Fwd: The Times on TopGear - "Back on track after just a weebit of an accident"
From: A.J. Merrifield (101pdtgmail.com)
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 07:09:32 -0800 (PST)
Tiff is cool, but VBH is frickin' hot...
- A.J.


On 1/31/07, Hunter N. Schultz <hns [at] biosafepanama.com> wrote:

http://gear.viper007bond.com/

Everything you wanted to know about Top Gear and Fifth Gear...

Great site with download links.


Matt Boyd wrote: > What channels is it shown on the states these days? I've got it set on my > ReplayTV (the other DVR) to record at any time, and I've never seen it in > many months.... > > -matt > '85 308 > > > On 1/31/07, Steve Jenkins <steve [at] stevejenkins.com> wrote: > >> I frickin' LOVE that show. Can't wait to see this episode! >> >> I also dig the knock-off Fifth Gear, because Tiff is cool. >> >> Steve >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Dennis Liu [mailto: bigheaddennis [at] gmail.com] >> Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 10:27 AM >> To: Steve Jenkins >> Cc: The FerrariList >> Subject: [Ferrari] The Times on TopGear - "Back on track after just a >> weebit >> of an accident" >> >> >> >> http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22750-2567280,00.html >> >> The Sunday Times January 28, 2007 >> >> Back on track after just a wee bit of an accident >> >> As Top Gear swaggers back tonight, Nicholas Rufford looks at the show that >> put a rocket up genteel TV driving programmes >> >> >> >> Tonight Top Gear returns to television screens featuring an all-new array >> of >> stunts, supercars and celebrities. It's a formula that has attracted >> controversy and helped the show achieve almost cult status in 20 different >> countries; but it wasn't always like that. Launched as a weekly round-up >> of >> motoring news, Top Gear had an inauspicious start in 1977. Then it was a >> rather prim and proper half-hour teatime programme — the television >> equivalent of a knitted twinset. >> >> In classic Auntie style, it featured items on road safety, toured >> factories >> to see how cars were made and politely glossed over the fact that in those >> days Lancias were rust buckets and if you crashed a Mini the engine ended >> up >> in your lap. >> >> A perfectly groomed Angela Rippon, the former BBC news anchorwoman, >> introduced inoffensive items on car care and caravanning holidays. Other >> early presenters included Noel Edmonds and William Woollard from >> Tomorrow's >> World. >> >> Jeremy Clarkson did not become lead presenter until three years after his >> first appearance in 1988 when, as a curly-haired 28-year-old motoring >> journalist, he fronted a piece about customised Rolls-Royces. It took a >> while before he found his style (pregnant pauses, upward inflection for >> dramatic effect, and a cutting humour that shocked a cosy motoring >> industry >> out of its complacency), but when he did, Top Gear was transformed, >> pulling >> in huge audiences with its mix of laddish banter and unabashed love >> >> of fast cars. In the early days Clarkson was joined by Quentin Willson, a >> used car dealer, racing driver Tiff Needell and kittenish Vicki Butler- >> Henderson, later supplanted by Kate Humble. But Clarkson was always the >> main >> attraction. >> >> >> When he left Top Gear in 1999, searching for fresh challenges, audience >> figures fell from 6m to less than 3m and the show was axed in 2001. The >> following year Clarkson, with Andy Wilman, a TV producer and his former

