Top Gear – Gripshiftslide

Amazon Prime :: The Grand Tour S2 Premiere

Grant — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 10:45:32 +0000

After a short flight to Sydney I found myself at a rather unique venue by the name of Carriage Works. Why had I flown from Melbourne? Well Amazon Prime was hosting a fancy premiere for the first episode of the brand new second season of The Grand Tour!

On arrival I was greeted with a large line of people all excited to finally see what the ex Top Gear crew had been filming over the last six months. The very first season of The Grand Tour debuted on the 18 November 2016 and ever since the boys have been very busy.

Plenty of cars had been placed on display for the hordes of Instagram starlets and competition winners to enjoy. The Lamborghini Aventador featured prominently around the venue. This was for good reason because the car was featured in the very first episode of the second season; the very episode that we were about to all watch. Yet the cars were not the only attraction at the Amazon Prime premiere with a green screen photo booth proving popular on the night.

As everyone entered the main building they were greeted with this striking red Lamborghini Aventador SV Roadster and this made quite a few people very excited! They ran up to the car as though they were a 2 year old ready for a trip to the playground!

A DJ with her very own GT booth was making sure that the old Carriage Works buildings were full of music. Among the crowd were a mix of Instagram celebrities, including ex The Block contestants, and a cohort of socialites and corporate types alike.

Sydney has deep culture of show cars and a large modified car scene. I would have loved to have seen some local tuner cars at the Amazon premiere in addition to a selection of cars from a luxury car dealership. Although the show focuses on new performance cars it also features the adventure part of The Grand Tour where they purchase old performance and luxury cars to tour the country in.

Having a re=creation of the very background set of the show was a really nice touch and helped give the premiere a distinct atmosphere.

The black sheep of the pack was this Mini. I’m not sure why they picked this as a display car apart from its British heritage. Having religiously watched Top Gear from its early episodes until its worldwide roll out and throughout its demise this show has the same old format.

It’s this format that has made the show successful but only with the correct hosts in place. Clarkson, Hammond and May have been the only hosts to make this show shine. Now with a new name and no old school TV producers saying no to all ideas the boys now have the freedom to create a new legacy in a new age of entertainment.

Amazon was really going for that red carpet feel! Bringing people close to the types of cars that they have been watching Clarkson, Hammond and May drive over the last few years.

Seeing so many supercars in one place felt like some kind of Abu Dhabi party. Amazon really did a great job putting the premiere all together.

Amazon spared no expense, making sure that The Grand Tour branding was everywhere throughout the event including the popcorn boxes!

Complete with raised seating this outdoor style cinema experience was a fresh and exciting way to display the premiere. A show that most would normally watch at home in their undies while yelling at a fluffy dog to stop barking!

The premiere started with an address from Jeremy Clarkson to the Australia Amazon Prime audience. This made me wonder how many countries he had to do a shout outs for. The Grand Tour season 2 episode 1 started after a short preview of the second season highlights.

The show was full of the same old antics. Clarkson was driving cars too hard and breaking them while May was busy letting us know why the car he was driving was the best of the bunch! Not to mention Hammond was driving one of the fastest electric cars the world has ever seen. I can’t say much more about the episode except the fact there is a shocking surprise towards the end of the show which was nail biting to say the least. A must watch episode for sure!

Want more? How about a 7-day trial with Amazon Prime to watch the show!
Follow the link below.
“The Grand Tour Season 2 is available on Amazon Prime Video at midnight GMT on December 8. Customers who are not already Amazon Prime Video members can sign up for a free 7-day trial at PrimeVideo.com.”
Thanks for reading,
Grant

Top Gear Festival Sydney :: Fuel Injected Fun

Grant — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 04:44:26 +0000

Top Gear Festival has been and gone, leaving behind the memories of two action packed days that were filled with bumper to bumper, side splitting fun.
The festival plays out like any episode of BBC’s beloved Top Gear series, informative car reviews, intelligent and in depth opinions on all things automotive and of course relevant real world tests which help consumers make their next four wheeled purchase, armed with all the facts.
At least that’s how the show would be without the three aging, quirky and downright childish presenters we have grown to love over the last twelve years. The Top Gear Festival packs up this 60 minute motoring TV show into a shipping container along with two of the hosts and a man simply known as The Stig and they get sent all over the world where tears of laughter are sure to follow.

The Australian leg of the tour was hosted at Sydney Motorsport park for it’s second year and once again saw Jeremy Clarkson and James May entertain record breaking crowds at Sydney’s racing circuit. Yes, that’s Bruno Senna strapped into a Nissan Micra bungee as it falls towards the ground!!

They again attempted to speed up the Australian Postal service in a nail biting postie bike race, a true blue Aussie event that saw exhilarating speeds in excess of 30kmh!!! James May hadn’t seen anything quite as exciting before.

Aside from the usual Top Gear antics, there was loads of genuine motoring action and racing all weekend. Australian Rally Champion, Neil Bates, was showing his classic Toyota Rally car still had all the moves.

When Neil is not racing the clock, expect a show! His skills could put some of Australia’s top drifters to shame.

The absolutely stunning Erebus Motorsport AMG SLS GT3 car. This striking piece of machinery was part of the Ultimate Speed Showdown, where six vehicles from a super bike to an F1 car, would go head to head for the fastest lap.

One of the new kids on the block for the V8 Super car series was the Mercedes Benz E63 V8 Super-car. It was another member of the Erebus Motorsport team that joined the fray for the Ultimate Speed Showdown. The team had plenty to prove over the weekend to the huge crowds.

Betty Klimenko nervously watching the Ultimate Speed Showdown unfold after a bet between her Erebus team and Redbull, with the loser having to wash the winning car. We’re not sure if Betty has ever seen an F1 car in action.

