Top Gear USA - the Third Episode

Adam Ferrara's 1977 Cadillac Coupe De Ville

The third episode of US Top Gear was indeed interesting. The three guys were given $1000 and were told to by an old junkie from some market and be moonshiners for the week. Adam chose this 1970's Cadillac Coupe De Ville from his childhood, Rutledge chose an '80's Ford T-Bird Turbo Coupe, and Mr. Drifter Tanner Foust went Japanese and bought an '80's Nissan 300ZX. They may be a couple years old, but remember they bought these cars for $1000, so they weren't at tip-top shape as you would imagine. And, they were driving with over 100 bottles of moonshine booze in their trunks so the performance of the cars were decreased due to the massive weight of the alcohol. As you would imagine, the producers wouldn't give them old ugly moonshiners in order to just drive them all day. They were also given a set of challenges. The first challenge was executing a bootleg turn, which went well. Tanner was the fastest thanks to his drifting skills and lightweight Datsun (Nissan). Rutledge was the slowest because of his heavier and wider old rust bucket. Surprising, huh? Adam managed to beat Rutledge with his old Cadillac battleship. That car has secrets that we didn't even know about. Anyway, after the challenge, another Top Gear favorite: cars breaking down. Guess what car experienced this? If you guessed the old Cadillac battleship, you're wrong. Rutledge's old rust bucket was overheating and broke down before entering the campsite. He eventually made it back though. They then had fun spitting fire with moonshine alcohol. You should imagine that they got drunk from this.
After their drinking, it was then time to do the NEWS! They introduced the Porsche 918 Spyder in which you can read my review here. They then introduced Lamborghini's equivalent to efficiency, which was an electric chainsaw. They also listed the cars that were most likely and least likely to get ticketed. I'm surprised the Camry Solara was #1 on the list. I have to go with Adam when I say that that car should receive an award for going over the speed limit. It's just too slow. I wasn't surprised by the Scion tC though. That's a car driven by lunatics. Anyway, they then introduced a new Stang: the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss® 302 Laguna Seca. Rutledge was very proud that this car managed to be fast round the California track, beating the time of Tanner's favorite car, the BMW M3 E92. Since those cars are almost equal, Ford decided to give the Stang more power and less weight in order to give it an edge. Unfortunately, The STIG didn't put it round the track, but Top Gear did put Modern Family man Ty Burrell round in a Suzuki SX4. He managed to beat Buzz Aldrin's time, but was short on Dominic Monaghan's time, but he did do it in the wet.
Back to the moonshining madness. They then were sent to a dirt track to see who would put in the fastest lap. Adam won, but it cost him his car and all of his moonshines. Rutledge put in the slowest lap because his car got stuck on a hill. The last challenge involved them racing at the Rock (Rockingham Raceway). Their task was to use their old moonshiners to evade a 350 horsepower Dodge Charger R/T Police Interceptor. To make matters worse, the police car was driven by none other than The STIG. Tanner took the prize for being able to evade The STIG the longest. Adam could not compete because his car was dead. As for Rutledge, his car wouldn't start so he was immediately arrested. In the end, Tanner's Nissan came out on top with winning 3 of the 5 events.
There was more socialization between the hosts in this episode. As for the NEWS, they butchered it. Their metaphors were terrible and their jokes were boring. You'll still get more of a laugh with Clarkson, Hammond, and May. The challenges, however, were hilarious. Seeing Adam bend his Caddy after going up a ramp made me roll over laughing.
So there you are: the third episode. It was decent, but good. Stay tuned for the fourth episode.