Top Gear S21 Episode 5 (2nd March)

colm_mcm

5/7. Richard Hammond visits Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit to drive the Porsche 918 Spyder, a four-wheel-drive hybrid hypercar capable of astonishing speeds thanks to the 886 horsepower it can generate from its screaming V8 petrol engine and electric motors. Jeremy Clarkson and James May join forces to create a public information film to promote safer cycling, with their efforts presented to a panel of experts including members of Westminster Council and Olympic gold medal-winning rider Chris Boardman. Meanwhile, Jeremy - who has promised to change his name to Jennifer if the Porsche is faster around the test track than the McLaren P1 driven earlier in the series - compares the seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf GTI to BMW's critically acclaimed M135i. Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul fires up the Reasonably Priced Car to see what lap time he can achieve.

Radio Times

PrettyBoy

One of the very rare occasions where the guest star is actually someone interesting!

Dolph Starbeam

Oh I have a feeling it Jeremy will be Jennifer come Sunday night. Can't wait to see that 918.

Tzardine

PrettyBoy wrote: »

One of the very rare occasions where the guest star is actually someone interesting!

Agreed. Looking forward to seeing that. Maybe he brings his super hot wife too. Might not fast forward through the SIARPC bit for a change

corkgsxr

I cant wait to see the laps

Comhrá

Maybe he brings his super hot wife too.

I cant wait to see the laps

:eek: :eek: :eek: This boards place is gone to the dogs!!!

Zascar

Sounds like it should be a good episode!

However no doubt there will be a drove of people along to say how rubbish it is and they don't even know why they bother watching it any more...

PrettyBoy

Zascar wrote: »

Sounds like it should be a good episode!

However no doubt there will be a drove of people along to say how rubbish it is and they don't even know why they bother watching it any more...

I love Top Gear but I have to admit that the quality of this series has been dire. I think this has the potential to be the best episode of this series - supercar review, affordable car comparison and an interesting guest (very, very rare).

Dartz

I can't help but notice that most of the countries the Top Gear team have visited recently, have had civil wars....

Zascar

Love the mocking of peirs morgan when introducing the stig

MadYaker

The guy directly behind james may is creeping me out.

Shane732

If anyone has the video of the cyclists ads on youtube etc... could you link it for me!

I need to use it!

IvySlayer

This bike segment is woeful

Shane732

IvySlayer wrote: »

This bike segment is woeful

The two adverts were amazing

colm_mcm

Wow, two hitler jokes so far.

IvySlayer

colm_mcm wrote: »

Wow, two hitler jokes so far.

Man on fire
Explosions

Top Gear bingo

Mint Sauce

Any epic races this season?

Zascar

They are spot on about cyclists in fairness

pixelburp

Cyclists ignore the lgihts eh? Clearly the lads don't drive around Dublin because motorists seem to love jumping the lights as much as those on bikes (speaking as a driver btw) Anywhoo, the cycling segment went exactly as I thought it would so tbh can't get too steamed about it; lots of stupid jokes aimed at those hippy, smelly cycling types. *shrugs* Wouldn't cycle around London if you paid me though so fair play to them for doing it...

Dartz

What if you cut the yellow wire?

Thargor

I see Hank Shrader over Jeremys right shoulder...

spank_inferno

Man, that Need for Speed film looks dire.

whupdedo

Did they ever come to Ireland to do a show?

spank_inferno

Aaron's got some skillz

MadYaker

This is a bit more like it.

Nibs05

I want, i want, i want now

Thargor

Sorry but that centre console is butt ugly.

spank_inferno

That Porsche...

Wowzers!

alchemist33

whupdedo wrote: »

Did they ever come to Ireland to do a show?

They took minis around the sewers of Belfast once

dickwod1

whupdedo wrote: »

Did they ever come to Ireland to do a show?

They reviewed a Mazda MX5 in the Dublin/Wicklow mountains and then raced it against a greyhound at Shelbourne Park, Dublin.

Gru

Were we not promised laps from the porsche and the P1 in this series? Disappointed not see which is faster and how the hybrids stack up against the other super cars.

heebusjeebus

Gru wrote: »

Were we not promised laps from the porsche and the P1 in this series? Disappointed not see which is faster and how the hybrids stack up against the other super cars.

