Top Gear Australia – Series 1, Episode 2

The second episode of Top Gear Australia has just gone to air—have they improved on the promise shown in last week’s debut? Well, the episode got off to a very slow start. This, despite Charlie testing a right-hand drive Ford GT40 and then Charlie and Steve chucking a couple of Aussie supertaxis around Wakefield Park. Charlie is not so bad in a studio setting—although his waving arms may take some getting used to—but he’s still settling in to the on camera reviewer role. The Ford v Holden piece at Wakefield was the major letdown, however. The lads competed against each other in a straight out drag and also under braking, but the fact that no timed lap was included was incredibly lame. Not quite as lame as not having the balls to declare an outright winner and labelling “Ford and Holden are the winners here”. Oh dear.

That was enough to really test the patience of this viewer. Happily, though, things picked up, if you’ll pardon the pun, when the trio headed to Kalgoorlie to fang around a massive superpit in a few utes. Top Gear is more as much about entertainment as it is about fair dinkum car reviewing, and while last week’s challenge was a little forced at times, the chemistry in this week’s outing was a vast improvement. For me, it saved the episode, that’s for sure.

Steve Bisley was this week’s guest, and I’m one of the people he referred to that still thinks of him as The Goose from Mad Max. He was much better in the guest’s role than Vince Colisimo, but I dunno, so far the guests have seemed too excited, or too full of themselves. One of the two. The Stig doesn’t teach them much on the track either, Bisley was comparitively good, however, Colisomo’s steering technique on last week’s show was appaling.

The show closed out with what appears to be a regular segment, an oddball Warren Brown piece. But that’s oddball in a lovable kind of way—Warren is turning out to be the unexpected hero of the team. He reckoned that a Smart car would make a good hearse. He took Steve along for the ride and as ridiculous as the concept was, it was quite amusing in parts. Well done lads. It’d be great if they didn’t have to squeeze in a Warren cartoon each time, though. It’s just a bit twee

Overall, a steady improvement in the second episode for mine. There’s still a few negatives that will hopefully iron themselves out with more time. But, I’m looking forward to next week’s episode, and that’s what matters.

A small postscript—I accept the show has to has advertising, but Charlie m’lad, you have to get better scripts for throwing to the breaks. To the advertisers, lift your bloody game! The Castrol ad is just plain crap. It’s a stupid idea at the best of times and having the American accents overdubbed, with half-arsed lip synching, is just an insult to the viewing audience. Volkswagen, too, you’ve a great product range at the moment, do we have to see the same Jetta ad every break? And don’t get me started on the GT-351 bloke from the Shannons commercial. He’s just freaky!