Clarkson: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly discussion thread

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly discussion thread

  • Best Clarkson DVD ever!

    Votes: 76 30.4%
  • Better than most of his DVD's except [insert DVD name]

    Votes: 61 24.4%
  • Most of his other DVD's are better

    Votes: 71 28.4%
  • Worst Clarkson DVD ever!

    Votes: 42 16.8%

  • Total voters
    250
I honestly didn't like it. It's just more of the same. Sometimes it seemed like i was watching re-runs of Top Gear.
 
I honestly didn't like it. It's just more of the same. Sometimes it seemed like i was watching re-runs of Top Gear.

I think I already made this observation, but the Z06 review was practically repeated verbatim from the Top Gear review. Jeremy couldn't even be bothered to mix up a few words or move punctuation.
 
Haha, I just got it, and as soon as the Mustang took off the line, I realized it was a V6. And a 'vert at that....no wonder it lost.

Yea, and it would have been nice had Clarkson actually known what engine was in it! Inexcusable error...........
 
Hey guys, did he run over something with the Range Rover?


Timestamp 30:36, at the top of the mountain....I think he runs something over.
 
Some of the engine weights listed on this board are incorrect, in particular for the Nissan VQ35DE. This engine weighs 313 pounds in long block form with the intake manifold attached. The fully dressed LS7 weighs 460 pounds with manifolds....That is a bit of a difference in weight, but still very light for a huge 7 liter engine. The clutch alone weighs nearly 50 pounds on the LS motors! As for the Elise getting such awful fuel economy numbers, the c.d on that car is 40+, with a horrible rear turbulent area, as well as a large frontal area. This adds up with the short gearing of the transmission to crap fuel economy for the Elise compared to the Celica which shares the same engine, with different gearing however. The LS7 is the current motor of choice for engine swappers for it's relative light weight (lighter than all the BMW V-8's, Mercedes V-8's, Ferrari V-8 & V-12's, Porsche V-10, Lamborghini/Audi V-10) compact size, and with simple bolt ons making as much power or more than all of these engines. At $13,000 US it is also a bit of a bargain as well with a 12 month warranty. The Ferrari getting 11/18 mpg out of the F430 is shameful, and they should do better. The gearing of the Z06 is very high, with top gear good for 250mph, but it does net over 28mpg for the Z06.
 
^ It was mentioned before - it's just a flatish rock casting a shadow.

Bah, I searched through the whole topic...Guess there's just too much text.

Kinda sad it didnt run over something. How cool would be that...Proof that 4x4s are killing the planet. :D
 
I just watched it...
Well....It's refreshing, that they finally moved away from the Top Gear test track, which was really getting a bit boring...
Also film technique wise it's nice...
But the comparisons really are a bit stupid... And there are too many things he just adapted from Top Gear...Like "There's not even traction control which would be fine if there was any finesse to the suspension" and so on...
Overall....I'd say it was ok, but not as great as I was hoping it to be....They could have done a lot more with going to the US...
 
If you've never watched Top Gear before it will probably be funny and rewarding.

However, the die hard Top Gear fans will probably be bored half the time (I was) because when you already know what he's going to say because they recycled the Top Gear scripts mostly, it isn't what I call refreshing.

Don't get me wrong, I liked it and thought it was pretty funny. The America bashing gets a bit boring after an hour and the comparisons are pretty weak most of the time. Let's just say I'm glad I didn't pay for it to be brutaly honest :|
 
Too be honest, because I'd seen a lot of the cars before in Top Gear, the fact that his stories were basically to the same script was tiresome, part from that, awesome.

Also, anyone happen to know at 46.43 (start of the Jag XJ bit drive to LV) what song that is at all, if it indeed comes from a song, or its just a random score?
 
Can't really compare it to his others as I've not really seen them, but it was alright.

Entertaining in places, pretty much like a string of Clarkson Top Gear segments strung together. Nothing spectacular or majorly impressive, but it was still enjoyable to watch.
 
Very entertaining, not the best, clich?d, but fun.

