TV Top Gear Australia - Page 5

PVDA · 3 Jun 2008, 09:01 (Ref:2218440)

There are plenty of threads on the net about who the Stig is but the best version is that there are several Stig's depending on what he is required to do at the time.

RotorFan · 4 Jun 2008, 05:17 (Ref:2219318)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chatters

Was Perry McCarthy, now it's Ben Edwards.,and the Australian Stig is clearly David Thexton...

Ben Edwards? Do you mean Ben Collins?

Ben Edwards is a commentator, not a racer.

Denosaur · 4 Jun 2008, 05:35 (Ref:2219324)

They let the cat out of the bag years ago in the UK with The Stig. Perry was the original black suited Stig, but after he put a book out and openly spoke about being The Stig, they killed him off in a tragic aircraft carrier accident. You might find the episode on You Tube or something similar.

As for the Australian Stig, I think they'll have to go through a couple of guys to pull it off, because if they use one of many circuits we have around this country as there test track, chances are the identify will be revealed very quickly with the amount of people that work at these circuits. That's why they have it so handy in the UK operating out of an airfield.

Chatters · 4 Jun 2008, 07:35 (Ref:2219375)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RotorFan

Ben Edwards? Do you mean Ben Collins?

Ben Edwards is a commentator, not a racer.

Shhh!

racer69 · 5 Jun 2008, 03:12 (Ref:2220123)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RotorFan

Ben Edwards is a commentator, not a racer.

He actually once was a racer, in England back in the mid-80s

Are they actually going to have an Australian stig?

PVDA · 5 Jun 2008, 03:49 (Ref:2220138)

Quote:

Originally Posted by racer69

Are they actually going to have an Australian stig?

One would assume they would but what are we going to call him/her??

My suggeston is something unique to Australia.

My suggestion is to dress the person in Red Overalls and a Red Helmet and name him/her "Bluey"

RotorFan · 5 Jun 2008, 23:23 (Ref:2220892)

Quote:

Originally Posted by racer69

He actually once was a racer, in England back in the mid-80s

Oh, really? What did he race in?

Malfunction Junction · 6 Jun 2008, 00:17 (Ref:2220908)

A pink tutu with roses on his toes?

racer69 · 6 Jun 2008, 04:30 (Ref:2220980)

Quote:

Originally Posted by PVDA

One would assume they would but what are we going to call him/her??

My suggeston is something unique to Australia.

My suggestion is to dress the person in Red Overalls and a Red Helmet and name him/her "Bluey"

Perhaps, i was just thinking they'll have Charlie Cox, they might as well use him

Quote:

Originally Posted by RotorFan

Oh, really? What did he race in?

As far as i know it was just the lower formula's of British Motorsport, i have a copy of Autosport from the mid-80s where he is crowned the Formula First Champion, i believe he pushed on to some other categories, but presumebly ran out of money and found his calling in motorsport commentary.

inpitlane · 6 Jun 2008, 13:28 (Ref:2221290)

Quote:

Originally Posted by racer69

As far as i know it was just the lower formula's of British Motorsport, i have a copy of Autosport from the mid-80s where he is crowned the Formula First Champion, i believe he pushed on to some other categories, but presumebly ran out of money and found his calling in motorsport commentary.

Cox raced a Mondeo in the BTCC in the Super Touring days, he was top five or so but AFAIK never won a race, He had a big crash and pretty much retired from then on. If I recall correctly he was brought on board as the BTCC's special comments man replacing fellow Aussie Mark Fogerty possibly through an association with Alan Gow. Cox made his money out of owning radio stations and is very media savvy. He's clearly the Clarkson character in the local remake with the Cartoonist guy starring as James May and the younger guy as Hammond. As for the Stig I think they'll fill the role with a few different people but they need someone with a reputation good enough to convince manufacturers to let him thrash their cars about.
Also if they do the runs at Calder as has been suggested here then there's lots of concrete wall waiting for mistakes unlike the British airfield were there's heaps of run off.

racer69 · 6 Jun 2008, 16:12 (Ref:2221389)

Quote:

Originally Posted by inpitlane

Cox raced a Mondeo in the BTCC in the Super Touring days, he was top five or so but AFAIK never won a race, He had a big crash and pretty much retired from then on. If I recall correctly he was brought on board as the BTCC's special comments man replacing fellow Aussie Mark Fogerty possibly through an association with Alan Gow. Cox made his money out of owning radio stations and is very media savvy. He's clearly the Clarkson character in the local remake with the Cartoonist guy starring as James May and the younger guy as Hammond.

