In Jay Leno’s latest column for The Times, he talks about the American Top Gear and the struggles it will face in a sponsor driven market.

Another problem for Top Gear in America is the biting humour and criticisms of the cars. My great fear in America is that, for instance, if Kia was our sponsor this week, we’d have to say the car was fantastic.

He also mentions why he won’t be hosting it:

So someone calls me from the network and is clearly not a car person. He says: “You like cars, right?” I say yes. “Like, all kinds of cars?” Well, yes. I like all kinds of cars. Why? “Well, the network has bought the TV show . . . um . . . High Gear? Top Gear? Top Gear! Top Gear, yes. We know you like to build cars.”

I ask: what’s the plan for the show? “Well, like, one week you build a car that flies and the next week you make a car that goes under water.” So I said: you know you can’t build these things in a week.

In my mind I can just see Jeremy lambasting Americans for what they did to his show. So I think: I’ve got to run away from this as quickly as I can. So I tell him that, as much as I like the show, I try not to make my hobby my job.

The full article is very worth a read as he makes some really valid points. I’m less hopeful for the show now though after reading his article, but I still haven’t given up all hope.

I don’t have the time to listen to all of Adam Carolla’s morning show these days, but luckily we have people on our forums who do and they’ve pointed out to me the following two recent segments from the show:

• Friday, March 21st: Adam talking about drifting in a BMW M5 out at El Toro
• Thursday, March 27th: Starting 10 minutes in, Adam talks about Star in a Reasonably Priced Car and Top Gear in general

April’s edition of Top Gear magazine is on newstands now. It comes with a free DVD that contains three of the challenges the TV show.

In this week’s series finale, Tiff and Jason race against each other in the new Renault Clio Cup. Tiff tries out the impressive Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Jonny checks out upcoming vehicles at the Geneva motor show. And Tom gets to see the massive Hummer H3 in action as it is stretched to its limits by a busy mountain rescue squad.

This last episode of the season is now available for download. Fifth Gear will be back in July.

Rock band Def Leppard’s latest album, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, features Richard Hammond among the many people on it’s cover. The artwork is in the style of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

Richard can be found in the bottom right. Very cool.

According to The Sun, the Top Gear gang will be creating a cop car for the next season of Top Gear. In the long tradition of “how hard could it be?”, they’ll be building the ultimate crook catcher.

Sun columnist Jeremy Clarkson and the gang plan to build a super patrol car to help cops crack down on crime.

Explaining what Jezza, James May and Richard Hammond have in mind, a source said: “We looked at cops’ cars and they don’t feel equipped enough for the job.

“The Top Gear lads have got some ideas so we’re going to put them to the test in the new series.

“It won’t exactly be Robocop, but it will be better than PC Plod’s Pandas.”

Props to upyourego for the hilarious image.

Adam Carolla mentioned on Monday’s show (about 13:30 in) that he’s headed out to El Toro on Thursday to film some stuff for the show until 6 PM. If you live nearby, might be worth peering through the fence to see if you can see anything, hehe.

EDIT: Whoops, linked to the wrong MP3. Should be correct now.

Our contact form has apparently been broken since January 9th or shortly thereafter. I had just figured no one wanted to e-mail me, lol.

So simply put, if you e-mailed me via our contact form during the past 2 months, I never got it and the e-mail is unrecoverable. Sorry, but you can always e-mail me again now that the form is working. ;)

This week, Tom tests Jaguar’s make-or-break executive saloon, the XF. Tiff concludes Fifth Gear’s look at the Nascar 500 by driving one of the 200mph race cars. Vicki pushes Bentley’s 200mph Continental GT Speed to the limit. And Jason finds out if the Lotus Elise SC, the first model to be fitted with a supercharger, is the best version ever.

The episode is now available.

It was very funny I hear. Find out for yourself right now.