Today I, The Car Spotter, will be giving you a walkthrough and review of the Top Gear Live performance at Liverpool’s Echo Arena that I attended last Saturday night, Saturday 14th February 2015 .
Last weekend I was fortunate enough to go and watch the Top Gear Live stadium tour performance at Liverpool’s Echo Arena.
Liverpool’s Echo Arena behind the Wheel of Liverpool
The show started at 7.30pm and I arrived just after 7pm to find my seats and get comfortable.
The arena was set out with 3 sides of seating and the large concrete floor already had plenty of tyre marks, presumably from practising or the performance earlier in the day.
One of the projector screens
View of the arena from The Car Spotter’s seat
Two large projector screens were displayed at the opposite end to where I was sitting.
A couple of DVD trailers and the recent Lego trailer, which you can read more about here were shown on repeat until just after 7.30pm when the performance started.
From under the projector screens, the three presenters drove out on customised stage that had a V8 engine and was driven by Jeremy Clarkson. Richard Hammond and James May were sat on the larger bench seats. They introduced the show and explained about the stage and Clarkson then performed donuts in the stage. The effect must have been similar to being spun on a roundabout, with the circular shape of the stage. It was quite an amusing entrance and a unique piece of engineering in one.
Jeremy, RIchard and James on a V8 powered stage
Next up was a stunt driving team, who each drove modified Ford Fiesta ST’s, four in total. The performance demonstrated some incredibly skilled driving and was impressive to watch.
Ford Fiesta stunt driving team
After this two old Porsche 911s performed a routine that involved fire and were each set on fire towards the end of the demonstration.
Porshce 911’s on fire
Once this had been completed, Jeremy, Richard and James each decided they would demonstrate some drifting to us having selected a car each. Jeremy Clarkson had selected a Nissan Skyline, Richard Hammond a Mazda RX-7 and James May a BMW 3 series. They each performed figure of 8s around a track and donuts in the donut ring.
Drifting competition
The next event was a compilation of modern supercars. Each was slowly driven around the arena and parked up. From right to left included an Audi R8, BAC Mono, Morgan, Jaguar F-Type, Porsche 911 GT3, McLaren 650S, Noble M600, Lamborghini Aventador Roadster, Nissan GTR, BMW M6, Bentley Continental GT Convertible, Alfa Romeo 4C,Maserati GT and an Aston Martin. It was a really fine display of luxury and exotic supercars. My favorite was probably the Lamborghini Aventador Roadster.
Supercar demonstration
Left column of supercars
Another view of the right column of supercars
The Nissan GTR pictures was held back as all the other cars drove off and Louise Hazel Commonwealth Heptathlon Champion and 2012 Olympion competitor entered the arena in trainers and sports gear. Her task was to race James May who would race the Nissan GTR using launch control, drive 50m and then drive back 50m in reverse.
Louise Hazel’s task was to beat James May by sprinting the same distance. Louise lined up alongside James May and the flag was waved. Although James May easily beat Louise to the 50m point, he struggled to put the Nissan GTR into reverse and ended up sat stationary for between 5-10 seconds which lost him the race. Louise had completed the full 100m before James May (Captain Slow) had even put the Nissan GTR into reverse.
James May lines up against Louise Hazel in a race
After this, a long video was put up on the dual screens of the many crashes in Top Gear over the entire history of filming, including a brief clip of Hammonds near death crash in the dragster.
Whilst this was being shown, a giant metal sphere had been wheeled into the ring. Inside the ‘Cage of Death’ was an individual motorcyclist who drove in a gravity defying manner that was very entertaining to watch. After this, it was decided Hammond would join the stunt cyclist and stood in the centre of the spherical cage in what must have been a very nerve racking and scary experience. After this the number of motorcyclists was increased to 2, then 3, then 5 and finally 7. The Cage of Death motorcyclists put on a very entertaining performance that must have taken a lot of practising to achieve.
Cage of Death with five motrocycles
Cage of death with seven motorcycles inside
After this, the track was laid out and each of the presenters, Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May had a small vehicle to drive around the track. Jeremy Clarkson was driving his P45 (the smallest car in the world), James May drove a suitcase with an engine and Richard Hammond drove a seat that had an engine and sat very low to the ground, They were up against The Stig who drove a Peel P50. He lapped all of the competitors and James May narrowly beat Jeremy Clarkson at the finish line with Richard Hammond’s vehicle being very slow and taking the most amount of time, after being lapped on a 3 lap circuit race.
A pair of BMW’s with adaptive LED lights were then driven around the track providing a light show and special effects scene.
Once this was complete, the presenters and The Stig completed laps of the track in Reliant Robin 3 wheelers. Of course the event was filled with plenty of drama, with the cars regularly flipping onto one side and The Stig expertly driving his on two wheels for the majority of the race. It was comical to watch the presenters keep flipping the 3 wheel Reliant Robins.
The Reliant Robins were driven out of sight and the last event would be a game of car football against Jeremy Clarkson’s least favourite country at present time, Argentina. The cars used were Suzuki Swifts. The presenters went 4-0 up however Argentina brought the score line to 4-4 after picking up their game. The final goal was a well worked team effort to ensure the Top Gear team beat Argentina 5-4 overall.
The teams line up before car football begins
The presenters thanked everyone for coming and the show was complete just after 9pm. Overall the Top Gear Live performance was very entertaining and easy to watch. The presenters were amusing in their antics and there was a broad variety of events and cars on show.
The presenters end the Top Gear Live show
I hope you enjoyed my review of my night at Top Gear Live at Echo Arena Liverpool.
Have you been to see Top Gear Live or do you have tickets to see them in the future?
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