A little history of our two favorite motor shows...5thG/TG

[zenon]

^ I'd hope that everyone does. The man is undeniably a genius.

[justin syder]

i have a car and driver review of the enzo that is really boring.

[zyran]

All of you should watch Rides on the Discover Channel. Always blabbering about hot rods in a monotonous way.. "This 67 chevy hot rod has a supercharger whipping in 5 million horse power to the rear wheels with custom chrome rims and a 70000 cubic inches of power."

What about handling?

[justin syder]

What about handling?

im afraid americans dont do handling.

[zenon]

^ 'Rides' is actually the best of the American car shows in my opinion. You used to be able to find copies of it quite easily on the net, but they've seemed to have dissapeared. I particularily liked the Rat Rides, the Drifting episode, and the Rods episode. You can't even compare it to Top Gear in terms of quality, but it's definetly better than Pimp My Ride.

[andyhui01]

pimp my ride is all a pile of crap... they take a shit car... rice it up with Big GT wins and Big rims and stuff when the car can't go any quicker....

[Raider]

Originally Posted by zenon

^ One of us North Americans should rip a copy of an American car show and torrent it out to all the non-North Americans. They could all have a good laugh at how brutally bad our car show are.

Nope, i was thinking of "Motortrend TV" off speed channel...that'll put you to sleep...the dude sounds he's reading cue cards the whole time...

[Topmatt]

After Clarkson left the show in the late 90's, can anyone remember who presented the show it's been really bugging me - This one guy i'm thinking of lasted one series and then i think got caught drink-driving and had to leave -he had the same style as Clarkson ..any ideas?

[Topmatt]

I'll answer my own post ...after looking on the net when I really should be doing some work I think I have worked out who I mean .

It was of course Steve Coogan's brother (i think at least) Brendan Coogan who Jumped before he was pushed for drink driving

I Will of course accept that i could be wrong ...

[Overheat]

I thought it was Tiff and Quentin, although they all kinda roll into one in my crappy memory hehe

[Hazardous]

Since the topic is on old times, anyone remember the name of the younger bloke who was in the show in around 2001 or so? I have a faint memory that he wasn't around when I first started to watch the show in 2000, so must've come into the team around that time. I can tell you that it wasn't any of the current TG(and to my knowledge 5thG) presenters.

I have one memory when this guy was road testing the Volvo S40(or S60) and he said something like "Now that Volvo's are getting fit for youger people, and perhaps I'm getting... Older?! And somewhere in the middle..."

[Topmatt]

a link regarding the drink driving

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/entertainment/394193.stm


and here's a picture to jog your memory

http://www.vivienneclore.com/article...ndancoogan.jpg

[Jostyrostelli]

What a dumb-ass!
IF that would be my dreamjob..I'd think twice about that

Topmatt..how did that dent came in your mini?

[Topmatt]

I wrote this for a forum I have a intrest in the other day - but it tells the story of the dent ...

Imagine if you can a car park in the town of Ipswich(Suffolk - UK) on a Saturday afternoon -yesterday to be precise - opposite all mums favourite store of Marks and Spencer’s

For those that don’t know it’s a open air car park using the age old system of one in one out controlled by a barrier system - simple most people would think and I would too except I screw up in amazing style.

To begin with I was stuck in a queue for this car park for about 15 minutes surprising myself by not getting stressed by this queue just slipping off into a day dream of which I will keep to myself

So every so often the cars all move forward a cars length as one car leaves the car park and another is let into this world of fun.

I am now well and truly stuck in my dream world and working on auto pilot where I just move forward when the car in front moves forward not paying much attention to anything.
It’s on one of these occasions that I move forward and to my shock find a barrier crashing down on my half decent car. I realise what I have done straight away and put the car in reverse wondering how after so many years of living in this regimented country that I could forget how to use a car park.

The barrier completes it’s job after getting stuck at the point of impact on my car and goes back to its depressing state of holding traffic back from the world of fun – so now I am sitting in my car staring at the barrier waiting for what though I was unsure as I had for some reason completely forgotten the rules of this game...

I now see a light go off that had said full …I just sat there thinking now it will let me in - that’s how this works …but it didn’t so I just sat there waiting until a woman in a overly big family car that can go off road beeps her horn and leans out of her truck like car and shouts at me ‘YOU ARE MEANT TO TAKE A TICKET’

She’s right. I’m thinking this girl is on to something …Panic is now setting in as I
Realise I really am losing touch but worse than that I am now in the wrong position to take a ticket from the machine so I have the humiliation of having to get out of my half decent dented car to get a ticket..

I achieve this with style and grace and at last managed to get into the car park and find a space – It’s now that the familiar tale of woe continues now I don’t know if this is a male thing but I really didn’t want to get out and look at the damage that the barrier had caused but I did very quickly and thought ok great no damage …I go off to do my shopping happy in myself that no damaged had been caused …I come back less than 1 hour later and have another quick look to find that there is damage - a barrier shaped dent across the roof - which my brain had omitted to take in the first time I had looked.

[Jostyrostelli]

Hahah great!, tnx

[wescx]

Originally Posted by Raider007

Nope, i was thinking of "Motortrend TV" off speed channel...that'll put you to sleep...the dude sounds he's reading cue cards the whole time...

By far one of the worst shows of all time.

It just shows the car driving on a normal road with normal camera angles.

Then it just has a voiceover of a guy reading thing it sounds like the manufacturer wrote. I have never heard them give car an overall bad review.

It's basically a long commercial.

I agree, someone should rip one just so people can laugh at it.

[Overheat]

Great story TopMatt. Don't really understand why it's in this thread, but I thouroughly enjoyed it nonetheless

[Jostyrostelli]

Because I asked him how that dent came in his mini (check out his carfield)

[Overheat]

aha! lol

[Daniel]

Well, at least he now has a good excuse to buy a Cooper