Old RTE car show

cmo

Ok I saw a programme on BBC2 tonight about old car shows and it reminded me of one on RTE in the late 90s or early 00s I would say. It was called drive or something like that?

I have trawled the internet and can't for the life of me remember the presenters or what the correct name was. I know one guy had a greek sort of name but had a posh Dublin accent.

This is killing me, if anyone knows what it was or who was in it please put me out of my misery

L1011

Show was called "Drive", presenters name was Karl Tsignidos or something like that.

edit: Karl Tsigdinos according to Google.

cmo

MYOB wrote: »

Show was called "Drive", presenters name was Karl Tsignidos or something like that.

edit: Karl Tsigdinos according to Google.

Haha excellent! Thanks MYOB, curse RTE for not having a proper list of old shows!

Aidric

MYOB wrote: »

Show was called "Drive", presenters name was Karl Tsignidos or something like that.

edit: Karl Tsigdinos according to Google.

Ya that's it, also presented by Michael Sheridan.

Koloman

Remember Sarah Kavanagh? She was a presenter also. She was once upon a time thought of as a future F1 driver! It never happened.

Yakuza

I could be wrong, but I think Lorraine Keane did a stint on it too, and I remember another female presenter, Sharon Ó Buachalla?

It really was the poor relation to the Top Gear of the day, with reviews of the "new" 1.1 Fiesta or Peugot 106 or some such dreck, while Top Gear had the latest BMW's /Golf GTI (Mk3 at the time)/ Cossies etc. It only served to highlight the vast gulf in price and range differences between us and the UK.

I have a pair of leather driving gloves somewhere, that I got for taking out a year's sub to the related magazine around 1990 / 1991. They came in handy for go-karting in Kylemore

mike65

RTE had a car prog back in the early 80s as well - it had one the great rocking tracks as its title music.

Anyone else old enough to remember it?

Donie75

I remember they did a great review of a red Mitsubishi Pajero Evo. The other guy, not Kerl, drove the ring out of the jeep around an old quarry. V good review and great footage but the rest of the show was rubbish...

afatbollix

what was the one on TG4 called?

Elmo

RPM on TG4.

And Ignition on City Channel.

I liked Drive.

When it first began Lorraine Keane would be talking about how to fix cars, they ditched that section a year later, and Lorraine became Entertainment Anchor at TV3.

Elmo

mike65 wrote: »

RTE had a car prog back in the early 80s as well - it had one the great rocking tracks as its title music.

Anyone else old enough to remember it?

I amn't old enough but I remember it as a child (lived in 2 TV land). Don't know the name of it but the song was "Ridin' around in my automobile..... "

Elmo

MYOB wrote: »

Show was called "Drive", presenters name was Karl Tsignidos or something like that.

edit: Karl Tsigdinos according to Google.

Is he not Canadian with a canadian accent?

The Don

I used to watch it as well. Thought that it was pretty decent as I hadn't seen Top Gear at the time. The most memorable episode was when Karl drove a red Dodge Viper GTS. I fell in love with that car after seeing it.

Elmo

Now that I think of it RTÉ co-produced a car show with Men and Motors presented by Jon Slaterty around 2003/2004.

The Recliner

Elmo wrote: »

Is he not Canadian with a canadian accent?

I think he is Canadian but he had a muddled accent

He used to present a Soul/Gospel show on Today FM on Sunday evenings way back when

I used to like Drive, it had some good features and was more relevant to use than a lot of other Motor shows

Elmo

The Recliner wrote: »

He used to present a Soul/Gospel show on Today FM on Sunday evenings way back when

I think he is on 4fm now, or Lyric not sure.

Owen

The show was abysmal. They tried to jazz it up by using the guy who does 99% of RTE voiceovers, and he just came across as a pompous knob who knew nothing about cars.

The whole ethos of RTE designing a show like that was flawed, it's as if they had a meeting, said "We need a car show, hey Karl, you have a car right? Great, you present it", and went rapidly downhill from there. A car show is a delicate thing to balance correctly, and RTE as usual monumentally f*cked up as they do with everything.

mike65

Hell Drive did non-ironic Tractor tests which tells you everything.

Elmo

ned78 wrote: »

The show was abysmal. They tried to jazz it up by using the guy who does 99% of RTE voiceovers, and he just came across as a pompous knob who knew nothing about cars.

