[07x06] December 27th, 2005

zenkidori said:
LoneWolf said:
Can I just ask what some of you mean by the term 'ricers'?
Basically Ricer is a US term used to make fun of cars and thier owners that are tastelessly modified, look ridiculous or have tons of "race style" parts but no actual performance. It can also mean anyone just following a trend and not really into the tuning they are doing, for example JDM. While JDM style doesn't look nearly as horrible, JDM fanboys are no less ricers, in fact most of them are former traditional ricers who traded up. For example pretty much every car I have seen in MAX POWER is rice, any car in The Fast and the Furious movies is rice, etc.

:thumbsup: Bingo!
 
Have you seen the fat Lexuses and Mercs they drive?

Assuming they're about the same as I see in Silicon Valley, yes.

You really haven't seen a Scorpio in person, have you? Mere words alone cannot describe the hideousness of the vehicle. Really, saying it looks like a whale is probably an insult to marine mammals, but it's the closest thing I can think of.

Can I get a rAmen from anyone on this?

NTM
 
Manic Moran said:
Out of interest, was the last model Ford Scorpio ever sold in Arab countries? If ever there was a car modelled after a Sperm Whale, that's the car.

No we don't have the Ford Scorpio. Isn't that the UK Ford, with the large happyface-like front grill? We only get American Fords, and the Crown Victoria has been HUGE in our part of the world ever since GM stopped producing the Caprice in the late 90s. Although we now have a rebadged Holden now labled "Chevrolet - Caprice".

rhegedus said:
Have you seen the fat Lexuses and Mercs they drive?

I don't know where you're from rhegedus. I personally hate Lexus and Mercedes. BMW all the way, except for the current generation. However, America is to blame for all this Lexus hype. These cars are seriously nothing else but overpriced Toyotas. But not anymore. Now Lexus is an independent sub-brand, and they now have their own development team. So now Japan get Lexus as well, and for once the new models won't be rebadged toyotas.

LoneWolf said:
IMO Bangle's the idiot who's responsible for ruining BMW over the past few years. A company which has an excellant reputation for style, quality and performance, and immediately starts going downhill when you put an American designer at the helm! Why oh why am I not surprised?

I hope he get's the sack soon and BMW can produce beautiful stuff again like the original 3-series or even the last M3 CSL.

Just to make things clear, I hate Bangle my self. There is no current BMW I would buy except for the M5, although I would've liked the design to be more agressive.

My point is, I understand why BMW chose Bangle. By using his revoloutionary designs, albeit stupid, they have stayed far ahead in the game. Every single luxury brand has had to do something at least half as dramatic to keep up. Look at Audi and their grills. Even on the inside, I hate the idea of the iDrive, makes it feel like Mac with their single-buttoned mouse, if you know what I mean. But with more and more new cars coming with Sat-Nav, they wanted to simplify the controls, so that the dashboard doesn't look too clutred. Now iDrive is just plain stupid, for me as a driver, as a car enthusiest and as a BMW enthusiest. But when you just "look" at the new BMW dash, if feels right. When the BMWs with the iDrive showed up, the dash in the Mercedes E-Class and S-Class looked like it was a stereo from the 90s. Way too many buttons. Now BMW didn't make the right choice as far as "I'm" concerened, but when you compare BMW's choices compared to Mercedes for instance, BMW is still in the lead. Mercedes tried so hard to create something new to overcome BMW's 7 series, that they used an LCD screen instead of a speedometer in their new S-Class. Have you seen how useless that was in Fifth Gear?. And the dash with the new Sat-Nav is a copy of the 7-series gone bad.

All I know is that BMW are trying to shift to a new look, which has influenced everyone in the industry. They didn't get it right, but eventually they'll lose Bangle, and they'll make good cars again. They got to!
 
Who was the hot brunette girl behind Jeremy Clarkson when they were presenting the awards. She is so hot. I want to go out with her.
 
Yeah yeah man. i remeber her. I would have said something but got shot down last time I mentioned how hot I thought a girl was... she is sooooo sexy.
 
I've spent many track days at Laguna Seca and have to say that there's no way in hell a stock '02-'05 NSX on street tires could ever run a 1:41. GT4's version of Laguna Seca is amazingly accurate, but the vehicle dynamics are still too easy.

A good driver (club racer level) could possibly get under 1:50 and a pro driver might optimistically get to 1:48 but that's about it. It's going to take some suspension mods, r-compound tires & a supercharger for a good driver to be comfortably in the 1:41's.

I'm a little surprised that Clarkson didn't get closer to 1:50 but track familiarity and comfort running near all those concrete walls probably worked against him. It's not like that airfield track at his home base - if he messes up at Laguna, he could easily damage a $80k car and himself (particularly not wearing a helmet!).
 
