I think it would be difficult to argue that Top Gear UK is the pinnacle of driving television at this point.  Into the beginning of its fifteenth season the show has continued to bring excellent, no holds barred, car reviews, wacky challenges and stunts, as well as interesting races.

So when I heard that BBC America was working on an American iteration of the show I was suitably happy, and skeptical.

And that was in 2008 when it was first announced NBC had ordered the pilot.  Jay Leno turned down hosting the show, stating that it works in England because it’s government funded and they don’t have to worry about offending advertisers.  Potentially a valid concern, I read on Wikipedia that Richard Hammond traveled to America to buy a Dodge Challenger because Chrysler felt they were ‘too harsh’ about their cars.  Now can you imagine Chrysler sponsoring a show where they panned the PT Cruiser for looks and function (not much of a concern now since it’s dead and buried, but you get the drift).  And consequently what kind of car enthusiast would take a show that gave the PT Cruiser critical acclaim seriously?  The hosts that NBC did line up were racer and stunt driver Tanner Foust, comedian Adam Carolla and the carpenter from a show called Clean Sweep Eric Stromer…that’s all Wikipedia really said about him, other than that he was a weekly guest on Carolla’s radio show.  NBC eventually declared the show dead and gave the BBC permission to shop it around, despite the fact that the pilot tested well.  Eventually it ended up in the laps of the History Channel, of all places, and Tanner Foust landed with it, but now with comedian Adam Ferrara (who played a guy in Paul Blart: Mall Cop) and Speed Channel analyst Rutledge Wood.

And apparently it’s coming out in the fall of this year.

Now there’s the background, which I stripped mostly from Wikipedia, you’re welcome.

But now the real question:

Will it stand up to its British counterpart?  And should it?

As for the hosts, only time can tell.  There’s a certain chemistry working between Hammond, Clarkson and May, they’re very different people with very different tastes, but they come together well in the way they go about their business.  Will the same be possible for the American trio?  Like I said, only time can tell on that one.  Personally the chances of them working as well looks to be fairly poor, but I do like their chances of being more entertaining than the crew from Fifth Gear, where almost every joke is either terrible or poorly delivered.

What about the cars?  That’s hard to say, I’ve already seen a picture in a Top Gear magazine showing them at the line on a racetrack in what look to be 80s muscle cars.  There is no doubt that there will be differences, and there should be.  Driving is very different in North America than it is in Europe.  We have acres of land, big roads, and, unfortunately, a penchant for driving hideous vehicles like the PT Cruiser, or anything made by Buick since the Grand National, so I would expect more of a lean toward American muscle.  Car modification is extremely popular in the United States, the Fast and the Furious series being an obvious testament to that, and I imagine that will factor heavily in this show, which means Asian imports will also factory heavily, I imagine drifting will also be touched on, straight line speed seems to be important to us here so there will be drag races, there will be even less rally coverage (shame), and more coverage on races that only turn left (bigger shame).

Car reviews will be fine and dandy for the two door models of most of the American cars, however when it gets to the four door coverage instead of Bentleys, Mercedes, BMW, and Audi we will most likely see Buick, Lincoln, Chrysler and Cadillac.

I will admit that even though my interest in this show will never be as high as my interest in the UK version, I guess I’m just not wired right for NASCAR and ugly sedans, I’m still eager to see what it can do and what they will show, but it’s important that they don’t try to mimic the UK version, nor try to hold the two up next to each other.  If it does launch in the fall, I believe there will be two factors that will determine its success:

1)    The ability of BBC America to adapt the show to the North American driver as opposed to the European driver.

2)    Whether the North American public is ready for a show like this, the economy still isn’t what it should be and two of the big three US automakers almost sunk last year and, unfortunately, this show will not be too big to fail.

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