Reply to topic  [ 308 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 21  Next
Top Gear is back... 
Author Message
Occasionally has a life
User avatar

Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 11:10 am
Posts: 119
Location: West Wales
Reply with quote
I'm afraid the whole "Top Gear" thing leave me cold. I speak as a motor enthusiast in good standing since the days of "Small Car" and LJK Setright....

Don't get me wrong. I am happy for Jeremy Clarkson to do his "Frankie Howerd for the 21st Century" act (but less gay of course..) and for his acolytes to fawn as obsequiously as they do. Its a great follow-up to "Sunday Night at the London Palladium", but it ain't about cars or motoring. Call it "Caravan Smashing Time" or "The Jeremy Clarkson Show" and be honest.


Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:28 am
Profile
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:11 pm
Posts: 12143
Location: Belfast
Reply with quote
ethelredalready wrote:
I'm afraid the whole "Top Gear" thing leave me cold.
+1

Mark

_________________
okenobi wrote:
All I know so far is that Mark, Jimmy Olsen and Peter Parker use Nikon and everybody else seems to use Canon.
ShockWaffle wrote:
Well you obviously. You're a one man vortex of despair.


Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:35 am
Profile WWW
I haven't seen my friends in so long
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:35 pm
Posts: 6580
Location: Getting there
Reply with quote
ethelredalready wrote:
Don't get me wrong. I am happy for Jeremy Clarkson to do his "Frankie Howerd for the 21st Century" act (but less gay of course..) and for his acolytes to fawn as obsequiously as they do. Its a great follow-up to "Sunday Night at the London Palladium", but it ain't about cars or motoring. Call it "Caravan Smashing Time" or "The Jeremy Clarkson Show" and be honest.

That's the point though.

It isn't a show about cars, if you want that you can go and watch fifth gear.

Top gear is an entertainment show that is themed around cars.

Who really needs to know how fast a Ferrari FXX will go round a lap of an airfield runway? No one, but it's good fun to watch!

If they started doing lap times of 5 seater family cars with fuel efficiency of over 35mpg and at least 5 seats then it would start to get boring VERY quickly.

_________________
Oliver Foggin - iPhone Dev

JJW009 wrote:
The count will go up until they stop counting. That's the way counting works.


Doodle Sub!
Game Of Life

Image Image


Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:00 pm
Profile WWW
What's a life?
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:26 pm
Posts: 17040
Reply with quote
Fogmeister wrote:
If they started doing lap times of 5 seater family cars with fuel efficiency of over 35mpg and at least 5 seats then it would start to get boring VERY quickly.

That was 'old' Top Gear. Which, while being a rather successful program, never reached the heights international success new Top Gear has. So while some people prefer an old Top Gear style show, it seems there are significantly fewer of them than prefer new Top Gear.

As for the show being obsequious to Clarkson, well some people might believe that but it's patently clear that May & Hammond don't exactly hold him in reverential high regard. Like it or not, there are awful lot of people driving cars around who ARE like Clarkson and therefore quite like watching him on TV, reading his newspaper columns and all of that. No matter how much of an idiotic reactionary oaf he may be.

That reminds me, I must go off and check if the news out-takes have been put up on topgear.com.

Jon


Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:26 pm
Profile
Doesn't have much of a life

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:23 pm
Posts: 638
Location: 3959 miles from the centre of the Earth - give or take a bit
Reply with quote
trigen_killer wrote:
dogbert10 wrote:
The FXX is fully road legal and, like a lot of supercars, it has hydraulic lifters for the front suspension so it can get over speed bumps.


Fair enough so. It was just my opinion that firstly, it looks like a serious track car, rather than a road-going hyper-car and if what JC said is true- that you can only drive it on tracks when it is taken there by Ferrari, it isn't really what you'd call a road car.

But, going by their rules, this car truly is the fastest on the board :shock:


After more digging around, the FXX isn't actually road legal in it's current form as it hasn't been through homologation. However, it can be made fully road legal by Edo Competition (aparently it doesn't have a handbrake and the neither the lights or the exhaust are legal). Since none of these changes affect the power, I suspect a road-legal version would be just as quick.

_________________
i7 860 @ 3.5GHz, GTX275, 4GB DDR3


Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:54 pm
Profile
Occasionally has a life
User avatar

Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 11:10 am
Posts: 119
Location: West Wales
Reply with quote
dogbert10 wrote:
trigen_killer wrote:
dogbert10 wrote:
The FXX is fully road legal and, like a lot of supercars, it has hydraulic lifters for the front suspension so it can get over speed bumps.


Fair enough so. It was just my opinion that firstly, it looks like a serious track car, rather than a road-going hyper-car and if what JC said is true- that you can only drive it on tracks when it is taken there by Ferrari, it isn't really what you'd call a road car.

But, going by their rules, this car truly is the fastest on the board :shock:


After more digging around, the FXX isn't actually road legal in it's current form as it hasn't been through homologation. However, it can be made fully road legal by Edo Competition (aparently it doesn't have a handbrake and the neither the lights or the exhaust are legal). Since none of these changes affect the power, I suspect a road-legal version would be just as quick.


