http://www.speedtv.com/programs/218/

Finally! Now if we could only get them to air Top Gear. Fifth Gear is hosted by three people, two of which used to be on Top Gear a few years back. Top Gear is produced by the BBC and is the flagship BBC 2 Program.

Tiff Needell left Top Gear and started Fifth Gear on Channel 5. They've put out a couple of season so far (I have them all along with Top Gear) and I can attest to their quality in program and fun giveaways they do. There's a great episode from this last season all about MINIs.

British Car program is vastly different then watching something like Motor Trend or Car & Driver magazine. Here - and this makes sense - they focus on cars, gos through technical specs, how they do certain things. Over there however (and Top Gear is notorious for this because of their main hose Jeremy Clarkson), they have no problems absolutely ripping a car apart if they don't like it. The BBC has lots more flexibility with this as BBC programming is not commercially sponsored, but regardless, the de facto for auto car programming in England has always been to truly speak the honest truth.

Furthermore, they focus more on car culture. It's not just about how it handles or what options it comes with. They do different things for a laugh. For example: Top Gear has done things like seeing if a Lotus Exige can escape missle lock on an Apache Helicopter (within the area of their test track), and seeing if highly educated college profs can do a burnout in a 800hp Supra. One episode of Fifth Gear is all about the James Bond cars, and another has a new 530 with holes drilled in the run flats that then gets thrown around a track at 100 mph. One episode has a reporter try to steal a car from the most secure parking garage in England, and another goes to lead singer of Jamiroquai's home (Jay Kay - The British equivalent of Jay Leno - a huge car collector). I'm am truly convinced there is no programming in this country that comes close to either of these program and the fact that they are watched by not only gearhead but the general public is a testment to their popularity.

The fun begins with back-to-back new episodes every Monday at 9 & 9:30, beginning July 12th!

So, tune in! It's well worth it

 

I'd even settle for Top Gear on BBC America. Don't they think we'd like Jeremy Clarkson over here?

 

Well, very few British like American cars...and Top Gear is the most harsh when it comes to reviewing them. It would be tough for Speed to put something like that on that bashes to many of their advertisers I think.

 

Having watched Top Gear for some years, I can attest to the fact that ole Jeremy wears on you after a while.....I am betting on a short season....his accent in particular is not the "brit" accent we all seem to like....it is one of the other three thousand "accents" on that island that one either can't understand or dearly hates to hear.....:smile:

 

Well I watched Fifth Gear last evening. It was nice to see Tiff Needell and Quentin Wilson from Top Gear again as well as a whole host of other hosts. Too much was understated English silliness. I mean how can they review I-drive and not criticize it any more than "road-screen-road-screen" meaning that you have to take your eyes off the road to perform even the most minor of adjustments. There was a brief bit on the MINI Cooper S, "not the fastest small car, but one you could live with and love everyday".

Will it work on Speed? Well it certainly ain't NBS 24/7 (Thank God), nor Tuner this or Tuner that (Ditto). I guess the real ques. is can we overcome the language barrier and get by some of those affected, pretentious, pompacity laden accents to really enjoy the show.

p.s. a Dodge Viper got smoked by a modified Nissan econo-box??!! Get Real Fifth Gear.

 

Them accents have been going strong for many a year. I have actually raced wheel to wheel with ole Tiff.......he is no slouch....

 

Lovely, so you're making fun of how we talk?

Great to see the show on US soil. The language barrier will be interesting, only in terms of the choice of words we Brits use. A sort of slang if you will but hey, I'm willing to help. If you remember them saying something and could figure out what it meant, post it here and I'll translate.

Sunday night's Top Gear was a very interesting one btw. They did a half-mile drag race between a Bentley Continental GT, CL 65, and DB9 - the CL 65 killed the other two. Of course, with that much torque (738) and a twin-turbo V12..what do you expect?

Clarkson drove a car from Amsterdam, the Sypder C8 - which has a gorgeous and extremely unique interior. For example the shifter's linkage is completely exposed as it goes back to the engine. It's just stunning! Very plush stiching and materials, and a seamless glass cabin.

 

Not really Haf,

I'm making fun of how they talk. None of my British friends have that sort of accent in normal conversation. ('Course none of us can understand the Jordy after a pint or two anyways ). But really, its not a home county accent, not from the south, nor the midlands, and except for the odd Scot whose accent is well, Scottish, I really couldn't place the others except to say that they are all suffering from Clarkson's Disease (BBC/ITV telly host-speak).

 

I'm just not seeing it as an issue. Look at BBC America. More than 2/3 of the programming on their has a fine tuned accent from various parts of the country. You have to manage somehow.

Now that I think about it, if any channel should carry Top Gear, it should be BBCA.

 

I do understand 'em, but my point was that Joe and Jane NASCAR might not. BTW, if you're in AZ, how do you get to watch Top Gear? I have satellite and still can't find it on any channel over here.

 

Joe and Jane Nascar aren't going to understand British Journalism anyway.

An internet friend has goes to the tremendous trouble of putting them online to download via bit torrent. he also puts the latest fifth gears up too!

click me!

 

Point well taken. Bunch of Muttering Rotters never could communicate with corndog eating people anyway.

Thanks for the link to the program.

MGC

 

I understand the accents on the Fifth Gear hosts as well as Hafid's quite well. Their accents are quite nice to hear and brings a flavour (note the british spelling ) that even someone as talented as Jay Leno could never do.

It seems that the Speed Channel version of 5th gear seems to be time squeezed. Is 5th Gear supposed to be an hour long? Or do they have fewer commercials in the 1/2 slot?

 

No, it's a half hour show. The thing is, in England, there's only one commercial break BUT, in England they give away a car every two weeks via a competition that that takes up a few minutes to describe so that is cut out and replaced with more lousy commercial breaks.

 

I have one of these Tivo'd, gonna watch it tonight

Update
That's a great show. I watched an episode where they:

- Test drove a Murcielago and made fun of it for having traction control
- Drag raced a modded Nissan Sunny against a Viper (Nissan won)
- Ripped apart the interior of a new small Citroen
- Called a 7 series: "A pretty girl, missing two front teeth. You know you would, but it will always be shy of perfect. "

Thanks for the recommendation. Another season pass for my Tivo

 

speaking of Vipers....they are peddling a competition model now...REALLY COOL at a rather steep $129K......, I'd a gone for it but I will have to wait until my next paycheck .

 

Next time I come by remind me to bring my hard drive as I have the last two years of Fifth Gear on my computer (Same goes for Top Gear which IMO is a better program)

 

Awesome I need to get both Tivo's upgraded to many more hours. 30 hours won't cut it for too much longer

 

That's great - Speed can use some more interesting programming. There's way too much racing!

btw, I liked it better as Speedvision when they also had shows about planes and boats.