[11x04] May 21st, 2007

[Quiky]

Discuss.

No torrent talk.

[vRS]

I missed the beginning , what were the original hot hatches they were going to test before they picked 4?

This was a motorbike episode. The stupid race with Danny and Tamier was a waste of time, as was the Rolls Royce feature, they could of got a review in the time wasted.

The A1 GP car to 200mph as predicted failed. Good. I know why she was eating a cream cake while they were doing the seat mould (20mins it took....) that's why it only got to *** her fat arse weighed it down.

Overall. It sucked. The hot hatches segment isn't a review as they have all been on the show before more or less.

[gregster]

Considering the show largely sucks, amazing how we love to watch just to judge the 'how much does it suck this week factor'.
I anticipate this one to be crap, not sure why, just gut feeling!

Gregster

[noname00]

I liked the hot hatch segment. The A1 GP wasn't that good (reminded me of Hammond and the Vampire). I skipped the rest of the show.

[Quake]

So how much does this episode suck? I mean.., How good is this episode?

[gregster]

Yep rather crap
* They didn't show how they decided on the Golf and Focus from the Honda and Renault, apparently they argued about it!
* Anybody who pimps a RR has more money then sense
* Wow I can drive backwards all day and not wreck my gearbox, I've been wondering that for years, puts my mind at rest.
* Team Ireland took most of the day to realise they needed a longer 6th gear, presumably the length of the straight was known before going there, are they world champions? Schumi once said 'anybody can drive in a straight line it's through the corners that matters'
* All those actors were cocky wankers!, with nothing intelligent to input about cars at all.
Roll on next week

G

[TJP]

I thought this weeks show was a far better effort than last week.

The "Hot Hatch Deathmatch" was quite entertaining. It would have been nice to find out a bit more info on why the other cars didn't make it. Why not test them all at the track?

At the track, Tiff shows once again he is a driving god. The angles he got the Golf to were insane.The reactions of Jonny & Tom being tossed around inside the cars was very funny.

Paddy McGuinness's Compulsory Basic Training for motorcycles was OK. He seems to be not full of himself (unlike the 2 actors). I'm sure most of the car nuts on the forum will find the section boring, but from a bike riders POV, I found it interesting to see what riders in the UK have to go through.

Driving in reverse to blow up a gearbox They would have been better off slamming the gearbox from 1st into reverse at a decent speed a couple of times. Anyone with the slightest clue about cars will know that the motor will overheat long before the gearbox will give out by driving in reverse. Pointless.

Another pointless part was the monkey bike race. When are the producers going to learn that these segments are crap? Very boring with two cocky actors which added nothing to the show.

Finally Vicki's quest to reach 200 MPH......you know the result before the end of the segment. At least she wasn't as annoying with squeals & other carry on as has been the case with other top speed attempts.

[happychap]

After watching the Hot Hatch Deathmatch I have to wonder how unbiased or honest that review was. The problem was with the Mazda 3 MPS (USA called the Mazdaspeed3) I really have to wonder if they even drove the car. they dismissed it because of it's awful torque steer. It has practically no torque steer. I know I own one. Mazda limits the power is 1st and 2nd gear so that torque steer is not a problem. From their description it was like they had read the power figures and assumed with numbers that large on a FWD car the torque steer must be a problem and just made up some BS line. Maybe if they had actually drove all the cars we would have had a good review. It makes you wonder how often they pull this kind of crap.

[awdrifter]

The Mazdaspeed3 is based on the Ford Focus's platform, so it should handle similar to the Focus, I was kinda dissappointed they didn't just include teh Civic Type R in the finals. Just make it a 3 car finals, I love the EUDM CTR's looks, too bad we don't get it here. The A1GP topspeed challenge was not bad, but when I hear the car only got 500hp I know it won't hit 200mph. And from the video it looks like they needed softer suspension settings, the car is just bouncing at high speed. The rest of the show is pretty bad.

[Vette Boss]

They came to the conclusion everyone knows about the hot hatches; buy a Golf GTI. Brilliant! Tiff's driving was amazing, how anyone can get that sort of angle in a FWD car.. simply stunning.

Vicki's segment with the A1GP was pretty good, you can tell she puts a lot of emotion into it. The car needed some changes, though.

And the motorbike stuff? Ah, who cares about those?

[Ottobon]

Originally Posted by awdrifter

The A1GP topspeed challenge was not bad, but when I hear the car only got 500hp I know it won't hit 200mph. .

keep in mind the 40 year old Ford GT40 hit 202 with only 400hp

and mercedez made a car that did 200mph with 230hp back in the 70s :p




as for the episode, it actually seemed pretty good, don't see how it "sucks" at all, the hot hatch segment if nothing else was worth while for sure

i don't see the point of complaining when you really don't have anything to complain about, maybe somebody just needs a ego boost?

[poptya]

didn't suck at all to me, although the monkey bike segment was rather pointless.

[Cobol74]

I like this one. Nothing to object to - Tiff's bit great, Bike Basic - ooooh glad I don't ride one, fun but they're dangerous. A1 - OK, its nice to miss sometimes, shows how hard it really was. Anyway I like VBH.