I've spent some track days at Laguna on motorcycles, and raced there a few years ago. I could do 1:45 all day long, and 1:41 was harder but possible on a 600. Cars are working hard at Laguna Seca -> 'sayka' typical American pron.

Without the stupid sound restrictions they put on all vehicles during test days you could tune your vehicle properly for the task at hand. The NSX was clearly being driven by someone with club-level talent at best, and in Clarkson's own words: "Racing drivers don't have that fear." I mean, he spun it at least twice, and lost tons of time being afraid of the turn 7 'dip' which does demand a certain amount of balls. :mrgreen:

I got a (as a passenger) mid-1:56s lap in a tuned 5-series BMW back in 2001, and I'll stick to two wheels thank you very much... :thumbup:
 
is it me or they haven't showed this: "What will break first at sub zero temperatures, - a car or Richard Hammond?"
 
Nope, they never shown it. :p
 
Ianspeed said:
Ironically, the term was initially in regards to cheap asian performance cars. "Rice Rocket / Ricer" was used for cars you could buy cheap, which had good performance and above average handling. A concept rather foreign to 'performance' american drivers in their heavy Ford Mustangs with webber carbs and big block engines.

And the people who said it wern't saying it to be nice. :eek:

Its all history now since Honda is #1 in the american market tuning... heck, I wonder how many kids even think about american cars when they start looking for their first fast ride.

This, I think, is where you see the new definition of ricer evolve. The latest generation of 'peformance' owners have no experience or interest in what actually makes a performance car. They just injest what they see in popular culture mags/tv/internet and slap the same ol shit to the same ol cars.

At least in the UK and europe, tuning seems to have been in reaction to the high cost of big engine performance cars. Young driver just can't afford anything past a 1.0l lupo and decide to spend their time building bigger sound systems and add silly big accessories to the car. I still think its a waste of time, but at least it makes some sence.

Oh well, I guess this is getting OT.

I still think most of this series was shot pre slipped discs, and they drugged up JC as little as possible to fill in the rest of the season. Probably after they reviewed the Ascari video and saw how poorly RH pulled it off. Besides, why would you risk your biggst asset to long term damage?

Yeah I know what you mean. In many cases Japanese cars are still the favourite 'modding' and 'custom' cars in the UK, especially with certain youth groups. My cousins and some of my friends for example, prefer Japanese cars, especially Honda Civics, because of their combination of performance, used market price and reliability. There's a place called 'Ace's Cafe' somewhere in North London and every month they have a 'Japanese night' which is very popular.

Both my cousins have Honda Civics (one of them a 2.0 V-Tech) and they were both advising me to buy Civics when I started looking for my second motor. Fortunately they happened across a Mk1 Toyota MR2 in amazing condition, so I'm driving that now :D

I should point out that over the past few years some European car makers have managed to cash in on the modding scene with some of their cheap models, the most popular of which seems to have been the Citroen Saxo (which took them by surprise). At least the French are good at something :p
 
saab_rider said:
Just to make things clear, I hate Bangle my self. There is no current BMW I would buy except for the M5, although I would've liked the design to be more agressive.

My point is, I understand why BMW chose Bangle. By using his revoloutionary designs, albeit stupid, they have stayed far ahead in the game. Every single luxury brand has had to do something at least half as dramatic to keep up. Look at Audi and their grills. Even on the inside, I hate the idea of the iDrive, makes it feel like Mac with their single-buttoned mouse, if you know what I mean. But with more and more new cars coming with Sat-Nav, they wanted to simplify the controls, so that the dashboard doesn't look too clutred. Now iDrive is just plain stupid, for me as a driver, as a car enthusiest and as a BMW enthusiest. But when you just "look" at the new BMW dash, if feels right. When the BMWs with the iDrive showed up, the dash in the Mercedes E-Class and S-Class looked like it was a stereo from the 90s. Way too many buttons. Now BMW didn't make the right choice as far as "I'm" concerened, but when you compare BMW's choices compared to Mercedes for instance, BMW is still in the lead. Mercedes tried so hard to create something new to overcome BMW's 7 series, that they used an LCD screen instead of a speedometer in their new S-Class. Have you seen how useless that was in Fifth Gear?. And the dash with the new Sat-Nav is a copy of the 7-series gone bad.

All I know is that BMW are trying to shift to a new look, which has influenced everyone in the industry. They didn't get it right, but eventually they'll lose Bangle, and they'll make good cars again. They got to!

I'm in agreement with you that whilst the latest BMW's haven't been pretty, BMW are still leading the way forward and I for one am very glad.

