Top Gear Season 15 Episode 7 Review!
Top Gear, my most favorite car show on earth. In fact, everybody loves it and it is the best car show on earth! Well just a few days ago, the latest episode of Top Gear had aired on British television. It is a full one hour Christmas special where the three boys went for an American road trip. For those who don’t get to watch it don’t worry, as I am about to tell you everything throughout this episode and the future episodes as well, so you won’t be missed out. Let the journey begin!
A few seasons ago, the three boys had confirmed that the Transylvania road in Romania is the best road in the world. Even so, Americans believe that the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia is the best. The producers then wanted the three of them to select their favorite cars and go there to see who is right. Jeremy Clarkson, being a Mercedes fan chose the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. James May chose the Ferrari 458 Italia while the Porsche 911 fanatic, Richard Hammond chose the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. After some comparing and arguing and many typical unreasonable teasing of each other’s car, they begin their long drive ahead with high expectation.
All we can see next is three of them driving incredibly slow, that is because they realized the speed limit here is 35mph! Even the maximum speed allowed throughout the whole Blue Ridge Parkway is just 45mph. The three of them finally decided not to continue down the road because at these speed, it will take them forever and is boring at the same time. They exit the road and went straight to the place where Nascar were born. They finally reached the abandoned Westborough Speedway.
The Westborough Speedway is a small oval track and is where people during the 40’s, raced their cars which are modified and stripped-out to outrun police cars during those days. Many years later, Nascar was born. Feeling tempted to race in this tasty looking track, Jeremy met the state mayor and the owner of the track who happened to be there. Jeremy promised the track owner to drive carefully but as we all expected, they all “forgot” about their promise.
Jeremy, Hammond, and May were all having great fun, but after a few laps, Jeremy got a little bored of it and started going sideways in his SLS AMG. Jeremy was on cloud nine for those few minutes of sideways driving but regretted soon after. The rear right tire of his Mercedes had worn out. Hammond and May laughed at him and teased him of his childishness for not thinking ahead.
To Jeremy’s surprise, the kind mayor called one of his contacts to have a new tire ready for Jeremy’s Mercedes. Unfortunately when they all reached the mechanic’s shop, the mechanic do not have a tire big enough for the SLS AMG. The mayor once again called another of his friend who should have a tire suitable for the car. The sky is getting gloomy, and both Hammond and May decided to leave Jeremy alone and head straight to their hotel. Back in the second tire shop, after some talking about the history of Nascar and the mayor dancing to country music, the mechanic still do not have a suitable tire for Jeremy. Jeremy have no choice but to drive 150 miles to the hotel with one spoiled tire. To be continued…..
Now is of course time for the news. Because it is Christmas, the three boys shall talk about the best automotive themed Christmas gifts ideas. Knowing Hammond that he is a Porsche fan, Jeremy presents him a Porsche Design training shoes, and Hammond showed Jeremy a Mercedes vest. After that, Jeremy went on to talk about air fresheners which he jokingly describe them as “mildly scented bottles of sick”. Jeremy said that it would be great if air fresheners would smell like bacon, and took out a bacon air freshener shaped like bacon.
Three of them continue to show us even more gift ideas which includes a Buggati dimmer switch, a steering wheel clock, piston mug, car-shaped nail clipper, steering wheel coaster, gearshift wine stopper and toothpick holder, a combustion engine model, and a hilariously named Pussy energy drink. Hammond then showed us a flying drone that has a camera at the front and can be controlled with your iPhone. He said that it would be useful during traffic jams where you can fly this drone from your sunroof to see what caused the jam. Jeremy decided to try flying this with his phone and accidentally hit the wires above and fused the lights. The whole studio went dark with no lights.
Three of them lighted up all the candles in front of them and continued their conversation about the gone of the Stig, May’s cat and then Hammond accidentally burnt his script paper from those candles. After some clumsy disposal of the burning papers by Jeremy, the small Christmas tree just beside Hammond went on fire as well. Causing some slight panic to Hammond, May then suggested Jeremy to put the fire out with the Pussy energy drink, causing huge laughter among the audience. The fire was finally put out.
That is the end of the news and now back to the boys’ road trip. The next morning, everybody woke up and was awake by the sounds from their backyard. That is because their hotel is a motor racing resort and their backyard is actually the Virginia International Raceway. With Jeremy’s Mercedes fitted with new tires, three of them went to the track for a spin. Two of them end up racing each other.
Hammond and May’s car are designed for the track and therefore competitive on the track, while the more softer SLS AMG is not really good in the corners and kept going sideways. Jeremy don’t care about being first because he is having so much fun! Hammond and May however, raced each other so aggressively that Hammond end up in the grass and nearly hit the tire wall. May’s Ferrari won the race!
Jeremy bet that his SLS AMG would win the 458 Italia in a drag race, May then bet 5 pounds that he will not win the Ferrari. But before they two could see who’s fastest, a challenge arrive. The challenge is a drive-by shooting competition to see which car has the best suspension, the person who gets the most points wins. The target they choose is three full size carboard model of the Stig. Everyone should be using pistol but Jeremy used an assault rifle instead, this obviously gave him a huge advantage and end up winning with the most points.
Now is time for ‘A Star In A Reasonably Priced Car’, and the guest for the night is Slumdog Millionaire director, Danny Boyle. Jeremy interviewed him and went on to talk about Danny’s latest movie called 127 Hours, and also talk about the opening ceremony of the British Olympics with full of fire. We then see Danny Boyle’s lap at the Top Gear test track which is wet from the rain. Danny got a lap time of 1.47.8 minutes which is the fastest wet lap. Congrats to him!
Now we shall continue to the last part of the USA road trip. The three boys are required to go to New York to receive their next challenge. The challenge is simple, the Top Gear producers had reserved a space for only one person to appear at an American chat show at 11 am. The first person to reach the TV studio will get to be in the show. Unfortunately for Hammond, his stripped-out Porsche does not have a sat-nav and he will have a hard time finding the place. All three of them only have one hour to reach there.
Soon enough, Hammond was out of the picture because he is completely lost in the busy streets of New York. The race is now only between Jeremy and May and they are really close. Jeremy hates the direct route which his sat-nav told him to go because it is full of traffic lights which slowed him down. He took a different way to reach there but that was a big mistake. May who obediently followed the sat-nav finally reached there first, placing Jeremy second and Hammond third. At first, Jeremy and Hammond were jealous because they expect a famous chat show like ‘Good Morning America’, but not until they found out what show May will be in. A morning Yoga training show.
Thanks for reading my very first full review of Top Gear and I hope you enjoyed reading it as well. The next episode which was aired just yesterday was another special as well where the three boys drove from Iraq to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus in old two-door convertibles. I will review that as well as soon as I can. For those who missed this episode, please do enjoy the screenshots I took from the show. Hope you have a very happy and merry Christmas!!!
