Top Gear (2002 TV series)/Series 1/Episode 8

Episode 8
A group of super saloons, as featured in the episode.
Prod. code	GFGA008E
No.	8 (since 2002), 557 (since 1977)
Runtime	59:05
Viewers	3.43 million
Prev ep.	Series 1, Episode 7
Next ep.	Series 1, Episode 9
Airdate	UK: 8th December, 2002
International Airdates WO: 1st January, 2003 NL: 14th November, 2003 PR: 28th December, 2004 PL: 9th April, 2005 RU: 7th August, 2005 BE: 30th July, 2006 (BBC Prime) FI: 28th January, 2007 AU: 12th April, 2008 KO: 25th May, 2008 CZ: 25th April, 2009 HU: 24th June, 2009 Data may not be 100% accurate.

Series 1, Episode 8 of Top Gear aired on the 8th December, 2002. It was the eighth episode of [[Top Gear (2002 TV series)/Series 1|Series 1]]; the 8th episode of Top Gear since the show's 2002 reboot and the 557th episode overall, including compilations. It was the 548th episode since Top Gear entered national broadcasting in 1978, and was the 9th programme to air in 2002 out of a total 11. Series 1, Episode 8 was originally broadcast in 576i at a 16:9 Widescreen aspect ratio on British television channel BBC Two. The episode was presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Jason Dawe, and Richard Hammond, alongside The Stig. Michael Gambon was the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car.

This episode is best-known for an incident which occurred during Gambon's lap in the Suzuki Liana. Approaching the final corner, at that point named Carpenters Corner, Gambon understeered in the damp track conditions and bounced off the outside of the previous corner, upsetting the car's balance. In an attempt to stabilise the car, Gambon then overcorrected, clipping the inside of Carpenters and momentarily sending the Liana onto two wheels. This incident resulted in the corner being renamed in Gambon's likeness from Series 2 of Top Gear onwards, which became its permanent name thereafter.

Synopsis

As narrated by Jeremy Clarkson:

• A Knight in our Reasonably-Priced car.
• Maserati's new Coupé takes on our track.
• And lock up your door mirrors; we set out to find Britain's fastest white van driver.

Series 1, Episode 8 begins with Jeremy Clarkson apologising for comments made during the previous episode where he alleged that he was going to kick a barn owl to death. The trio then deem their attempt to be ‘green’ a failure, and vow that this episode would be ‘scarlet’ instead. Panning to a BMW M5 in the studio, Clarkson then opens into a segment on super saloons, which he starts by revealing a graph comparing the amount of power 400 brake horsepower generates on a scale of double-decker buses. He implies that if condensed to a height of 6 inches, 400 BHP would cover an area the size of Belgium. It's then revealed that BMW are no longer the only manufacturer producing such a car, as the Jaguar S-Type R has come out with a 4.2 litre supercharged V8 also producing 400 BHP. However, Audi have also come out with their equivalent, and moved the goalposts.

Super Saloons

^{Unabridged article: Super Saloon Film}
Taking an Audi A6 as a base, the Audi RS 6 features a twin-turbocharged 4.2 litre V8 which develops an astonishing 450 brake horsepower. Along with a wide bodykit, the car is not only more powerful than the aging M5, but commands more of a road presence as well.

Back in the studio, one final question remains: which of the two super saloons is faster around the track? Jeremy believes that the E55 AMG would have easily won in dry conditions but the laps were done in the wet, where the Audi's 4 wheel drive "quattro" system came into play:

Position	Car	Time	Track Conditions
1	Audi RS 6	1:33.0	Wet
2	Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG	1:35.5	Wet

The RS 6 was a full 2 and a half seconds faster than the Mercedes and was easily the more controlled of the two, with the E55 AMG powersliding and aquaplaning on the wet surface. When adjusted for optimum conditions, the RS 6 would have set a 1:29.0 lap time, putting it on par with the Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG and Honda NSX-R from two episodes prior.

Reception

Contemporary reception to the episode was generally positive on PistonHeads, with 8 positive reviews against 3 negative, averaging out at a score of 72.3%. This places the episode as the third highest-rated of the series of the 6 episodes that were reviewed by 10 or more users. On the whole, Series 1, Episode 8 was key in cementing Top Gear's future, as the Lada segment no doubt helped to inspire Cheap Car Challenges from Series 4 onwards. Furthermore, Gambon's mishap in the Liana became an integral part of Top Gear mythos, with the corner being renamed in his honour.

FinalGear

On FinalGear, Series 1, Episode 8 was received in a lukewarm manner, likely due to episodes which aired later, placing joint-fortieth in the FinalGear Best Episode Poll held from 2004 - 2006 to determine the best episodes of Top Gear at the time. The episode received just 1 of the 231 votes cast.

Retrospective Reception

From a retrospective point of view, this episode is perhaps the only episode from Series 1, barring the pilot, which is remembered in any capacity. On IMDb, the episode currently holds a weighted average score of 7.3/10 from 223 votes, a score it maintains even when outliers are removed to account for rating bombs and the score subsequently adjusted to reflect this. In addition, the score balances out to a 6.8 arithmetic mean, with a 7/10 median score. On Ratingraph, the episode is ranked 176th out of the 226 episodes listed as of November 2021.

Topgearbox Poll

In September 2015, Series 1, Episode 8 would be voted as the 85th greatest Top Gear episode of all time.

Airing history

^{For a concise, detailed report on this episode's international airing history, see Airing history.}
As Top Gear was not yet as successful as it would eventually become, broadcasts of this episode were very limited, especially in its original 59 minute form. In addition, after the later success of host James May, episodes from Series 1 would become undesirable and as a result, would be pulled from the BBC World Sales Catalogue after 2009. This was likely due to the fact there were now more than 100 other episodes available for syndication.

United Kingdom

Series 1, Episode 8 would premiere on BBC Two on the night of the 8th December, 2002. Unlike later episodes of Top Gear, the episode would not be repeated following its initial airing, though it would be edited down into a 45 minute version by Red Bee Media for usage on UKTV channels such as UK Horizons, where the episode began airing approximately 2 weeks after its premiere on BBC Two.

Worldwide

Internationally, the episode would first premiere on BBC World on New Year's Day 2003, 3 weeks after its UK release, although some regions wouldn't receive the episode until the end of January. It would then be shown in the Netherlands on Veronica from the 14th of November, 2003, 11 months later, before appearing on BBC Prime at the end of December 2004, and then the likes of TVN Turbo in Poland and NTV in Russia during 2005, the latter in a similarly cut-down form to how the episode was shown on BBC World. The episode would be reshown in a handful of countries thereafter, but would not premiere in many Baltic and Balkan nations such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia until as late as mid-2009, a full six and a half years after the episode was first shown in the United Kingdom.

Further reading

This article is intended serve as a basic summation of all the content depicted within Series 1, Episode 8, and deliberately omits or abridges certain details in order to ease reading comprehension and reduce overall page length.
For a fully detailed, in-depth analysis of this episode, please visit Top Gear (2002 TV series)/Series 1/Episode 8/Unabridged.