The whole ethos of RTE designing a show like that was flawed, it's as if they had a meeting, said "We need a car show, hey Karl, you have a car right? Great, you present it", and went rapidly downhill from there. A car show is a delicate thing to balance correctly, and RTE as usual monumentally f*cked up as they do with everything.

Is this the series with Jon Slattery (RTÉ Voice over person/continuity)? or Drive?

I would disagree and put Drive in the box with Fifth Gear. Top Gear is just an entertainment show, nothing really to do with cars, cars happen to be the focus. But they could do the same type of show with any subject IMO.

Yakuza

Elmo wrote: »

Top Gear is just an entertainment show, nothing really to do with cars, cars happen to be the focus.

Not back then. In the early 90's, it was a half-hour (Thursday night, 8:30 IIRC) slot, purely dedicated to cars. Clarkson presented it, along with a host of others (Tiff Needell (ex racer), Quentin Wilson (had a slot about good value 2nd hand cars) and Vicky Butler Henderson (rawr) to name but a few.

I'm sure wikipedia will explain better, but around 2000 (?) Clarkson had some sort of run-in with the management and left. The series quickly panned, and was set up again on Channel 5 as Fifth Gear (with Tiff and VBH presenting), but it didn't last more than a two or three years (not counting countless repeats on Dave!).

Just found this article

gucci

Donie75 wrote: »

I remember they did a great review of a red Mitsubishi Pajero Evo. The other guy, not Kerl, drove the ring out of the jeep around an old quarry. V good review and great footage but the rest of the show was rubbish...

I think i remember them doing a review of a Deutz Fahr tractor (could have been a John Deere either-i just remember it was green) but basically it was some ridiculously massive high tech tractor. It was funny to see that, probably because I would imagine maybe 2 of them would be sold in Ireland considering the shear scale of the machine. It was funny see the presenter control the tractor with its joy stick type console, i think he was bricking himself he wouldnt do any damage to it most of the way through the report!

mike65

Fifth Gear is still going strong Yakuza.

Elmo the series that used Chuck Berrys "No Particular Place to Go" must have been something else cos the one I have in mind started with an extract of Black Betty by Ram Jam as a camera fixed on a car held a close up on a tailpipe.

Elmo

mike65 wrote: »

Fifth Gear is still going strong Yakuza.

Elmo the series that used Chuck Berrys "No Particular Place to Go" must have been something else cos the one I have in mind started with an extract of Black Betty by Ram Jam as a camera fixed on a car held a close up on a tailpipe.

Around 1986 - 1988?

mike65

80s early or mid but beyond that I'm not sure (very loooooooong time ago after all).

Koloman

mike65 wrote: »

80s early or mid but beyond that I'm not sure (very loooooooong time ago after all).

The one with the Chuck Berry intro was simply called The Car Show, although I am not 100% on that. It was on around the late 80's/early 90's. It used to have a segment with some elderly fellow driving vintage cars around the Phoenix Park and the like. I can't think of his name unfortunately. The intro consisted of a flashing neon sign with the "riding along in my automobile" music playing over it. It was on Network 2.

Drive came a few years later with the presenters already mentioned.

Yakuza

mike65 wrote: »

Fifth Gear is still going strong Yakuza.

Oops, my bad. I don't get Channel 5, and I think the most modern repeat on Dave that I've seen has been for the MkV Golf, and featuring some "new" GPS technology (to be used to avoid fixed cameras), I must have made a wrong mental leap somewhere

Arthur Daley

Koloman wrote: »

The one with the Chuck Berry intro was simply called The Car Show, although I am not 100% on that. It was on around the late 80's/early 90's. It used to have a segment with some elderly fellow driving vintage cars around the Phoenix Park and the like. I can't think of his name unfortunately. The intro consisted of a flashing neon sign with the "riding along in my automobile" music playing over it. It was on Network 2.

Drive came a few years later with the presenters already mentioned.

Recall this about 1988/89, launched just when people had money to look at cars again, just as the country was slightly upbeat after escaping from it's latest economic trauma :rolleyes:.

The old guy was called Ted something, I remember one day he had the old Rolls out that used to be the President's car. Karl I thought was motoring editor for the Irish Times then so probably the main motoring journalist in the country. Recall his show on Today FM on soul and hearing it as recently as 2002/03.

steve 0

Koloman wrote: »

The one with the Chuck Berry intro was simply called The Car Show, although I am not 100% on that.

I think it could have been The Motor Show but also not 100%.