The best bit? The pure soundtrack of exhaust, no music over the great engines, something that ruins even TG for me.
 
I think its the intellectual dishonesty people are so opposed to. I wouldn't mind seeing an American icon like a Mustang against a British icon, a Rover. What I do mind is when he tests a Mustang on a track against an Exige, because as he says later in the show, the result was a foregone conclusion. You may as well run the Mustang against a Ferrari F430 so that in the end you can say, "This is what happens when the Italians decide to use a V8."

And this type of comparison was seen all over the place. Range Rover against an Escalade and H2. Please. While I don't doubt that the Rover will climb the hill better than the other two, I am still not clear on what happened to the H2... and the driver of the Escalade was clearly inept. Build quality tests by filling cars with water? Getting car parts through an airplane window hole? What is he getting at? I am so lost?

And then it all came to a head for me when he walked across the street complaining that Americans drive rubbish cars too slowly. Is he griping that we use our stop signs with a general sense of fairness to other drivers? If so, how does this jibe with his article complaining that American drivers are prone to road rage and excessive speeds? And how are we supposed to accept his premise that we drive rubbish cars when in that scene, I saw a Porsche Turbo, what I think is an M3 and a Boxter?

"God, I'm glad I don't live here," he says. Why? Because there aren't a bunch of Italians flailing their arms?

Overall, I liked the film. Primarily because I watched it paying only half attention, criticizing nothing, using none of my brain to analyze what was said. But the more I think about it, the more I find to dislike, and the more I discover to be senseless. And those films never last for the long run in my book.

Perhaps Jeremy made this movie to be just like American cars. Disposable.

rover is not a british icon dude... lol, its workers were probably fine examples of why unions suck, but not an icon not as far as sports cars go

if your 75years old it maybe it is an icon, but for everyone else....no
 
I wanted to get my two cents in on this. First of all - Thanks for that, I'm in withdrawal and it was nice to have some Clarkson material. As an American though - a couple of things about it bothered me. Many have already been commented on and I understand its all in good fun.
I am pretty self-critical as an American - I love Clarkson's American bashing, and he has our number on a lot of issues. That man on the street business is sad but true and a bitter-sweet laugh. There is a Paris themed casino RIGHT THERE - come on; Venetian? Bellagio? Monte Carlo?. Factual issues aside:

As noted, these comparos were pretty stacked.
M5 v SRT8 - Bringing a knife to a gun fight - as he conceded, huge price difference, the SRT8 has no pretenses of going head on with an M5

Mustang v Exige - Again - a mass market cheap sports car vs a more expensive, purpose built, creature comfort free, track car? why not an SLK350 or even a Boxster?

Viper v Atom - I mean come on - I have infinite respect for the Atom, I do, but seriously the viper is a fully enclosed car, same as the exige problem. I think a Viper vs an M6 would be a much more dignified and pertinent comparison

Offroad Challenge - H2 - fair point - but the Escalade is no off-roader. What about the H1, or any manner of Jeep? Give us a fighting chance.

The Corvette, Viper, and Rousch Mustang are solid, the Cadillac Sixteen was incredible (and I lament that we didn't build it) and some of the SS models are solid. Fords and Daimler Chrysler cars, particularly (while certainly having European contributions) are fine.

There are things we can do, and things we can't do
We can't do: (This isn't news to anyone)
- Luxury
- Comfort
- Economy
- Corners
- Refinement
(I know thats a LOT)

But we CAN do:
- Cheap
- Fun
- Great sounds
- Straight-line fast
(for some reason we have refined the absolute hell out of pushrod v-8s and live axels)
- Offroaders
- Blue-collar exotics

Were not European, but we deserve a little credit. Still - hilarious vid and all in good fun. This was a great watch - the cinematography was beautiful. I especially love that scene it goes out on - fantastic.

