Dare I mention....Top Gear....?

[seth]

Nice to see some old Lancias (god the Fulvia is a pretty car), but generally found it all a bit tired. Too much staged stuff, such as the HPE catching fire & the bits falling off the Beta Coupe. I also found the bit where James May's caravan/airship went into Norwich airport airspace annoying. Why, if he was travelling from the Kent area to Suffolk, would he end up at Norwich?

He took off from those big hangers near Pogglswade so I reckon he barely made it out of Bedfordshire.

 

I thought that it was an exceptionally good episode from an old-car person's point of view. Eleventy billion people getting told on prime time TV how great some daft old Lancias that are uncomfortable and break down a lot are? Can't remember the last time I've seen several minutes of such a highly viewed programme have been dedicated to the Stratos and perhaps educating quite a lot of people as to the excitement that can be had in an older car. Might make some WRX drivers go and find an Delta Integrale instead.

[Dukestar25]

What shall we do in this episode?I know, lets drop a piano on a Morris Marina, pretty sure we haven't done that before.Can they really not even choose another bit of BL tat to wreck, just for a change? Getting a little boring.

Agreed here. TG is usually quite entertaining but smashing up a (slightly dodgy looking) Marina and a slightly rusty, not to mention rare, Lancia Beta HPE just didn't do it for me. Pointless, mindless and so unneccesary IMO I was even more bored when they decided to review yet another Lamborghini . Next week's better be an improvement on this...

[retro80sboy]

shame another Marina had to die, rusty or not - parts for those are rare now.smashing them up now is the same old joke time and time again. not funny anymore.

[Pete-M]

shame another Marina had to die, rusty or not - parts for those are rare now.smashing them up now is the same old joke time and time again. not funny anymore.

Oh I don't know about that. It still makes me laugh, probably always will. It's getting to be like a fast show sketch now whenever a Marina turns up it's gonna get piano'd, and as I can't abide the bloody awful things, I laugh more at the irate ranting that tends to happen (on other forums, naturally) whenever they wreck another one of the heaps.

[UglyAmerican]

The "Lancias are shit" jokes were overboard, we got it. And would have loved some attention to the Aurelia, Flaminia, and the last Thesis. But hey, an episode mostly devoted to Lancia is good by me. Did like the balloon gag, especially since it drowned the Lambo review out. Nothing more boring than the supercar reviews. Still my faves are the cheap car challenges. What a shock.Incidentally did anyone else notice that the Lancia segments had no James May, only Hammond and Clarkson?

[Mr Lobster]

I didn't watch it this week and it sounds like I didn't miss much worth seeing already. Seems they've forgotton that alongside slick camera work and witty dialogue there also need to be some actual content. It's become all polish and no substance. Still I'm sure the average prole will continue to lap it up even if they continue re-hashing the same old crap forever.

+1Exactly, the camera work is great but there is just nothing that I actually want to watch. So I didn't bother and went to bed early.

[AXrescuer]

Nice to see some old Lancias (god the Fulvia is a pretty car), but generally found it all a bit tired. Too much staged stuff, such as the HPE catching fire & the bits falling off the Beta Coupe. I also found the bit where James May's caravan/airship went into Norwich airport airspace annoying. Why, if he was travelling from the Kent area to Suffolk, would he end up at Norwich?

He took off from those big hangers near Pogglswade so I reckon he barely made it out of Bedfordshire.

I found a piece on Google which said that he crashed the balloon just off the A428 so you are most likely correct!

[seth]

 

 

And now Chris Evans is on it being smug and 'oh year, I bought the most expensive car at auction in the world.'

 

And for a large charitable donation you could take the most expensive car in the world (and his other 6 Ferraris) on an extended 5 day test drive.

 

What a cunt!

Why does everyone have to be so negative? What the hell is wrong with that? He can afford these cars, most people can't and he knows it. He wants to share them a bit rather than keep them locked away out of sight like so many of these very valuable cars are and in doing so raises a huge amount of money for charity. Who looses?

 

 

[retrogeezer]

I like Chris Evans, he has been very fortunate and made a lot of money but he did put a lot of hard work in back in his early days.He also made a shedload of cash by buying a radio station, building it up and then selling it on for a lot more money. Whats wrong with that? Venture Capitalists do it all the time but most are not in the public eye. He did used to be a bit up himself but I think he has also realied what a twat he was and is a much more amiable bloke these days.I wish I could do what he has done....although I probably would not have spent all that cash on Ferraris.

[Pete-M]

And now Chris Evans is on it being smug and 'oh year, I bought the most expensive car at auction in the world.'

And for a large charitable donation you could take the most expensive car in the world (and his other 6 Ferraris) on an extended 5 day test drive.What a cunt!

What is cuntish about that? The fact that the bloke has money and has spent it on something he loves, namely cars? That's a proper cunts trick that, buying cars.I suppose he's right out of order for auctioning drives in them as well. Twat of a trick that. The only thing he's done that I'd class as even slightly silly is painted them all white instead of Giallo Fly, but that's personal taste.I really can't abide idiots who get all jealous when they deride someone for owning a car (or a collection of cars) just because they can't afford or wouldn't buy the same thing. The people who instantly judge all Porsche drivers as wankers, and who shout rude comments at Ferrari drivers. I just don't get it at all. I'm not a big Chris Evans fan, but he's a decent enough DJ and he makes me laugh on the radio. I don't begrudge the guy a few quid, and I don't care what he spends it on. I'm happy he's bought Ferraris, and I'm happy that he does let people have a go in them, and that he uses them as they're meant to be used rather than only bringing them out of air conditioned storage for Ferrari Owners Club meetings like all the other expensive ones.FFS, the bloke is trying to let people enjoy his cars and there are still people calling him a cunt. Can't fuckin' win.

