So, it seems the news has slipped out that the new Top Gear team is likely to be Chris Evans, Sabine Schmitz and Chris Harris, with a dose of David Coulthard. This is good news isn’t it?

Yet, it has sent the press into a frenzy. The Telegraph in particular has included the words ‘virtually unknown’ in the title, as if this is some crazy, lunatic idea. It seems that The Telegraph has forgotten that Top Gear was relaunched in 2002 with two virtually unknown presenters. No-one outside the obscure Men and Motors channel had heard of Richard Hammond back then, or Jason Dawe for that matter. Remember him? James May wasn’t even on the horizon back then.

James May. The only one I like.

It gets worse. According to The Sun, and no, I’m not going to link to that dreadful rag, a Top Gear insider appeared to pan the line up as virtually unknown, and wasn’t kind about Coulthard either.

It must be said, I feel very sorry for those working on this third generation of Top Gear. The chances of having a fabulous show from the off are low, yet they will get panned and vilified by all-comers if the ratings are even slightly less than Clarkson’s era. They won’t recall the damp squib that was the first series of ‘new’ Top Gear in 2002 – you know, the series that you DON’T see repeated every five minutes on Dave. The one that seems to have been buried.

Even know, any mention of Top Gear on social media gets people ranting about Chris Evans, the wrongness of sacking that complete oaf Clarkson and how they won’t watch the new programme ‘in protest.’ Oh piss off. It’s utterly ridiculous to pan something you haven’t even seen. I look forward to watching the new format in May 2016 and I will then make up my mind.

Put your hand up if you love David Cameron!

I really do wish them the best, because Clarkson’s Top Gear had become totally meaningless. It was devoid of fun for those of us who are passionate about ALL cars. I feel I can make a prediction about how the new Amazon show will look, because frankly, the TG-trio seemed almost entirely out of ideas when they still worked for the BBC and the only common thread was stupidity and abuse of cheap, old cars. Given that I’ve already seen a picture of the trio with Reliant Robins, I can probably draw a conclusion already.

Anyway, that’s my rant. Don’t pan things of which you have no experience at all. That’s the sort of short-sighted stupidity that became regular Top Gear fodder. Instead, let’s stop building the Evans era up to be a disaster. Let’s see what he can do. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of his, but he has passion and enthusiasm and I’m sure that’ll come across in the new programme. I’m cautiously curious.