Top Gear/Segments: Difference between revisions

* Make cheap trains, using cars as the locomotive and [[Kill It Withwith Fire|caravans]] as the train cars. Clarkson ended up splitting off from Hammond and May after they disagreed with him over the train's "locomotive", resulting in Clarkson creating the world's first ever sports train. (Series 17, Episode 4)

Most weeks one of the presenters (usually Clarkson or Hammond) does a more-or-less conventional track test and review of the week's featured car. After that review, he turns the car over to the show's "tame racing driver", The Stig, for a Power Lap. The Stig takes the car as fast as he can around the ''Top Gear'' test track, and at the end of the segment the presenter reveals The Stig's lap time and posts it on a board.<br /><br />A standard feature of the Power Lap is the introduction of The Stig, which (starting with Series 6) [[Running Gag|follows a specific pattern]]. The presenter starts by saying that it's time to turn the featured car over to the show's tame racing driver, and then adds a humorous description of The Stig (sample; the description changes every week): "Some say that he thought ''[[Star Wars]]'' was a documentary, and that he recently pulled out of ''I'm A Celebrity'' because he is frightened of trees... and Australia... and Koo Stark... and [[Ant and Dec|Ant... and Dec]]. All we know is, he's called the Stig." These are frequently [[Ripped from the Headlines]], and the most popular are scathing attacks on minor celebrities of the week ("And, long before anyone else, he realised [[Big Brother|Jade Goody]] was a racist pig-faced waste of blood and organs").<br /><br />In more recent episodes they've played a bit with the formula. Perhaps one of the best was Hammond's flub: "Some say that one of his legs gets longer when he sees a pretty lady, and that I haven't done one of these for some time and I've forgot to make up a second thing."<br /><br />The fastest ever Power Lap was done by a BAE Sea Harrier, in 31.2 seconds. It went a bit wide on some of the corners, but the pilot claimed that he could have kept it in bounds, and still set the lap record. The fastest Power Lap by an ''automobile'' was 58.2 seconds, by the 2004 Renault Formula 1 car. Given that the best of the world's supercars manage in the 1:18 range, that's stinking fast.<br /><br />However, neither of those times was recorded on the official ''Top Gear'' lap board, because to qualify for the board the car must be street legal -- able to go over a speed bump and using road-legal tires during the lap. The 1:10 time set by the Ferrari FXX {{spoiler|driven by Michael Schumacher}} in Season 13 was removed from the board on the next episode because the car was using racing slicks. The current fastest lap is the Ariel Atom 500 V8, with a time of 1:15.1 (which is more than a second and a half faster than second place, the Bugatti Veyron Supersport, at 1:16.8).

Most weeks the show features a (usually British) celebrity guest. Prior to filming the show, the guest receives some coaching from The Stig, and then takes the reasonably priced car out for a fast lap around the ''Top Gear'' Test Track, which is taped. During the show itself, Jeremy Clarkson interviews the guest, and at the end of the interview the taped lap is shown in the studio (and onscreen for the viewer). At the end of the taped lap, Clarkson announces the star's lap time, and posts it on a leaderboard. For series 1-7, it was a Suzuki Liana before it was replaced in series 8 by a Chevrolet Lacetti, which in turn was succeeded in series 15 by a Kia Cee'd. The current fastest time on the leaderboard (1:42.1) in the Cee'd belongs to {{spoiler|1=''[[Friends (TV)|Friends]]'' star Matt LeBlanc}}. When it comes to the lap time, two things will invariably happen: the star will lean forward (even Tom Cruise), and Clarkson will drag announcing the time as long as he can. Any time better than one-fifty is to be proud of, and anything that threatens to break the current record ''will'' elicit gasps from the audience.<br /><br />When the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car is a Formula 1 driver, the old Liana is brought out of retirement for the segment. F1 drivers' times are listed on a separate leaderboard, because of their exceptional driving skills compared to the garden-variety celebrities who are usually featured in this segment. The FI leaderboard is currently headed by Sebastian Vettel at 1:44.0, beating the previous record held by Rubens Barrichello.<br /><br />[[Christopher Eccleston]], [[Billie Piper]], [[David Tennant]], and [[Matt Smith]] have all [[Doctor Who (TV)|taken part in this]]. Tennant complained, jokingly, that Piper was spared a time penalty for cutting a corner because she'd [[Fan Service|worn a see-through top]] to the show recording. Clarkson did not dispute this (Piper ''had'' cut a couple of corners, but the time stands because they generally feel it actually worsened her lap time).<br /><br />In five of the six episodes of Series 11 (June/July, 2009) they invited two guests per show, 'to get some rivalry going'. With the sixth episode of Series 11 they went back to one guest (Jay Kay, who successfully toppled Simon "Codpiece" Cowell from the top spot on the SiaRPC Lacetti Leaderboard), and have kept that format ever since, with occasional exceptions when two guests are promoting the same project.