★★★★★ 0/5

First Review: Blood, Sweat and Gears

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FOX8’s new motoring show raises an interesting discussion point for two reasons.

One is the media coverage that has attracted Temptation model Scott McGregor leaving Nine for a hosting role with Foxtel. McGregor was clearly disappointed he didn’t have a chance to try his hand at new projects with Nine.

The second point is the parallels that could be drawn in SBS producing a local series of Top Gear. How well do we do car shows here?

The premise of Blood, Sweat and Gears is a contest to find Australia’s best driver (something of a misnomer, but more on that shortly). 8 men, mostly unshaven revheads, drive their own suped up car through a series of challenges and are scored by judges Ian Luff and Nathan Luck.

In the first episode the drivers are actually passengers as the judges take the cars for a spin, doing burnouts in controlled situations, to see who has ‘built’ the best car. In the second ep the men roar down a regional airstrip to see who can get the fastest speed in a short space.

One of the judges, Ian Luff, is great talent. He is confident, interesting and personable in a fairly straightforward magazine-style show. Is this guy auditioning for Top Gear: Australia?

Also on location is a female reporter taking reactionary comments from the drivers.

And Scott McGregor? He’s back at Federation Square doing links. In what must have been a belated casting choice, McGregor looks entirely removed from the action. His skills at presenting (it can hardly be called hosting) seem perfectly capable. But in his nice velvet jacket he might have seemed more at home on a travel show than this format. Given the show is presumably targeting testosterone males, squeaky clean McGregor may end up alienating his audience -none of which is his fault.

It isn’t that McGregor has been miscast, but that he is denied the chance to get amongst the action.

The stunts themselves certainly don’t seem designed to find Australia’s best driver, but Australia’s best revhead. It is no Top Gear but then nor does it have the budget or ambition to be such.

The show itself should appeal to those who like their cars fast, noisy and doing burnouts.

Blood Sweat and Gears premieres 8pm Friday January 18 on FOX8.

19 Responses

  1. I’m sorry, but this show is pathetic. The first season was ok but this one is a joke! Why oh why is there a Laser as one of the cars? It is the biggest joke I have ever seen. So what if there’s a Monaro with a blower, what else has been done to it? Is this seriously the best cars they could find? And don’t get me started on the driving. How the hell can these guys run for ‘Australia’s best driver’? Watching a Laser do a 16 sec quarter mile is amazing, I was truly blown away. I could run that time in my grandmas Daewoo.

  7. well i thought that blood sweat and gears show was going to be great but after the last episode i dont think i will bother with it anymore. I couldnt believe how much time they spent on the intro and when it came time to actually watch the cars in action there was about 10secs of each car spinnng out. Not one car did we get to watch compete in the event from start to finish. I actually watch the show to see the cars in action not to watch the host driving around in a 300C and talking crap while he sips his drink in a bar. I dont know who the target audience is…maybe its the hosts and judges family.

  8. i made the big mistake of wasting half an hour of my life watching this rubish.
    the tv show host has no idea what he’s talking about, and from the episode i watched, it seems neither do luff/luck either.
    other than the fact that the host had the most surgically implanted grin, there was nothing at all funny, there was absolutely no relevant technical info other than ‘it’s got plenty of horsepower’ ??? so what, so does my lawnmower (for what it is) and the people that they were talking to (some random cars/drivers for something they think should be called australia’s best car) couldn’t string a sentence together.

    i really hope this show flops and all associated are never heard (or seen) from again

  9. Pedro

    YOUR CORRect but maybe need to REMEMber these are NOT stoCK CArS or off the shelF CArs. they are moDified and customised to THE OWNERs tasTES>

    so in reality there is NOthing to compARE THEM to as no two modifIED CArs Are THE sAmE.

    yOU CAN DO THE SAme Mods to two cars AND get diffEReNt power results and drivability As nO enginE is the same. catalYtIC coNVERToRs exhaust placeMEnT Of the cats can change the way poweR IS DeLIVEred by EFFeCTing the TOuque of the moTOR.

    you can have all the poWeR in thE woRLd but if you cant get IT TO THE Ground its a waste of money

  10. This show sucks.
    The tester obviously gave a very subjective view of the abilities of each car he tested.
    Even those predjudiced poms on their car shows include some form of objective testing.
    Like reading the Car magazine and newspaper road tests you will be lucky to find out the ability reliabilty and longevity of any vehicle they test as it is all brand perception totally devoid of objectivity.
    I see the Paris to Dakar has been cancelled, obviously we don’t want another Pajero win. I could give many similar examples over the years including Le Mans, Bathurst and Sports car racing in OZ but why waste my time I know what to buy.

  11. from one anonymous to another… if you had any idea of modified engines or experience in doing mods, you would be able to “calculate” it in your head to see if what they say is true or not, or even close to what they say for that matter.

  12. Make the contestants cars do a dyno test to see if the vehicles have as much horsepower as they stated in first episode. I rekon they are over exaggerating..

  13. Scott McGregor is not well suited to host this show.
    He is too handsome.He would be better hosting fashion week.Next time undo more buttons on your shirt if you want the ladies to watch.
    Not macho enough.

  14. I don’t really see what all the fuss is about him as Kath Day-Knight once said: i prefer my men to be a little bit more ‘cave man’ and not so much ‘quiche man’

  15. Damm.. you mean Scott won’t be in a tight fitting racing out fit on the race track…. What’s the point of watching now!!!

    Im gonna cancel my Foxtel installation now !!!

  16. how bizarre that hes hosting it from a remote location away from the rest of the shows action, I think your right David, his inclusion as presenter must have been decided upon after the rest of the filming and as for the shirt buttons, undo the rest of them I reckon..this guy is HOT!

  17. i agree with “ME”. If Scott wants this career move to be taken seriously, and to have some TV-cred, then cover up and don’t rely on being the ‘pretty boy’ because otherwise that’s all he end up being cast as.

  19. appointing Mr McGregor as host is clearly to cover all bases. The show’s got the grunt for the revheads, and the eye candy for the wives/girlfriends because I can’t imagine he’s been hired for his hosting ability or knowledge of cars

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