[07x05] December 11th, 2005

oliB said:
As for doing 200+ mph on the Autobahn. It's quite possible and been done many times. For instance, close to where I live there's a stretch of the Autobahn A3 with a 6+ mile straight and four lanes. Back in the 30s they were setting world speed records on this particular road. In 1938 Rudolf Caracciola did 268mph with his Mercedes-Benz there.

Just for the record:
EVO article about the Carrera GT doing 200mph on the A3

Just for the record: you're speaking of the nearby A5 here!
 
Ups, of course I am. Typo, edited.
 
Lonegunman said:
FFS! :shock:

I mean, honestly, don't you people have anything better to do than whine about the latest TG (which had the world's best and fastest car) being a bad, disappointing episode? Top Gear's cinematography and scripts are still excellent for a car show and you couldn't wish to get better presenters than JC, Hamster and May. It's just sad to read so much complaints written about Top Gear. Just look how much **** there is on the TV these days. :roll:

Long live Top Gear!

The Veyron may be the fastest, the most powerfull and the most expensive car in the world but it doesn't mean it's the best car in the world. Yes, it's a magnificent engineering achievement. Yes, the indicator swithes alone may cost about the same as my car, but that's just trivia. I actually got more out of the Veyron review in this monts Top Gear magazine where James May and that other bloke (who was the project leader in the McLaren F1- project) reviewed it. Yes, it's a awsome car.

It's just that I (and think some other people too) had some expectations about this particular episode because of the Veyron review and the pre-hype about it... and it kinda flopped. The race was boring and it had too made up feeling .. at least compared to that 612 Scaglietti v. Airliner race. And they didn't even show the Stig driving the Veyron around the track.. the whole thing was just about the Veyron blasting past the camera somewhere in France. I think it's a bit of an understatement, because as Jeremy said the Veyron is the automotive Concorde of our time. There will never be anything like it, never again. They should've reviewed it thoroughly: on the road (which they did), on the track, some presentations about it's unbelivable performance, the trivia, the hype (which Jeremy did) etc..

Yeah, it's easy to complain about something when you're used to get the best.. and I've got some better things to do as well, so don't get me wrong. :D Top Gear rocks!
 
I was expecting to SEE the veyron more in detail, one of the review i really don't like, we can't even get a good look at the car and actually how quick it feels like :thumbsdown:
disappointed
 
oli B and Mautzel: I take back what I said about the Autobahn, I just meant it wasn't the most suitable place to do over 200 MPH, the Autobahn still is a public road... Anyway I should shut up about the Autobahn, I'm Dutch and we have studip speed limits and speed cameras practically everywhere in Holland :thumbsdown: We even make trips to Deutschland to drive on the Autobahn, just for the fun of it.

Even a mediocre episode of TG gets us excited... 13 pages and counting
 
I swear the way the episodes are picked apart is astonishing...

Good thing none of us are hitmen, cause everyone of us would still be shooting hours after the guy died. :lol:
 
First post here, but I've been reading for quite some time. Just some random thoughts on the episode...

I really can't agree with the "Concorde" philosophy about the Veyron. Every several years a new supermegahyperultimatecar surfaces, and in ten years' time (or less), people will be discussing the Veyron once again as it gets knocked from its perch.

That being said, huge kudos to VW for actually coming through on this thing. It's not so much that anything on it is revolutionary technology, but it pushes every existing technology to new heights while combining them all in one package. For now, it's the king of the hill.

Agreed that we need to see the Veyron on the track. I don't think it will beat the Zonda F (I won't mind being shown wrong), but I also don't think that would make it any less amazing.

I'm not sure that Danny Elfman's Batman music fit the Veyron very well, but it was nice to hear.
 
driedees said:
Germany isn't really on route from Italy to England, it wouldn't make sense to take a detour on a race. (Althouhg people in Cessna airplanes do that :p ) Besides, I don't think the German Autobahn is the best place to drive over 200 MPH in a 840.000 GBP car...

What I meant was that they could've decided to race anywhere in the EU. Why not choose some other totally random thing to bring back to London? How about they bring back some white asparagus from Germany?