It's just it would be nice for them to get due credit now and then again from JC and his team, but then again that's about as likely as James turning out to be the Stig!
 
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!!

GIMME GIMME GIMME!

I just realised it aired and the rip fucked again

Dammit :x
 
Bangle didn't desgin the latest 3 series, it was done under the direction of BMW's current head of design adrien van hoydunk or something.

Bangle's moved on, but don't expect things to get back to normal. This guy is responisble for some of the wilder desgins (the "bangle boot" is his creation apparently)

I don't mind the current BMWs, I think they look good. just not like BMWs. BMW should just look tough, look like you shouldn't mess with them. but should blend into the background so seeing them is not a big deal - knowing wink and all that too.
 
Sabine! :wub: :D

Those who say this episode was crap are expecting too much. I thought it was great. Especially Hammond looking like a small, well, hamster eating the award for no particular reason. We need a GIF of that! I especially liked how the ricer 'tards lost to some proper racers; it'd be blasphemous otherwise.
 
Manic Moran said:
You really haven't seen a Scorpio in person, have you? Mere words alone cannot describe the hideousness of the vehicle. Really, saying it looks like a whale is probably an insult to marine mammals, but it's the closest thing I can think of.

Oh, yes! We had them in the UK alright....

scorpio.jpg


I have now torn my eyes out :shock:

saab_rider said:
I don't know where you're from rhegedus. I personally hate Lexus and Mercedes. BMW all the way, except for the current generation. However, America is to blame for all this Lexus hype. These cars are seriously nothing else but overpriced Toyotas. But not anymore. Now Lexus is an independent sub-brand, and they now have their own development team. So now Japan get Lexus as well, and for once the new models won't be rebadged toyotas.

My avatar is my car - 328Ci.....

My girlfriend has a Lexus IS300 - quite sporty to drive and very well equiped but not as comfortable as my BM.

I know Toyota own Lexus but I don't think Lexuses were overpriced Toyotas - compare a similar spec BMW or Merc and see what the prices are. Lexus has been top of the JD Power list for years now so they must have been doing something right.

And the SC430 is drop dead gorgeous.......... ;)

Oh yeah - how can a Saab rider talk about other brands being overpriced? I wanted a new fully kitted 93Aero. It would have been ?30k+ for a jumped up Vectra :oops:
 
rhegedus said:
My avatar is my car - 328Ci.....

My girlfriend has a Lexus IS300 - quite sporty to drive and very well equiped but not as comfortable as my BM.

I know Toyota own Lexus but I don't think Lexuses were overpriced Toyotas - compare a similar spec BMW or Merc and see what the prices are. Lexus has been top of the JD Power list for years now so they must have been doing something right.

The IS is the only old lexus that I ever liked. I always felt that it was a good german competitor, if only they made a coupe version of it. When I said they were overpriced Toyotas, I ment that they were re-badged toyotas (which they were, untill the recent change I mentioned) who were sold for a higher price.

rhegedus said:
And the SC430 is drop dead gorgeous.......... ;)

Sorry, the SC430 has the same grill as that hidious Scorpio as far as I'm concerned.

rhegedus said:
Oh yeah - how can a Saab rider talk about other brands being overpriced? I wanted a new fully kitted 93Aero. It would have been ?30k+ for a jumped up Vectra :oops:

If I drive a '92 900i convertible, I can talk about other brands being overpriced ;) Current Saabs are plain old GMs... Nothing makes the cars different from all the other Vauxhauls owned by the General. Saab is lost in oblivion at the moment. The 9-5 hasn't changed in centuries (other than the last two face lifts, and the new V6, non-saab, engine). The 9-3 is weak. They shouldn't have dropped the unique hatchback design. They introduced the 9-2x which is already dead because GM sold their share in Subaru. The 9-7x is just a Chevy.
 
So what car did Jeremy Clarkson use in GT4? From most of the shots I saw from the game it looked like the NSX-R (different wing and stuff to the "normal" NSX) but there were a couple of places where it also seemed to be an Acura NSX (or "normal" NSX). I am guessing that most of the outside shots were taken later (or maybe from the replay but I can't be sure). Can anybody tell for certain which NSX he is using?

Having road tyres on the front and economy on the rear isn't too bad, maybe a little bit too much grip at the front but going to economy all round makes it understeer too much I think. Even with that setup I can get around in the mid 1:40's I think so still unrealistic. I don't think Jeremy Clarkson is that great a driver, he is ok but he didn't look that great on either the Playstation or in real life. Not to race driver standards anyway, probably not even to a good club level racer. Hard to tell from that edited video though.
 
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