Tahoe Snow Challenge

Our second film is now online!

We recommend viewing in 720p HD.

forum discussion here: FinalGear Discussion Thread

We're at it again!

We recently went up to Lake Tahoe, CA to determine what type of car is best for the snow... and of course, for some tangentially-related shenanigans. Here is the teaser for the forthcoming film:

Europe Driving Montage

We're in the process of devising our next project. In the meantime, I cut together a bunch of footage from our group's trip to Europe in January 2009. There was a lot of sightseeing and snowboarding stuff that I left out; this is just the driving bits showing some of the roads we drove.

Between the Autobahn in Germany and the twisty alpine passes in northern Italy, there was some fantastic stuff. Of course, we also had a couple mishaps along the way. The video is a short, approximately 4-minute montage. Check out the video here:

Here is a rough map of the route we took through northern Italy:

We've been blogged! (again)...

We were picked up by another blog, this time one in Belgium!

Check it out here: http://drivr.be/2009/03/19/video-californische-top-gear-hommage/

My Dutch is a little rusty but here is a rough translation of their review:

"Top Gear's format is a unique concept which cannot be copied," I previously wrote regarding the inferior Australian spin-off of the show. Today I must take back those words, because where a huge budget and a professional television team down under failed, three enthusiastic American fans with simple Youtube film succeeded. In an homage to their favorite car show, they use the tested recipe of the cheap car challenge as the premise for a three-day roadtrip in search of the best driving road in California. Sound camera work, a great premise, but in particular, real emotions and comradery against breathtaking scenery; at last a Top Gear takeoff worth watching as much as the original.

We've been blogged!

Transmission, one of the blogs on the Top Gear site, written by the Mole just did an entry about our video. Feel free to check it out here.

Thanks for all the support.

We've Been Pirated!

Someone took the time to put together a torrent of our entire film and do an absolutely outstanding write-up summary... check it out:

Three California mates bring you a fan production of The Best Television Show Ever. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this film blends Top Gear themes such as a cheap car challenge, a quest to find the world's greatest driving road, and an iconic unnamed stunt driver; into a perfect tonic for between-series TG deprivation syndrome. If you like Top Gear, you WILL like this, guaranteed or your money back!

If you want to download the entire film via the torrent, here is the link:

Piratebay.org Torrent: A Californian Homage to Top Gear

File size is approx 700MB.

See also: FinalGear.com Discussion Thread
(FinalGear is the #1 Top Gear fansite so we're getting the most feedback from there)

A Californian Homage to Top Gear

So we finally settled on "A Californian Homage to Top Gear," which, maybe isn't all that inspiring but at least it accurately describes our film. We thought about coming up with a title but ultimately decided to avoid branding ourselves with a silly name.

After long hours editing and much anticipation, we are now releasing the final film!!