Top Gear

Tripping over things that have been around for a long while and known by others for just as long is a sort of hobby of mine.

The sharp, tight and highly entertaining television show, Top Gear, is the cause of my latest shin-knicking cultural stumble.

This BBC show has been on the air for ten years plus, and has rocketed all types of supercars, unique cars and normal cars right by its viewers on a regular basis. Not "techy" at all (surprising because the three hosts are obviously automobile-brilliant) the information presented is easily accessible yet deep enough to wet your appetite and leave you waiting to see just how the particular car discussed is going perform. Perform, they do - in all sorts of ways, each drive, test, trial is as fun as the next. The show is certainly all about the cars, and very cool cars - late model, contemporary or prototype - indeed.

The hosts are as integral a part of the show as of any show on television. They accomplish a remarkable feat: they accentuate the great cars around them, promote the cars around them, yet are so good at what they do and so enjoyable to watch as they barb with one another, pick at or praise one another's comments or choice of vehicles for a particular event, you are drawn into just how much fun the three of them are having whether or not the car of the moment out-duels a modern-day fighter aircraft or dies in a slow gray puff of smoke. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May make the show what it is and it would not be the same without them - they also would not be the same without the cars because their passion would have nowhere to focus while on set, in the outback or on the aircraft carrier.

You may have guessed this is not rolling cars around an oval and comparing specs and time trial results.

This is about cars, driving them, and driving them anywhere and everywhere - Switzerland, the African desert, an RAF airfield, nighttime London or across the English Channel.

They also have at their disposal, a test track they do get raw speed/time data for the cars from as they are driven by the unidentified mythological pilot, "The Stig" who certainly is worth his driving weight in white (watch the show). The test track is also party to the weekly celebrity drive as the guest-of-the-week is allowed a time trial lap in an ordinary domestic model and is quite a good time when anyone from Ron Wood to Dame Helen Mirren is at the wheel.

The production value of the hour-long show has to be mentioned - it is top gear, period. Such a tight package visually, audibly it makes you wonder why all of the television talent was placed on this show crew and was not spread out over three or four shows.

In the end, the show is about one thing:

The cars.

The hosts know that, as well.

And they work to make sure that at the final turn, we will love the cars as much as they do.

(Official site, here.)

(Image from here.)