Top Gear, 1983 (Series 11, Episode 1)

[@user-lx6bl2wd8g]

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this very much. It used to be a very much more intelligent program than it is today. I think there is still room for this sort of program running along side the present "Boy and their toys" Top Gear we have now.

[@ajs41]

Nearly all TV programmes used to be more intelligent.

[@matthewking5612]

Before that TWAT HAMMOND wrecked it all.

[@colinsdiecast164customs]

I so agree with this, I dont dislike Clarkson or May, but I am not keen on the hamster, Top Gear has lost its way, the old fashioned petrol heads want to learn about the engineering and specs involved, its not all about the speed or crashing cars like today's Top Gear. I do love flipping bangers, its way better than car SOS or wheeler Dealers, but its nowhere near as popular, because its the thinking mans car show, if you have not seen it, its well worth watching.

[@MrNanpaps265]

lol hell no u want ppl to sleep... true petrol heads must be like 10 percent out of the old 2002 top gear viewers, nah boring we want to see challenges races and cool cars and specials, @@colinsdiecast164customs

[@markshillinglaw3003]

Now it’s 2024 it’s no more

[@thatguyfromcetialphaV]

William Woolard was such a good presenter. He and Tony Mason did Rally Special as well which my dad and me were glued to.

[@philpaxton2078]

This was such a good programme. Informative and well presented. Not like the shambolic show it morphed into.

[@ajs41]

It was dumbed down, like nearly all TV shows.

[@colinsdiecast164customs]

William Wollard, is an always will be the best car presenter ever, so I really appreciate these, I just watched a car SOS with an ultima 3 and that got me thinking I would like to see these episodes again, its grossed my mind a few times, but I have never got around to looking them up on youtube, as I could not remember his name, great TV, thanks.

[@Dr.TJ_Eckleburg]

As someone who actually owns a Lotus Esprit from that era (1985), I can say with full confidence that I'm glad Lotus never brought that active suspension to market. I can only imagine what the repair bills would be like if my car had any more British electronics in it.

[@kingkongkong2204]

You must very old I have no idea wot you are saying

[@alexshepherd]

Fifteen of us know exactly what you’re saying :) Apart from the practical ramifications… I’m intrigued by how a ‘hard’ mechanical (hydraulic) system can operate in a ‘springy’ way to absorb bumps. It was explained quite nicely in the video by likening it to the action of coordinated muscles. However, our cars today still employ some kind of elastic element (be it a steel spring, or an air spring). I can only assume that the active system was never quite active enough? The video captured from inside the test car seemed to show a fairly choppy ride…

[@EXPAT1963]

Top Gear when the presenter knew about cars!

[@1975ukandbored]

The current presenters knowledge is non existent

[@clipstone]

Sue knows what questions to ask. She's THE BEST!

[@turboslag]

Absolutely, that's because she was an ACTUAL journalist.

[@iOSAndroidRebelForever]

This video was aired just one week before I was born. I was 28 1/2 when this video was uploaded on KZbin by grodvin.

[@Graham_Patch]

When he reviewed that Corolla I had to wonder if he's ever used heater fans at full blast before. Every fan is loud when running at the highest speed.

[@CaptHollister]

There is, it's called Fifth Gear. It even features former TG presenters Vicky Butler-Henderson and Tiff Needell.

[@johnb.9806]

I had completely forgotten William Woollard was the main presenter on TG for years.

[@davidsanderson2960]

That doesn't surprise me.

[@colinsdiecast164customs]

Its taken me years to get around to searching out his name, like the one guy who did tomorrows world at the time, they were in a class all of their own, you were always interested in what they were saying, because they believed in what they were doing and put it across so well. Nobody has ever done it better, so things just went backward from then!

[@numberstation]

18.19 30% of injuries and deaths involve side accidents. So 70% are caused by rear and front accidents. And THAT is why I drive my car sideways.

[@herrgolf]

Thanks for the upload!

[@jamest7539]

Nobody noticed the Lotus Esprit's are driving on the New Top Gear race track? I recognise Hammerhead at 2:20

[@mikehumble1120]

Sorry... That's Cranfield Nr Bedford

[@TimYoung817]

Wow the old Top Gear is a far cry from what it is now...I like both for different reasons and would of liked each version to have parts from the other. For example, the new Top Gear could have more real-world segments like what to look for in buying a used car. Not everyone has the luxury of driving their pick of $200,000+ sports cars to drive around France...

[@thomasorourke8773]

Tim Youn

[@lan6947]

The new topgear is awful trash.