>> schoolmate at Repton in Derbyshire, hit upon the idea of relaunching
Top
>> Gear in a new format. "Around about that time the BBC was struggling to
>> know
>> how to use Jeremy," Wilman recalls. "He was being offered awful stuff
like
>> Britain's Biggest Cushions or the Top 10 Nicest Curry Spices — I forget
>> what
>> exactly. When Top Gear went off the air we saw an opportunity."
>>
>> Out went sensible reviews of dull runarounds, in came the Stig, the
Cool
>> Wall, Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, stunts, capers and supercars.
>> Richard
>> Hammond joined the show for the first of the relaunched series, along
with
>> Jason Dawe, a former car salesman and now The Sunday Times's used car
>> expert. When James May rejoined the team (he had presented briefly
>> following
>> Clarkson's departure) they hit on the perfect chemistry — in Wilman's
>> words
>> "three old dance troupe queens" in a sort of motorised Last of the
Summer
>> Wine.
>>
>> Top Gear, which attracts audiences of 4m-5m, was the world's most
pirated
>> show last year, largely as a result of being posted by fans on YouTube,
>> and
>> has inspired a string of lookalikes, including Five's revamped Fifth
Gear
>> and Sky's Vroom Vroom.
>>
>> Hammond: watching the crash doesn't hurt at all
>>
>> The most gripping — if terrifying — sequence to be shown in the new Top

>> Gear
>> series will be the one that kicks the show off: footage of the
near-300mph
>> crash that almost killed Richard Hammond.
>>
>> The programme has taken the decision to broadcast in full the final run

>> that
>> ended in disaster. In the immediate aftermath of the crash it would
have
>> been inconceivable for the BBC to show the tape, and it is testament to
>> Hammond's remarkable recovery that it feels able to do so now — just
four
>> months on.
>>
>> Hammond has no qualms about showing the crash that almost cost him his
>> life.
>> "If it didn't kill me at the time, it wouldn't kill me just watching
it.
>> But
>> to see the car, track, and details like the crash helmet that saved my
>> life
>> and the harness that stopped me being smashed to pieces took my breath
>> away," he said.
>>
>> The presenter's memories of the incident are sketchy at best: he
remembers
>> setting off on the run, then waking up in hospital. However, his
reactions
>> inside the cockpit have been likened to those of a jet pilot. As the
tyre
>> broke apart, causing the car to veer to the right, Hammond immediately
>> applied opposite lock on the steering wheel, holding the car for vital
>> milliseconds before the car left the runway.
>>
>> The analogy is not far off, according to Wing Commander Rob Adlam, an
RAF
>> Harrier pilot: "When I saw the pictures I thought, 'That's gone, that
tyre
>> has exploded, he's going the wrong way and there is nothing he can do
>> about
>> it.' There is only so much you can do in the finite amount of time
between
>> something going wrong and an accident happening."
>>
>> Some have claimed Hammond didn't take the right evasive action, but it
is
>> questionable whether anyone could have avoided this crash.
>>
>> "Richard was strapped to a firework," said Perry McCarthy, the former
>> Formula One racing driver who played the original Stig in Top Gear. "I
>> don't
>> know what happened but I can tell you that even with the amount of
racing
>> experience that I or any other racing driver has, if something went
wrong
>> with the car we would not be able to do anything about it either."
>>
>> According to McCarthy, the moments leading up to a crash are the most
>> frightening. "It's not all over in seconds — it's faster than that.
Your
>> brain is recognising that you are coming up to a wall or whatever at
>> 200mph,
>> so you know you haven't terribly long and you are trying to make a
plan;
>> there is a microprocess going on in your brain as you try to fight it
>> using
>> all the skills that you have, but at the same time there is 1% of you
>> thinking, 'This is going to hurt, this could be goodnight'."
>>
>> Jeremy Clarkson
>>
>> Nickname Jezza
>> Top Gear history Presenter from 1989-1999 then from 2002
>> Before Top Gear Travelling salesman selling Paddington Bear toys for
his
>> parents' company, journalist on the Rotherham Advertiser
>> Lives Oxfordshire with wife Francie and their three children
>> Favourite cars Bugatti Veyron, Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, Rolls-Royce
>> Phantom
>> Look Jacket, deck shoes and Levi's 501 jeans. Drapers, magazine to the
>> fashion industry, blamed "the Jeremy effect" for poor denim sales in
the
>> late 1990s
>> Driving style Opinionated. Clarkson's daughter Emily complained in a
>> Sunday
>> Times article of Coke cans in the footwells and constant gripes about
>> roadworks, "the colour of somebody else's Ferrari" and buses
>> Best lines (On the Smart Roadster) "In fact, it has exactly the same
top
>> speed as Henry VIII"; (On the Koenigsegg CCX) "It sounds like the Norse
>> god
>> of thunder gargling a hammer"; (About the Porsche 911) "Well, this
isn't
>> so
>> much a car, more a place where a fat, balding, middle-aged man can go
off
>> and have his mid-life crisis ... I liked it a lot"; "Speed has never
>> killed
>> anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you, that's the
>> killer"
>> Did you know? Is the great-great-great grandson of John Kilner
>> (1792-1857),
>> who invented the Kilner jar. Is learning to play the drums. Was one of
the
>> passengers on Concorde's last flight when he paraphrased Neil Armstrong
to
>> describe the demise of the supersonic plane: "This is one small step
for a
>> man, but one huge leap backwards for mankind." Also appeared as the
voice
>> of
>> Harv, Lightning McQueen's agent, in the Disney Pixar animation Cars.
>> Passed
>> his driving test in his grandfather's Bentley
>>
>> James May
>>
>> Nickname Captain Slow and the Other Bloke from Top Gear
>> Top Gear history Presented in 1999 then rejoined in 2003
>> Before Top Gear Subeditor on The Engineer then on Autocar, presented
>> Driven
>> on Channel 4 in 1998
>> Lives West London, with his cat Fusker
>> Favourite cars Bentley T2, Rolls-Royce Corniche, Fiat Panda Dishevelled