[otispunkmeyer]

well it was better than the last two weeks, although if im honest most of it seems rather forgetable.

the best bit, by far, was the hot hatch shoot out. the selections were pretty typical but tiffs driving was insane! he was doing tail out action in FWD cars!

tested to destruction was completely and utterly idiotic. there was simply no way in hell you were going to bust a gearbox, a piece of heavy duty engineering by nature and a jap one at that, by simply driving in reverse at top speed.......that was just uneducated television. pure tripe.

why they have to keep doing bikes is beyond me, the guy from phoenix nites was funny for a while, but overall all the bike segments were shit.

and all 3 guys appearing on the same screen at once just doesnt work...they ham it up big time, it feels very forced and very scripted, they just dont gel like clarkson, hammond and may...and i dont think they ever will.

these guys are honestly better when doing stuff on their own...they simply do not mix when put together and given a crummy script.

vicki didnt squeal once i dont think, thats a start, the A1GP feature sucked though.

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally Posted by happychap

After watching the Hot Hatch Deathmatch I have to wonder how unbiased or honest that review was. The problem was with the Mazda 3 MPS (USA called the Mazdaspeed3) I really have to wonder if they even drove the car. they dismissed it because of it's awful torque steer. It has practically no torque steer. I know I own one. Mazda limits the power is 1st and 2nd gear so that torque steer is not a problem. From their description it was like they had read the power figures and assumed with numbers that large on a FWD car the torque steer must be a problem and just made up some BS line. Maybe if they had actually drove all the cars we would have had a good review. It makes you wonder how often they pull this kind of crap.

the other thing is.... its based on the Mk2 focus...which they ended up putting through to tiff and he showed just how good the handling is on that car. with a ford chassis i can only asertain that the mazda is roughly just as good to drive and more powerful (though not much 225 vs 256)

Originally Posted by Ottobon

keep in mind the 40 year old Ford GT40 hit 202 with only 400hp

and mercedez made a car that did 200mph with 230hp back in the 70s :p




as for the episode, it actually seemed pretty good, don't see how it "sucks" at all, the hot hatch segment if nothing else was worth while for sure

i don't see the point of complaining when you really don't have anything to complain about, maybe somebody just needs a ego boost?

didnt the GT40 do it on that simply huge straight on the le mans circuit though? that things huge....i got an SLR up to 271 there...in GT4 of course and it did have about 900 bhp + NOS

theres more too it that power though, Gt40 is a slippery beast. those A1GP cars are all designed for downforce with wings and sculptured body etc, and its pretty hard to get lift/downforce without creating drag. but they couldnt run it without wings....its too light, it'd just bounce into a ball of fire.

[nismohks]

"Tom... WHERE"S MY HONDA CIVIC?!!!

WHERE'S MY REVS??!!!

WHERE'S MY FAVOURITE HOT HATCH??!!! ...

... THE TYPE R"



well ... that's about all the info i needed from this episode ... tiff's word is as good as any, and definitely better than Tom and Johnny no worries.


sorry in my head.... GTI and Civic Type R will reign above all

[Dsemaj]

The first part was good, but I would have atleast liked to see the civic make it through. Best looking hot hatches of them all. But atleast there was some nice driving. All of them in the car reminded me of that old top gear episode with tiff, jeremy and quieten in the Ford Puma for the car of the year part. Now that was some impressive driving! Amazed to see that in FWD cars! Nice to see that the extra 20hp didn't spoil the Golf, but it does just leave me a bit cold.

Rest was pretty dull, I feel asleep through the motorbike thing and I don't think I can be bothered to watch Vicki's 200mph thing. Personally I find her a bit on the irritating side.

Oh, and why isn't Tiff the main presenter? Why isn't he EVER seen at the start and introducing stuff? Why must they have that Johnny guy? He's alright, but that's where it ends. He doesn't sound that enthusiastic.

Sorry, but this show really has lost it's focus. There doesn't seen to be much connection between any of the presenters.

Originally Posted by otispunkmeyer

tested to destruction was completely and utterly idiotic. there was simply no way in hell you were going to bust a gearbox, a piece of heavy duty engineering by nature and a jap one at that, by simply driving in reverse at top speed.......that was just uneducated television. pure tripe.

Agreed.

[awdrifter]

Originally Posted by Ottobon

keep in mind the 40 year old Ford GT40 hit 202 with only 400hp

and mercedez made a car that did 200mph with 230hp back in the 70s :p

I know TDU isn't the most realistic game, but I'm too lazy to start up GT4. I just tried doing a top speed run with a 462hp Miura, it only hit 195, but I hit 208mph easily with a 600hp Viper. Now I know the A1GP car is a lot lighter, but it also has a lot of wings which means higher drag. So I still think it would've need 600hp to hit 200mph.

[geeman]

The A1 car has a lot of downforce therefore it has a lot slowing it down. In comparasion even F1 cars don't go much over 200mph, about 220mph on some tracks according to wikipedia. Even though they have ~900hp. It's all down to cornering speeds being more important.
Also the run way might of been too short too. At nearly 200mph you reach the end pretty fast and the car does need some distance to slow down too.

[jack_christie]

Originally Posted by otispunkmeyer

vicki didnt squeal once i dont think, thats a start, the A1GP feature sucked though.

What a contradiction???? If FifthGear had an A1GP car every week, wouldn't that silence the problem