[HillmanImp]

If i remember rightly Chris Evans gave away an absolute shitload of his money about 10 years ago. I remember him saying, 'i am still going to keep more than enough so that i can still live a fabulous lifestyle, but there is not need for someone to have so much money, its obscene.' If he did really do this then he is a seriosly top bloke in my opinion.

[seth]

Apologies Tayne. Consider it aimed at everyone else then.

[retro80sboy]

best of luck to Chris Evans I say.If I was a rich as him id have a fleet of awesome motors too!

[wuvvum]

I don't begrudge him his money or his collection of cars, and I think the charity auctions thing is a great idea. That doesn't alter the fact that I find the man intensely irritating.

[michiel]

I wonder if he repainted all his Ferraris or if some of them were white originally... hope he didn't spray the Coburn California white as well. Did make me think I'd rather have a collection of cars where no two were the same colour (or a collection of Allegros in every possible original colour), instead of a garage full of only white cars (and a piano, bit silly yes?).Also, personal plates on all of them... why would you register a 275GTB 'ENZ 2000'?Clarksons list went 'California... California LWB, California SWB...', which made me wonder if he has three or if someone messed up making that list.

[michiel]

Those plates make me go *sigh*... ENZ is not Enzo, 246, 250 etc are sort of relevant but 2000 on a 275 makes no sense to me.That 505 is the star of the film for me! Bit of a lie that - I wouldn't mind a California...

[Guest]

Those ENZ plates are the sort of thing you'd see on a knackered old wedding car in an attempt to disguise the age. Nice motors though.

[Rusty Pelican]

Chris Evans has worked for what hes got and thats fine with me , allowing complete strangers to drive them for a worthy cause is admirable in my book , I would not have the nerve to do that with my Imps , let alone a bunch of Ferraris , not a lover of them but all the same

[Milford Cubicle]

I felt pretty embarrassed by the whole episode, especially when the Beta coupe "fell apart", the HPE "went on fire" and the Marina "broke down" and had a piano drop on it. Dismal stuff.It's a shame, I think they're car enthusiasts at heart and a little of them would like to do a less cartoonish take on old cars, but they have to play down to the lowest common denominator - thicky members of the public who laugh at old cars.

[UglyAmerican]

I'll tell you why I don't like Chris Evans. He keeps dating and/or marrying hot 18 year old girls. Not only am I jealous, this is very sleazy of him.

[barrett]

notice how they showed the Flaminia briefly but didn't actually mention it, probably because it was actually a very well-built, reliable car. Same could be said of the Aurelia, and even Fulvias are solid things and don't really rust worse than any other Italian car of the era. I'm glad of the fact that they devoted almost a whole show to a marque that many people probably aren't aware of, but annoyed they had to do it in such an obvious 'funny' way, as per usual. And yes, i too find chris evans v.annoying but his generosity and philanthropy have to be admired.

[RedSparrow]

More smahing things up. Yawn.I thought wrecking a brand new Twingo was a waste. But I assume Renault would have gladly given it to them for 10 miuntes free advertising.

[RedSparrow]

I have a feeling someone posted a pic on here of the filming where the car was lauched off the docks nowhere near a ferry. Computer jiggery pokery too now eh?

[retrogeezer]

how boring was the piece on the big Audi/BMW & Range Rover.....and far too long...

[Rusty Pelican]

I find it wierd that in these days of eco , enviro , global warming , you would be allowed to drive a car into the sea laden with petrol , oil , and other such Amoco Cadiz inducing catastrophy causing polution , I would have thought all this stuff would need draining , lets face it my local scrappys not allowed to drip oil on his land now

[dollywobbler]

So, it was boring, yet we're still talking about it!

[RedSparrow]

This is true. And I will continue to watch it. Cos its about cars and quite entertaining. Maybe I'm a hypocrite!

[Pete-M]

I adore Range Rovers so I loved that bit.The Audi is a diesel, so I wasn't at all interested in that, and the X5M will always be WankerChariotâ„¢#1 so I was amused to see that it looked like it could handle, but that was it when it came to the 4x4 stuff.I cringed when they beat up the little Twingo, but I have my suspicions that it was a development / test car and Renault wanted it dead to avoid the VAT bill (which is huge on development cars).Otherwise, I enjoyed it. Good entertainment as usual.

[bigstraight6]

More smahing things up. Yawn.I thought wrecking a brand new Twingo was a waste. But I assume Renault would have gladly given it to them for 10 miuntes free advertising.

Yes, I just didn't get the Twingo trashing as part of it's 'appraisal' and the airport vehicle destruction derby was utterly pointless, the Bedford TK looked immaculate It's really getting rather tedious now......

[CIH]

TG or Batman Begins ? Batman all the way.