[07x05] December 11th, 2005

[scorseze]

One of the disappointing moments in the Veyron segment (well, perhaps I should say -- nearly the whole episode) was that whole defcon thingy. Clarkson beaming `I'm now in defcon 3 which doesn't allow me to unleash that ferocious top speed, but look, I can pull over, act some silly cowboy-like movements as if I have just wet myself, kick the wheel (veery hillarious anyway and go into defon 4`. Yeah right, how cool is that (paraphrasing (in)famous clarksonism)? Yet, after hearing May isn't allowed to fly at night, Clarkson goes back to the mighty decon 3! And we can't even see how that defcon 4 was supposed to make the Veyron go like stig. How stupid is that?!

Anyway, I personally found that girl, just left to Clarkson at the end of the show, a real eye candy. Well, yes, she wasn't quite smiling at that moment, yet for me, she was way more attractive than the bird from Mansell's segment

 

[bartboy9891]

i would really like to see the veyron from the fifth gear's point of view.More

informative,less scripted.

Like the zonda f review.

And i'm starting to hate these scripted dialouges.Most of the time james's acting the

smart guy,and then the silly egg joke. Also the "L" macpherson joke in the earlier

episodes.At first James accidently said: who is she?../Is she a racing driver...(correct

me i am wrong),then corrected himself.

Most of the time i enjoy the show.But like the veyron kinda stuff,i want information.


And the Liana.I think they're improving the car's performance to shorten lap times.

just how are they improving the Liana's performance? it has like 100hp, with that little power seriously nothing can be done to change how it performs. it can be made lighter and thats about it.

this ep was quite good. it seems like i am one of the few that found it satisfying.

 

[oliB]

Alright, here's what's going to happen:

In the season finale, they'll show the Veyron's lap. The Veyron will set a new record and will also be named Top Gear's car of the year!

Anybody with me?

 

[Dino]

it was still entertaining, but the level at which top gear has operated is simply quite high. this one does not stack up, especially considering what they had to work with.

 

[bartboy9891]

Alright, here's what's going to happen:

In the season finale, they'll show the Veyron's lap. The Veyron will set a new record and will also be named Top Gear's car of the year!

Anybody with me?

aye

 

[BerserkerCatSplat]

The Veyron may be an amazing car, but I sincerely doubt that all other manufacturers are going to just give up and bring back the late 70's. There are other cars that with some tweaking can match or surpass the Veyron's abilities. The Saleen S7 has 750HP, and at 60MPH develops so much downforce it can drive upside down.

Is that a fact?? Then how come an F1 has to go 180kph before it can do that?? I bet anything that a Saleem weights a lot more and has a hell of a lot less downforce than an F1 car... Other than that couldn't agree more with the post.

Meh!

I somehow left a 1 off, that should have said 160MPH! Whoops! I've gone back and fixed it.

 

[bartboy9891]

^ the saleen isnt really all that great. it looks kinda generic IMO. in Twin Turbo form it is pretty quick, but at redline it "only" hits 225mph. its surprisingly light, but wide as hell and handling isnt phenomenal or anything. and for the price, you could by a Koenigsegg or a Zonda...

 

[Dino]

k, triple post, nice

Alright, here's what's going to happen:

In the season finale, they'll show the Veyron's lap. The Veyron will set a new record and will also be named Top Gear's car of the year!

Anybody with me?

nope.
not gonna beat the zonda f, sorry, that car is simply divine.

 

[bartboy9891]

k, triple post, nice

Alright, here's what's going to happen:

In the season finale, they'll show the Veyron's lap. The Veyron will set a new record and will also be named Top Gear's car of the year!

Anybody with me?

nope.
not gonna beat the zonda f, sorry, that car is simply divine.

lol my internet is being odd, i clicked once and it clicked like a million times. i had more than a triple post going. But if the Veyron does feel like an elise like clarkson says, it will definately beat the zonda.

 

[Jasruler]

^^ I disagree. Maybe Clarkson won't be around for the next extreme in cardesign but I surely will. If you're under 40something you can go to bed safely.

The issues will become what can a human physically tolerate and mentally keep up with, rather than what can we engineer.

Er. Drag racers? Jets?

I think you're looking a little far forward there mate.

Drag racers just go in a straight line for about five seconds, and fighter jet pilots have to wear G-suits so they don't blackout and die from the acceleration.




Do you want to have to strap into a military-issue G-suit everytime you go to the supermarket?

 

[Scud]

What clarkson said was that it went fast in a straight line.

Nothing about cornering and handle.
The hole segment was pointless.
Not funny and fully scrippted.


Did anyone else notice when May was at the arena and talking about the 911 stuff.
A bloke was drinking a beer behind him.
At first the glass was almost empty and he was drinking the last bit up.
Then the next time it was full.

 

[Dino]

k, triple post, nice

Alright, here's what's going to happen:

In the season finale, they'll show the Veyron's lap. The Veyron will set a new record and will also be named Top Gear's car of the year!

