Top Gear protest?

[JohnRgt 0]

When TopGear's Clarkson reviews a much anticipated sports car, he usually throws it around twisting roads, pushes it relentlessly on the show's test track, has it driven by a professional race car driver in order to ascertain at-the-limit times, and gives his opinion on the design concept, esthetics, handling, fit, finish, power, practicality, etc.

The show's fans eagerly awaited the lust aired, last episode of season 13 because Aston Martin's incredible V12 Vantage was to be reviewed. Instead, Clarkson delivered a message:

YouTube Link (4:42)

Like the good people at evo, the world's best sports car enthusiast magazine, Clarkson "just" grieves over what may be lost in the name of what he knows to be, and has labeled as, superstitions, fears and laughable errors and lies. There isn't even a hint at a fight on principle, no call to arms, no argument presented against the errors in the population's thinking that makes it possible for civilization to be flirting with a Dark Ages II.

[Arnold 0]

When TopGear's Clarkson reviews a much anticipated sports car, he usually throws it around twisting roads, pushes it relentlessly on the show's test track, has it driven by a professional race car driver in order to ascertain at-the-limit times, and gives his opinion on the design concept, esthetics, handling, fit, finish, power, practicality, etc.

The show's fans eagerly awaited the lust aired, last episode of season 13 because Aston Martin's incredible V12 Vantage was to be reviewed. Instead, Clarkson delivered a message:

YouTube Link (4:42)

Like the good people at evo, the world's best sports car enthusiast magazine, Clarkson "just" grieves over what may be lost in the name of what he knows to be, and has labeled as, superstitions, fears and laughable errors and lies. There isn't even a hint at a fight on principle, no call to arms, no argument presented against the errors in the population's thinking that makes it possible for civilization to be flirting with a Dark Ages II.

True that he makes no explicit philosophical stand, but his sense of life probably conveys better to the masses, what they stand to lose. He addresses their values directly, and that may motivate them more than academic arguments can, to fight for them.

[bborg 0]

I love Top Gear. I'm one of those fans who doesn't even have a particularly strong interest in cars, but I love Top Gear. It's one of the few shows on television today that is thoroughly benevolent and worships greatness in man in a very concrete way. It's similar to Gordon Ramsay's shows. These are people who are passionate valuers, and even if you don't share their career interests, their passion just pulls you into their world. I don't know how many people will understand this clip, or how many people suckered by environmentalism will question their premises after watching it. Probably not many. But on a personal level I have to appreciate the sentiment and respect the man for being a valuer who understands the stakes. And it makes me feel like putting a hand on his shoulder, for support and as a comrade.

[jordanz 0]

FYI - here's Jeremy Clarkson reviewing the Honda Insight (a hybrid): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/j...icle6294116.ece

[PhilO 0]

Rush (the band) has the perfect song capturing this sentiment.

But there may yet be places, or at least one place, in the world, where men will be free to create and drive such vehicles, even if hairless apes elsewhere embrace their latest religion and drink up their cool-aid.

My uncle has a country place, that no one knows about

He says it used to be a farm, before the motor law

And on sundays I elude the eyes and hop the turbine freight

To far outside the wire, where my white-haired uncle waits.

Jump to the ground

As the turbo slows to cross the borderline

Run like the wind,

As excitement shivers up and down my spine

Down in his barn

My uncle preserved for me, an old machine ---

For fifty-odd years

To keep it as new has been his dearest dream

I strip away the old debris, that hides a shining car

A brilliant red barchetta, from a better, vanished time

I fire up the willing engine, responding with a roar

Tires spitting gravel, I commit my weekly crime...

Wind in my hair ---

Shifting and drifting ---

Mechanical music ---

Adrenalin surge ---

Well-weathered leather

Hot metal and oil

The scented country air

Sunlight on chrome

The blur of the landscape

Every nerve aware

Suddenly, ahead of me, across the mountainside

A gleaming alloy air-car shoots towards me, two lanes wide

I spin around with shrieking tires, to run the deadly race

Go screaming through the valley as another joins the chase

Drive like the wind

Straining the limits of machine and man

Laughing out loud

With fear and hope, I've got a desperate plan

At the one-lane bridge

I leave the giants stranded

At the riverside

Race back to the farm

To dream with my uncle

At the fireside...

[JohnRgt 0]

FYI - here's Jeremy Clarkson reviewing the Honda Insight (a hybrid): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/j...icle6294116.ece

When TopGear tested the all-electric Smart, they couldn't stand its tiny range so they did about what you'd expect three blokes to do: they installed a gasoline-powered generator in the tiny trunk!

