Considering the seemingly endless barrage of doom-and-gloom associated with reading the news nowadays, sometimes what you really need is a bit of nostalgia to feel like yourself again. Lucky for you, I just stumbled across a new, and perhaps most notably free-of-charge, way to microdose the delicious cars and fashion of the early 2000s, 25-ish-minutes at a time, with the Fifth Gear Full Episodes playlist on the new Fifth Gear Classic YouTube channel.
The channel has everything from season one, episode one to season 14, episode one, and every episode in between, with new videos added every few days. I’m a huge fan of MotorWeek’s Retro Review playlist and marathons on YouTube which go back to the early ’80s, but I grew up in the early 2000s, so this exact era of car reviewing hits me right in the sweet spot. The very first episode of “Fifth Gear” originally aired in 2002 and covers the debut of the Earth-shatteringly cool Lamborghini Murcielago as well as the fateful E65 BMW 7 Series, and the most recent episode is from 2008, so it covers automotive innovation in the early 21st century.
The rest of the channel has tons of great content too
The Fifth Gear Classic YouTube channel was started earlier this year, and outside of the Full Episodes Playlist, there are plenty more hours of other classic “Fifth Gear” car reviews and transportation-focused content to keep your weekends filled with entertainment.
One reason I love watching old car reviews is that you get to understand the impact of a car in the context of its original competitive set. For example, we now lament the death of hydraulic steering racks, as well as the wide application of naturally aspirated V8s and manual transmissions, so we as car enthusiasts can almost appreciate the classics a bit more than modern cars. But, thanks to the magic of YouTube channels like this, you can learn about how these models we now drool over were received by automotive journalists when they were new. You might be surprised by some critiques that time has selectively forgotten about now that we have the power of hindsight.
Plus it’s really cool to see pristine versions of cars that you otherwise only see clapped-out examples on their sixth owner, and you get to see cars that are now too valuable to thrash like the Porsche Carrera GT get thrashed as nature intended. It’s all just great fun if you ask me, so if your weekend calendar is looking bleak and your hunger for nostalgic car content is strong, might I suggest spending some time with the Fifth Gear Classic YouTube Channel.
