Last weekend’s 60 Minutes program on Channel 9 included a segment with the Top Gear UK lads. They discuss the television show, the stage show and some of the more infamous incidents—including Richard’s crash and the American episode. Here it is for your enjoyment.
Those who remember the Gin and Tonic furore can see the offending footage in this clip at around 6:23.
(Thanks to Tim for the link.)
Round 7 of the inaugural Australian MINI CHALLENGE series takes place in Tasmania this weekend at Symmons Plains, south of Launceston. The UBER-STAR CARS will be filled by Western Bulldogs AFL star, and 2001 Brownlow Medallist, Jason Akermanis and eight time PGA Tour event winner Stuart Appleby.
Akermanis will be making his motor racing debut and knows he faces a huge challenge, “I’m excited about the opportunity, for sure,” he said. “In many respects, lining up on the grid is totally different to being on the MCG in front of 90,000 screaming fans, but there are similarities between racing and AFL, too.
“Both sports are about passion and dedication. I don’t think anyone has ever questioned the passion that I bring to anything that I’ve done in the past and I’m approaching this exactly the same.”
Stuart Appleby, however, has embraced his need for speed through competing in Targa Tasmania the last few years and building an enviable garage full of exotica (including the world’s only BMW M5 ute), but climbing aboard the MINI Challenge UBER-STAR CAR is an altogether different proposition. “I have fond memories of competing in Tasmania through the Targa event, so to return with MINI Challenge is going to be an absolute thrill!” Appleby enthused.
The final episode of Top Gear Australia Series 1 has just gone to air. Tonight’s episode started with a great concept, ‘The Ultimate Drive’. Pick your ideal car, and add some truly great driving roads. The lads headed to Tasmania, including a closed road run on a Targa Tasmania special stage. Charlie in a Porsche 911 Turbo, Warren behind the wheel of an Aston Martin DB9, and, finally, Steve in a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. The footage was good enough, the cars were fantastic, but… it was an opportunity missed. Maybe it’s too harsh to compare the home grown effort against the British original. I’ve cautioned against it myself. But, eight shows in, it’s probably okay to do so. This, is how it should be done.
Claudia Karvan was the guest, and well, she’s a babe, so of course this segment went well. Mostly. If Charlie is deemed the best host for the job, I hope he brushes up on his technique during the off season.
Charlie took the new Jaguar XF for a fang. Looks like a nice car, and the piece, while not brilliant, was still pretty good.
We were also treated to another Ford v Holden comparo. This time Charlie and Steve pitted the entry level models against each other. Clearly stung by criticism of their first effort, this time they made a clear decision in the eternal Ford v Holden debate. They chose the Falcon. But, undoing all that good work, Charlie went on a poorly hashed rant about what good cars the local products are and that they are endangered species. That may well be true, but I’m not sure he needed to go to such lengths to make his point.
I can’t let the irony of the ‘What were they thinking?’ wall pass. Steve cooly posted a picture of Clarkson, Hammond and May and posed the question, ‘what were they thinking when they let us make their show’. Quite.
In closing, though, I would say the premiere season of Top Gear Australia has been, overall, both enjoyable and worthwhile. Yes, there are some flaws present, but I love the concept of the show, and I’ll continue to watch the show. The major flaws, for me, centre around the delivery of the three hosts. For the most part they’re quite good, and have improved, but their sometimes forced delivery has not really had all of its rough edges ironed out. Oddly enough, I think one of their best efforts was the first clip they filmed together, the Astra Lawn Bowls piece.
Series 2 has been commissioned, and there will no doubt be a thorough debriefing session now that Series 1 is complete. With any luck, they’ll work on the weaker points of the show, and return to our screens in the first half of 2009 with a new and improved Top Gear Australia. I look forward to finding out.
Australian rally stalwarts Neal Bates and Coral Taylor won their fourth national title by claiming the 2008 Australian Rally Championship over the weekend. Confirmation of their title came after some cautious driving in difficult conditions during the Coffs Coast Rally. Bates and Taylor guided their Team TRD Corolla to eighth position in Saturday’s Heat 1 , and in doing so secured enough points to win the title with a day to spare.
The win ends a 13 year drought for the long time rally partnership. “I am absolutely over the moon,” Bates said. “It has been 13 years between championships and overall it was a very tense day as we were listening out for every noise and squeak, but the S2000 Corolla has been faultless all year and it was again today.
