"Battle of the Supercars" on the Speed channel.

Has anybody else been watching it? I think for the most part it is a cool show.

Paul Tracy is obviously awesome. For a drifter, Tanner Faust can really drive!

 

two words, Top Gear

 

Ahhh so they did finally bring out the american version..
Tanner was supposed to be the host.


Top Gear definately the better choice. no comparison.

 

The supercars show is good for what it's intended to do. It determines which of 2 cars is faster, and throws in advertising for Michelin. Lots of commercials unfortunately.

Top gear's goal is to get you to fall in love with that car. They have a much bigger budget and have no sponsors to please.

 

I liked it. Tanner can definitely drive. Of the two shows I've watched Tanner has won both times.
Definitely not Top Gear but better than that other stuff that Speed tends to show 24/7.

 

I agree that it definitely feels similar to Top Gear, but there are differences.

They usually don't run two cars against each other on the same track at the same time on Top Gear like they do on this show. Instead on Top Gear they have the Stig do separate runs in each car and then compare the times.

Also, Paul Tracy and Tanner Faust are better drivers than any of the Top Gear crew except for the Stig himself.

I admit that all the embedded Michelin advertising is sort of lame. However, if they are paying the production costs of the show then I will not complain.

 

Battle of the Supercars reminds me more of Best Motoring than Top Gear.

 

Best Motoring is cool, except I think if I could understand Japanese I would enjoy it more.

 

i just saw the teaser for it but missed the show. love top gear so i would guess this one should be good as well

 

Adam Carolla and Tanner Foust shot a Top Gear America pilot but no one picked it up. Wish that pilot would "leak" so we could take a look. I'm sure it was good but american producers won't pick anything up unless it has Jersey, Wives or Reality in the title.

 

the show is terrible. They spend more time talking about the cars than driving. I fast forwarded through most of it and it was typically crap non-racing Speed programming.

I have no idea why they are so loyal to the guy that produces that show and other terrible shows on Speed.

 

read: it ain't NASCAR

 

Agreed. I wanted to like it, but thought it was horrible. It feels so fake, the host is some huge guy that looks like he knows more about WWF than F1 and unfortunately the manufactured "competition" between Tracy and Faust feels more angry and malicious than it does fun and playful (like top gear).

There is a decent amount of talking in Top Gear, but most of it is relevant or at least witty. And when they do get to the cars it's just wonderful cinematography. The lighting, the angles, the audio, the editing... it's all fantastic. Battle of the Supercars feels like something I could produce with an old Sony vx1000 a macbook.

Back when Adam Carolla was making the pilot for the American version of Top Gear I was pretty pumped and really wanted it to come out even if it was 80% of what the Brit version was. I listened to his radio show almost everyday and was pretty confident that he had the right car background for the job, it's a shame it didn't get picked up.

 

http://jalopnik.com/5606884/top-gear...-first-trailer

that was posted on another forum..

 

ooh, I gotta watch that when I get home from work.

 

I agree with many of the complaints about the show. However, I don't think it is quite as bad as some people are saying. Remember that this is the first season, so it might get better in the future. Also, if the show does well it might get a bigger budget which might lead to more time driving and less time talking.

 

After watching that Top Gear America trailer, I pray to every car god that they DO NOT BRING THAT OUT. It's like watching a summer camp skit version of the real Top Gear. They don't even have any recognizable people on the show with the exception of Tanner! The "stunts" they were pulling off were annoying and not exciting, and the ENTIRE trailer was them crashing a Caddy through a useless course and laughing about it boyishly... that's good television there... Then they tried to make it look all Top-Gear-y by doing a couple donuts the SAME Viper 10 times....... they don't even MAKE THAT CAR ANYMORE!!! The only relevant car in the entire trailer was the new Mercedes, which, of course, they showed driving in a straight line. This'll be a disaster. I'm sure there's a couple good petitions to bring it out, but are there any I can sign to just crush it before it gains any momentum?

Here's a thought: instead of making a Bud Light AmURican knock off, why don't they just start airing the real one like the rest of the world?! The "most popular TV program on the planet" isn't aired in the home of lazy, fat-*** TV-oholics!

 

not a huge fan of "Battle of the supercars" i think the main announcer is to much of a Rich Christensen wanna be lol.

but it still beats many shows nowadays.

 

I pretty much agree with all of that. I think that if Adam Carolla would have been on it there may have been some potential, I can see his humor paralleling that of Jeremy Clarkson (due to a lot of what he regularly talked about on his radio show).

If you have BBC American you can watch Top Gear, but yeah, I'd love to see it come to a station more people actually have.

 

It was only the trailer, and it only focused on the Cadillac, so it hard to say what the rest of the show will be like. I didn't think it was that bad. On the real Top Gear half of the time they are testing supercars, and the other half of the time they are doing stupid stuff like trying to see who can buy the best car for 1000 quid or stuff similar to what they did with the Cadillac in the preview.

As far as everybody on the show except Tanner Faust being a nobody, I agree with that. However, before Top Gear all of its hosts were nobodys as well. Although I think replacing the two other hosts with Paul Tracy and Adam Carolla instead would result in the show being much better.

 

Paul Tracy wouldn't make it much better and would eventually try to fist fight the other hosts. Adam Carolla would have made the show-- as well as a good budget. I'm just not convinced at all that that trailer showed an award winning show-- I'm fairly confident it's going to hurt our international image. Not that its of concern to any "real amuurrican", but in the world of motoring, the world speaks together, and laughs of our knock-off Top Gear will be heard often. Of course nobody outside the real world of motoring will hear it since their Nascars are so damn loud. They will likely laugh along with Tanner because Tanner and tubby are doing so.

BBC America seems to show Top Gear from a season back, never new ones. I heard there's some sort of ban on recent episodes due to a grudge. All I can say is that whomever is holding that grudge is keeping "the most watched program in the world" from Hollywood's home.

I want the REAL Top Gear, with the famous limey hosts and their enormous budgets.

 

Not good. I can't stand how "bring it on sissy" they are. There was a comment about manufactured rivalry that sums it all up. Its a stupid show. Kinda like watching one of those countdown shows about something you don't care about. Top 10 sellers on QVC for instance...

I haven't seen the US top gear, but I'm disappointed to hear it was bad. That being said, its not like we could do it better than the british anyway. They have scenery over there

 

For the record, all of the physical altercations Paul Tracy has been involved with (except for one) were started by other people. Not to mention there is nowhere else short of the F1 grid where they will find a better driver.

 

I honestly can't believe how people are using a 2 minute trailer of the American Top Gear to judge a 60 minute show. Half of the show will probably be high performance car testing with a Stig like the real Top Gear, and that part wasn't even included in the preview. For the most part, that is why I watch the real Top Gear, and that is the part I really wanted to see a preview of.

It also is only first episode. Plenty of awesome shows have started out with a bad first episode. Have you ever seen the first Seinfeld episode? Not all that funny. However, it turned out to be an awesome show.

 

No Adam Carolla, no watch. How the F could they not want Carolla back for the next go round? He's the funniest, most intelligent car nut around...and yes I have a bromance with him. His podcast is top notch and so is his car show podcast called Carcast.

Who the F are those guys with Tanner Foust? Their all wearing the same shirts....wtf. How does driving a giant dong of a car around dirt have anything to do with anything. If that's their idea of a good "trailer" then the rest of the show is them crackin wise about each others shirts most likely.