Is Clarkson Really That Stupid?

GusinCA

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Just saw the race between a Mustang and a horse. (I did a search for the episode specific descussion and didn't find anything yet).

And Clarkson says it's a "4.6 liter with 300 horsepower", when he's clearly driving the V6 version.

Oh well...I guess the America-bashing brits wouldn't care anyway...
 
Sorry, its like discovering santa claus or the easter bunny isnt real, every fan must find out at some point...

90% of top gear and all of the clarkson videos are completely staged. The mustang never had a chance because the script called for it to lose.
 
Just saw the race between a Mustang and a horse. (I did a search for the episode specific descussion and didn't find anything yet).

And Clarkson says it's a "4.6 liter with 300 horsepower", when he's clearly driving the V6 version.

Oh well...I guess the America-bashing brits wouldn't care anyway...


yes, but that this topic has been beaten to death. Its the same thing when hammond straps a GT500 to a dyno and is shocked when it doesn't have 500 hp and accuses Ford of lying despite the fact that all manufacturers rate their power from the flywheel.

Anyway, there is nothing more to be said in this thread.
 
Sorry, its like discovering santa claus or the easter bunny isnt real, every fan must find out at some point...

90% of top gear and all of the clarkson videos are completely staged. The mustang never had a chance because the script called for it to lose.

Horse : 1 horsepower.
Car : 300 horsepower.

Oh well.
 
It is irritating that they are so immune to their mistakes though. It's like they can say and do whatever they want and get away with it without so much as a correction, and people defend their right to do so - to the death. It's like that other group that's in the news a lot, which I do not recall at the moment...
 
As a serious, car enthusiast show....the current Top Gear ain't. But as a general entertainment show that sometimes involves cars for the masses.....then yea. Most people watching will see a Mustang and automatically think V8 and alot of horsepowers....95% of the audience probably can't tell a V6 from a V8 and since that segment was not for any real comparison but just as a joke....it really doesn't matter.

They do make some laughable mistakes, but whether or not they are just doing it for show or if they really are a bit misinformed...we'll never know. You watch Top Gear for the eye candy and for the jokes....not for a serious source of automotive info.
 
Horse : 1 horsepower.
Car : 300 horsepower.

Oh well.

I believe that one horse actually manages to provide something like 14-15 horsepower. Oh yea, and it only weighs 1/4 of a ton. And the race was completely faked to begin with.
 
I guess what bothers me the most is how much joy many Brits get from watching anything that makes anything American look stupid.

Someone or some people have massive inferiority complexes, or jealousy issues.

Or both.

I love Top Gear. I love the humor and I watch every episode. I love it when they make fun of things, when they are accurate. You just expect "car guys" to have some idea of what's under the hood of a car...
 
It's like they can say and do whatever they want and get away with it without so much as a correction

You clearly didn't see the brouhaha both the example you gave and the Mustang / Dyno section caused on news sites such as Autoblog and Jalopnik.

I guess what bothers me the most is how much joy many Brits get from watching anything that makes anything American look stupid.

Top Gear is an equal opportunities offender. Look how they make fun of France, the Germans, the Koreans, the Dutch...think of the BL Car challenge - that was a half hour pisstake of us Brits. It's not like we only take the piss out of Americans.
 
yes, but that this topic has been beaten to death. Its the same thing when hammond straps a GT500 to a dyno and is shocked when it doesn't have 500 hp and accuses Ford of lying despite the fact that all manufacturers rate their power from the flywheel.

Anyway, there is nothing more to be said in this thread.

Shouldn't be surprised in the first place. This one requires a bit of the real backstory.

Originally it started with Shelby's GT350. The name from that came about one day when Shelby was meeting with his chief engineer Phil Remington and asked him how far away he thought a building was from their office. They both guessed and Phil paced it off, it came to 350 feet, so Shelby said, "Fine, let's call the little car the GT350. If the car's good, the name won't matter, and if it's no good, the name won't matter." Coincidentally, the 350 happened to follow the current trend of car numbers (chevy's 327, Ferrari's 250, 275 and 330, etc.)

