Saw a commercial for a new episode of Top Gear USA. It airs on Tuesday at I believe 8 p.m. CST. The episode is going to be about 80's cars. Tanner Foust was driving a red Camaro in the commercial, and I think I glimpsed the IROC decal. I know a lot of people prefer the BBC version, but our car wouldn't have a hope of being shown in a positive light with Clarkson around, so tune in!

 

TRUTH

 

I care for OUR version over some woman getting air the new beetle

 

Here's the trailer ...

http://www.hitfix.com/videos/top-gear-80s-power

 

You guys do realize there was a British top gear episode with Clarkson driving a 3rd Gen RS? By the end of the episode he loved it. One of my favorite episodes

 

will be tuned in !

 

I'm tuning in.

 

Thanks for the heads-up!

 

Poor GN! ....Dumb Asses!

 

this show is so stupid. I won't be tuning in just because a third gen is in. The host are dumb as dirt. I feel sorry for that camaro it has to participate with a bunch of morons.

 

Iam not a big fan of the U.S version as you guessed. Goes to show what americans do to 'make it there own'...... RUIN ****

 

I'm not a big fan of the show. Mostly because they spend most of their time making fun of and destroying old cars. I like shows like "Wheeler Dealers" where they take old popular but not necessarily classic cars and bring them back to life. I'll watch it tonight to see how many bad things they say about the 3rd gen before they tear it all to hell.

 

What did I say? Guy goes out and buys a base iroc. What an idiot. Guy is going to destroy the car in that tug a war match, not to mention his buddy jumps and lands on the hood. This is why I can't stand this show. Rant done!

 

I dig it so far, it brings back memorys of how these were treated when new lol
Slow base Iroc with C&C tops, Moded GN and crapy MR2.

 

My goodness, this show is more of a joke than anything. They chose not only a cheap repainted 88 IROC that is junk, but an aftermarket T-Top, non-G92, 305 TBI M5, 15" Z28 wheel, base model car. The GN is also modded, in better shape, and out of the $5,000 price limit. Nothing is serious and they're just destroying the cars. What a shame. Morons.



Somehow it managed to still look and sound pretty good. The IROC did "win" this idiocy and they had a 5th Gen built for drifting later on.

 

My heart nearly broke when I realized it was an LO3. When Adam Ferrara belly flopped the hood and they let water seep into it, it was mildly aggravating. The BBC show is guilty of the same thing, but the USA version seems to go out of its way to destroy their cars. One episode was about their first cars, and Rutledge had an old VW Rabbit pickup, beautiful blue color, that he bought. Gorgeous car and I hadn't known about that car until the show. Not into trucks, but it was so unique and just seemed awesome to me for some reason. Last 5 minutes of the show, they play demolition derby with it. Also, the BBC show is more performance oriented, the USA episode tonight hardly mentioned or exhibited the cars' performance.

P.S. Gotta love Tanner Foust though, I'm a big fan

 

Episode 3, Series 9 February 11, 2007

Thanks, I forgot about this episode so I re-watched it on netflix.

 

 

Yeah, the show is pretty stupid on average and is targeted at young guys who really aren't car enthusiast. The show is largely about doing stupid "test" and tearing up the cars involved as much as possible. You get very little real information about the cars involved.

 

X2

Just another example of 80's cars getting no repsect.

 

Was there an Iroc with 15" Z28 wheels?

That, the obvious red repaint over white, and carbed engine. Was this a Z28 or RS with decals and a hood?

 

It's just entertainment that happens to have cars in it. Don't nit-pick it too much. Enjoy it for what it is or go back to watching crappy sitcoms.

 

It had posi-trac which means it wasnt a RS and TBI not a carb.

 

I hated to see these grown children ******* these cars out myself.

 

I got as far as the T top test, the flop on the hood and saw the preview scene with the "sumo match". I could bear no more. Hollywood dicks being dicks. Destroying classics as if they are insignificant.

 

Some of you are taking it all WAYYYY too seriously, and.... the IROC-Z won :-)

 

It was mildly amusing. It was obvious that nothing happened to the GN, and they claimed it had mechanical issues to try to build suspense. I think that is the first American episode I actually watched.
I really hate the British version.

 

Thing is......There are no crappy sitcoms on anymore.....

it's all Reality Show Bull@!

 

I agree. The thing is that usually they buy junked cars anyways to do their crazy "tests" with. I've seen on more than one occasion one of them skip out on a competition for the simple fact that they don't want to damage the vehicle.

 

I started laughing the moment he poked the seal-less t-tops. I think everyone saw that coming. The damn thing rattled the whole episode! But I wish he would have mentioned a few things...

1. Only the lower base model IROC's were governed at 115. The real top speed is 148-150mph for the TPI eqipped 16" wheel and tire cars. and...
2. That WAS indeed - a base model IROC (possibly a Z28 with paint and stripes) which is not the hottest version offered.

Regardless - the IROC did well... He DID mention someone neglected the car, it never broke... It did some very good smoky burnouts and seemed to have a good bit of control considering how sloppy that worn suspension probably was....and it basically came out on top. As it should! I don't even think you can get a driveable GN for 5g's.

Oh and if your reading this Hollywood/Top Gear, seriously... stop destroying cars for entertainment. Nobody thinks your epic for ruining a "classic".