[jordanz 0]

Rush (the band) has the perfect song capturing this sentiment.

But there may yet be places, or at least one place, in the world, where men will be free to create and drive such vehicles, even if hairless apes elsewhere embrace their latest religion and drink up their cool-aid.

....

In the same vein... Here's Queen's "I'm in Love With My Car":

[jasonlockwood 0]

Completely self serving, but I participated in a photo shoot for an editorial appearing in next month's Top Gear Australia magazine. The photographer lives down the street from me and asked everyone who hangs out at our local cafe (called Love Grub, a scrappy but lovely little neighborhood cafe) to be extras in the shoot. Apparently I figure quite prominently in one of the photos that will be in the magazine.

Stay tuned for photos...

[JohnRgt 0]

Apparently I figure quite prominently in one of the photos that will be in the magazine.

Stay tuned for photos...

Would that be with or without the Mini?

LoL

[mcvideo 0]

This show is the most entertaining TV program I've seen in quite a long time. Incredible photography and fabulous editing.

The linked video in the original post is, indeed, sad. However, Clarkson does seem to 'get it.' The hypocrisy of the viros, while not explicitly named, is shown up in the following (the best bit starts at about 5:00):

YouTube: Tesla vs. Lotus Elise

I'm not so sure this show should be a "call to arms." The show would lose a lot of its appeal and entertainment value if it were to lapse into advocacy. I think it's more fun to mock one's enemies.

[jasonlockwood 0]

Would that be with or without the Mini?

LoL

Actually, it's for an Alpha Romeo.

[JohnRgt 0]

I'm not so sure this show should be a "call to arms." The show would lose a lot of its appeal and entertainment value if it were to lapse into advocacy. I think it's more fun to mock one's enemies.

I wouldn't want the show to fight the relevant battles every minute. But with a key attribute of a program that draws a 500M audience under attack for the worst possible reasons, I want the show to defend the truth with far more than the occasional fly-by comment -- no matter how clever the comment or how well it's delivered. Further, given the show's popularity and what I'd bet its audience demographics are like, I suspect that this would be one of the very few media venues that could significantly impact the nonsense motorheads will be up against in the next 10 years or so. I'm sure government-run BBC would go along...LoL

(Follow this

to a good video review of the wonderful V12 Vantage. Meaden is one of my favorite automotive journalists. Unfortunately, his drivers-republic.com is no more. Let's hope he can bring some of DR's magic to evo, a magazine he co-founded.)

[JohnRgt 0]

The linked video in the original post is, indeed, sad. However, Clarkson does seem to 'get it.' The hypocrisy of the viros, while not explicitly named, is shown up in the following (the best bit starts at about 5:00):

YouTube: Tesla vs. Lotus Elise

But what he seems to get in this video is that a specific, forefront electric vehicle isn't practical. Viewed by a so-called "reasonable" person who's used to the kind of banter that defines TopGear, the only conclusion that would be reached is that electrics need to get better -- not that they're not necessary.

[mcvideo 0]

I'm not so sure this show should be a "call to arms." The show would lose a lot of its appeal and entertainment value if it were to lapse into advocacy. I think it's more fun to mock one's enemies.

I wouldn't want the show to fight the relevant battles every minute. But with a key attribute of a program that draws a 500M audience under attack for the worst possible reasons, I want the show to defend the truth with far more than the occasional fly-by comment -- no matter how clever the comment or how well it's delivered. Further, given the show's popularity and what I'd bet its audience demographics are like, I suspect that this would be one of the very few media venues that could significantly impact the nonsense motorheads will be up against in the next 10 years or so. I'm sure government-run BBC would go along...LoL

[. . . ]

Well put. When one must eventually toe the orthodoxy line, there isn't much room to maneuver. In any case, this thread has set me to thinking about ways in which the right ideas can be communicated in an entertaining fashion.

[mcvideo 0]

The linked video in the original post is, indeed, sad. However, Clarkson does seem to 'get it.' The hypocrisy of the viros, while not explicitly named, is shown up in the following (the best bit starts at about 5:00):

YouTube: Tesla vs. Lotus Elise

But what he seems to get in this video is that a specific, forefront electric vehicle isn't practical. Viewed by a so-called "reasonable" person who's used to the kind of banter that defines TopGear, the only conclusion that would be reached is that electrics need to get better -- not that they're not necessary.

That was amply demonstrated by the breakdown of the two test vehicles. Anyway, I don't think a sports car would be any fun if it was supposed to be 'practical.' What seems to be getting lost in all the blather about electric vehicles is that the electricity, with which to charge the car's batteries, has to come from somewhere. I think that was the point Clarkson was trying to get across at that point in the video.