Your right about Charlie Cox......but i was talking about Ben Edwards

Charlie Cox had his big crash at Thruxton (just a few weeks after finishing 5th at Brands Hatch in the previous BTCC meeting). He returned late in the year with a 5dr Mondeo hatch once he had recovered, but didn't have the budget for 1996. He pushed on in the British GT's for a while (alongside Win Percy?), and in 1996 commentated on a few rounds of the BTCC with Steve Slater (the rounds Murray Walker couldn't commentate), before permanently becoming Murray's sidekick in 1997, and taking over as the main commentator in 1998 (alongside John Watson) when Murray concentrated on F1. In 2002 the BBC stopped showing the BTCC, so Cox took Leigh Diffey's place alongside Steve Parrish commentating on the World Superbikes. In 2004 they switched their attention to MotoGP, and thats where he is today. I must admit i was quite suprised when his name popped up here.

Buckshot · 22 Sep 2008, 12:59 (Ref:2295210)

We'll all find out how bad this Aussie version is next week as SBS tonight announced it was 7 days away during the old episode of the real Top Gear.

zac510 · 22 Sep 2008, 13:21 (Ref:2295228)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buckshot

We'll all find out how bad this Aussie version is next week as SBS tonight announced it was 7 days away during the old episode of the real Top Gear.

Why so negative? Everybody in Australia seems to want it to fail already.

williamsf1 · 22 Sep 2008, 13:24 (Ref:2295230)

the UK stig is Ben collins... 100%

the aussie stig is rather stockier than him....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zV8rVLE120

johnh875 · 23 Sep 2008, 03:07 (Ref:2295764)

Zac I think they are in a no-win situation... The press launch (Link) featured supercars heavily, they even scared up a Zonda somehow. So people are complaining about the lack of Australian cars, however if they went out with an SS Commodore and XR8 Falcon there would be complaints also... I think they are going to start of "big" to counter talk of the UK show's budget etc. One thing is for sure, there won't be any lack of audience!

racerforracers · 23 Sep 2008, 03:27 (Ref:2295772)

They need to make sure they get there facts right, us Aussies have an eye for detail. Nothing against the guy but allready they have qouted that one of the team Steve Pizzati was a factory Porsce Race driver... mmm now i have been around the racing game for a while and I know he has done Porsche driver training at Mt Cotton and raced at some basic levels in a F Ford and shared a 1 hour race drive in a GT3 but certinally not any mainstream motorsport and definately not a " factory Porsche Driver" as qouted. Cox will be good value... dont know the other gut and the Stig.. well the mystery is half the fun..but im sure some one will drop the bundle sooner or later Certinally the tip from the UK that ties Ben Collins is very much correct..

thetormentor · 23 Sep 2008, 03:38 (Ref:2295774)

I was lucky enough to be at the first taping last week. Seems to be ok, but they are in a no win situation. The test track seems to let it down a bit.

Sheep Stations · 23 Sep 2008, 06:31 (Ref:2295808)

[quote=racerforracers]They need to make sure they get there facts right, us Aussies have an eye for detail. Nothing against the guy but allready they have qouted that one of the team Steve Pizzati was a factory Porsce Race driver... mmm now i have been around the racing game for a while and I know he has done Porsche driver training at Mt Cotton and raced at some basic levels in a F Ford and shared a 1 hour race drive in a GT3 but certinally not any mainstream motorsport and definately not a " factory Porsche Driver" as qouted.

Yep, that created a few belly laughs. Steve holds the record amongst the instructors for the most laps sideways on the figure 8 skidpan at Mt Cotton, so he can do tricks and has good car control. But if Pizzati is a factory Porsche race driver then I'm an F-111 pilot.

williamsf1 · 23 Sep 2008, 08:14 (Ref:2295852)

nothing wrong with being a PIG pilot I hope...

zac510 · 23 Sep 2008, 08:45 (Ref:2295870)

It's the Australian way to shoot them down before they're even up isn't it?

porsche91722 · 23 Sep 2008, 09:11 (Ref:2295890)

Quote:

Originally Posted by zac510

It's the Australian way to shoot them down before they're even up isn't it?

We will give them till about 7.45 pm, next monday night, then we'll carve them up.

nafe! · 23 Sep 2008, 09:13 (Ref:2295891)

Quote:

Originally Posted by inpitlane

As for the Stig I think they'll fill the role with a few different people but they need someone with a reputation good enough to convince manufacturers to let him thrash their cars about.

What i like about Top Gear is that they dont seem to care what the manufacturers think, if a car is crap they let it be known regardless of make or type or wether its brand new or not.

Hopefully that will continue downunder and we can see some realistic appraisals of the local hardware which arent biased thanks to some manufacturer leaning upon the publication or providing them significant benefits.

]-[ITMAN · 23 Sep 2008, 10:10 (Ref:2295935)

Bargs is the STIG, gotta be.

Sultan · 23 Sep 2008, 11:24 (Ref:2295988)

How do you know, is he shorter than the GT40 they test..

David Towe · 23 Sep 2008, 12:19 (Ref:2296027)

They've ordered a high chair for 4 wheel drive test drives.

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