Anybody with me?

nope.
not gonna beat the zonda f, sorry, that car is simply divine.

lol my internet is being odd, i clicked once and it clicked like a million times. i had more than a triple post going. But if the Veyron does feel like an elise like clarkson says, it will definately beat the zonda.

yeah, but it doesn't handle like a lotus, it simply can't.
the zonda weighs 1228kg, while the veyron weighs about 2100kg. That kind of weight simply does not allow very good cornering, big bhp or not. besides, i like the zonda far more than the bugatti, so i really want it to stay up there forever.

 

[mautzel]

I too am a bit disappointed.

JC could have done that race in a Golf GTI and he would still have won.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Although you could see hat the Veyron is a fast car, there was no real transmittance of the speed it is capable to do. Yes, it is illegal to speed on motorways, but seeing the speedo rushing up once from let's say 80 KM/H to 130 KM/H in whatever bits of a second it takes is a must if you are properly presenting the worlds fastest car in my opinion.

I liked the fastest lap set by Nigel Mansell (hell, this was only about five seconds slower than the Stig drove with the Bowler Wildcat, and I suspect that the handling of those two cars might be not too different)

Apart from that not much surprises.

 

[oliB]

[
the zonda weighs 1228kg, while the veyron weighs about 2100kg.

The Veyron weighs 1950kg. That's not exactly ?ber light, still 150kg lighter than what you said though.

 

[Jasruler]

k, triple post, nice

yeah, but it doesn't handle like a lotus, it simply can't.
the zonda weighs 1228kg, while the veyron weighs about 2100kg. That kind of weight simply does not allow very good cornering, big bhp or not. besides, i like the zonda far more than the bugatti, so i really want it to stay up there forever.

Its not that simple... the Veyron has more weight pushing down on more tire area than the Elise, and you have to take that into account as well.

 

[Evilwakka]

[
the zonda weighs 1228kg, while the veyron weighs about 2100kg.

The Veyron weighs 1950kg. That's not exactly ?ber light, still 150kg lighter than what you said though.

It actually weighs 1880KG. Thats not uber light....etc

 

[oliB]

I found different figures (also 1880kg, that's probably the curb weight) and just took the highest one, to prevent possible nagging.

 

[subymaster]

that was a LAME episode. If I wanted to hear someone tell me the Bugatti can do 252mph and 0-60 in 2.5seconds....then I would read a magazine article about it. but if I wanted to SEE the Bugatti do it, I would watch Top Gear. Not this time. What a let down.

He didnt show us the engine, the brakes, nothing we wanted to see. How about a real time 50-100 mph run??? Cool, 1001 HP in a straight line for 13 hours.....

Im sorry, but that episode flat out sucked donkey nuts.

me = extremely pissed

 

[Jasruler]

that was a LAME episode. If I wanted to hear someone tell me the Bugatti can do 252mph and 0-60 in 2.5seconds....then I would read a magazine article about it. but if I wanted to SEE the Bugatti do it, I would watch Top Gear. Not this time. What a let down.

He didnt show us the engine, the brakes, nothing we wanted to see. How about a real time 50-100 mph run??? Cool, 1001 HP in a straight line for 13 hours.....

Im sorry, but that episode flat out sucked donkey nuts.

me = extremely pissed

Wow... Princess is angry!

 

[BerserkerCatSplat]

^ the saleen isnt really all that great. it looks kinda generic IMO. in Twin Turbo form it is pretty quick, but at redline it "only" hits 225mph. its surprisingly light, but wide as hell and handling isnt phenomenal or anything. and for the price, you could by a Koenigsegg or a Zonda...

I disagree, I think it's a phenomenal car. Let me put it this way:

The saleen has half the cylinders and half the turbochargers of the Veyron, yet it develops three quarters of the horsepower at a mere 5.5 psi. The S7 does 0-60 only 0.3 seconds slower than the Veyron, and it's 2WD! The S7 also develops all this power and speed, yet is OBD-II compliant and has four catalytic converters for low emissions. Set up the gearbox a bit different, turn up the boost a bit, and I think it could surpass the Veyron's top speed.

And yet, on top of all that power, and technology, and incredible speed, Saleen still makes money on the S7. Bugatti loses ~4 million per unit (not including development costs), while Saleen actually makes a profit.

Compare it to a Zonda, which produces less power, is lighter, but whose 0-60 time is almost a full second slower than the S7, at 3.6 seconds. The Zonda F is only 0.1 second faster than that. It's just slower.

But I'm not going to disuss what supercar is better than what. My point is that the Veyron is not the end-all of hypercars. There are a brace of manufacturers out there that are poised and ready to produce Veyron-like performance numbers, and without breaking the bank to do so. VW did it first becuase they had the money to throw around, but the competition is not far behind. We haven't reached the crest of the performance hill, we're merely on the upslope.