“Probably 80 per cent of the work in rallying is done before you get to an event so it is a big thanks to our incredibly smart bunch of guys in Canberra that have made this championship happen.â€
Coral Taylor was both relieved and satisfied with their fourth Australian Rally Championship. “It is pretty amazing,” Taylor said. “I am not really sure where the last 13 years has gone since our last title but it is wonderful to win it again.â€
With the imminent arrival of the M3 Sedan and Convertible, BMW Australia has announced pricing for all three models in the M3 range. Those in the cheap seats will need to start with the Sedan where pricing begins at $145,000. The iconic Coupé starts at $162,901 and only captains of industry need apply for the Convertible—for the wife, of course—with a list price of $176,142.
The Sedan comes with quite a list of goodies, such as, an 8.8″ screen Satellite Navigation system (with TV), voice recognition, bluetooth mobile phone prep, LOGIC7 hi-fi, heated leather seats and adaptive xenon headlights.
Formula 1 technology boffins will delight at the M3’s Brake Energy Regeneration system which channels energy from overrun and braking to recharge the battery, thereby allowing maximum power to be applied. Which is just what you want when you have 309kW of power and 400Nm or torque willing you on to 100km/h in under five seconds.
The M3 Convertible shouldn’t be too hard to find in Australian showrooms as you read this, and the Sedan will be available from 22 November.
Lots of good content in tonight’s episode, the Nissan GT-R package was the highlight for me. Shooting the dark silver car through Sydney’s city lights at night looked stunning at times. The clips driving past the Ferrari and Porsche dealerships also worked well. Kudos, too, for Steve getting access to the new stretch of Highway for the high speed runs. That would have been ‘grouse’ fun, as Steve would say. The Top Gear Australia guys also stoked the GT-R v 911 fire by setting an ultra quick lap around their test track in a Porsche GT2. Like their UK cousins the GT2 has been faster on their test track than the GT-R. Although, to be fair, the Australian crew reckon the GT-R they used in Episode 1 was speed limited. Not sure that the difference of an unlimited GT-R would make up the 2.62 second gap set by the GT2, however, that’s for another time. For now, pencil in the GT2 as being the quicker car.
Steve got all the toys this episode, also having a fair old crack in an Impreza WRX STi. He was a bit contradictory when complaining of big understeer, while complimenting the car’s ‘massive’ grip. Apart from the understeer, he reckons the car is not too bad, although a lot softer than previous STi offerings. They also set a challenge to outrun Australia’s Army, who were behind the controls of a Tiger helicopter. This segment had some great sequences, but it was not as strong as it could have been and was a bit too contrived. Still, it was entertaining viewing all the same.
Greg Murphy and James Courtney were the guests this week and they were decent enough entertainment. Their lap times in the Bog Standard Car were quite impressive too, some 3 seconds faster than James Morrison, the quickest celeb to date. You could really see where the tin top racers were pushing harder, using all the road, and showing great commitment and aggressive lines around the track.
The show closed out with a Volkswagen Golf 2.0 FSI (petrol) v 2.0 TDI (diesel) comparo with Charlie and Warren. The clip itself was fine, but, again, we were given no real quantification as to the tests they supposedly undertook. We were led to believe the concept behind the test was to see which car would use the least amount of fuel on their test route. However, all we got was a throw away line at the end that the diesel used $5 less fuel, without actually being told how many litres each car used. Oh well…
Later this month the 2009 model upgrade of the BMW 3 Series will roll out across the country’s showrooms. The range will start with the 320i at $54,100 and, M3 aside, tops out with the 335i at $111,700.
As to be expected the options and standard equipment levels have also been given a tweak, along with the exterior styling. This includes standard leather seats, Park Distance Control, fog lights and rain sensors across the range.
Over 25,000 E90 3 Series models have been sold in Australia to date and the top brass seem to think they are on a winner, “The BMW 3 Series is the most successful luxury compact sport sedan in the world and we have further improved the offering to the market with the new cars,†said Tom Noble, General Manager, Marketing, BMW Group Australia. “The range is extremely well equipped from the start, at a very attractive price point below the Luxury Car Tax threshold.”
