[07x06] December 27th, 2005

[maximus]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

The awards were a bit of light relief, I never take JC's recommendations too seriously so it was no surprise he was raving about the Astons and lauding the BMW's. IMO Aston's are overpriced rubbish anyway.

Same could be said about the 1 series. Its true what they were saying, may as well go for a Z4! The 1 series is a joke.

The DB9 is one of the best cars on the road today and thats what you pay for.

[Ianspeed]

Wow. Lots of negative comments, and I mostly agree.

No frozen Hammond, no shot up Hammond. Not enough May. Where are those clips?

Tuner v Classis: I have no idea where you guys are seeing these 'well tuned' tuner/cruiser cars. 99% of them are just as crap as the 306. It makes me sick to see how many decent cars get ruined buy immature kids with parents money. Nice to see it put in perspective.

NSX v GT4: Anyone notice JC was not only using a dual shock, but he never touched the analogue controlers??!! No kidding the game is easier that real life, its giving as much help as it can to users who chose to press the buttons. Get a wheel and pedals and lets see a fair comparison please.

and finally,

BMW v VW: God has BMW lost it. I honestly have zero interest in any line produced BMW past the E34 I drive. It really makes me wonder how long the company can last pandering to the bling bling yuppie generations. Once they leave this earth, who will buy a BMW? The worst part is the racing history BMW is tainting with ugly, poorly made, and overly flash cars. Argh!! It makes me so angry.

Still, I enjoyed this series and when I get back from work today, I think I'll have a marathon and run them all back to back to back. 8)

[thej762000]

What I learned this week:

1. BMW 1-Series is crap no matter what you do to it.

2. R32 didn't just waste the M1(or 1M, whatever) it also beat the time of the old 2003 V8 S4(1:30.9) which itself beat the 2003 M3(1:31.8).

3. Whoever's been doing the 700MB rip, thank you very much for your efforts. You can now go to the shed and be flayed with a butter knife.

4. Austin-Healey guys rule!

Can't wait till next year. Hopefully to see the Hamster getting frozen, shot, and eaten by some hyenas and elephants.

[geeman]

Originally Posted by Ianspeed

Tuner v Classis: I have no idea where you guys are seeing these 'well tuned' tuner/cruiser cars. 99% of them are just as crap as the 306. It makes me sick to see how many decent cars get ruined buy immature kids with parents money. Nice to see it put in perspective.

Totally agreed. The 'Tuner' guys were nothing but a bunch of ricers. It's no wonder a true sports car wins a FWD car with a huge wing in the back and lots of useless weight inside

[LoneWolf]

Originally Posted by maximus

Same could be said about the 1 series. Its true what they were saying, may as well go for a Z4! The 1 series is a joke.

The DB9 is one of the best cars on the road today and thats what you pay for.

I'll admit the 1 series is way overpriced (even though I wouldn't mind owning one, if I had the money), and I'll also admit the DB9 is a decent car.

My gripe is with the way JC always keeps applauding the Astons, dwelling for about a second on some (major) faults, but spending half the show raving on about everything else. The Vantage is a prime example, JC himself admitted it wasn't that good with it's gearbox, its handling is rubbish and it breaks down a lot (I remember on Fifth Gear Vicky was testing it, and it broke down several times). And yet despite these obvious flaws, put anything but British next to the Aston and JC forgets about all these problems and instead goes on about it's noise, or it's character or it's styling.

British bias, plain and simple.

But then, as I mentioned before I don't take JC too seriously so usually I ignore what he say's about Astons and see the funny side of it (as with Hamster disagreeing about the 911 not winning).

[dino_martini]

What happened to the mx5 racing the dog around the track?

[Ianspeed]

Originally Posted by dino_martini

What happened to the mx5 racing the dog around the track?

Um, you havn't finished downloading have you?

[maximus]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

My gripe is with the way JC always keeps applauding the Astons, dwelling for about a second on some (major) faults, but spending half the show raving on about everything else. The Vantage is a prime example, JC himself admitted it wasn't that good with it's gearbox, its handling is rubbish and it breaks down a lot (I remember on Fifth Gear Vicky was testing it, and it broke down several times). And yet despite these obvious flaws, put anything but British next to the Aston and JC forgets about all these problems and instead goes on about it's noise, or it's character or it's styling.

JC admits that the Vanquish has a crap gearbox (you got the right car? I remember one breaking down when she tried to accelerate all the time, I'm sure thats the Vanquish not the Vantage.)

