Top Gear Series 13 [May contain spoilers]

[fisetdavid26]

Episode 13x01 is airing right now in the UK. I'm patiently waiting for a torrent now.

Are you gonna watch it?

Discuss the episodes here. You can give away spoilers, I put a spoiler warning in the thread title.

I'm wondering how it's gonna look like with all the budget cuts, but apparently I've heard they did a lot of races/challenges, we'll see.

[Ferrer]

Waiting for the torrent as well.

[70cuda88]

I love the challenges. I'm excited.

And also waiting for the torrent.

I don't watch much TV.

We don't have Top Gear here anyway.

[Cotterik]

great episode. wasnt the best 'epic race' that they've ever done but when schumacher revealed himself as the stig before the interview that was a proper classic TV moment. I think most of the country will have been watching this episode at that point since the papers all said they were revealing his identity. The funny thing is that the less intelligent people among us actually think michael schumacher is the stig now..

details of todays show:

It starts with an extraordinary race as Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May set out to discover what Top Gear might have been like 60 years ago. To this end, James grabs himself a gorgeous old Jaguar XK120 sports car while Richard chooses to torture himself on the brutal but rather fantastically named Vincent Black Shadow motorbike. Meanwhile, in an almost unprecedented move, Jeremy decides to take the train. But not just any old train; he's on the footplate of the Tornado, a brand new steam train built to the original blueprints used to create some of Britain's finest locomotives back in the heyday of the railways.

Jeremy drives and reviews the Lotus Evora and interviews Michael Schumacher as the stig. (if you want to believe it).

[LeonOfTheDead]

it's theb other way out, The Stig is Schumacher.
Didi they said since when he was supposedly doing this?

[Sledgehammer]

Final gear has the torrent
http://www.finalgear.com/shows/topgear/13/1/

[Cotterik]

Originally Posted by LeonOfTheDead

it's theb other way out, The Stig is Schumacher.
Didi they said since when he was supposedly doing this?

a well spelt sentance leon

if you're asking what i think you're asking, i'm pretty sure he drove as the stig in the FXX and pulled off the fastest lap 7 seconds clear. Since he's involved with the cars development etc they probably took the opportunity to let him go along with the car to the show.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Originally Posted by Cotterik

a well spelt sentance leon

if you're asking what i think you're asking, i'm pretty sure he drove as the stig in the FXX and pulled off the fastest lap 7 seconds clear. Since he's involved with the cars development etc they probably took the opportunity to let him go along with the car to the show.

Man, I'd say I was drunk, but probably I wasn't paying attention at all
Not edited for posterity

What I meant, is since when Schumacher would have been The Stig?
I'm pretty sure this is just a way to revive a little the whole TG saga, and that Schumacher was the only one Ferrari would have agree to let drive the FXX, considering how morbid they are when it comes to testing their cars lately.
I'm just wondering if they gave a time frame since when he is wearing a white helmet, if since when he retired from F1, yesterday or maybe even since always.
I'm not really interested, just wondering.

[Cotterik]

i think that schumacher will have gone along with the FXX and taken delivery from its base in wherever in italy to setup the car for the TG circuit as you say ferrari are very anal about their car being faster than any other even with this car not being in the same class as the other road legal cars (which technically means it should be taken off the TG timeboard). They probably filmed the FXX lap on the same day that they did the schumacher interview. So he probably kept the stig outfit on after driving the FXX, then revealed himself. There is no way schumacher has been playing the stig in any other episodes. He is still well employed/involved in ferrari's projects.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Originally Posted by Cotterik

He is still well employed/involved in ferrari's projects.

not really afaik. Bertolini is doing the main part of the job afaik, if we want to call a race driver a name into the game.

[fisetdavid26]

Obviously Schumi isn't the Stig. My heart did skip a beat when 'The Stig' removed his helmet though.

Schumi's helmet didn't have the traditional GPR logo that always appears on Stig's helmet too. Dunno if that's a hint.

Schumi was only there to drive his own FXX, which looked brilliant, sounded brilliant, and was very special to see in action in the hands of Schumi himself. I *loved* that bit of the show. Christ it's fast.

Also, the reason why he didn't drive the Liana is that he can't, under Ferrari's contract, drive a car that isn't Fiat/Ferrari on telly.

As for the rest of the episode the race was fantastic, what an incredible car, an incredible bike, and an incredible train! I loved it.

The news segment made me cringe, it wasn't flowing... at all. It was terrible actually. There was so many interesting things they could have talked about; GM's bankruptcy, the Chrysler-Fiat merger... I don't care about Land Rover's new cellphone. At least they talked about F1 in the SIARPC segment. That was great.

The preview of the series makes me wanna travel in time to see the rest of the series! McLaren F1 vs. Veyron... can't wait.

[Soloracer]

can anyone tell me where to find the video with out downloading anything, something like youtube?

[fisetdavid26]

Originally Posted by Soloracer

can anyone tell me where to find the video with out downloading anything, something like youtube?

Episodes are not streamed anywhere as far as I know, and if TG clips appear on YouTube it doesn't take long before the BBC takes 'em down.

You'll have to torrent them I'm afraid.

[Sledgehammer]

Originally Posted by Soloracer

can anyone tell me where to find the video with out downloading anything, something like youtube?

If you wait a few days you can download segments of it without getting a torrent downloader from here Racing Flix - high-quality videos for the automotive community

[demonrunning07]

Originally Posted by Soloracer

can anyone tell me where to find the video with out downloading anything, something like youtube?

hessmo.com said they would have it streaming within 24hrs of when it aired. It's not up yet but it should be up by mid-day tomorrow.


As far as the Stig goes, there's probably always been more than one but I've always leaned towards Ben Collins as one of the top suspects. They probably used Schumacher as a bit of a diversion or smoke screen to give the real driver(s) some cover, especially if they knew he wouldn't be allowed to drive the Liana anyway. I do know that Collins has gotten a lot of unwanted attention recently for his alleged role as the Stig. I deffinitely agree though that Schumacher is not and has never been the Stig. For starters, there is no possible way that the show could afford to pay him.