[@ArcturusOTE]

Well Clarkson era Top Gear is more infotainment compared to the previous predecessor, at this point they're two different shows now Now I have watched little of post-trio Top Gear aside from knowing how crap Evans was so I'm gonna asume they've reverted back to pre-trio era TG?

[@I7275-p2d]

That John Miles looks like a good steady type that you wouldn’t mind bumping into down the pub. He’d always stand his round but you’d have to make sure you steered him off the subject of motoring during the evening!

[@Kyntteri]

6:20 At first sight I was like "Terry Jones? In Top Gear? Something Monty Pythonic is about to happen." But it was only Peter Wright.

[@bensmithkent22]

I got monty python vibes at 3:00 ish just how it pans into him and the random grassy location. And now for something completely different

[@manoman0]

Yep, also the VW Scirocco with an old Aston Martin Virage.

[@MrPabsUk]

+krirks Yep, an early form of VVT, & remember, Honda was in with Austin Rover in 1983, looks like they monopolised on it more than AR did...

[@Ferrari312pb]

Crikey, that's the former Grand Prix driver John Miles, I believe.

[@isaachitchcock7113]

Yep, he also completed the paris to dakar race aswell

[@herrgolf]

I wish we had more active suspension in cars today. We have adjustable shocks and, sometimes, load leveling, but real active suspensions remain extremely rare.

[@plezurhounds]

Thanks again:-)

[@LadyofLumley]

Yes - and door handles with a Morris Marina.

[@bensmithkent22]

Looks like escort rear lights proper parts bin shitter

[@craigarmstrong5291]

I'm older now and can injoy the technology here

[@Opia0011]

where is that Ralph lad now?

[@teamangie2051]

The invention of VTEC 😭😭

[@keithnewton8981]

That was not a noisy ventilation fan he just not use to the power and amount of force.

[@modulo3664]

Lotus? Colin Chapman hadn't even been dead a full year when this aired.

[@gotham61]

Why do I get the feeling that the parking meter guy was a chain smoker?

[@vpole]

John Miles looks like an old Morrissey.

[@welz2002]

14:02 Frank isn’t hanging about is he? 😂

[@chris1.2]

if this was how the program was now it would be worth watching again. It probably turned into that daft mix of its a knockout and last of the summer wine because we stopped making stuff in the UK. When there's a car you're really interested in this level of detail is fascinating.

[@MrPabsUk]

Two years after the Lotus`s was made, they was both dead, I`m assuming for tax reasons (as experimental prototypes, although the red one seemed standard?). The vehicle details for DVG 40Y are: Date of Liability 01 03 1985 Date of First Registration 20 04 1983 The vehicle details for GCL 269Y are: Date of Liability 01 06 1985 Date of First Registration 13 06 1983

[@universalexports6119]

That is such a shame, i was going to ask if anyone knew what happened to these vehicles. How did you find out that they're both gone?

[@Mouse2113]

Toyota saloon dead in 1996 and the hatch in 1999

[@WorldwideWyatt]

This Top Gear blows away the Clarkson years. It turned into a reality show.

[@opencurtin]

I remember this when I was a little boy ..

[@eddiejones.redvees]

Now all the research go’s in to battery technology

[@EXPAT1963]

Correct BL parts bin same as MKi Disco, Allegro Marina!!!!

[@itsdinger]

Jesus that John guy with the lotus is really struggling infront of the camera

[@isaachitchcock7113]

How do you mean?

[@jameswilkinson2242]

He was hired for his driving abilities . Bloody good driver, ex grand prix .

[@EXPAT1963]

Yes!

[@Tigerfire75]

That suspension system would never work in Formula 1. They would probably ban it for being unfair advantage.

[@turboslag]

I'm probably boring and too pragmatic but I find this style of motoring program by far preferable to the blunt instrument mentality of what TG became. IMHO TG should return in his format. William Woolard and Raymond Baxter before him were born for this type of program.

[@bruce5799]

I remember this gentlemen presented Tomorrow's World, a scientific programme,so Top Gear then wasn't made for driving madness

[@Jack-ff2zs]

I saw top gear on a TV in ashes to ashes lol

[@mollyfilms]

Top gear.. when presenters were intelligent.

[@leer9951]

Agreed, and so were the viewers

[@LOPEZdJUNGLIST]

is that james mays dad ?