>> geography teacher/tousle-haired squire
>> Look Driving style Slow – although others have dubbed it "stately".
Claims
>> to practise "Christian motoring"
>> Best lines (On the Honda Element) "Would the Element be a car for
people
>> who
>> like hip-hop, or for people waiting for a hip op?"; "And now, the car
>> every
>> footballer's wife's hairdresser's masseuse has been waiting for: the
new
>> Mercedes SLK"; "I still think I'm better at writing than TV presenting.
>> I'm
>> only all right on the TV because I'm a bit hopeless, but people seem to
>> quite like that"
>> Did you know? He is licensed to fly a light aircraft. Plays the piano
and
>> studied music at Lancaster University. Was sacked from Autocar after he
>> spelt out a hidden message (about how tedious a production task was) in
a
>> magazine supplement he was subediting and readers phoned in thinking
they
>> had won a prize
>>
>> Richard Hammond
>>
>> Nickname The Hamster
>> Top Gear history Joined in 2002
>> Before Top Gear Barman and "chicken chaser" at a chicken farm. Began
>> broadcasting career at BBC Radio York
>> Lives Gloucestershire with his wife Mindy and their two
young  daughters
>> Favourite cars Porsche 911, original Dodge Charger
>> Look Spiky-haired, sparkly-toothed housewives' favourite
>> Driving style Nippy/jet-propelled
>> Best lines (During the Lillehammer bobsleigh run) "Apparently it
hits  Gs
>> in
>> some of those corners down there. The driver's told me that he's been
>> doing
>> this for six years and he's 3cm shorter. I can't afford to lose 3cm!";
>> "Unless I have been sorely misinformed, supermodels are powerless to 6½
>> resist a man with illuminated doorsills"; "I have not had my teeth
>> whitened"
>> (repeatedly, in response to Clarkson's jibes)
>> Did you know? Has three horses, four dogs, two cats, a rabbit and
handful
>> of
>> chickens. Presents Cruft's on the BBC. Is 5ft 7in tall. When he had to
>> work
>> on Mindy's birthday in 2005 he arranged for her dream bike, a
>> Harley-Davidson Sportster, to be delivered to their house. Following
his
>> jet
>> car accident he developed a brief passion for Lego
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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