Did anybody catch this show last night? It's decidedly modern, but it's an hour long TV show about cars, so I'm sure somebody watched it.

They're going nuts over the subject over at the GrassrootsMotorsports.com site, so I'm curious what the Classic community thinks.

For my part, I enjoyed the show. It's not art, and it's not as good as the original, but it's fun with cars on television, which makes it OK in my book. The hosts were better than I expected, especially Rutledge Wood. He was downright funny in a few bits.

I DVR'd it and will watch it tonight.

Let me know what you think; I'm curious to hear your perspective. Opinions are all over the map, so far.

I watched it. It's not as good as TG:UK, but that's an impossible standard to measure up against. TG:UK has been on for over 7 years in its current format. The first season of TG:UK was horrible. They had some guy doing a used car report. They sacked him, brought in James May and the rest is history.

TG:USA is miles better than all of the programming on Speed Channel, combined. It's just not as good as TG:UK.

It needs time to mature and we need to watch it, otherwise those tightwad accountants will cancel it before it gets going, and we can not have that!

I dunno. May calling the TR6 the "blokiest bloke's car" and Clarkson doing battle with a tank in a Range Rover Sport is pretty hard to compete with. I'll give it a fair shake.

I had the feeling that I'd seen it all before. I did like seeing Astronaut Buzz Aldrin drive the new version of a moderately priced car. Looks like Buzz is a British sports car guy from way back, nice to know what the right stuff really means.

They should have used an American Sh&t box not a Suzuki. Put the stars and famous in a real American car, maybe an SUV, watch that turd wallow all over the track and see who can really drive.

I'll be check it out for a while, see how it develops.

mike

It was much better than I expected. I did not absolutely hate it though still not sure why we needed a US version.

All the shows on Speed are horrible except for the race coverage.

So far so bad.

Rather watch reruns of the real thing.

I watched it on the DVR last night.

I've been a Top Gear fan for years (got a ''I am the Stig'' sticker on the daily driver :)). I think that a globally successful show with years of development is going to be hard to match first time out.

And they didn't. Mostly it is the hosts. The banter is forced and the only one with a sense of humor that really projected was Ferrara. Tanner Foust was almost wooden and Rutledge didn't show much personality, either.

What was gratifying were the production values. They spent some serious time and money on getting the production right. They just need to work on the hosts. Make Tanner the Stig and get some folks in there that are comfortable on TV. Surely Jay Leno knows some car guy comedians that can drive. Maybe get someone like Patrick Dempsey to act as straight man to a couple of cutups (though they probably can't really afford someone like that).

The best thing about the three hosts was that none of them was Adam Carolla.

Interesting they chose a Suzuki for the small car. Probably the least volume seller in the U.S. Probably picked because it would tweak the nose of the least likely advertiser when it was vilified by the "big stars." Bodes ill for getting the frank reviews the guys give in the UK. Not being beholden to the corporate world for ad revenue has its advantages...

Yeah watched it last night.

Was bored. Even my wife was dissing them.

The US show does not have the same zip as its big brother from the UK.

Mind you watching season one of the UK show is painful, but if your going to clone a show it should be as polished as the current offering.

Tanner and company don't seem to have the chemistry that Clarkson, Capt Slow and Hamster do. They need to get drunk, cause a brawl and wake in jail together. You know. That true friendship thing.

They simply don't feel like buddies.

Anyhow I hope it improves.

And Tanner has to stop being jealous of the Stig. :)

A.

I've recorded it but it does look like I won't have time to watch it until we get back from our Turkeyday trip to FL.

Of course I've been watching a lot of the UK top gear while I lived over there and got bored with that so I don't know how I'll like the US version...

Personally, I liked the new TG. I thought they stayed right along with the UK format. I was a little disappointed that they didnt feature any classics, but it was their first show and they probably wanted to start off with a bang, featuring vipers and lamborghinis. Whats not to like about a viper being pusued by an attack chopper through a residential neighborhood? I look forward to the next episode.

Maybe we should quite comparing it to the UK Top Gear and compare it to Motorweek, instead.

Man, it ROCKS!

AGREED!!

I'll watch episode 2 tonight.

It takes a while for a new show to jell, and let's face it, we've mostly all been watching the original. What would we think if we'd never watched the UK version?

It needs some work, but I'll give it a bit of time.

It still needs a lot of work.

When you buy the rights to the product man it needs to be perfect.

I still think they could have found better hosts.

I mean watching the 3 of them chat is painful.

And don't get me started on the scripting...

Oh well. Something to watch while we wait for racing to return.

I was trying to think of something witty to say(unlike the show) but I think both of Andres comments totally summed up what I was thinking...

So: Yeah, what he said.

Leo

Watching #3 and laughing, but that could be the spiked nog talking ;)

A.

I think Tanner has the personality of a piece of broken drywall. He should be replaced with somebody just a bit more old school...Jackie Stewart or Nigel Mansel, Maybe even Mario Andretti. I cant think of anybody else. Im drawing a blank, but you get the idea.

Not just a bunch of youngsters...You know, I would even toss my hat in the ring for the right kind of money...Seriously.

4 looks like they hired a new writer!

The raptor bit was decent.

In reply to André Rousseau:

I thought it sucked. They never said how I could make my Mustang sound like that Raptor! . I just realized I never got back to this thread after watching the first episode. I guess that's a moot point now, so let me just say that I think it's getting better and better by the episode. Not crazy about Rutledge, though. And they made me want a Raptor, even though I have no use for it.

42K

For that money I could buy a used 150 and go racing for many many many years.

;)

Maybe, but for the money the Raptor is a great value for someone that is going to use it as intended. It takes a lot of money to make a standard pickup handle off-road like that truck can.

The Mercedes SLS review was possibly the worst I have ever seen. These guys do not know about cars and that sucks. Tanner can drive but I don't get the feeling that ANY of them are enthusiasts.

I spent a few days beating up the SLS AMG and found it to be an amazing exotic. The most interesting thing I found is that it was as fun to drive at 60 as it was at 120 and that is a neat trick to pull off.

Can they kill off the presenters like good detective shows do and replace them with new ones. Hey they did that on the original Top Gear a number of years ago with the Stig. Might be a good solution.