[09x06] March 4th, 2007

A rolling road measures horse power at the wheels. Every car loses around 10 - 15% of it's HP the engine produces by the time it gets to the driven wheels so the 450HP of the Shelby equates to about 500HP being produced by the engine. I'm surprised they didn't realise this.

Great episode, one of the funniest. Roll on the next series.
 
Awesome.. Hammond has a Mustang!
 
moyels is awsome. He is the man. Not snobby like the other too and just laughing about it. James getting hit in the head was brilliant. Their jokes during the news was halarious. And the guy behind the stage during the news section to the left of the pillar behind May did not look like he wanted to be there :lol:. O and did anyone else see that James car was not perfectly straight?:lmao:
 
I though it was a pretty pathetic end to the series.

The limo part was kinda alright, but in the end James May was just destroyed, and Hammond too. Only Clarkson managed to keep a bit of his cool, but I just did not find making themselves look like arses in front of all these people fun, nor amusing.

I'm a bit disappointed with the not-so grand finale.
 
rustylt2 said:
A rolling road measures horse power at the wheels. Every car loses around 10 - 15% of it's HP the engine produces by the time it gets to the driven wheels so the 450HP of the Shelby equates to about 500HP being produced by the engine. I'm surprised they didn't realise this.

Great episode, one of the funniest. Roll on the next series.
Click to expand...

Last time they did this, with the cheap supercars (Clarkson's Masarati-with-a-cheap-SS-badge, etc), they actually mentioned that and said the machine allowed for that in converting wheel hp into bhp.
 
Meh, it certainly wasn't the best episode. I think you all know why that's my opinion...

The Mustang reviews were alright. I'm not surprised that Hammond has a 390; we all know he likes old American muscle.

A rolling road measures horse power at the wheels. Every car loses around 10 - 15% of it's HP the engine produces by the time it gets to the driven wheels so the 450HP of the Shelby equates to about 500HP being produced by the engine. I'm surprised they didn't realise this
Click to expand...
Well, yes and no. Either this one didn't and the horsepower is actually less than claimed, or this only measured horsepower at the wheels. Some rolling roads, however, are capable of measuring horsepower at the flywheel by also measuring the amount of horsepower generated by the mechanical rundown when you take your foot off of the throttle, and then adding that to the horsepower measured at the wheels (as James reported in the 10,000 pound supercar challenge :D).

but in the end James May was just destroyed
Click to expand...
I actually felt a bit sorry for him, he appeared to be crushed :(

Yeh but a Comic Relief Special in a Couple of Weeks
Click to expand...
I assume that VUK or someone will cap that...yes? :)

Hehe, great Top Gear. Limo's were great. Lamarr/Lammarr/Lamar got really annoyed at May, Harrods 3 times...
Click to expand...
Eh, good. Celebrities need some down-to-earth embarrassments to bring them back down to earth sometimes.
 
Best episode ever.... beats the famous America trip, camping holiday, pretty much everything. I've never laughed so much in TG before. Best episode ever and great ending to the season ;)
 
I loved it, Great episode. Was fun to watch throughout. The Limo's in particular.
 
Peter3hg said:
Great episode, they managed to review an American car with only one American Bashing comment which must be a record. Slightly surprised that the Mustangs power fell so short. I always thought that companies were pessimistic with the ratings so no one could complain.
Click to expand...
No producer's done that since the 70s, and the king of understatement was the Boss 429. It had roundabouts of a 150bhp more at the rear tires than the adverts said. ;)

jayhawk said:
To me it looks like she is having a perpetual orgasm.

Maybe she is... :think:
Click to expand...
Looking at her, I really hope she is!

carlos said:
I miss the days when they used to score a challenge and have a leaderboard in the studio.
Click to expand...
I agree.

Quiky said:
Awesome.. Hammond has a Mustang!
Click to expand...
Yes. But he's done the fancy flashboy choice. A real man would've found a Boss 429. That's a car for MEN.

But hey, it's hammond. :lol:

Loved the ep. Each and every part of it was great. The review of the GT500 was nice, I do love that car, as a muscle car. I would love to have one, it handles well enough for my needs. But I guess that I'd miss handling sometimes. Well, still.

The limos were extremely fun. Made me fall off my sofa, and I just loved the inovative design of James's one. And I loved the stupidity of Clarkie's design. And Hamster's one was just genious.
 
rustylt2 said:
A rolling road measures horse power at the wheels. Every car loses around 10 - 15% of it's HP the engine produces by the time it gets to the driven wheels so the 450HP of the Shelby equates to about 500HP being produced by the engine. I'm surprised they didn't realise this.

