Top Gear Xmas Special 2014 (Esprit in Patagonia)

[Jacques]

Really looking forward to seeing a Lotus Esprit unfolded (or maybe folded) to millions of people. There's going to be a higher demand for those old used cars, I guess.

 

Kind regards

Jacques.

[Mark Blanchard]

I'm looking forward to seeing the Esprit and the Mustang .  Maybe I should get a 928 while prices are low . . .

[Simon350S]

Why not Mark!

[Bibs]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154961540360571

[Mike6]

When is it on. I will make sure I am elsewhere. I stopped watching top gear years ago. Just a bunch of prats with no mechanical skills wrecking perfectly good cars. If anyone thinks that enntertainment then you are not car enthusiasts!

[cbclotus]

Hi I tend to agree with Mikes post above?But I will be watching this one .Just to see the Lotus.Mike Se Turbo.

[Bibs]

If anyone thinks that enntertainment then you are not car enthusiasts!

 

If anyone thinks it's a car show, and not entertainment perhaps?

[Simon350S]

SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS :D

Seeing that V8 stuck in the mud spinning it's wheels looked glorious!

[Tony K]

When is it on. I will make sure I am elsewhere. I stopped watching top gear years ago. Just a bunch of prats with no mechanical skills wrecking perfectly good cars. If anyone thinks that enntertainment then you are not car enthusiasts!

 

I don't view Top Gear as a car show as much as entertainment.  I love it.   The biggest reason is that it bridges "normal everyday people" with serious gearhead car enthusiasts like ourselves.  We all have a passion for cars -- for Lotus, and many of us for other marques, and our lifestyles are defined at least in part by the "culture" of car enthusiasts.   Top Gear makes our culture fun for people who aren't really interested in cars.   My wife, Patty, is a great example.  She doesn't care about cars at all, but finds the show fun and entertaining.  It's great to have a common ground in this show, to be able to share a part of my hobby with my wife;  for her to be able to have enjoyment and participation -- it's something we enjoy together.

 

I also love how they travel around the world and go on adventures.  To get to see places I would otherwise never see, to see the roads, and to see them with an enthusiast's choice of cars.  They live out a lot of our dreams and imaginations, and the quality of the production is so good that sometimes you almost feel like you're there.

 

I enjoy the crazy stunts they pull.  I enjoy the things they attempt.  I enjoy the complete disregard for political correctness.  It's so refreshing.  They have played up every stereotype associated with cars -- it's funny to the mass audience, but it's especially funny to car people. 

 

I am disgusted by waste.  By taking a perfectly good anything and destroying it.  When that perfectly good something is a car, I am especially disgusted (not so much when it's a throwaway econo-car or such).  But the occasions when they wreck a true automotive gem, something that is truly special or artistic, are rare.  And if you watch any other television show pr movie with a car chase, you see a whole lot more wreckage than what Top Gear does.  

You have to ultimately weigh the good vs. the bad.  Here's one perspective:   Fifteen or so years ago, in the late 1990s, the general public hated cars.  The beautiful exotic supercars of the 1970s and '80s were terribly out of fashion, it was fashionable among society at large to know and care as little about one's car as possible, and everyone who was of any financial means was buying a bland, silver/grey German sedan.  With the politically correct onslaught of the '90s, cars were viewed as polluting, annoying necessities, and the sports/exotic cars we like were especially maligned, the focus on the cars being "impractical," "wasteful," etc., and stereotypes of owners as "insecure," "needing attention," "compensating for something," "small penis," "egotistical," etc.   . . . I'm so glad those days are over.  People actually want exciting and interesting cars again.  The hostility among the masses toward exotic car owners is long forgotten.  People who are not serious gearheads like ourselves are liking and wanting Ferraris and Maseratis and even (if they've heard of it) Lotus.   There has definitely been, in the past decade, a re-emergence and even popularity of exotic and supercars in popular culture, and I think Top Gear has played a very relevant and remarkable role in that.

 

Today, the kinds of cars we like are more appreciated and more in the minds of people who would have otherwise been unaware, thanks to the immense popularity of Top Gear, and their ability to bring car enthusiast and casual observer together to enjoy adventures with cool cars.  The fact that they like Lotus only helps, too.   They've done a great deal for Lotus' image over the years.  If that means we have to give up an Esprit or Excel every few years, so be it.  In the bigger picture, there are probably more people out there wanting Lotus cars, and saving and restoring them simply as a trickle-down result of greater awareness, and of special cars being "cool" again. 

[Advantage]

I'm very much a car enthusiast which is why I enjoy programmes which are centred around cars. However, I'm not a car anorak so I've no desire to sit through a show which tells me how big the boot is on a Ford Focus or which spec is best for residuals on a diesel Audi.

Entertain me. If that costs a car or two then so be it. But dance for me or I'll seize up through boredom.

[Andyww]

First trailer (with Esprit)

 

[Tony K]

Can't wait!!!  

