Thursday, February 19, 2015

American Top Gear, Take Two?

First, this isn't happening. This is a what-if question. IF Top Gear America were to be redone, how would you do it to be BETTER than the prior attempt?


  1. Don't copy UK Top Gear in US settings. Not exactly. 
  2. Don't host it in the flatland. Brits imagine the USA is flat with straight roads only because they haven't been here and to mock the remaining crap cars with straight axles from Detroit. And those suck except for the limited purposes of pickup trucks on flat roads with no corners. So they work in Iowa. I would host this in California, or possibly Reno, because the twisty mountain roads are a genuine test of a suspension, brakes, and engine power. If the car puts you in a ditch or into a canyon on fire, it failed. 
  3. Don't test French cars. We know that French cars suck. All the Top Gear tests of Renault, Peugeot and that other one (Lemon?) are pointless. We don't have those here. Top Gear nearly ignores Japan and they're just across the sea, about 12 days by ship. That's closer than Italy is to London when you throw in all those delays. If we test all the interesting cars from Japan and Korea instead of France and Italy, we've got a leg up. And since Japan is closer, its parts are cheaper and more reliable too. 
  4. Involve Jay Leno. He's got a great shop and does his own car show, but his cars are driven for joy, not wrecked by hooligans. 
  5. Involve the Blackhawk Car Museum, which used to be the Harrahs Car Museum which I've been to see and its amazingly complete for different types of classic and very old cars of the Teens and Twenties and some of the 1930's. A lot has changed, but you can easily see the appeal of such things on the road today. As long as you aren't late for an appointment while stuck behind one, anyway. 
  6. Involve more race tracks and driving schools, and review motorcycles and scooters. Top Gear doesn't do that because Jeremy hates motorcycles. True, he's terrible on them, but still they have a lot more value in a nation where it isn't raining every day. 
I think if you did this and then had some hooliganism and some seriously goofy offroad challenges and some coastal driving segments and maybe some RVer segments, including the joy of traffic jams and the absurdity of the 25 mph speed limit through Yosemite and the 40 mph limit on the Blue Ridge Parkway which is insulting to all drivers not texting, well you could have a show worth watching on Cable TV. Probably be better than most of those horrible dating ugly women shows, or those mean chef "reality" programs, or the communist recruiting programs like the former big 3 broadcast TV channels (Truth? What's that?). We've always been at war with East Asia! Yeah. Poor Orwell. At least the dynamo attached to his coffin is providing the power supply for a third of the Internet. That would be a fun Top Gear challenge. Use perpetual motion machines based on outrageous political lies to power cars on the LA freeway. The Hillarymobile could have "what difference Does it make?" on the coffin of ambassador Stephens. The Obamamobile would be filled with a steam generator heated by the burning shame of a nearly molten Nobel Peace Prize since he personally caused more wars than Adolf Hitler. And a Prius powered by the tears of little children for Al Gore. And for political fairness a bookmobile powered by burning money from Bush Senior's Read My Lips: No New Taxes" pledge. Pretty sure he also signed a strict CAFE standard that can't be met without building them from carbon fiber, charging $80K each, and slowing speed limits to 45 mph. This standard has been ratified by all presidents since then and remains largely unachievable at today's speed limits and safety standards. 

Wouldn't that be a hilarious prank? And they can all be pulled over for reckless driving by the highway patrol. That's the sort of comedy that America needs in its car shows. Rude and biased against the Anti-American Suicide Greens. You know, the ones who vote to kill the population leaving ONLY them to enjoy Nature with a fat spliff? Those lunatics. 

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