You seem to me to be forgetting that noise, character and styling are what Astons are all about. For example, I've read a few reviews comparing the Vanquish to the 550, and most of them conceded that although the Ferrari is the better car, the Vanquish has more attraction due to its character and styling.

He is British biased but I don't agree with putting anything but British against the Aston either. JC thought the M6 was better in the recent group test but went for the Vantage due to the same reasons I listed above with the Vanquish.

I agreed with the 911 thing (even thought hamster eating the card was funny) the Aston is a much cooler car.

[Shawn]

Read the front page of this site... Vuk messed up his recording and has to do it again when it reairs on Sunday...

Originally Posted by v8can

Please will someone upload the 350 MB version.

[Shawn]

You should go back and watch Fifth Gear again, because Tiff was the one who drove the AMV8 and not Vicki... she drove the Vanquish S if I remember correctly... and Jason did the drop-top DB9.

Besides, I personally don't care if the Vantage is slower than a 911 and it doesn't handle well (but where did you hear it didn't handle well? Tiff loved it...), I'd still choose it over a 911 Turbo. It's just so much prettier, exclusive, modern-looking and lovable. You might think Jeremy is biased... but you can't argue with him that 911s have looked the same since the first one rolled out of the factory and that they are very common; you also can't argue with him when he says Aston Martin's are exclusive and pretty and luxurious.

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

My gripe is with the way JC always keeps applauding the Astons, dwelling for about a second on some (major) faults, but spending half the show raving on about everything else. The Vantage is a prime example, JC himself admitted it wasn't that good with it's gearbox, its handling is rubbish and it breaks down a lot (I remember on Fifth Gear Vicky was testing it, and it broke down several times). And yet despite these obvious flaws, put anything but British next to the Aston and JC forgets about all these problems and instead goes on about it's noise, or it's character or it's styling.

Edit: I should learn to read first so I don't repat exactly what other people have said...

[Tumpeloinen]

Not really anything special in this episode..

But DAMN the Peugeot was UGLY.. The colors were so horrible. Who on earth would tune an old Peugeot anyways.

[Kebab gud]

boring episode ...

the awards where rubish .. why cant they do the award like in the magazine..

boring..

[mmap]

I though it was a good episode...

Damn those tuned cars. If you wanna build one, fine as long as you enjoy it I have no problems, but DO NOT claim they are drivers cars. They are such driving paradoxes, the guys put low profile tyres "to improve handling and grip" and replace body panels with carbon fibre (or glassfibre) ones "cause they're lighter" and boost engines etc. and what to they do next? they fit several hundred kilos of ICE into them!! mostly in the boot behind the rear axle... Yeah beutiful handling etc...

I do wish they'd stop promotin clips that tehy wont air! If you're gonna show a preview then you better show the whole thing as well... If they air the hammond being shot clip next spring we'll all know it's a year old at least.

[beeetle]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

Hold on a minute.. I've just seen the episode and didnt found that scene... It should be funny, why didnt they air it?

[Tunafish]

Originally Posted by awdrifter

Just watched it. Good ep. The modified vs old car is kinda bad tho, they picked a show car to race. Get a modified Skyline and watch the old car lose. On the GT4 vs NSX, I've read a site (forgot the name), but they did it within 10 sec of the time in the game. So I guess Clarkson is not a very good driver.

yeh, but I noticed that he used the Honda NSX Type-R in the game, and an Acura NSX in real life. there is a noticeable difference between the two cars in the game, and a huge difference in real life. I bet if he used the Type-R in real life, it would have been much closer.

[beeetle]

1 Series gave me a rubbish impression since James May review the normal 1 series in 12.26.2004 episode, once again, JC proof it is rubbish, it's ugly too.

The top gear award sucked compare to 2004 one which i love, they should've more video describing and music instead of plain photos and they announce the winner straight away which wasn't exciting.

Overall, fine episode.

Can someone tell me details about why JC got "pie" in the face?

[Shawn]

He was getting another honourary doctorate and he was hit in the face with a pie by some environmental bastards who claimed he promoted not being environmentally-conscious or whatever.

But the best part was how he reacted; he was just like "wow, that's a great one... and it's banana cream pie, it's delicious!" Whereas he could've been like Tom "I'm a Douchebag" Cruise when he got squirted by a water gun this summer and he acted like a total asshat.