[@indiosse]

the guy at 4:43 doesnt realise that he was so boring that one of the wheels fell off his lotus when it went to sleep

[@PhaQ2]

Rich E As Clarkson would say, his heart beats once every hour.

[@sanchoodell6789]

Rich E Certainly! Driving around an aerodrome in a 'Cold Lotus' while having a speaking style more reminiscent of a 'Open University' programme than Top Gear would put anyone into comatose. Keep driving his 'Cold Lotus' should wake it right up again.

[@WokeHate]

Some of these presenters don't seem very comfortable in front if the camera

[@squirehaggard4749]

From a time before Clarkson & Co turned TG into a rolling sausage fest

[@ElBloeTigre]

Holy shit. It's the AE86.

[@colinstewart1432]

Halcyon Days.

[@Yaspaa]

Season 10.

[@kernals12]

europe produces fewer engineers than Japan and America? That explains why America is a breeding ground for startups and why products from Japan never break

[@kernals12]

15:05 just say it now has FWD!

[@gtrdriver27]

15:05

[@80srenaissance67]

We'd have laughed if youd have told us in 1983 how the world would be in 2024

[@MattysCars]

John Miles has died now

[@Gaba_Ghoul]

2 years before Back to the future.

[@1948DESMOND]

where is William woolard today? is he still alive? he must be in his middle to late seventies, surely. and is he still a Buddhist?

[@Devilsfan3332]

He is still alive and in his late 60s..He is currently presenting the true successor to the original Top Gear.Fifth Gear with all his colleagues from the original Top Gear save for Jeremy Clarkson

[@1948DESMOND]

Pup-Draco-3332 - i think i saw him on a london tube one evening and, if it was he, he was a midget. not tall at all as he seems on t.v.

[@sportshatch]

DES FITZGERALD As of Jan 2019 he is still alive. He was born in 1939, will be 80 this year.

[@kamrankhan-lj1ng]

@@1948DESMOND you tend to shrink in old age. At least 2 inches from what you were in the youth

[@dapwnzn5783]

James May Top Gear

[@philrogers2406]

Cranfield? Wouldn't it of been better putting the Institute of Technology in Birmingham? Where the car industry was based. . Who killed the British car industry?

[@m44kts]

I absolutely hate the way William Woollard elongates some of his words mid-sentence. It sounds so patronising 😆

[@matthewgodwin3050]

Ah, those far off days when motorists were actually interested in the mechanical engineering of the vehicles they drove. Now it's all this nonsense about touchscreen resolution and how quickly a smartphone can be connected to the car's dashboard. TV back then was aimed at the intelligent, rather that the stupified moronic snowflake that makes up today's society. Anyone else wishing they had a time machine to transport them back into the era of sensible people concerned with what was relevant and important? I'll meet you at the portal gate.

[@abcbcde9985]

I suspect they would be trying to work out what the 'dating' angle would be for the show - even Clarkson missed that one, or was that why he engineered his dramatic exit?

[@hassankhan384]

True, I hate new cars, back then cars were good, real engines not the todays crap engines that break alot and now also some coming in electric which even worse. Why cars aren't made like they used to be just with better saftey thats it we don't need crap tv screens and parking aids and all that bullshit, just make a relible car with saftey no need technology.

[@simonrich3811]

@@hassankhan384 Cars now are far more reliable than cars from the 1980s and they are safer too. I agree though, that there is far too much attention paid these days to superfluous technology and I don't like the blandness of SUVs which look much the same.

[@hassankhan384]

@@simonrich3811 yes that's true that cars are more safer but reliable I would say that because yes back then due to distributors and stuff they used to fail but not all cars, and some did last long only issues was due to snowing alot cars used to get rust more then now days as it barely ever snows, also now days cars are ugly even if I said car from 2001 would be better then today car because then cars already had alot improved from 80s cars as 90s fuel injection and better engines were made also more saftey had been kicking up then.

[@kamrankhan-lj1ng]

Long hot summer!!! Hey!

[@matthewking5612]

4:32 Gosh this guy's dull.

[@Nixter1974007]

Much preferred this Top Gear to be honest. Personally I can't stand those three clowns in the "new" one .

[@123tharry]

Guys I am so sorry believe me this happens all the time where my account spams random videos that I haven't even watched and noone believes me, sigh I don't want to delete my account . I changed my password 2 times and no change. I've had to write something like this too often and it sucks. Sorry again if you don't believe me well ..

[@888ssss]

Arrogant Gear

[@007bondspy]

TORIES OUT OUT OUT OUT

[@64fairlane305]

wow how boring..