Post increases to the Luxury Car Tax manufacturers are quick to grab a marketing edge and BMW is no different, with the 320d being exempt thanks to the car’s 6.0l/100km fuel consumption figures.
Pricing of the new BMW 3 Series Sedan and Touring range:
Sedan
Touring
More details in BMW’s release after the jump…
Due to an, erm, error in scheduling I’ve not seen episode 6 as yet, but I will update this post with my thoughts when I have. In the meantime, there’s a few more pics and an SBS press release below…
Audi’s bahnstorming RS6 Avant is now on sale in Australia. Starting at $270,946 it’s fair to say buyers of this car won’t be feeling the squeeze at the petrol pump. Which is just as well, because extracting 426kW from the 5.0 litre V10 twin turbo takes a fair amount of fuel. That said, some may consider a combined urban/highway fuel consumption claim of 14.0l/100km a small price to pay for such stupendous performance. Fair enough too.
Although, there’s probably not too many that wouldn’t wince at the Luxury Car Tax giving $50K a very serious nudge, this, on top of 20-odd-thousand in GST. Wowsers!
There’s not much else to say other than enjoy the pics and stats below. Oh, the RS6 sedan will arrive in Australia in the first quarter of 2009. If you’d like to check out video footage of the RS6 Avant in action, then check out Fifth Gear‘s take, filed by Tiff Needell.
Back in April AUSmotive brought you pictures of the S3 Sportback, now, you can go to your local Audi dealer and see one for yourself. The five-door über hatch is 72mm longer than the three-door and Audi expects the Sportback to account for over two-thirds of Australian S3 sales. Local deliveries start in November, although I’ve heard of at least one customer receiving his S3 Sportback already.
The addition of the Sportback model ties in with a mid-cycle refresh for the 8P A3 range. Apart from the cosmetic tweaks, mostly to do with the light clusters, customers can now option some pretty trick gear on the S3 that has been previously unavailable. Technology such as Audi magnetic ride (as seen on the R8 and TT) and Audi Park Assist can now be added for $2,400 and $950 respectively.
The S3 is a lovely piece of kit, 188kW in a small car generally helps. Starting at $68,310 plus on roads, the introduction of a five-door model to the range will no doubt broaden the car’s appeal.
You know the drill, more pics and words below.
Monday night’s episode of Top Gear Australia was a bit of a hit and miss affair. The amphibious car challenge (pictured above) was quite good, if a little predictable. But, like previous TGA segments, it didn’t really forge a meaningful conclusion. Although, watching the car start up first go and drive out of the water was pretty cool.
Charlie’s test of the Audi R8 had all the right ingredients, but he, and the SBS crew didn’t quite get the mix right. Good, but not spectacular. Oh, I love watching a car doing donuts as much as the next person, but it really is time for Top Gear Australia to drop the fascination. Repeated power sliding, good. Repeated donuts, bad.
The Toorak Tractor gag was actually pretty good I thought. However, where Top Gear (Series 12 starts in a few days) almost stumbled into being irreverent with similar stunts, being forced from the outset doesn’t always come off every time for TGA. Still, I liked this clip, even if the Saab at the end was probably a set up.
As much as I am loathe to say it, Shannon Noll was the surprise packet in this episode of Top Gear Australia. “Yeah mate!” Can’t say I’m too keen on his music, but the kid can drive. And more power to him for that.
Steve’s BMW 135i review was not too bad. Mainly because the 135i is shaping up as being a truly modern classic. The camera work was well shot, and despite sneaking in a few faster public road sequences, the let’s-drive-slowly-and-not-upset-the-wowsers still doesn’t look as exciting as the cars deserve. I expect there’ll be a few complaints from said wowsers, too, at the 135i crossing double white lines at one stage.
After last week’s episode, this week’s was a minor disappointment. Sticklers continuing to compare the show, blow by blow, to the UK original will no doubt be very harsh in their criticism. Those willing to judge the show for the light entertainment it is intended to be, however, will still be looking forward to next week’s show.
More pics after the jump.
The SBS hosted Top Gear Australia website has recently published a working drawing of their test track. The location is Camden Airport, Sydney—follow this link for the Google-Maps-eye view.
Currently a right-hand drive Ford GT holds the record for the fastest Power Lap time at 1:08.80, some six tenths quicker than a Nissan GT-R (speed limited). A full list of lap times can be accessed on Wikipedia.
Source: SBS