James Mays Cars of the People

[Alexg]

I liked the show, a genuinely interesting tele program about chod! Smashed Lada at the end was sad because it's almost as if we can't be entertained unless something gets destroyed. It's a great show, no need to dumb it down.

[junkyarddog]

I enjoyed the programme,

James May is the most likeable of the top gear three,

and is generally quite watchable whatever he does.

 

Kinda sad that they had to resort to some destruction,

but having often battled to remove starter motors from Rivas in the past(still have the scars)

(hateful things to drive too)

I wasn't too upset

[overrun]

I enjoyed it.

 

Should have cubed the lovely 124's, also.

[Herts van Rental]

For those who can't wait on the next episode, or misses Cuntson, check out The Three Stooges on the Tube. and tell me which one you think might be May.

[UmBongo]

 

Junior Gorg, I mean James May is probably the least objectionable of the three Top Gear zoids.

[Junkman]

There was a blunder in the programme that made me cringe, and I can't believe nobody else noticed this elephant in the room.

The VW factory was built in Lower Saxony, not in Saxony, which was in the DDR after the war.

[dollywobbler]

What can I say Junkman? Our German geography is schiesse. See? I can't even spell shiesse right (must be a special keyboard sequence somewhere...)

[Junkman]

The difference amounts to slightly* more than mere geography.

It gets amplified by then moving on to Trabants and Wartburgs, built in Saxony,

by VEB Sachsenring (Saxon-Ring), one of the nationalised "rings" of the former Auto-Union.

So if telly can't even get this right, what else do they get wrong?

[laser wheels]

I've just watched it and I have to say quite enjoyed it.

 

 

The difference amounts to slightly* more than mere geography.

It gets amplified by then moving on to Trabants and Wartburgs, built in Saxony,

by VEB Sachsenring (Saxon-Ring), one of the nationalised "rings" of the former Auto-Union.

So if telly can't even get this right, what else do they get wrong?

 

 

You make a good point there. I recently watched the BBCs The Men Who Made Us Spend and thought it was very interesting, right up until the final part which was riddled with factual inaccuracies so obvious it can only be assumed they were made for 'editorial reasons' - never let the facts get in the way of a good story, etc. So much so that I had to question whether what I had learnt* in the preceding parts was just total rubbish. And that was the Open University for crying out loud.

[dugong]

He mentioned 'American car production in the 'Sixties', then showed footage of a Tri-Chevy production line.

 

No mention of Hans Ledwinka or the massive appropriation of air-cooled Tatra designs that took place, or the fact that Ledwinka died penniless in 1961.

 

The repayments made to the aggrieved KdF parties were tiny, and could only be spent as a discount off the cost of a new Volkswagen (DM300 and DM1100 if I recall correctly).

 

I knew Fallersleben was demanded by the Soviets as a war reparition but didn't know it fell into the jurisdiction of the DDR.

 

That and the Lada was a stripped out RHD model with a crap attempt at a Russian plate. I was knackered when I watched it, there's probably more.

[Negative Creep]

They also had music from System of a Down and Command & Conquer Red Alert, so several plus points for that

[dugong]

They also had music from System of a Down and Command & Conquer Red Alert, so several plus points for that

And Joy Division, which was probably a given based on the Nazi subject matter.

[retrogeezer]

I was surprised he took this piss out of the Rangey flat tyre, I am assuming RR provide them free to the beeb for all the advertising they get so to say a Lada is better on a rough road might not go down too well with PR

[Junkman]

He mentioned 'American car production in the 'Sixties', then showed footage of a Tri-Chevy production line.

 

Never mind that they also managed to show footage of Italian fascists while babbling on about Hitler.

[UmBongo]

Never mind that they also managed to show footage of Italian fascists while babbling on about Hitler.

 

It's the BBC.

 

A bunch of lazy production assistants too busy playing with their hair, their google machines and themselves to do proper archive research.

 

Watch any BBC historical drama and you will see lots of inaccuracies, too.

[UmBongo]

And Joy Division, which was probably a given based on the Nazi subject matter.

 

Some Lehar or Wagner may have been more appropriate.

[Junkman]

It's the BBC.

 

A bunch of lazy production assistants too busy playing with their hair, their google machines and themselves to do proper archive research.

 

Watch any BBC historical drama and you will see lots of inaccuracies, too.

 

Which I find baffling in so far, that the BBC manages to get every detail right, when they make period dramas.

[dugong]

Which I find baffling in so far, that the BBC manages to get every detail right, when they make period dramas.

 

Outsourced production companies. It's in its charter. 

[Pete-M]

It's a car programme with a bit of history chucked in. 

I noticed the Saxony bit* - I know someone who lives facing the old Trabbie factory in Zwickau - but figured at least the programme educates people about what was going on. If people are interested they'll learn more, and then occasionally they'll spout on motoring forums about how one of the Top Gear presenters got something wrong. 

May, Clarkson and Hammond quite obviously spend time giggling at the shite that gets written about TG. Rightfully so, they've got the best jobs....


.... in the world.

