Shame they didnt get a proper lap time!

I'm sorry, but the sooner Clarkson retires the better. That episode was disappointing and difficult to watch - first an Austin, then a Coupe written-off for entertainments sake.

At least pitch it against some decent cars, perhaps in a best performance car for under £1000 type competition.

And from the trailer it looks like an Integrale will be trashed in the coming weeks - oh how I'm going to look forward to that.

Top Gear is no more than a trashy soap - typical of the dross produced by the dumbed down BBC.

Got to say i thought that coupe was way to nice to kill

It also looked like an alfa gtv was in some clips, so could be another italian car getting killed.

Could be worse - at least we're not this sorry lot:

oh, the shame

what a let down , could have do a better show than that

That whole show was boring, not a good start to a new series. As for the coupe.. meh... I don't think anyone will be remembering that competition in years to come.

I didn't think much of episode one at all. Pretty dull for the new season of Top gear.

The challenge was also pretty stupid if you ask me as the three vehicles had nothing in common.

I did like the fact that the Coupe was painted in the original Policia colours but apart from that....

YAWN

There's an hour of my life I won't get back.

Haha..come on lets be honest Baz

Some guy sold his very good condition 75 to Top Gear for this series (same episode as the GTV). They assured him it would be looked after and sold back to him after being used for one trackday. They thoroughly trashed it and sent it to the scrapper...

Well I thought that was really funny.

Let's be realistic here - this was never going to be a proper review of a Coop now was it, if Top Gear bought a cheap car you can prety much put money on them smashing it up or doing something stupid with it.

We all know that if this was a real comparison the coop would have shat on those other cars from a massive massive height, this was just a daft stunt and to be honest the coop came off looking ok - it could have been any car with spikes on it - hardly any mention of what a makes a coop a coop was made.

Great show and I was laughing out loud

Coupe cameo aside, I think the programme was disappointing overall. The TopGear website talked about a new part-time presenter, a new format, more in relation to reviewing cars as opposed to silly challenges etc.

The stunt-man in the reversing attempt was a waste of time as you could see the outcome a mile off. It just wasted 4 minutes before showing the inevitable ar5e first entry into the bangers at low speed.

The 430 Scuderia review? Well it may be a lighter verion of the 430 but the 430's been reviewed to death on TopGear. This review was also exactly the same as the one they did for the 360 Stradale Challenge, the lighter version of the 360. It was like Deja Vu.

Too long is being spent in Star in a reasonably priced car.

The format need re-formatting and a re-boot!

Did not like that show at all. you can tell that the BBC are running out of ideas to ruin a fiat coupe and smash up an old alegro i think, all in one setting.. found it very hard to watch

that coupe was in better condition than mine at the moment, and it was trashed...

Is that a singn of things to come.

Started off ok. The coop looked well on screen, Even James May's 'to the garage' comment made me chuckle. Far too good a car to wreck though. I reckon JC put the spikes on the wheels also to get the back end out for the lap of the track. Must have had a handbrake upgrade for the handbrake turns! As said in other posts a decent performance car for less than 1K would've been more entertaining.

I thought it was good fun TV.

The coop looked fast and exciting driving round the track and it did not break down......they called it the Don Johnson mobile which is awesome =)

On my (old)widescreen Tv it actual looked very sexy and similarly styled to the scuderia..... (Tom ducks for cover)

Just watched the coupe destruction again and the suspension and wheel remained intact. WHat actually broke was where the spike had been drilled in the 4 spokes of the alloy wheel!

So holy cow thats some damn strong engineering in the coop.

Good bit of fun

Shame though that the timed lap wasn't completed. It would have been interesting to see what it could do.

I've watched it on slow-mo a few times now, and I can't believe the wheel didn't come off sooner !

If nothing else it reminded me how utterly sexy the coop looks - and adding the whiter stripes really worked, IMHO. Did anyone else notice how much the Ferrari they tested first looked like the coop?

Much more worrying was the overall quality of the show, especially for a debut to a new series. Sad though I am to say it, I think it's peaked. It was tired with nothing new or upbeat and exciting, which I find tragic. But I guess you can't go on being fresh and innovative for ever, whatever the budget or brains.

truffle, cant agree more. it should have won. if any other presenter had used it it would have won.

I think it has devalued the car. any one who hadn't seen them before wouldn't have any idea about price. now any chav is going to think he can have a coupe for 1k

just as well he cant get insurance for one!

Agreed.

All we have to forward to is the destruction of a perfectly good Integrale, a GTV and a Alfa 75

I thought it was good! James and Richard could only make a couple of small comments about the coop at the start and they knew it was the fastest car there Clarkson was the only one who could catch up with the stig and I was laughing when the wheel came off

My heart sank a bit when JC went and smeared Vaseline over the camera lens,I started to think that all we were gonna get was crappy blurry images of the Coop in action .

TBH the episode was poor and the only bits I enjoyed in it were the supercars with 1 gallon of fuel,The economical M3 and the Coop section the rest was crap and could have been replaced with much better material.

Baz

I thought it was bloody hilarious. Take the Coop thing out of it and I'm sure a lot of people on here slating it would think otherwise.

I hate all those stupid competitions they do, like making their own convertibles etc. Deeply boring. This police car thing was crap too. I agree with samsite999 - that probably has affected resale values. People think its a cheap joke car.

There are lots of interesting new cars out there to review. Why drive an Allegro of a ramp backwards. How stupid is that?

I thought it was a laugh but I felt let down, the coupe deserved better and more respect, but then again I would say that.

maybe loadsa people off here should write in and tell jezza to do a propper comparison between older cars like the coupe and newer ones?
chasin down golf r32s etc!
if they get enough letters they might do it!

I thought the coupe did well considering its handicap (Jezza driving )
However, i did think that there was something missing from the show, maybe they are running low on ideas, but the line-up for the rest of the series looks pretty good, so time will tell...

Not an Integrale, they are all in Alfas, can't remember the third one they use though.

The Coupe came out of it quite well I thought, not many cars would have wheels to withstand the holes they must have made in them and then the extra weight and force applied through the use of the spikes. Wish we had seen a proper laptime from it. Last point, everyone will now think an R reg 20VT is worth £900 unfortunately.

is this on the internet anywhere yet?

was playing footy until past 8 o'clock so thought I'd watch it on Virgins catch up on demand. I was fuming when it wasnt there