Top Gear Ends Tonight ... Or Two Weeks From Now ... Or Sometime Soon

[Blake Noble]

Yes, tonight sometime soon Top Gear goes off of the airwaves. No, not for good (hopefully), but at some time tonight season 19 does officially end ... maybe. Of course, since Top Gear always leaves you with horrible between-season withdrawls (the long wait for the new season was like going through heroin, cocaine, oxycodone, and smoking joneses all at the same time), you eventually find yourself searching between seasons for something else to watch that will fill the void until the new one debuts. Besides watching the take-it-or-leave-it 'Mericun version that airs on the History Channel, YouTube has begun to offer quite a lot in the way of auto-related programming that is almost as entertaining to watch. Here are a few recommendations:

XCar:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wqAFl2t9Np8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

XCar features brilliant and simple cinematography that actually is within close proximity to what Top Gear has to offer, and the commentary is fairly entertaining. The BMW M1 review above is even somewhat evocative of early episodes of TG. Oh, and the reviewer sort of sounds like Richard Hammond, if that's your thing.

Gear Patrol:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/I6JvMSojQss?list=PL99CBB6AA695173D5" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If you desire an alternative to Top Gear US, give Gear Patrol a shot. While Gear Patrol obviously doesn't have the big budget of the History Channel knock-off version, they definitely do have an advantage over TG US in one area: the soundtracks featured in many of the reviews are a hell of a lot better than what TG US manages to use. The Dodge Charger SRT-8 review above is one of their older vidoes, and newer reviews feature significantly improved cinematography and camera work, but I chose it because ... well, I'm biased and I occasionally roll around town bumpin' The Notorious B.I.G. in my own Charger.

Drive:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZcjpXbMiCtg?list=UU5rBpVgv83gYPZ593XwQUsA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Drive is the "big budget" name out of the three featured here, but there's no denying the fact that they've managed to turn out hundreds of hours of original car nerd programming that ranges from being entertaining to educational and anything in between. If you like muscle cars, their "Big Muscle" series of videos are for you. If you like to hear new car reviews read to you in a stiff-lipped British accent, well Chris Harris is there to satisfy. If you like awesome and absolutely stupid cars, like the rat-rod-thing RX7 featured in the video above, well, yeah, there's a series for you too. In all honesty, Drive needs to boot Speed TV off of cable television.

EDIT: Top Gear actually doesn't end ... yet, and I can't post the videos. But if you can read YouTube jibberish, you can copy and paste the video url into your browser until someone (hopefully) fixes this post.

Edited February 25, 2013 by black-knight

[Robert Hall]

Interesting...I thought the new season started less than a month ago..

[smk4565]

Tonight's episode was hilarious, the car they made for old people had me laughing so hard I was in tears.

There are at least 2 more weeks because they have a 2 part special to Egypt coming up.

[Robert Hall]

Interesting about this 'tonight' bit..it doesn't air in the US on BBC America until Monday night...looking forward to watching it then...does it air the UK on Sundays?

[Blake Noble]

Yep, it airs in the UK Sunday nights, and it's already available for viewing in other countries through other means.

smk is right, there are two episodes left in a two part special.

Anyway, I really wish the embedded XCar video would work. The crew working on those videos are doing excellent work.

[Delta Force79]

Top Gear is still an awesome show although perhaps not quite up to the standard of earlier seasons, though that is to be expected the longer a show is around. Normally there are 2 seasons in a year, but this time we had to wait about a full year for this current season, I wish they would have extended this season to at least 10 episodes or 12 to make up for the long wait. This season only began at the end of January and is going to be done by the beginning of March, way too short. I hope they come back by the summer like they normally do and we aren't waiting another full year for 5 or 6 shows.

[Robert Hall]

The UK must be a week ahead also, tonights BBCA episode (Ep. 4 of series 19) has Lewis Hamilton, 3 hot hatches, and cameos by Bruce Willis, Eric Clapton, and Matt LeBlanc...watching the car rugby piece now..

Edited February 26, 2013 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[daves87rs]

Pretty funny...it actually grew on me...

[Intrepidation]

I like TG US. They've come a long way in a short amount of time.