 

[Jon]

I watched it the other day after logging on here and noticing this thread had got to 3 pages quite quickly, so I was expecting a bit of controversy and thought I'd take the Mary Whitehouse approach of forcing myself to watch it so as to be appalled and enraged. It's obviously a TG production, so is a little contrived for my liking but then it's not half as bad as many of the 'documentaries' produced today, which focus way too much time on the presenter as a person of interest, and how whatever the subject matter affects them personally. Also, when did it become mandatory that almost all factual programming has to resort to almost constant background music when there's no dialogue? As an antidote, I heartily recommend the BBC Four Collections programming available on iPlayer (mostly 20th century documentaries) for those who share my luddite views.

 

All pretty negative so far but then I thought of a couple of car programmes I enjoyed that contained wanton destruction. The first was Tim Hunkin's 'The Secret Life of Machines - The Car' (so old, it's shot on film, so looks even older. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Tp2qpjcgw

 

where a Datsun 100 gets rolled in a stunt and a MkII Escort is driven into a scrappy and then grabbed into the crusher. Then there's Russel Bulgin's Channel 4 doco celebrating the Mini (from its 40th anniversary, IIRC), where him and a car designer critique the bits of a Mini they hated by smashing said bits with sledge hammers. So really, the scale wasn't there of the destruction that TG programmes wreak and there was a little more context and a bit less mindless vandalism but it's certainly nothing new, so I'd be hypocritical to complain too much about modern times or something.

[forddeliveryboy]

Yep, Tim Hunkin's prog is a good one. Would they dare screen such an intelligently made and informative bit of tv today? There are different ways in which you can destroy cars - the TopGear approach is def the mindless way.

 

Yet at times, TG has been known to be very funny. When they're away from the carefully-scripted studio lines, they can be really fun to watch. It'll probably be the best social history of the car for civilisations to come.

[oman5]

And Joy Division, which was probably a given based on the Nazi subject matter.

Not to mention kraftwerk's "autobahn"

[nisfan]

really liked that secret life of machines, although sad to see old chod wrecked it was everyday stuff back then. That 100a didnt sound healthy at all

[colino]

I'm surprised that I disliked a programme. a car programme, fronted by James May so much to comment. Disregarding the Model T Ford, (H. Ford was a genius, not only revolutionising mass production, but realising that paying his workers enough they could buy the product and giving them decent working hours they could have leisure hours to use the product, meant they sold in their millions), because  he was a fascist, wasn't enough.  The programme flip-flopped through known, accredited history to be laughable.  His switcheroo between Lada 1200s and Rivas was just an example of the phoney side salad.

I'm more concerned for Mr May.  Is he OK to go beyond being talked over and edited badly out of TG to accept Clarksons cast off scripts/programmes now?

[Pete-M]

So the new rule is that if Top Gear wreck something they're a bunch of wasteful cunts, but if someone less popular does it then it's ok as it was just old.

 

Did nobody actually watch the programme? It seems strange that dropping one of the most common (and truly dreadful commie piece of shit) cars ever made - one that most of us wouldn't buy if we were offered it for a tenner is a mega crime because the programme was made by Top Gear.

 

I do love the indignity of it all "They wrecked a classic*, I would have saved it**, I'd give it a home***"

 

Great programme and the Wrecking of one of the most common cars on the planet was no loss.

 

James May, if you're reading this and need a hand getting the 1000 Rover 800s together for the next series game of exploding 800 Dominoes. Call me, I'll be glad to help.

 

 

*classic in the sense that it's old and awful. Like a slightly less communist Marina.

 

** "I would have saved it", the mating cry of the old car "enthusiast" who in reality would do nothing of the sort. A lack of space and money is irrelevant, now the car is dead they scream that they'd have fixed it. If the car was alive and working they'd have nothing to do with it "I'd love to but it's too 'salty', knock some money off the £10 asking price and I still won't buy it".

 

***"I'll give it a home" (provided you can store it for free for the next four months, will transport it 150 miles to my house for free and don't mind lending me the purchase price as it's too expensive for a busy social forum commentator. I'll put a load of pictures up on the Internet of the resurrection thread and then weigh it in after 6 months while nobody is looking.

[Wilko220]

Whether it's TG or anyone else, there is a difference between wrecking something which is very common and wrecking something which is rare.

 

No-one complained about Marinas / SD1s / Dolomites / Allegros / etc being destroyed on the basis that they were the most amazing pieces of automotive engineering ever devised. The complaint was that there aren't very many about any more, so it's pretty unpleasant behaviour to go out of your way to make them even rarer still.

[Pete-M]

Those Ladas aren't rare. They're rare here, but go to any of the countries that suffered them and they're still about. Not many people want to drive them, but they do exist.

 

If people actually want the things they're easy enough to get. Hop on a plane to any of the former Eastern Bloc states and buy one.

 

Too expensive? You don't want one enough.

[Cavcraft]

You sound like one of the tiny tiny minority of oval racers who excuse wrecking stuff because they can't find a buyer.

Is this still all down to the fact you couldn't offload that old Peugeot you had?

[garbaldy]

^ thought it was a probe?

 

Its no different than scraping a car that did not sell within a week or so, no biggy though as still readily available.

[Pete-M]

I sold that old Peugeot. Took a while but it went.

 

The Probe was in fact a Cougar and I sold that cheaply to a friend who's still enjoying it.

 

It didn't get 'scraped'

 

The 604 I sold for less than the banger boys offered. The Cougar for £20 more than the scrap man offered.