reviewing cars very bluntly for the Wall Street Journal for years(if anyone wants a laugh go look up his review of the Nissan Murano Cross Cabrio), and Matt Farah has been around the internet for years.

It's good to see a show that finally speaks to people who just like cars in general. Other than some on set product placement they don't seem to pander to any sponsor or too narrow a market. Seeing a review of the RR Ghost was nice to see on the same show that they race a beater. Looking forward to seeing the clean pressed Dan Neil slingin dirt in the next episode and hoping Corolla talks less.

-Tim

[nekkidhillbilly]

show may have sucked

but goddamn i hate hearing about how many people have mancrush on stacy david

[absintheisfun]

Well, I'm not going to start a new thread on it...but Top Gear season 2 opener was frakin awesome! I'm sure it was a rip off of one of the original shows, but to see them hauling 2,000 lbs of manure in a Miata, Maverick and BMW across Texas had me rolling on the floor!

It premiered Sunday, but I'm sure it is repeating all week. If you can, check it out!

[Damn True]

The Car Show - Complete Rubbish. Carolla has a lots of opinions, very little knowledge and his schtick wears thin after a few min. The bald guy is more of a douche on TV than on his YouTube channel if that is possible. John Salley...really? The magazine guy is the only one with a considered opinion but he's stiffer than Al Gore.

TGUS - Bad, but getting better. It looks like they spent 100x more on production over last season's opener. The camera work was vastly improved. Interaction between the hosts is good in the "off the cuff" bits but still very stiff in the "studio" parts. The season opener would have been aided by a brief news segment to break up the cross-texas journey.

TGUK - Still the king.

[John Wright]

Maybe it'll get better? Can't get too much worse!

One can only hope, I have to say that I was very disappointed as well.

[TT302Z28]

Wouldn't you think we would be their target audience? Not "Susie" car guy who's brothers friends Dad in high school had a bad ass car.


There are those who can wrench and those who buy imports. Unfortunately the tv media is made up of the later.

[Trevon]

I love Top Gear UK. Favorite show. Sure somethings may be overlooked/a bit off in car reviews sometimes but it is extremely entertaining. The challenges are great! Jeremy is tail happy in everything he drives but still does a great job and its nice to see supercars driven like that and not just parked in a garage. They know they're never practical for a regular car but I can't get enough.

Top Gear USA is a whole different story. I tried to watch it and most of it is decent, but there is no one on TV that I want to punch in the face more than Rutledge Wood. Every word out of his mouth is unbearable. Seems like he was never interested in cars and just got randomly offered this job (I know he was on the speed channel a lot and such -- no idea how though). I mean it ended for me after the challenge where Adam Ferrara had an Olds Cutlass, Tanner Foust was in a Fiero, and Rutledge Wood was in a wood panel BUICK ROADMASTER!? WTF. Who cares if it had an LT1; it's big, heavy, ugly, and slow.

I know people on here have wagons and such, and I like them...but that was a huge "get him the f off this show he sucks" moment for me. Talking that car up the whole time, no one goes out wanting to buy one of those, unlike the other two cars that have a decent following. Get rid of him and I'd be back on board (still like to watch all the segments that don't involve him haha)

End rant.

And as for The Car Show -- haven't seen that yet, but right about now I'm sure it would be better than TG:USA

[srh3trinity]

None of them are great, but what other options do we have? Not many. I do like the American Pickers automotive version idea though. That would be fun and you could fluff it up with famous barn find stories.