Top Gear In American Again

[adrianmoles]

Looks like James May has finally bought the omega railmaster that he mentioned in the telegraph's column.

[peterjmag]

Holy crap! They're going to be flying out of Denver? Any idea which day? My roommate will be at DIA either tomorrow or Monday (can't remember which), and he's also a huge fan. I might have to drive down there and meet up with him, see if I can't get the chance to shake their hand(s). I won't be a nuisance, I promise.

[RossTheBoss]

Anyone know if they're going to be stopping by the Miller Motorsports Park? Maybe do some laps with the stig etc?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Motorsports_Park

[janstett]

Wow, finalgear mafia strikes again! Great pics.

[IceBone]

More from the Salt Flats... REALLY cool guys, it was awesome to meet them.
56k beware.

*snip*

LOL

Can you post these on www.phyrefile.com (in-site image hosting service)? They're not working.

[SwissWhiskey]

Great now I can't sleep!

I can't wait... Especially for the ZR1.

[janstett]

Corvettes bore me, they are more or less the same year after year.

And Mustangs aren't? They still haven't shed the solid rear axle. They kept the same underpinnings from 1979-2004.

Compare the Corvette's evolution in that same time span -- from the 1979 malaise era 150 hp hair shirt to the C5 Z06, yeah, same old same old there.

[mclarensmps]

lol@Clarkson pilliaging James' caddy's tyres .

[16vjohn]

lol@Clarkson pilliaging James' caddy's tyres .

Yeah, it was hilarious. When I approached James, I asked how he was doing and he said: "You wouldn't happen to have an air compressor would you?" and I said... "haha, no sorry." James responded with "haha, well you are no bloody good to me then!" He then laughed and shook my hand. Anyways, James finally found a guy with a compressor, filled his tires. Just as James was in the staging area, Jeremy snuck up behind the caddy and let some of the air out... I was crying I was laughing so hard.

I did get a couple low quality videos from my Sony point and shoot... one of the chopper flying over about 50 feet in the air with the camera guy hanging out.... I'll edit them together and post it later.

[16vjohn]

Cody, when are you going to post the videos?

This is the only video really worth seeing... This is May in the Caddy taking off with the chopper close behind... Sorry for the low quality, this was a point and shoot cam.

Top Gear - Chopper Fly By

[capra]

James is holding that cute baby in the same way as all my bachelor male friends would do: with a somewhat forced smile and "get this thing away from me" look in his eyes.

Well, he did say that Fiat should come out with an 'Unsuitable Uncle' version of the Panda just for him.

[Viper007Bond]

More from the Salt Flats... REALLY cool guys, it was awesome to meet them.
56k beware.

"56k beware" was an understatement. Took me like 7 minutes to download all 52MB of images on my 1.5mbit connection.

I've replaced all of your images with thumbnails to make the thread less laggy.

And thanks for posting them!

[Cellos88GT]

And Mustangs aren't? They still haven't shed the solid rear axle. They kept the same underpinnings from 1979-2004.

Compare the Corvette's evolution in that same time span -- from the 1979 malaise era 150 hp hair shirt to the C5 Z06, yeah, same old same old there.

No because as the Mustang increased with age, its styling changed a lot.

The Corvette has always had the same boring look, it just doesn't do anything for me.

Say what you want about the Mustang but you won't find an equivalent car that is cheap to buy and cheap to modify. One could easily build a Mustang that will out-power and out-handle any Corvette if they wanted to.

[Richmondgal]

I must agree about the Mustang. Apart from the 80s/90s period where they looked rubbish, the Mustang's style has developed to move on with the changing style of American Muscle. Meanwhile, the 'Vette's stuck in the 1990s.

[JaMa]

Does anyone have *any* clue of when these guys are taking off out of Denver?

Topgear fanatic here, love to meet them...

J

[Cellos88GT]

Apart from the 80s/90s period where they looked rubbish

whoa whoa slow down there buddy... you can't knock the foxbody (80s/90s) mustangs, they're the ones that saved the mustang name. Plus I own two of them.

[CrazyRussian540]

More from the Salt Flats... REALLY cool guys, it was awesome to meet them.
56k beware.

(*A MILLION PICTURES*)

EPIC POST.
Win

[dino_martini]

As mentioned in an earlier post before, they have been intruded a lot of people and by the looks of it, it's really buggering them. So I think personally it's best to give them some space for them to have some time on their own and also to do their job too.

You know they are Celebrities right? So of course people are going to want to talk to them/get pictures/ask for autographs. Thats what being famous is.

[capra]

Celebrity is no excuse to bug them when they're not working.

[janstett]

No because as the Mustang increased with age, its styling changed a lot.

The Corvette has always had the same boring look, it just doesn't do anything for me.

To each his own; I agree that the C5->C6 transition wasn't significant enough in many people's eyes (including my own). The Mustang's styling stayed essentially the same from 1979-1993 and then from 1993-2004. And really I am not a fan of retro to begin with, but 5th Gen Mustang was IMO too slavish to the past. But people seem to like it.

Meanwhile yes, the Corvette maintains the same wedge/coke-bottle shape, although the 3rd gen that bowed out in 1982 and the 4th gen from 1984-1996 was significantly different (80's angular) and the 5th gen was significantly different from that. And at least during its styling changes, there are nods and winks to the past, not outright imitations of it.

Say what you want about the Mustang but you won't find an equivalent car that is cheap to buy and cheap to modify. One could easily build a Mustang that will out-power and out-handle any Corvette if they wanted to.

The pony car is now dead (with some slight post-mortem twiching soon coming from the Camaro and Challenger) and the Mustang is a good platform for modding (younger members would laugh at it and go WRX/Evo or whatnot and say it's a better platform, and the 300hp V8 is behind the curve, there are turbo 4s and NA V6s making that much). The Camaro and Challenger will be slightly more upscale and have IRS; but both of those cars will still be heavy pigs. I can't wait to see the head to head between SRT vs GT500 vs SS.

But "easily outpower and out-handle any corvette", you are just deluding yourself there. First, on the power side, the Mustang has been at a marked disadvantage since they left the 5.0 engine in 1994. The modular 4.6 is tall (one reason the Mustang has to stay tall and chunky), heavy, and unnecessarily complex. If you want to compare power credentials and ease of modification against the LS1 family engines, you will just lose. The LS1 became the modder's engine of choice ten years ago.

As for out-handling, the Mustang has grown into a 4000 lb. heavy pig with a tall DOHC engine, a solid rear axle, and inadequate brakes while the Corvette has stayed low and more importantly 700-800 lbs lighter. Yes the Mustang can be made to perform better and handle better than stock, but so can any car, why start with something so handicapped to begin with? Mustang is fine for a certain type of car but it is not a sports car, never was, never will be. That's why it is so tall, chunky, and heavy, and most importantly why Ford still sticks a solid rear axle underneath it. It's made for drag racers more than for carving mountain roads.

I guess I'm hating on the Mustang and I really don't want to, I have a soft spot for these kinds of cars but they are what they are -- a blunt instrument that just is not a sports car and no matter how much you modify it to improve it, it just doesn't belong in discussions with a true sports car.