Meh - whatever - I respect and enjoy his editorial opinion

i think everyones getting the mustange vs the elise wrong

i believe the idea here is popular american sports car vs popular english sports car (elises are popular, there are plenty around)

pitting the two against each other isnt the problem, its just he never showed the other side of the story.

in england, we have lots of twisty narrow roads therefore the cars a designed with such terrain in mind. in America you have vast amounts of open space, straight roads super smooth roads are necessary due to to travel times and so your cars are designed accordingly.

on the twisties the elise will win, on the smooth arrow straight road the mustang would win and both have been designed to suit their environments.

he's not so much putting the cars in a face off, so much as the cultures. hes comparing two different styles of life both of which are suited well to their environments then trying to find a winner....which is pretty impossible.
 
I thought it was good yes, it was very biased but, what else do you expect of Jeremy? He's unapologisingly British. Once more, I don't think it's overly unfair some of the things he said. If you put an average American in the UK, just think for a moment how they would be. ;)

He reused some of the old lines on a few things. It's hard to come up with something new, about the same car.

I think the reason most Americans don't like it is the way Jeremy confronts our society, claiming it as disposable with no sense of time. Which if you think about it, really is true. Most Americans will look at something just two or three years old and want to buy something new obviously, there are some exceptions but well, you get the point. :p

another thing with the jokes is actually he films these things in close proximity to topgear features, often at the same time to kill 2 birds with one stone since some cars you can only get hold of once

so what might be the case is the joke he used was new, but because he then used it on TG and that went out on a sunday night and everyone laughed at it, when it turns up in the DVD months later everyone quickly dismisses it as recycling.

when infact the recycling was done on the show earlier
 
At least you can import them, if you wanted. It's much more difficult to import into the USA.

But with current currency exchange rates, you could pick up a Z06 for around $40-50,000 pounds. I don't know exactly what you'd have to do to get it UK legal, but it shouldn't cost an extra $80,000 pounds to do.

thats the point

it shouldnt

but it does

gordon brown dips his hand into your wallet at every excuse. all that needs to be done is changed from left to right hand drive (though its not necessary) and change the lights so you have orange indicators

GB then just rips you off with import tax, and customs, then again to register the car and it just goes on an on....every little thing just gets gouged
 
It did make 405hp when 300hp was a lot. But the LS6 makes that easily. Hell, I've seen LS1's making 500hp with nothing more than a cam and tune.

And LS7's making 700+hp with a cam, tune, and pump gas.

Yes, the Nurburgring is tricky. But the Z06 has posted better times than a 997 Turbo on many different tracks with the same driver. In a straight line it's just as fast from 60 to 150mph as a McLaren F1 and will do 0-60 in 3.6 seconds and the 1/4 mile in 11.5. That's Enzo territory.

TVR is an amazing company. I'd take a Sagaris over a Z06 probably. But they don't mass produce engines like GM and BMW. Also, their V8 is based off the Buick V8.

TVR use IL6 in pretty much all of their current cars. when the landy 3.9 V8 died they stopped using it.

triumph could of used that buick V8 you mention in their stag, and they'd of done good to. but no, they melted to IL4's together at the crank to make a underpowered under cooled and woefully reliable lump
 
One main point that I'm not sure Jeremy gets...

No one buys a mustang because it's a sports car. They buy it because they need a car with 4 seats that they can drive to work every day. It just happens to be a "secretary's car" with bold and interesting styling, and a half-way decent power-to-$ ratio.

Just like no one buys an Exige/Elise to go to dinner with their wife and 2 kids. They don't take their Lotus to Ikea to pick up a flat-pack desk. People who buy a Lotus already have another car. Many people buy a Mustang as their ONLY car.

It's no different than comparing a Swiss Army knife to a fine 8" Chef's knife hand-crafted in Germany. One is all-porpose, but it's not meant to slice a fillet.

Why wasn't the test "Why do so many people buy the Exige? The Mustang: for less money, you get close-to-as-well-enough performance, and it's so much more useable day-to day."

~nj?
 
I loved it simply because of the humour......I mean as a technical car program it was a bit off, and GM braging about under piston cooling jets being a "new" feature (hell my RB25 doner engine has them!) was a bit lame....still....

loved the digs at the Americans ;)
 
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