Troy Bayliss hugged the corners on his Ducati Super Bike as he raced around the circuit with 5 cars during the showdown.

As the showdown came to an end, all eyes were on the Erebus E63 and the Redbull RB7 F1 Car…

Who was the winner and who was going to be washing the car?

Ricciardo’s smile said it all! Betty lived up to her end of the deal and she washed the RB7 by hand with a bucket and sponge.

Not all the attractions were on the track however. There was a massive static display dedicated to the late Ayrton Senna. Recognised as one of the best F1 drivers and still sits as the third most successful driver of all time in terms of overall race wins.

Curating the exhibition, Formula One driver Bruno Senna, nephew of Ayrton Senna.
Bruno gave a heartfelt insight into his Uncles’ life and what inspired him and countless others to pursue racing and even just to be a better person each and every day.

On display was Aryton’s winning McLaren MP4/4, a marvel of it’s time. Winning 15 of it’s 16 races during the 1988 season.

Weighing a mere 540kg and powered by a 1.5l Honda V6 engine, using twin turbo chargers to produce 900bhp!!
Ayrton took pole position 13 times in this car and won 8 races.

Aryton’s iconic helmet was also on show, if you haven’t yet watched the ‘Senna’ documentary, it is a definite must watch and even if F1 doesn’t interest you, this is a film that will move you.

McLaren unveiled the 650s, this was it’s first Australian appearance here at the Top Gear Festival.

The Coupe’s sales brochure announces some pretty impressive numbers. 0-100 in 3 seconds and a full quarter mile in just 10.5 seconds! This performance puts the 650S’ sprint to 200km/h in 8.4 sec, a full second quicker than the iconic McLaren F1

There isn’t a boring line on this car! Taking it’s design cues from the McLaren P1, this car was built to excite!

Huge cross drilled brakes help stop this car when things get a bit hairy.

The Mercedes built AMG engine is garnished with all the McLaren composite trimmings, making it a thing of astonishing beauty.

It seems any excuse will do to invite along Australia’s best drifters to tear it up around Sydney Motorsport Park and as it turns out, the Top Gear Festival is no exception.

Crowds love smoke shows and who better to help make some clouds than SA’s very own Drift Squid. Jake made the journey from South Australia to take part of the Just Car Insurance drift demos.

Sydney’s Hit n’ Run’s V8 powered S15 was showing off some fresh battle scars to the crowds, we still think this is one of the best looking cars around.

The star of the show was Levi Clarke in the Exedy S15. Levi wowed the crowds with some huge entries and massive plumes of coloured smoke.

At one point Levi successfully blocked out sky with the biggest smoke show we’ve ever seen!!

It just wouldn’t be Top Gear without a display of cars I couldn’t hope to be able to ever afford.

The usual affair of bulls and horses.

Now this was as rare as it gets… The only Pagani Zonda Roadster in Australia!!

The Stig put in a couple of hot laps in with the topless McLaren 12C Spider in front of the crowds.

Top Gear invited some of the countries best drag racers out and the deafening drag cars kept fingers in ears, corn farmers in business and onlookers on the edges of their seats.
The Gas Motorsport BMW lost control after a big launch and narrowly missed the walls after hitting the grass and sliding 50+ meters before coming to a stop.

Some tried their hand at power skidding and it seems Agges from the Insane Drifters approved of this Camaro’s efforts.

The weekend was coming to an end, but things weren’t over for Red bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. The team was getting set for another attempt at the lap record for Sydney Motorsport Park.

Ricciardo had already beaten Mark Webbers time from last year by just 500th’s of a second at just 1.13.08 on Saturday. However on the Sunday, Daniel was determined to go back out and smash it!

And smash it he did! Daniel found another 2 seconds around Sydney Motorsport Park with a blistering 1.11.23!!!

The winning car and winning team rolling back to the pits in front of one very happy crowd of spectators.

Jeremy interviewed Daniel on track about the record lap before letting Daniel hop back into the drivers seat to demonstrate how fast drivers celebrate…

With a victory skid of course!!
One of the best events to date, the Top Gear Festival is yet to disappoint. Year after year, it captures the fun that makes the BBC show so special to car lovers the world over and then translates that into a stage show extraordinaire with real cars, real drivers and real action all on a live track.
Don’t miss 2015’s show, we already can’t wait for the next festival!
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.
Images provided by the talented Roberto Mocchetti | Full Motion Photography

Top Gear :: Ultimate Speed Showdown

Grant — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 07:43:56 +0000

Sydney will once again play host to one of the greatest motoring events for fans of all things internal combustion, speed and Jeremy Clarkson. That’s right Top Gear Festival is back for 2014!!
The festival is set to top last year’s excitement 6 times over with their latest challenge dubbed, “6 Degrees of Acceleration”. The Ultimate Speed Showdown will see 6 iconic racing machines from 6 completely different disciplines of motorsport scrambling for 1st place over just 5 laps…

Piloting these thoroughbred racing machines are some of the world’s greatest racers.
Behind the wheel of the Red Bull F1 will be Daniel Riccardo, hanging on for dear life on the Ducati is Troy Bayliss, Will Davison and Lee Holdsworth will share duties between the V8 super car and GT3 car, Neal Bates will be driving blind without a co-pilot in the WRC rally car, and finally, Garth Walden will be pushing the laws of physics in the Tilton Time Attack Evo.

So the question on our minds, which team will win? The Red Bull F1, Ducati Superbike, V8 super car, WRC rally car, Time Attack Evo or the GT3 race car?

To catch this monumental race and all the usual Top Gear shenanigans head to http://www.topgearfestivalsydney.com.au