Top Gear Returns Tonight

Yes, you read it right. Top Gear is returning tonight, 22/06/08 at 8PM on BBC2. I know you can't wait to see the gang once again so here's some more information to whet your appetite:

• The Stig is back in an F430 Scuderia
• Jeremy, James and Richard give some petrol-saving tips
• The boys look at how police cars can be made better
• The guest slot is a bit different and you'll see Justin Lee-Collins and Alan Carr going head to head

Given that tidbit of information, I'm sure that you can't wait to see the show.

Top Gear 100

The Top Gear 100 Fastest Cars is a great breakdown. It is not rated strictly on BHP but rather on how fast a car has felt to drive. An interesting one that. Do take a look, see whether you agree. Personally I'm not happy about what's at number one... But then if it is not a Koenigsegg then I wasn't about to be...

Don't Drive a G Wiz

Why I hear you say? This, a very simple answer. The car will almost certainly severely injure you in a crash, look at how the front compartment invades the driver space. Due to it not being classed as a car (due to some stupid government regulation) it doesn't have to pass N-Cap tests. Oh well. If you buy one, pray you're never in more than a very mild bumper-to-bumper.

The Ariel Atom

My car of the moment is the Ariel Atom. It is totally flat and in the best incarnation (circa 29k) offers 300bhp, or 600bhp per ton as the car only weighs around 500kilos. It is brilliantly fast, with Top Gear rating it as just under the Enzo on their track. Quite impressive given that it costs less than a tenth of said uber-Ferrari. You can see the video of Clarkson's thoughts here. In a few days I might do some more coverage of the company behind the car.

Where Should Top Gear Go?

Clarkson has written a post over at the Top Gear website, asking where Top Gear should go. Problem is, the last series go massive viewers rivalling most other TV but unfortunately was pretty far removed from what could be described as a 'car show'. So what's my take? Well I thought I'd write it here seeing as there's no guarantee my comment would show up there.

Fifth Gear is more appealing to me than the next series of Top Gear right now. The reason for that is whilst the challenges in TG's last series were fun, the celebrity appearances were pretty appalling (not to mention the attitude of some celebs), the challenges were stupid and the cars were... well barely a presence! That being the case, the show really does need a change.

The change should take the programme full circle. A car show once again (gasp!). It is really what it needs. I know it's a flagship for BBC2 but come on, it's become so stupid as to be almost avoidable. BBC Director General, do what you must. Make a decision. Either revert the show and have a lower audience but a much more vocal one, or split the show in two. Develop a new programme which has serious discussion and news on cars (maybe presented by James May) whilst the other can complete twaddle pandering to the masses.