[Shawn]

Hmm, good eye there. Totally forgot that being in California, he only had access to the plain old Acura NSX... which is weird, there's lots of good cars in GT4 that are available here in North America. But I guess they wanted to do a goodbye piece to the awesome NSX.

Originally Posted by Tunafish

yeh, but I noticed that he used the Honda NSX Type-R in the game, and an Acura NSX in real life. there is a noticeable difference between the two cars in the game, and a huge difference in real life. I bet if he used the Type-R in real life, it would have been much closer.

[Militant-Grunt]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

What happened to Hammond freezing in the car?!

Im dissapointed, it wasnt that good of a episode.

[LoneWolf]

Originally Posted by maximus

JC admits that the Vanquish has a crap gearbox (you got the right car? I remember one breaking down when she tried to accelerate all the time, I'm sure thats the Vanquish not the Vantage.)

You seem to me to be forgetting that noise, character and styling are what Astons are all about. For example, I've read a few reviews comparing the Vanquish to the 550, and most of them conceded that although the Ferrari is the better car, the Vanquish has more attraction due to its character and styling.

He is British biased but I don't agree with putting anything but British against the Aston either. JC thought the M6 was better in the recent group test but went for the Vantage due to the same reasons I listed above with the Vanquish.

I agreed with the 911 thing (even thought hamster eating the card was funny) the Aston is a much cooler car.

OK first, yes I might have got the cars mixed up, it may have been the Vanquish rather then the Vantage.

I can't comment on what other magazines have said comparing the 575(or any other car) to the Aston's, but it's rare for me to hear JC or the TG crew say anything negative about Aston's. The part where JC didn't like the baby Aston was rare, but I knew he'd go for the Aston in the end, it's a good thing James didn't side with him again and luckily the 911 won (BTW I'd just like to point out at this point I am not a 911 fan).

I'm not saying JC has invalid opinions on the Aston's and when he compares them to other cars, it's just that I always get the impression he is heavily biased towards it. To be fair, he does that with most cars he likes and does the opposite with the cars he dislikes, but the Aston's are the ones which I remember more.

For example, with the M5 he spent most of the time moaning about it, which is understandable because it does have many problems, and then spent the last few minutes giving it praise. When he drove the DB9, he mentioned how it was very heavy at the front (which seems to be a characteristic of Aston's, and which also seems to characterise their handling). But, whereas with a BMW or something else he would have criticised it for being too heavy at the front and expanded on this point, with the DB9 he twisted it around saying it 'flatters you because you feel that when you kiss an apex you'll feel it's your own work'. Personally, that is bias IMO and if you read between the lines he's hiding the fact that the DB9 might be more of a handful in corners compared to something more lighter and better balanced.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand about character, and soul, and beauty and styling. JC has heavily influenced my opinions on many cars, I adore Ferrari's but don't like Japanese cars because they're too boring. And I don't like American cars because they are, well, rubbish (though this is a well known fact). It's just that you can tell when JC is testing a car he has long loved, like Aston's, he always uses attributes such as character, beauty, styling etc as an excuse to hide it's flaws. He talks up the good parts and glosses over the bad parts.

Remember the time when they did the Jaguar XJR (I think it was XJR) vs 911 vs 6-series on that beach in Wales? Admittedly he did criticise the Jag in that film, but he again was talking up the good parts of the British car, glossing over the bad parts and absolutely murdering the opposition. The Jag has a woeful interior and is very old. Yes the BMW 6-series is boring but it was the cheapest. He didn't dwell too much on the Jag's shortfalls but gave plenty of time to criticise the BMW. And at the end of the film he quickly mentioned what a fast time the BMW set around the track with the Stig, but did they give it due credit and reveal the lap time? No, of course not, it would have embarrased the Jag.

Again with the 575 vs Vanquish, the 575 is better in pretty much all aspects but the Aston won because of it's character and soul. Fair enough I say, the Aston probably has more appeal in that sense. But the 575 has plenty of character itself and Italian passion, and it has pedigree and plenty of history. And besides, how many times has JC fallen in love with a car based on track performance and remarkable engineering? I remember when he tested the Vanquish in one of the early series, he came close to saying he hated it, has made a few unflattering comments throughout the show about it and it's gearbox, and even advised Lionel Richie to consider the DB9 instead of the Vanquish? But he all of a sudden decided to ignore what the Ferrari was offering and instead go for the Aston based on looks and character alone? Inconsistency or bias? You decide.

This is why when there's a shootout of some sort and a Aston or Jag are involved, I always take it with a heap of salt.