Outing In Top Gear Australia Studio

I recently joined a racing team in my University. The team is called Redback Racing which races in Formula SAE Australia. Formula SAE is a racing competition for university level students where students from all around the world compete their racing cars in various areas such as Fuel Economy, Endurance Racing, Manufacturing Methods and etc. This Thursday I followed the team to Bankstown Airport, where Top Gear Australia is filmed.

We reached Bankstown Airport at 3 PM and of course, watched the filming of one and a half episode from that starts at 7 and ends at 10. I must say that it’s a pain in the ass to watch Top Gear at the studio itself. I’m not sure about Top Gear UK, but the filming of Top Gear Australia’s is just not fun to watch.

However, our main objective at Top Gear Australia Studio is not to watch the filming. We are there to actually get filmed and publicize our Formula SAE-A Redback team. We’re asked to fit 20 engineers into the new Honda Odyssey, and then have Warren Brown along with a volunteer drive the car. So in total, 22 people in a Honda Odyssey, how hard can it be?

We were at first greeted by some sort of assistant production manager or something. We talked about the things we’re supposed to do that day and sort things out.

After awhile we all went into the studio and examine the Honda Odyssey.

When everything is set, it’s rehearsal time and I nearly broke a spine. If you’re wondering who are those in yellow, they are the Sunswift team who works on solar powered car of UNSW. The funny thing is somebody even wrote “Sunswift sucks” on top of the dusty Honda Odyssey.

Note the empty driver’s seat. That is supposed to have Warren Brown in it together with another lady.

The rehearsal was extremely fun, we cramped into the car for about 4 times in total? And that was a new Honda Odyssey. I haven’t got a picture of how low the car actually go but I some of the working crews there are getting all worried of the car. I wonder what will happen to the suspension …

Anyways, this part will be aired on Top Gear Australia 2 Episode 4 I think. So be sure to watch it.