Great episode, one of the funniest. Roll on the next series.
Click to expand...

Agreed... this annoyed me greatly, and the other fact that hammond hated the gt500, but all three of them love the balls off the monaro... when simply the car's aren't far from each other... both insane amounts of horsepower, and both have fairly average handling... infact they loved the monaro because it power slided like a dream... thats about all the mustang wanted to do as well... :?

May's saab + alfa, was awesome. wonder why he didn't fix the steering wheel?
 
It's definitely one of the worst days of the year when a season ends.

I'm guessing they used the rear wheel horsepower figure for the Shelby. I mean, 53hp would be absurdly overrated. If I recall the 1996 Mustang Cobra's 4.6L being overrated by 30-40hp, resulting in a massive outcry and I haven't heard of the GT500 being really far off. If Top Gear really did look at RWHP, then that was rather misleading. I'd like to think they didn't, but I suppose I'll wait and see where other GT500's dyno. Regardless though, that GT500 sure drives awful and I thought it was excellent when the Roush was compared with its modern suspension.

The Limo challenge was pretty darn good, more car related than some others. Their creativity is the best part, along with Clarkson being hosed down like a rioter and Jeremy and Richard taking aim at James's crotch (there were multiple shots down there)!

Still not near as good as the cheap Porsche challenge though. That to me is still the funniest Top Gear challenge of them all. It was real, the reviews relevant because some people may actually buy one, they were creative, and absolutely hilarious.

So now I'm looking forward to the Top Gear of the Pops. I have no idea what the whole Pops thing is, so its more British culture I get to learn about soon!

I'll also be hoping for more car reviews. Yes I love the show, yes its better than anything else, yes the ratings are high and they have little reason to change it, and yes some challenges are great, but it could be just a tick better with some more cars. With Richard healthy I'm guessing that will happen in Season 10!
 
Jimmi87 said:
Agreed... this annoyed me greatly, and the other fact that hammond hated the gt500, but all three of them love the balls off the monaro... when simply the car's aren't far from each other... both insane amounts of horsepower, and both have fairly average handling... infact they loved the monaro because it power slided like a dream... thats about all the mustang wanted to do as well... :?

May's saab + alfa, was awesome. wonder why he didn't fix the steering wheel?
Click to expand...

Gt500 was terrible at handling, just watch the video. It goes from one side to another, and waggles a lot where manaro handles perfectly with a lot of oversteer that is controllable. The gt500 60' suspension can not handle 500bhp. Top Gear is a professional show, they know what they are saying ;)
 
TopGearManiac said:
Gt500 was terrible at handling, just watch the video. It goes from one side to another, and waggles a lot where manaro handles perfectly with a lot of oversteer that is controllable. The gt500 60' suspension can not handle 500bhp. Top Gear is a professional show, they know what they are saying ;)
Click to expand...

I agree, it looked atrocious out there. When Ford cuts corners like this its no wonder people think Americans can't build proper handling cars. The Monaro was much more stable and predictable, like it the GT500 should have been.
 
Last edited:
That Dyno part of the segment was a cheap shot though. All car manufactures rate their horsepower at the flywheel, not at the wheels. A show like Top Gear should know better than that.
 
The limousines are pretty much spectacular! Hahaha.

But the celebrities that took part are complete stuck ups. Watching their behavior throughout the segment made me mad a bit, to be honest.
 
After all, they should know what was comming.

"Hi, this is BBC2, would you like to get free transport with home made limos to the Brits, and appear on Top Gear, you know, that silly motoring show with three men in their 40s behaving like kids and adelessants?"
 
I felt actually really bad for Lemar.

And they really need to get a folding roof arrangement for Hamster's MG. even the simple idea of a rolled up cloth sheet tacked onto a bar with two small wheels at the sides and a magnet in the middle being assembled on two rails above the windows and another magnet at the top of the windshield would work (does that make any sense?).
 
The limo challenge was alright, but some of the ideas are too crazy. I do like May's Alfaab tho, that's a pretty cool idea. They didn't like the Shelby Mustang, that's no surprise, and 450whp is about 500hp if you figure in the drivetrain lost. So that is right. Even tho the Roush Mustang is faster, it still look like it understeers in corner entry and then tail sliding in corner exit. Roush probably fitting some really hard springs to control the car's body roll. And of course the LSD will help. I think if the Shelby Mustang had a LSD it would've beaten the Roush's time, it just couldn't put the power down.

Too bad today is the last ep of the series, hopefully FG will tide me over till the next season.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top