Fifth Gear Recharged

As the BBC's iconic Top Gear fades into the rearview mirror, terrestrial TV had a clear lane to dominate the automotive show circuit. Enter Fifth Gear Recharged, a program with the potential to seize the crown and reign supreme in the world of car enthusiasts. Yet, despite this golden opportunity, the show stalls right out of the gate.

Fifth Gear Recharged, regrettably, deflates expectations. The show's identity is as elusive as a rare vintage car, leaving viewers puzzled about its intended audience. Episodes featuring SUVs are so lackluster that even the fast-forward button feels underwhelmed. The segment on the Lamborghini, a vehicle synonymous with exhilaration, somehow manages to be devoid of any zeal. While Top Gear famously orchestrated epic showdowns like the McLaren F1 versus the Bugatti, Fifth Gear Recharged opts for tepid banter in a Scottish pub. This is not the high-octane content that petrolheads crave.

Even the BMW M50, a gem in the automotive world, loses its luster under Fifth Gear's lackluster presentation. The show transforms what should be a thrilling ride into a mundane, overcrowded car journey, reminiscent of a lackadaisical school project.

The hosting team, a seemingly random assemblage of personalities, lacks chemistry. The dynamic that once made car shows captivating is notably absent. However, all is not lost. The solution may lie in a bold shake-up: maintain Vicki Butler-Henderson and Jason Plato, whose expertise resonates with purists, and introduce an element of unpredictability - perhaps in the form of Russell Brand. While not a conventional choice, Brand's vibrant character could inject much-needed vitality into the show.

In its current state, Fifth Gear Recharged is a missed opportunity, a journey that promised adventure but delivered monotony. It's time for the producers to shift gears and steer the show towards a path that resonates with true car aficionados.

Show and cars have no soul . Rory get the clowns off of top gear and return to that show you are twice as good as flintoff and mcmarblemouth your enthusiasim for cars shows , even for bland erectric cars tried watching the new show , bloody painful.

For a brief time, the UK had three car shows that talked about cars in all their glory; Top Gear, which was now in its fourth incarnation in just as many years, The Grand Tour, which had sprang forth from the former, and Fifth Gear, which couldn't stay buried for long and had ran on and off since its launch in 2002 from the remains of the original Top Gear.

At this point, it had been revived several times over. Quest's was the latest attempt in 2018.

Then Quest did their first stupid thing one year later; fire Tiff Needell. 30 years of hard service, 16 of them at Fifth Gear, yet dismissed in the blink of an eye. Whether it was due to ageism or simply someone at Quest with a vendetta, Tiff was pulled away from a lot of his life's work without so much as a basic explanation. Then after one more series, the programme retools into this, an EV-only show. Not only was the 'Fifth Gear' name already increasingly obsolete with most new cars coming with 6 - 7+ speed gearboxes and C5 having ceded the rights long ago, it was now entirely vestigial. A name that means nothing other than a minor bit of brand power it once had in its mid-2000s heyday.

As for the favourable review that condemns its critics in the usual virtue-signalling way; limiting the scope of your programme to talking about EVs does not magically make the variety of new petrol cars still coming out and the people who are passionate about them go away.

Petrol cars are here to stay for a good while, the used market only prolonging their relevancy to consumers looking for potential advice delivered in a way only a car show could.

This programme ignores the RB17 hypercar. The Bugatti Tourbillon. The Aston Martin Valhalla. Moving further down into obtainable territory, we have the upcoming Toyota MR2 and Celica reboots, as well as the inevitable C8 Corvette ZR1 and bat-crazy Mustang GTD. You will never hear a peep about these cars on the new Fifth Gear because of the manner of their birth. And that's a shame.

Because these are cars that are and will be important for not only the immediate future, but perhaps the next decade. And they will have no big-budget show to talk about them. Top Gear finally died, The Grand Tour concluded on its own terms, and Fifth Gear has no interest in it. The programme has willingly turned its back on a large portion of the fans who helped get it off the ground 20 years ago.

All we have left is Lovecars: On The Road, Tiff Needell's pet project. And it's a show I strongly advise you watch instead. This is little more than pandering to a small minority of the fanbase and of the automotive fandom as a whole to try and force a consensus down the rest of our throats.

Fifth Gear has had a chequered history - moving from channel to channel with repeated risk of cancellation, but the new Recharged version shows a maturity and expertise lacking in many automotive shows such as the increasingly embarrassing UK Top Gear. Jason Plato, Vicky Butler-Henderson,Karun Chandhok and Grace Webb know their stuff and genuinely seem to be having fun together, not pulling any punches but equally not going over the top. However, Sid North seems a bit out of his depth - occasionally just repeating what others in the team say. Tiff Needell is notably missed. Just reviewing EV's may limit its scope, and it must be made on a budget given its limited audience size, but it's good viewing even so - intelligent and imaginative.

Just started watching Fifth Gear Recharged. Great crew line up. Big fan of Jason from the Williams Touring Car days in 1999-2000. Recent show great with 3 Electric Bikes compared. Just caught up with the earlier show demonstrating the Citroen Ami. Hilarious. Sorry Vicki. 2 things that constantly annoy me, are; please, please don't abbreviate BHP to HP. They are not the same thing. I'm sure that everyone in the know about engine power are aware that horses were indeed rated against the power produced by low power engines. Engine power is now rated on a water brake.. Also, Hyundai, the company, have recently been running an Ad campaign to educate people into pronouncing the name correctly. I'm one of them as are many others. Your team regularly pronounce it High and Dye. It's actually pronounced Hay un Day. Great show; more series please.