It's hard out there for Captain Slow and his buddies at Top Gear. Every season, they try to dazzle us with insane new stunts and ridiculous road tests. The problem is that in recent years, their antics end up posted on YouTube or on Facebook or on auto websites months or weeks before the episode airs. We've done it; hell, we've even encouraged it, and we've helped fans meet the guys.


Here's what James May vented in the latest Top Gear Magazine, as quoted in The Daily Mail:

"These days, it's quite difficult to surprise you on the telly, because everything we do in any vaguely public place is immediately filmed, photographed or noted and then exposed on Twitbook and FaceTube."


May says that a team of producers, directors, camera operators, editors and other folks work to turn their misadventures into something that's "magic," but the footage that ends up going viral is grainy and lame. Not to mention full of spoilers, too.

But May did allude to a new challenge that could involve crowdsourcing at some point:

"So I see a future where we don't need to film and edit Top Gear. You will do it for us. We will arrange to drive some £500 cars to France (where the producers have come up with a series of challenges), and you will pool your footage to make an item."

I'd love to know more about what that could mean.

Anybody else think we're ruining Top Gear?

Hat tip to Vincent!