They are saving it for a soccer World Cup themed episode in the summer.

Dolph Starbeam

Average at best. 20 minutes wasted on the bikes and no lap from the 918. How anyone could rate that episode as Excellent is beyond me.

PrettyBoy

Gru wrote: »

Were we not promised laps from the porsche and the P1 in this series? Disappointed not see which is faster and how the hybrids stack up against the other super cars.

Blame McLaren, not Top Gear.

The Porsche was in the studio ready to go and at the last minute McLaren decided not to allow the P1 to be part of a comparison test. James and Jeremy said "hopefully" several times but there's a good chance that it won't happen.

Tzardine

MadYaker wrote: »

The guy directly behind james may is creeping me out.

Whats the story with that guy, and what the hell was he staring at on the ceiling for 10 mins , smiling away with a freaky grin on his face ?

Peregrine

I liked everything except the bikes bit. I thought it just went on for too long.

PrettyBoy

Best episode of the series so far IMO. Bike segment could have been shorter and the Porsche segment could have been longer (I imagine they want to save some material for the 918 v P1 comparison) but overall good episode.

pixelburp

The Porsche stuff was interesting, everything else was so-so. The blowtorched pizza from last week was the utter lowpoint of the series so far - if not the last few series - so in that respect this week's was step up.

I was disappointed in the cycling segment precisely because it went for all the low-hanging jokes I expected of Clarkson & May; I didn't expect them to become bicycle evangelicals or anything, but it'd have been a nice twist if they went for something a little smarter.

The big road-trip's next week so that's always something to keep an eye on

The Black Oil

Pretty yawn with the cycling piece. Clarkson fairly lost control of the BMW, eh?

alan partridge aha

Best one so far, but maybe that's because I love the Golf GTI.

Gru

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Blame McLaren, not Top Gear.

The Porsche was in the studio ready to go and at the last minute McLaren decided not to allow the P1 to be part of a comparison test. James and Jeremy said "hopefully" several times but there's a good chance that it won't happen.

heebusjeebus wrote: »

They are saving it for a soccer World Cup themed episode in the summer.

Boo at any rate, will be great to see them go around when they do.

MadYaker

Tzardine wrote: »

Whats the story with that guy, and what the hell was he staring at on the ceiling for 10 mins , smiling away with a freaky grin on his face ?

I reckon he was on mushrooms or something.

Red Kev

Drop the childish cliche bicycle segment and stretch out the 918 and it would have been one of the best episodes ever.

A lot more on the 918's technological side (maybe done by May) or a trip to the factory instead of the 10 mins on bikes and it would have made it for me.

corkgsxr

Gru wrote: »

Were we not promised laps from the porsche and the P1 in this series? Disappointed not see which is faster and how the hybrids stack up against the other super cars.

Mm very disappointed. That bmw went quite out of control.

Tropheus

The cycling piece was 3 times as long as it needed to be. Arron Paul and the 918 made it an above average episode.

Dravokivich

Zascar wrote: »

Love the mocking of peirs morgan when introducing the stig

I didn't know what they were on about until Aaron double checked with him. He was a judge on one of those xfactor things years ago? I didn't even know he did anything else. I only find out he had a show when it went and got cancelled.

mike65

That brunette behind Hammond during the news was the highlight for me - looked just like Eva Amurri woof! :pac:

_Kaiser_

With the exception of the 918, the rest was instantly forgettable.. the intro to the SIARPC (someone who will stop your teenage daughters texting for 15 mins) was enough to make me skip through the segment as usual.

TheHappyChappy

its getting old

Zascar

I liked the cycling bit - had me in stitches at times! I really enjoyed the episode

Myrddin

A decent hour of tv if I'm honest:

1) Clarkson's segment with the M135i & Golf GTI is what the show needs more of. Interesting cars, presented in an interesting & non boring way.

2) The bikes thing I was dreading (this sort of thing has been done before), but I did get a chuckle out of it.

3) Aaron Paul seemed like a decent chap, a great lap too.

4) The Porsche is just incredible. I didn't think anything could top the P1 for me, but my god that Porky. Hammond summed it up well I though, "Porsche have saved the supercar, for tomorrow."

The season has definitely picked up since last week. Both last weeks, & this episode, have been pretty good.