

With new episodes of Top Gear seemingly being broadcast in increasingly minuscule batches, it's proving harder than ever to find good motoring shows on TV. Yes, there are the numerous Top Gear repeats/best-of compilations, but science has determined that you can watch Jeremy Clarkson blow up a caravan so many times. And there's Fifth Gear, of course, but that's hardly a sensible option.

So what about Top Gear USA? After the success of the original Top Gear in America, a stateside remake of the show starring the comedian Adam Ferrera, the stunt driver Tanner Foust and the Nascar analyst Rutledge Wood will debut on American television. Originally slated for NBC – but dropped when the failure of its Knight Rider remake convinced executives that nobody liked cars any more – the show will now be made on a reduced budget and broadcast on The History Channel. We won't see a full episode for a while, but this week the internet got its first taste in the form of a short promo.

The response hasn't exactly been warm. As is internet tradition, reaction has been swift and brutal. (According to the YouTube user ButtNut1080 it is an "insult to the actual Top Gear", while MrPotatoSQUAD observes that "THIS IS CRAP !!!!!" and someone called FissionNonStop is so outraged about the show's mere existence that he squeezes six F-words, a variation on the C-word and a sweeping generalisation about the sexuality of all American men into a single comment).

Which doesn't really bode well. And the commenters do have a point - Top Gear isn't successful because of the car reviews or the gormless stunts; it's successful because of the chemistry between its three easily identifiable hosts. It's admittedly difficult to gauge from a single two-and-a-half minute video, but it doesn't look as though America has got that right yet: the UK has Jeremy Clarkson, Captain Slow and The Hamster, while they've got The One in a Lumberjack Shirt, The Other One in a Lumberjack Shirt and The Other One.

On the other hand, there's nothing quintessentially British about Top Gear: it's just a show about some men driving cars and being stupid. That's universal. Stupid men drive cars all over the world, so there's no reason why Top Gear US couldn't mimic the formula perfectly. Maybe it could even better it – with less money and a faster turnaround, perhaps the US version will be less reliant on the jarringly scripted segments that have started to clog up the original version. (Although, this clip from Top Gear Australia might suggest otherwise).

So what do you think – does American Top Gear have potential, or is it doomed to go the same way as American Coupling and American Life On Mars? Will it suffer from the demands of sponsors and advertisers in the US? Would you watch it if it was shown on British TV? Your considered responses below, please.