Firetrap

Drive. I think that was the show where they showed how dangerous SUVs are if you have to do some sudden manoeuvring. The thing very nearly flipped over :eek:

Akrasia

Firetrap wrote: »

Drive. I think that was the show where they showed how dangerous SUVs are if you have to do some sudden manoeuvring. The thing very nearly flipped over :eek:

if it did some sudden manoeuvering and only 'nearly' flipped over then it's not that dangerous....

top gear would have made it barrel roll

Firetrap

Well, they did stress that they had a "professional driver" at the wheel. A mere mortal (or someone from Top Gear) would have done something more exciting with it. It was worthy but dull, that Drive program. That Sarah Kavanagh woman was all teeth and a funny accent. Thank heavens she disappeared again.

Koloman

steve 0 wrote: »

I think it could have been The Motor Show but also not 100%.

I think your right, it was the Motor Show.

Akilduss

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Recall this about 1988/89, launched just when people had money to look at cars again, just as the country was slightly upbeat after escaping from it's latest economic trauma :rolleyes:.

The old guy was called Ted something, I remember one day he had the old Rolls out that used to be the President's car. Karl I thought was motoring editor for the Irish Times then so probably the main motoring journalist in the country. Recall his show on Today FM on soul and hearing it as recently as 2002/03.

Ted Bonner?

Koloman

Akilduss wrote: »

Ted Bonner?

That's the guy! Thanks for that. It was frustrating not knowing his name!

Irish and Proud

cmo wrote: »

Ok I saw a programme on BBC2 tonight about old car shows and it reminded me of one on RTE in the late 90s or early 00s I would say. It was called drive or something like that?

I have trawled the internet and can't for the life of me remember the presenters or what the correct name was. I know one guy had a greek sort of name but had a posh Dublin accent.

This is killing me, if anyone knows what it was or who was in it please put me out of my misery

I don't remember the presenters but indeed, the programme was called 'Drive' and the one thing that really stood out for me was the intro - it started with an old style theme followed by an abrupt transition to a modern theme with two crash tests in rapid succession followed by then modern footage and graphics to a good upbeat electro track. I'm just dying to see that intro again - the BBC Top Gear intro might need some updating IMO - maybe RTE could sell them the rights for the 'Drive' intro. When I saw 'Drive' for the first time, I was wondering what the hell was going on with an old fashioned theme before the sudden transition - much to my relief I must admit - it was a case of 'somehow, I don't think so!'

However, has Top Gear become rather dumbed down these days? - from what I've seen, it doesn't seem to be so much about the cars themselves, but rather about outlandish behavior with cars and celebrities. IIRC, 'Drive' was at least about cars and motoring.

Regards!

squonk

The mid 80's show was The Motor Show. I remember one episode where they did a review of the new (at the time) facelifted Fiesta followed by a review of the Citroen XM which was brand new. I've loved XM's since then. It was jawdropping at the time.

Drive was the later iteration. it wasn't quite as good IMHO but I preferred top Gear as I'd moved out of 2 channel land by then. TG4 did a show back in the 90's with some old guy restoring a vintage car and a muppet (sorry, young person) pimping their ride out bit by bit each week. That really was a trully awful show. Fairly much along the lines of 'Please Mr. Manufacturer, give us a test model and we promise to say nothing bad at all about it whatsoever'.

Shots McHackey

Yakuza wrote: »

I could be wrong, but I think Lorraine Keane did a stint on it too, and I remember another female presenter, Sharon Ó Buachalla?

It really was the poor relation to the Top Gear of the day, with reviews of the "new" 1.1 Fiesta or Peugot 106 or some such dreck, while Top Gear had the latest BMW's /Golf GTI (Mk3 at the time)/ Cossies etc. It only served to highlight the vast gulf in price and range differences between us and the UK.

I have a pair of leather driving gloves somewhere, that I got for taking out a year's sub to the related magazine around 1990 / 1991. They came in handy for go-karting in Kylemore

Hope you still have your "top of the range', champion driving gloves from your sub to 'Drive Magazine', thank you. Sharon had nothing to do with the 'Drive' programme series. She worked for a guy named Michael O'Connell who produced a lesser quality motor TV series years earlier, called ,'The Motor Show'."Drive TV Series" aired for 5 years on RTE 1, delivering an average audience of 500,000 viewers per week, coupled with the mid week airing, and a weekend repeat.

Lady Chatterton

Locking old thread.