[mayevora]

I read it's a two parter - 28th & 29th Dec I think.

[Al]

Well said Tony and I can relate to much of what you said.

 

Firstly I'll say it does annoy me at a number of levels and some shows I do switch off for all the well discussed reasons as I think it can be racist and insulting to some cultures.  I have also felt for some others affected by their stupidity if really as shown which I'm not so sure are. (I'm thinking the cross channel episode amongst others with a ferry coming into Dover harbour.  You have no idea how that Master will have felt or the pressure he was under!) 

 

BUT having worked in Brazil, GOM, India, Canada and now Angola  for most of the last 15 years (well all my 40 years working life actually but these are the years when sat TV has been available on rigs and ships & Top Gear has been popular in present format) I am always amazed at how the other countries and cultures view it.  It is loved for it's lack of being PC, mainly power slides and taste of the exotics that some places never see and can only dream about. It is watched intently by so many of my crews and eagerly awaited when the show is on.  Just the other night South African TV that we get here, had a 2003 episode on with a BMW Z4M Alpina being slated and everybody was talking about that the next day at Smoke-O. That is on at prime time 20:00 on a main channel.  It is also a MASSIVE income earner for the BBC as shown so world wide even if some countries use an edited version where the couch bullshit session and SIARPC is out. Probably to make way for advert time and the stars aren't maybe in many countries.

 

Of course it will continue to divide people but then lets face it that is deliberate.  Are we any different to the Morris Marina Owners Club or the Caravan Club in holding our opinion about what they do to a lovely Lotus?  

 

It was lovely as I looked at it and sat in it at MMC and even discussed purchase idly.  The quote of Craig was that is a car to put in a garage and drive on sunny weekends and it will only go up in value.  A keeper Allan. Oh dear.........

[Daniel]

I'll be washing my hair

[Bibs]

Longer trailer...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x79ViuFWPAM

[molemot]

Quote from Al...

 

" I have also felt for some others affected by their stupidity if really as shown which I'm not so sure are. (I'm thinking the cross channel episode amongst others with a ferry coming into Dover harbour.  You have no idea how that Master will have felt or the pressure he was under!)"

 

Some years ago I was on the bridge of one of the now defunct Olau line ferries from Sheerness to Vlissingen...leaving harbour at Vlissingen. Totally drama free and all accomplished by small movements of little levers on the wing of the bridge, to get away from the dockside. Then we started to move towards the sea...and some twerp in a 30 foot yacht bimbled about in front of us!! It certainly cured me of any such manoeuvres... I sometimes get complaints from "those who know" that I am not exercising my "right of way". What I am doing is making a distinct alteration of course so that it is obvious that I am going to pass astern of the heavy metal; easier all round. Of course, if it's the Sunseeker at 40 knots one can pass in front with rather more aplomb....

[Andy Esprit SE]

Im looking forward to this, im gonna cry at the poor esprit being trashed, im hoping captain slow gives the esprit a good show of power vs the other two, if he spends the show breaking down all the time it may be embarrassing

[jammy-pop]

I can't wait either! Always wondered how the Esprit would handle a bit of 'off roading'!

[Andyww]

I am not sure if I am looking forward to it or not. Clarkson is bound to completely slag off the Esprit "Plastic car blah blah" despite the fact that Lotus were 20 years ahead of everyone else in use of composites which are now commonplace in cars.

[Nelly]

I am also looking forward to this, as long as it doesn't hit the lows of the India "special".

 

Watched the JC/RH perfect road trip 2 last night, which I have to say I enjoyed (despite a few negative reviews on Amazon).  Just two guys driving nice cars in nice weather, no stats (other then 0-60 times) and although clearly scripted it wasn't too obvious. And the only car crash was a genuine one!

[Daniel]

I am not sure if I am looking forward to it or not. Clarkson is bound to completely slag off the Esprit "Plastic car blah blah" despite the fact that Lotus were 20 years ahead of everyone else in use of composites which are now commonplace in cars.

That's the problem..... not long ago Clarkson was saying how much he loved the Esprit.... one of his favourite cars yada yada yada.

 

If it suits him to rip the piss out of it for comedy value.... and I suspect in this case it will..... he won't bat an eyelid.

 

I'd be very surprised to see the Esprit come out of this in a positive light........ 

[Advantage]

It'll be fine. It's not that sort of programme this time. It's an adventure where although the cars are important, they play second fiddle to the location.

[Escape]

I can't wait either! Always wondered how the Esprit would handle a bit of 'off roading'!

 

It copes surprisingly well actually.

Some time ago I took the Esprit when going to a meeting and upon exiting the car park found the road to be, err, missing. The only way out was via a building site, cleared and leveled just enough to allow a car through. My offroad experience came in handy to plot a course avoiding the deepest puddles and the Esprit handled it just fine. The traces of mud spray do look better on the Range Rover, no denying that.

 

Filip   

[mr.oogieboogie]

The esprit is no good in snow. Exciting but not for the faint hearted