 

^THIS^

 

The American hosts just don't work as well together as the British hosts because they didn't know each other before the show like the British hosts did. The British hosts might beat up on the "cheap" cars but most of them are alive at the end of each episode. As well as Hammond has kept a significant amount of them personally and Clarkson has resold a few of them that were worth anything still.

The American show does a ton of pointless tests that really have nothing to do with the cars while at least the British show does test speed, handling, comfort,......etc.... Then do dumb tests.

 

The American show is like all the other top gear spin offs (almost every first world country has one except France), totally retarded when there's more than one host on the screen.
They are all just doing the standard tv thing where they take a successful show and try and duplicate it exactly with different people. Never works. They try and duplicate the "schoolboy chums" dynamic of the British show, but as already stated, they aren't friends and they didn't go to boarding school. Even worse, they try and EXACTLY duplicate the tests and scenarios of the British show which of course just seems dumb if you already saw the British version. Finally, the British version is the flagship show of the bbc with a HUGE budget, the spin offs are low budget reality typical. Only difference is that they have a bbc production crew for great camera work.
I'm not a huge fan of the us version, but I do watch. I do like Tanners segments as it is interesting to hear what an actual race car driver thinks of the cars. Never forget the look on his face when he drove the Aventador. I was thinking "wow that car must really be fast to put that look on a racing drivers face!"

 

Just my .02, but I thought it was great that Tanner pushed that base IROC to its governed limit, 26 years later.

 

Helllz yea!

 

once again you guys do realize Clarkson already drove an RS model way back in 09 for one of their specials right?

 

Guys it's a show. I've only seen bits and pieces of the British version since I can't stand their accents I don't care to see any more of it either. But how was the car trashed afterwards? Adam jumped on the hood and the t tops leaked. Sure I wouldn't want that to happen to my car but I wouldn't say it was trashed. I think the shows great.

 

 

I'd rather watch the British version with Clarkson, May and Hammond and then follow it up by watching a crappy reality show for 10 minutes than watch the USA version of Top Gear with those 3 Mega Douchebag Idiots that give us Americans a bad rep by being A-holes messing up the cars for their own fun and enjoyment, not to say that I don't also find the British accent annoying at times, but I guess it depends on the person speaking it, some people speak it in a way that's literally irritating to my ears like nails on a chalkboard, and others speak it in a way that I can tolerate it. But the boring part about Top Gear UK is that nearly All the cars they test are mostly either High end Foreign Exotics worth 200,000 dollars and up or low end Foreign pieces of garbage that make a Nissan Sentra look like a Ferrari in comparison. They certainly don't show Muscle cars, rarely if ever I think one time I did see them test an American sports car... The ZR1 Corvette but that was probably it. I still hope for the day I see Jeremy Clarkson and an F-body in the same shot.

 

You don't watch enough.
They tested mustangs, corvettes, Camaros, Cadillacs, and the Australian versions of gm muscle cars too.
As mentioned several times, Clarkson drove a 91 RS in one episode.
Remember, it's more about the driving experience than actual road testing. The show is for people who are interested in cars but don't actually know anything about cars.
I'm prob more of a fan than most Americans as I lived in UK for a few years, so it's nostalgia for me too. I miss the ethnic bashing and stereotyping we don't allow in USA.
I used to have an accent just like James May.

 

One last time (third by the way) In the 2009 BBC top gear series American trip special Clarkson bought a green RS 305 third gen. Here's your f-body Clarkson same shot pic.

 

^^^Looks like it came right out of the trailer park, typical.

Both versions of the show are stupid. The American version, nothing needs to be said, and the British version? Well it's great for a commoner like me to know what it's like to beat the **** out of a DB9, etc. which I will never, ever be able to touch.

 

they had an 800 $ spending limit for the vehicles. Then drove it half way across America. Lets see you find one that runs that good and looks as good as it runs for that price.

 

The show was wrong in one way though.

IVe seen lots of real nice GN's for 5k on ebay, whole Buick market is way down across the board.

no reason but it could have been bought for 5k

 

What difference does that make? All that does is show that yes, they are still trailer park beaters that aren't even worth four figures and are a dime a dozen. Bravo?

Personally I'd rather not drive a pile of **** halfway across the country. I'd be more interested if they spent $20k on a low mile pristine one and showed how undervalued they are, rather than choosing a third gen Camaro for the episode they can only spend $800 on…figures.

Then again, we have ourselves to blame for bringing the values of these cars down. We don't exactly treat these cars like the GN crowd does theirs, and it shows in the values.

 

I only paid $795 13+ years ago..... never paid over $800 for a car, yet.

 

Damn I need to see that Episode. Thanks.

 

I'm not butthurt at all. In fact, I'm looking a raggedy thirdgen to play with and then strip to redo my yellow 86......... BUT

This is thirdgen.org! We should know our cars!


NO, it's not a base model Iroc and here is why.

1) No Iroc came with 15" Z28 wheels(now, the rare 15" iroc's yes, but NOT these).

2) Obviously the car was white(which doesn't make it an Iroc or not, BUT it was modified at some time in its life.)

3)They stated it was fuel injected. It was not TPI.... Only TBI in 88 and 89 Iroc, correct?(and hardly no one ordered it that way)



My guess is its a 305 TBI RS 5-speed with an Iroc hood, posi and emblems....

 

Yes Irocs did come with TBI.

 

Revised some things as found out it was an 88....... Have you ever seen a TBI Iroc?