Top Gear - New Series

[rocket63]

My view is most people, particularly younger generations do not give a damn who owns what. People are interested in the brand. Lotus are no more British than any other marque, the brand is. Its peoples perception that's important and that prevails. 

 

Aston Martin, Jaguar. Land Rover etc etc, the list goes on.

 

Manufacturing in the UK is as diverse as it ever was, its just not the "Industrial factory" type industry that people hark back for, yet decried it when it was still alive and helped to put a nail in its coffin by their actions. Too many people live in the past and fail to recognise the growth in other areas present and future.

 

Credit where credit is due, that was most probably the best Top Gear in terms of balance for many a year and got the Nation talking.

[Red Baron]

Apparently, Jeremy's opinion on British engineering changed a lot in four months... 

 

http://www.topgear.com/uk/jeremy-clarkson/Jeremy-on-fixing-lotus-column-2013-04-22

 

 

"Where have we heard that before? On the epitaph of every British car firm that's gone belly-up in the past few years. Take Austin. They made the Mini, and it was very clever. So they kept making it... for 40 bloody years. Then you have Land Rover, which, after the war, made a sturdy 4WD car. It, too, was very clever and they're still making the damn thing today."

 

"If VW was being run by the British, it would still be making the Beetle. If Citroen were based in Coventry, it'd still be churning out 2CVs. If Apple were a UK business, its computers would still be six-feet across. We seem to have made resting on our laurels a national pastime in this country, and I worry we are seeing the same sort of thing going on today at Aston Martin."

 

 

[The Pits]

VW are still making the Beetle! And so are Porsche FFS!

 

Aston Martin gets panned for making the same thing for ten years, the Esprit was always 'long in the tooth' whereas 50 years of the 911 is something to be celebrated. Shocking double standards like this are rife among the car magazines.

 

So tired of the 'British companies deserved to fail' argument. Getting the market 'right' with focus groups and lowest common denominator blandess is not something to be celebrated. Sure Porsche made a fortune rebadging the VW Toureg. The market wants SUV's and is not very interested in pure, focused drivers cars that are hard to get in and out of. But I think I rather see Lotus go down swinging with ever madder versions of the Exige V6 than limp on as a badge on the side of an SUV.

 

The market is an ass. As proven by anyone queueing up to pay 50% more for a VW Toureg with a Porsche badge on it. The cars that people love and remember are usually the singular vision of one man not some limp, lifeless committee.

 

Enzo ferrari's approach was 'screw the customer this is what I want to make'.

 

Ferruchio Lamborghini's approach was 'screw Enzo Ferrari, this is what I want to make'.

 

The McLaren F1 was made for Gordon Murray not Mr Bean.

 

'The market' hates new and different until it becomes popular. Conservatism is the recipe for success in the car business. Porsche's blandness is directly related to their popularity. I'm sure BMW's return to conservatism, post Chris Bangle, has proven a smart commercial move. 'The market' doesn't really like cars either. Quiet, easy, reliable applicances with a prestigious badge are where it's at.

 

Somebody needs to say 'screw the market' and start making cars designers and engineers are proud of again.

[Mark Blanchard]

Finally saw the episode on i-Player.  Very disappointed not to see a Lotus in the parade.  Top Gear don't seem to like Lotus at the moment, yes Lotus have had a rough year but they're turning the corner.  Lotus is building the fastest and most reliable cars they've ever made and the Exige Roadster is an amazing piece of kit, with a bit of support and promotion from Top Gear the Company could  go place.  Poor show Clarkson.

[Vulcan Grey]

The "LOTUS" F1 car featured predominately in that sequence, so even though it was the Enstone team's car, it was Lotus' name and green and yellow badge that was visible for a good portion of that finale...  I'm sure for much of the audience... Lotus was front and center.

[softlips]

Finally saw the episode on i-Player.  Very disappointed not to see a Lotus in the parade.  Top Gear don't seem to like Lotus at the moment, yes Lotus have had a rough year but they're turning the corner.  Lotus is building the fastest and most reliable cars they've ever made and the Exige Roadster is an amazing piece of kit, with a bit of support and promotion from Top Gear the Company could  go place.  Poor show Clarkson.

There were three Lotus cars on the Mall, you had to really watch to see them though.

[basalte]

I finally got to see the piece about the British Motor Industry, (where any Lotus road cars were unjustly conspicuous by their absence).

 

As usual with TG it was all about "entertainment" with no attempt at substance(although fair enough, why should I expect that from TG ?)

 

The reason people rightly talk about the death of the British motor industry is the simple fact that nearly all the profits from it nowadays , go abroad. The abrupt selling and termination of Rover and TVR just  to make a killing, were a national disgrace

-I would be genuinely grateful if anyone here could point to another developed country except the USA ,where significant assets and significant local employment is chucked in the bin in that way.

 

Waving a Union Jack about all the time and playing Elgar, just doesn`t make up for that .      

[Bibs]

Back on Sunday!

 

 

[Bibs]

[pete]

think its a christmas special. bit late?

[Bibs]

Doh! I'm sure it said 'new series' but happy to be proven wrong! 

[pete]

it is new series just 1st one was made for christmas but postponed for some reason

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

McLaren P1..... this HAS to be the series with the P1!!!!! 

[TBD]

You mean the Porsche P1?  

 

 

I guess McLaren didn't exxpect that one (and Porsche obviously has the older rights to that name).

Edited February 1, 2014 by TBD

[cnapan]

Is that the world's first implementation of a car with dynamic ride adjustment? I see it's on the 'bone shaking' setting, but if the black castors are retracted it would end up in the 'merely bloody awful' mode :-)

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

At least the engine's in the right place.

[rocket63]

No pinstripes !

[rocket63]

Well that was an hour I wont get back. Atrocious rot.

[obione]

It was really bad....

[Exploded]

Yup really really bad, but next week we will see the McLaren P1, star at Spa Francorchamps... Really looking forward to that!

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

I spotted 2 Caterhams in the 'what's coming up this series' montage... still no Exige S. just saying...

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

You can forgive TG the odd blip every now and then, but it just seems to be getting progressively worse, series by series, show by show. Last night was just awful. How many times are they going to buy an (overpriced) old banger each and fill the show with them breaking down, crashing etc.? Funny the first time, but not really five or six times later: they can keep that sort of stuff for the Xmas DVD.

 

I used to not want the show to end, but these days it just seems to drag on and on. They clearly ran out of fresh ideas some time ago.

 

Trouble is, if I give up watching it, you can bet your life that the next show will be the best ever!

 

Not sure they can build a whole series around the single feature on the McLaren P1, although I'm sure they'll try.

[Nelly]

The bit when the Nova crossed the line in the supermarket on its side made me laugh, but other than that it was pretty bad, even by recent standards - the chase sequence at the end being the worst.

 

Still look forward to it though and would still rather it was on than not at all.

 

I am hoping that like the last series they have got the crap item out the way early - there does look like some good stuff to come (P1 and Alfa 4C).

[NedaSay]

That was anticlimactic to say the least, after so much time waiting for the new series. Anything related to Hammond was utterly shamelessly staged. The choice of small hatch was terrible! A nova really? The best bit was the trailer of what's to come. The rest was rubbish.

[Andy Esprit SE]

Controversially I found it over the top but quite funny. I had a nova and an xr2I so brought back some memory's for me. We did the lap of the car in side and over the roof too when teenage and foolish, not that the youth of today needed to be shown how to do it, I'm surprised they haven't had a raft of complaints.

I'm sure they will move up a class or three in the next few episodes.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Andy Esprit SE