For the GT500, Ford had just given Shelby the big block 428CJ and a few 427's. Shelby renamed those engines the "Cobra Le Mans." For the car he was putting them in, he didn't pace out any distance this time like most people think, instead he went with the current trend of engines in muscle cars, 409's, 421's, 426's, 427's, 440's, and decided he would make his car better by making it a bigger nice round 500. Another thing to note, the original '68 GT500KR only made 335 horses, but it was the 440 pounds of torque that gave the car it's muscle.

So, the point I'm getting at is that the GT500 name has nothing to do with horsepower. :mrgreen:
 
Y
Top Gear is an equal opportunities offender. Look how they make fun of France, the Germans, the Koreans, the Dutch...

If you say so, but from what i see the americans get it much more frequently and much more personally. Attacking american PEOPLE instead of american cars and politics.

Please, point me at the clarkson DVD made specifically about insulting french or korean people.
 
If you say so, but from what i see the americans get it much more frequently and much more personally. Attacking american PEOPLE instead of american cars and politics.

Please, point me at the clarkson DVD made specifically about insulting french or korean people.

Clarksons meets the neighbors? I remember him being quite rough on the French:

"No, I like France, it's the French that ruin it" Or something to that effect.
 
If you say so, but from what i see the americans get it much more frequently and much more personally. Attacking american PEOPLE instead of american cars and politics.

Please, point me at the clarkson DVD made specifically about insulting french or korean people.

Clarkson makes fun of the French people quite often, he says he loves France but hates the people. He refers to Koreans as soulless people that eat dogs. TG had entire segment dedicated how terrible Korean cars are, but I doubt he's ever been to Korea. And he says the French can't make cars period, but he likes France overall.
America is way more convenient and easy to make fun of.
 
I should make a template I can copy and paste from:

Clarkson does not hate America or all American cars. He has said he loves the Thunderbird and the original Mustang in particular. The thing with Clarkson is that he comes up with new jokes about once every fives years, as a result he reuses them excessively.

Also he makes fun of everyone, as has been pointed out above. Looks for his mocking of the Greeks on youtube.

||On an unrelated note I saw a logo for a TV show called "greeks"
|||They spelled it as "GR???S" or "GRSSKS"
||||I find this really annoying and more of a reason to avoid TV
|||||Yes I am petty
||||||Oh and pipes are greater than slashes
 
If you say so, but from what i see the americans get it much more frequently and much more personally. Attacking american PEOPLE instead of american cars and politics.

Please, point me at the clarkson DVD made specifically about insulting french or korean people.

Just saw the race between a Mustang and a horse. (I did a search for the episode specific descussion and didn't find anything yet).

And Clarkson says it's a "4.6 liter with 300 horsepower", when he's clearly driving the V6 version.

Oh well...I guess the America-bashing brits wouldn't care anyway...

American PEOPLE has a "4.6 liter with 300 horsepower" ? Or no sense of humor ?
 
Old topics are so exciting.

How about we put a different spin on it?

We, the evidently-thinner-skinned Euros, will decide to burn Clarkson in a gigantic witchhunt, for suggesting the latest Renault econobox is "a bit shit", whilst you, our transatlantic cousins, defend him to the death, as he praised (and bought) a Ford GT?

You can ignore his faults, which do exist, and we will ignore anything positive he's said about Europe for the sake of the argument. We'll also take personally every time he calls Blair a "liar", or Chirac a "twat", whilst you can sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that socialists will never rule your country.

Or we could all shake hands, be friends, play nice, and run off to take part in FinalGear's Best Looking Cars poll.
 
Clarkson makes fun of the French people quite often, he says he loves France but hates the people. He refers to Koreans as soulless people that eat dogs. TG had entire segment dedicated how terrible Korean cars are, but I doubt he's ever been to Korea. And he says the French can't make cars period, but he likes France overall.
America is way more convenient and easy to make fun of.

Please, point me at the clarkson DVD made specifically about insulting french or korean people.
 
Please, point me at the clarkson DVD made specifically about insulting french or korean people.

I can point you to an entire TV series - Clarkson Meets The Neighbours. And a TV series will be more widely watched than a DVD (edit - I can't find Clarkson sales figures so this is just a guess, but primetime BBC is anywhere from 2 to 8 million and I doubt Clarkson's DVDs sell that well).

France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Italy.

Now he doesn't make a DVD about one of those because 1. there aren't any Belgian cars to review and 2. nobody would buy it.
 
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