[QUOTE=Pushkin]
I wouldn’t have given James May much credence on his first appearance on the show, but I’d rather see Hammond go than him (which I think is to happen soon.)
[/QUOTE]
Do tell. Hammond’s just had to give up Brainiac for Top Gear.
[QUOTE=teela brown]
I saw that show. They also did a road trip through the deep south in used American vehicles which they purchased in Miami for $1,000 or less each. One of the risible stunts that the show provided was that they paint each other’s cars in phrases designed to get them arrested/shot in the deep south. IIRC, “Hillary Rules” and “Manlove is OK” and “Nascar Sucks” were the phrases chosen, and the good citizens of Alabama were not amused.
[/QUOTE]
You should find the one where they test drove some very large tractors. One of the guys “plowed” his portion of the field with explosives!
The one where they test vans and Hammond’s Dihatsu Fallalot rolls when he tries to take a corner is hilarious.
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog]
Yes indeed. It’s certainly entered the consciousness at Casa TLD. I might be doing something like considering cleaning the toilet, and then I stop and say to myself…
“How… hard… could… it… be?”
[/QUOTE]
Somehow, I can picture Red Green (or another member of Possum Lodge) using that phrase…
[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
The name of the show has been around for that long. The original format was as a serious motoring programme, and that got culled in the end. And the BBC sold all the rights to it, with the exception of the name, to Channel 5 who now produce it as the dismal Fifth Gear. The current programme was an entirely new creation, several years later.
[/QUOTE]
I have Fifth Gear episodes I haven’t watched for months. It’s so much more boring than TG that I can’t be much bothered. Vickie’s a honey, but the rest of them just kind of drive around. TG is about 10x more clever.
Did you know that Combat18, a Neo-Nazi bunch of cretins, have stated that Clarkson would be ideal as the next fuhrer.
“Heil Jeremy”
[QUOTE=Lobsang]
Mocking.
Please tell me you know what Mocking means.
Edit: I deliberately used ‘Taking the Mickey’ Because I thought it was the understood US alternative to ‘Taking the Piss’. Not so in Canada it seems.
[/QUOTE]
slowly raises hand
So…um…“taking the piss” is equivalent to “mocking”?
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever]
slowly raises hand
So…um…“taking the piss” is equivalent to “mocking”?
[/QUOTE]
Well… yes.
[QUOTE=Lobsang]
Well… yes.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve never heard either of those terms.
I’ll just..play with my trucks and things over here on this side of the pond now.
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever]
I’ve never heard either of those terms.
I’ll just..play with my trucks and things over here on this side of the pond now.
[/QUOTE]
Which reminds me - Do you have ‘lorries’ and ‘wagons’ or are they just trucks and bigrigs.
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever]
slowly raises hand
So…um…“taking the piss” is equivalent to “mocking”?
[/QUOTE]
From Really Not All That Bright’s Unabridged Dictionary, First Edition:
take the piss v., 1. To engage in the act of making a joke. 2. To make fun of something. 3. To mock. 4. To gain possession of urine.
usage: “If you’re taking the piss out of me, I will rip off your lips and wrap them around a hairy man’s penis.”
orig. attrib.: to drunk gullible people in bars & public houses - “Are you taking the piss, mate? Or is that really a third nostril?”
[QUOTE=Lobsang]
Which reminds me - Do you have ‘lorries’ and ‘wagons’ or are they just trucks and bigrigs.
[/QUOTE]
We do have “wagons” but you lot call them “shooting brakes” or “estates”. 
[QUOTE=Quartz]
Do tell. Hammond’s just had to give up Brainiac for Top Gear.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve heard nothing concrete, just that someone was due to leave after the next series. I thought it might be Hammond, given that he has family and one big crash already under his hat.
[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher]
You should find the one where they test drove some very large tractors. One of the guys “plowed” his portion of the field with explosives!
[/QUOTE]
In the follow up to all this, they made some biodiesel (allegedly from the crops they planted 
) and used it to power a BMW 3 series diesel with little in the way of modifications in an endurance race. During which Hammond used the car to wipe out one of these :o
[QUOTE=Pushkin]
I’ve heard nothing concrete, just that someone was due to leave after the next series. I thought it might be Hammond, given that he has family and one big crash already under his hat. :o
[/QUOTE]
I know the point about the crash, but what in Britain would get Richard more notoriety / money than Top Gear? What would convince him to jump permanently?
I can’t see how the show could survive the loss of any of the presenters - the thing is just too reliant on the banter and interplay between them - all of them.
Maybe his book has got him enough money to retire on 
Although that’s doubtful, would you rather drop into WH Smith and pick up a book with Hammond looking thoughtful on the front cover, or one with Clarkson and a go-faster tortoise?
It would be hard to imagine a replacement, it would be sort of like deciding who to replace either Bones or Spock with.
Maybe it’s The Stig that’s retiring?
The Stig is dead, long live the Stig!
We’re on Stig mk. II now aren’t we?
There have been quite a few Stigs, but yes, of the main Stigs, we’re on the second.
It wasn’t an isolated incident!
I’m watching the one where they “grow petrol” right now, and Hammond refers to his tractor as having “1600 torques”!