Also, it doesn't take that much skill to drive in a straight line really fast, just big balls.
 
kaleidopope said:
It's not so much that anything on it is revolutionary technology
.

I dunno, after JCs article and the episode i think that gear box is quite a revolution, among other things.
 
In the episode they said that they were losing 5 million per car... or something like that. Does anybody know where that figure comes from? I can't imagine each car costing that much to build, maybe they're taking the average cost of each car, including development costs? Any ideas?
 
I dont think they would include development costs into that figure. and spending that much on each car seems kinda unlikely, but you never know.
on a related note, i like cars like the Veyron that companies make just to prove what they can do. I mean they lose money on each sell, its fucking awesome, you are essentially paying much less for a car that actually costs much more. Same with the F1, the profits on the F1 were virtually nothing.
:thumbsup:
 
Since it's illegal in most countries to sell a product at a manufacturing loss, and there are no where near enough parts on that car to account for $5 million, they are obviously bragging about the entire cost of the project, including development costs, divided by the number of cars they plan to build. This same fact will be true for the Enzo, Carrera GT and Ford GT, or any other "mascot" car.

And the investment is no loss. The value in marketing, brand recognition, and R&D innovations that apply to future conventional models is worth every bit of the cost.
 
I bet that Jeremy has a DVD coming out soon - why so little about the actual driving experience of the Veyron? I bet the DVD will feature the Veyron as the last car (after reviewing many others), and THEN we'll hear all the stuff we wanted to hear about just how incredible this car really is....
 
I didn't start out with great expectations of the episode, I was actually worried that it would be a Veyron-fest only, with not much else going on. Anyone who thinks about it rationally knows that you can't rave on about a single car for a full hour without it getting bored.

Thus I was very pleased to see Mansell, and also to see the 'diesel fuel advisory' thing get beaten up...

I admit, I had to rewind a bit when the engine-less aircraft pylons showed up. I had looked away for a second, caught a glance of grey wing and grey pylons, and thought they had parked the car under a Tornado's wing. Pylons looked like weapons hardpoints.

NTM
 
I didn't feel the magic in this ep.
 
kanderson said:
Since it's illegal in most countries to sell a product at a manufacturing loss, and there are no where near enough parts on that car to account for $5 million, they are obviously bragging about the entire cost of the project, including development costs, divided by the number of cars they plan to build. This same fact will be true for the Enzo, Carrera GT and Ford GT, or any other "mascot" car.

And the investment is no loss. The value in marketing, brand recognition, and R&D innovations that apply to future conventional models is worth every bit of the cost.

Your're right about the total costs, to manufacture the car it self doesn't cost that much. I just think, that because many of the car companies struggling at the moment, there aren't that many companies that could or can afford to start such a massive project to greate something totally new which challenges and pushes the boundaries of performance. There will be new projects that are more ecofriendly and less consuming etc..

Toyota's doing well, maybe they have some money to throw around. :D
 
driedees said:
oli B and Mautzel: I take back what I said about the Autobahn, I just meant it wasn't the most suitable place to do over 200 MPH, the Autobahn still is a public road...

Well, you only would've seen the Veyron in the dark - both the A3 and the A5 are usually cramped over the day, and shots of a car zooming by within .seconds in the dark isn't really exciting for the viewer :| .
Apart from that, I don't see any interesting starting point that would've justified taking one of these roads for going back to Britain.
 
logo said:
I didn't feel the magic in this ep.
Agreed... somehow I cant help but thinking last episode was a wee bit better. To brutally honest, I prefer 5th gear episode 803 than this.
 
mautzel said:
driedees said:
oli B and Mautzel: I take back what I said about the Autobahn, I just meant it wasn't the most suitable place to do over 200 MPH, the Autobahn still is a public road...

Well, you only would've seen the Veyron in the dark - both the A3 and the A5 are usually cramped over the day, and shots of a car zooming by within .seconds in the dark isn't really exciting for the viewer :| .
Apart from that, I don't see any interesting starting point that would've justified taking one of these roads for going back to Britain.
Well, you certainly can't do 200mph on those at any time, but I don't think it is that cramped. On my commute to Uni hitting 120mph is normal, sometimes even 140-150. ;)

Oliver
 
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