I honestly didn’t think that this week’s Top Gear would be that good. I’m sorry, but after watching the Bolivia special last week I figured there was no way they were gonna top it with just an average week of car tests and news. That was until they actually brought out the first car they were going to review. Known as the spiritual successor to the Supra, The Lexus LF-A is the company’s first try at a supercar. Obviously the car freak/Toyota fan in me enjoyed seeing what is essentially a new Supra being drifted around the track by Richard Hammond, but what gave this segment an extra edge was the presentation. They used what I would call a type of animation that they put the car into, giving it almost a Sin City type feel of a saturated, black white and red world, which was just stunning to watch combined with seeing this amazing car perform.

During a walk around explaining what an accomplishment this car is, I actually found myself applauding about how many race features were incorporated, from mirrors being designed to funnel air into rear scoops to an entire Carbon body. The car itself is so fast they couldn’t use analog gauges, because they couldn’t keep up. The problem the presenters had though is the price tag, which makes most super cars actually look cheap in comparison. At £340,000, it converts to around $551,000. Much more, (they are very willing to point out) than a Ferrari F430, for a car that’s not as fast.

James’ and Jeremy’s test’s weren’t as exciting as Richard’s was, I do have to admit. Clarkson took out the new BMW X6 which is the latest in the line of BMW’s massive trucks that still only seat four people. While he went on to show just how useless and awful the car was, James’ ended up driving some Holden that we’ll never get in America, so I kind of ignored that. What I didn’t ignore for once though, was the star in a reasonably priced car. I normally skip it because not being British leads me to only know one “star” about every season. I didn’t know who Seasick Steve was before I watched the episode, but a man who embraces so many Dude-like philosophies seems pretty awesome to me. On top of it all, this was the final star before they reset the leaderboards and get a new car for next season, which by my count is the third time for them.

Lastly, they filmed this week’s episode last month, so there was no car news at all. They instead proceeded to talk about what cars they were looking forward to in 2010, which was just chock full of laughs. Of course I remember laughing hardest at a James May bit about him doing two takes at the same time, just in case Saab went under in the weeks before the show aired. They also ended up bringing out three forms of personal motorized vehicles, which inevitably lead to a race, which ended up with Clarkson running into the Cool Wall and Hammond hitting their Christmas tree and flying off his motorized skateboard. Instead of being just another average episode, the guys really took to their strengths and pulled off amusing banter and informative, fun road tests. With new episodes promised later in the year, I can’t imagine what my favorite Brits will have come up with by next season.