As I recall from the article in "Car" magazine when it came out:
The FXX is a Ferrari "special" available only to loyal Ferrari customers (with E1.3million to spare). 30 odd werre made starting in 2005. It is a sort of "rental" deal: Ferrari supply, store and maintain the FXXX; "owners" get to drive it a Ferrari-sponsored trackdays at selected circuits.

As far as I know the car is held by Ferrari on their premises and no modifications by third parties are permitted.


Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:38 pm
Profile
Spends far too much time on here
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:40 pm
Posts: 4876
Location: Newcastle
Reply with quote
ethelredalready wrote:
As far as I know the car is held by Ferrari on their premises and no modifications by third parties are permitted.


Who would want to mod it when the £1.3mil means Ferrari keep & maintain it for you.... would imagine it includes the stup of the car etc

_________________
Twitter
Charlie Brooker:
Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.


Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:59 pm
Profile
I haven't seen my friends in so long
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 3:29 pm
Posts: 7173
Reply with quote
Just watching this now, I love the race with the steam train! More please. :D

_________________
timark_uk wrote:
That's your problem. You need Linux. That'll fix all your problems.
Mark


Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:27 pm
Profile
What's a life?
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:25 pm
Posts: 10691
Location: Bramsche
Reply with quote
I was in England over the weekend to see my mum, and caught Top Gear last night. The race was interesting, but the rest of the show seemed a little lacklustre.

I really enjoyed James May's On the Moon documentary, which followed TG. He is actually very good when it isn't being goaded by Clarkson and Hamster.

_________________
"Do you know what this is? Hmm? No, I can see you do not. You have that vacant look in your eyes, which says hold my head to your ear, you will hear the sea!" - Londo Molari

Executive Producer No Agenda Show 246


Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:31 pm
Profile ICQ
Moderator

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:13 pm
Posts: 7262
Location: Here, but not all there.
Reply with quote
Finally caught up!

I think the rules about the lap times are that you have to be able to buy the car. There was one car which did a stonking lap time, but wasn't allowed to be left on the board because you couldn't buy it. I guess the FXX just makes it as you can actually plonk your £1.3m on the table and "own" the car.

I have to say I really enjoyed that show. The vintage race was well done, although the constant referral to a steam locomotive as a steam train started to grate after a while. But that's just the pedant in me.

_________________
My Flickr | Snaptophobic Bloggage
Heather Kay: modelling details that matter.
"Let my windows be open to receive new ideas but let me also be strong enough not to be blown away by them." - Mahatma Gandhi.


Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:02 pm
Profile
Doesn't have much of a life
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:37 pm
Posts: 835
Location: North Wales UK
Reply with quote
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear_Test_Track

Quote:
The qualification for the board is that the vehicle being tested must be a road-legal production car, and must have sufficient ride-height to clear a standard speed-hump,

_________________
My lowest spec operational system- AT desktop case, 200W AT PSU, Jetway TX98B Socket 7, Intel Pentium 75Mhz, 2x16MB EDO RAM, 270MB Quantum Maverick HDD, ATI Rage II+ graphics, Soundblaster 16 CT2230, MS-DOS/Win 3.11

My Flickr


Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:13 pm
Profile
What's a life?
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:56 pm
Posts: 12030
Reply with quote
HeatherKay wrote:
the constant referral to a steam locomotive as a steam train started to grate after a while.



Is this one of those aircraft vs. 'plane things?

_________________
www.alexsmall.co.uk

Charlie Brooker wrote:
Windows works for me. But I'd never recommend it to anybody else, ever.


Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:14 pm
Profile
I haven't seen my friends in so long
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 3:29 pm
Posts: 7173
Reply with quote
ProfessorF wrote:
HeatherKay wrote:
the constant referral to a steam locomotive as a steam train started to grate after a while.



Is this one of those aircraft vs. 'plane things?


The "train" technically refers to the series of carriages, whilst "locomotive" is for the vehicle pulling the "train". I'm not sure where that leaves DMUs/EMUs! :D

And it's clearly aeroplane.

_________________
timark_uk wrote:
That's your problem. You need Linux. That'll fix all your problems.
Mark


Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:20 pm
Profile
Moderator

Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:13 pm
Posts: 7262
Location: Here, but not all there.
Reply with quote
ProfessorF wrote:
Is this one of those aircraft vs. 'plane things?


Do you mean the aeroplane vs airplane one? Not really.

A locomotive is not a train. The train is what the locomotive hauls. I told you I was pedantic. It's more akin to calling a diesel road roller a steam roller, which is something every child does regardless of the source of power.

I should just shrug it off, but being a railway fan, I find it a bit difficult. Sorry. :oops:

_________________
My Flickr | Snaptophobic Bloggage
Heather Kay: modelling details that matter.
"Let my windows be open to receive new ideas but let me also be strong enough not to be blown away by them." - Mahatma Gandhi.


Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:21 pm
Profile
I haven't seen my friends in so long
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 3:29 pm
Posts: 7173
Reply with quote
Heather, in which category would you place Class 158 and the Class 220/221 (Voyager) etc? ;)

_________________
timark_uk wrote:
That's your problem. You need Linux. That'll fix all your problems.
Mark


Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:25 pm
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 308 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 21  Next

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
Designed by ST Software.