[09x03] February 11th, 2007

[carlover]

Maybe he had a Z28 badge in the boot, like the SS badge on his Merak.

-Justin

Hm there was no '89 Z28, was there?

edit: Yes the Z28 had 190 HP, but it was only produced untill 1987.

But well....this is an '89 RS 305. Which I believe makes it 170 HP. Shame Hammond didn't know that when Jezza ridiculed his Ram's 170 HP. :lol:

 

[Nano]

Not true of course. In a non-automotive show you would have said there was a lot in it that was about the cars. But yes.....they do make a show, rather than automotive information. Consequence of this is that a good (female) friend of mine loves Top Gear (guess who got her hooked )....I'm not so sure she'd also like 5th Gear. :lol:

Think of it what you like, but Jezza and the others did make Top Gear the most succesfull show on the entire BBC. So I guess that's what the people want. Entertainment with an automotive sauce. Fact is that it wasn't all that popular before it became this way.

Good lord... TG appealing to females? What has the world come to!

"An alliance of Greens, Environmentalists, Road Safety Campaigners and Public Decency advocates are to lobby the next government to have BBC's Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson banned. The alliance also includes the Campaign for Rural England, the Berkshire Soroptomist Chapter, the British Vauxhall Owners Club, Men Who Like Motorbikes, the Caravan Club, Kill Your Speed, the UK Woolie Pullie Confederation, UKIP and Christian Voice. Transport 2000, Sustrans, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Tourist Board, the Welsh Tourist Board, Plaid Cymru, the Vegan Society, the League Against Cruel Sports, the Women's Institute, the Women's Guild, Women's Own Magazine, British Waterways, the Civil Aviation Authority and the EU also backed the plans to have Clarkson ? real name Jeremiah Dibnah Clarkson Jnr, 47 ? removed from his post at BBC2's flagship motoring programme."



I still demand automotive content!

 

[Donington]

Someone's been believing a Michael Moore movie. Shame!

NTM

Someone's taken a joke seriously. Shame! But not a huge suprise...

Oh and Nano, you can add the Tufty club to that list as TG ate a squirell.

 

[superchevy]

Christ on a pogo stick.

Will you please stop with the "all American's aren't like that" comments. It's insulting to everyone here that you feel the need to point out that America is not ONLY full of rock-hurling, shirtless, mulleted rednecks.

Sure. Not every American is a redneck. But Rednecks DO exist... and they only exist in America. And since America has produced the redneck and allowed the redneck to survive as a species (I'm not sure if they can be interbred with actual humans) then America does deserve the ridicule for the situation until the redneck situation is resolved.

-Justin

you need to travel more. "rednecks" are universal entities. "redneck" is an emotive, derogatory label placed by the rest of the population on the ultra-conservative, working-class poor who reside in the rural areas. they exist in every country. canadians also prefer "redneck". australians say "redneck" and "bogan". in britain, they're known as a "pikey". mexicans call their rednecks "naco" (yes, even mexicans identify "rednecks" amongst themselves. haha!).

 

[Justin.b]

Hm there was no '89 Z28, was there?

edit: Yes the Z28 had 190 HP, but it was only produced untill 1987.

But well....this is an '89 RS 305. Which I believe makes it 170 HP. Shame Hammond didn't know that when Jezza ridiculed his Ram's 170 HP. :lol:

I'm pretty sure from the trim and airbag, it really was a 91. Although not always reliable with tech info, Clarkson is still a better source than your local neighborhood scam artist pretending to be a lawyer.

in any case, the RS in 91 would still have been 170.

Z28 became the IROC-Z for a while, and then became the Z28 again at the end of the generation (when Chevy stopped sponsoring the IROC series). A 91 Z28 would have been available with a 205hp 5.0, a 230hp 5.0 or a 245hp 5.7.... but JC's was definitely not a Z28 or IROC-Z.

-Justin

 

[TTopJohn]

Hm there was no '89 Z28, was there?

edit: Yes the Z28 had 190 HP, but it was only produced untill 1987.

But well....this is an '89 RS 305. Which I believe makes it 170 HP. Shame Hammond didn't know that when Jezza ridiculed his Ram's 170 HP. :lol:

You are correct - that vintage Camaro RS 305 has 170 horsepower from a throttle body injected V8.

As for the Z28 and IROC-Z, there were various power outputs between 190 and 245 horsepower for the Tuned Port Injected 5.0 and 5.7 liter engines. The IROC-Z name replaced the Z28 name until 1990, with Z28 returning as the top model for 1991 and 1992. Clarkson's RS had 91-92 ground effects, but on an $800 with an unknown history, there's no guarantee that that's the way it came from the factory.

Interesting tidbit - James May's Cadillac Brougham has substantially the same engine as Clarkson's Camaro - both are small block Chevys of 305 cubic inch / 5.0 liter displacement with throttle body injection and, if memory serves, 170 horsepower.

 

[superchevy]

jeremy exaggerated. that's what he does best. just like he did with the american special. he always "cheats" during competitions. hammond and james have simply learned to not bother correcting him or disagreeing, because all james would do is whine and have a power trip (ie. cool wall).

the camaro had a steering wheel mounted airbag. that would make it atleast a 1990. i'd have to look at the interior again to see if it's a '90, '91, or '92. i deleted the episode though.

oh, and there was no 3rd gen camaro with 190hp. jeremy wasn't driving an iroc or z28. the most an rs had was 170hp.

 

[wrk]

Repost because I started a new thread on this which apparently wasn't cool. Sorry.

I freaked out when I saw the latest episode, because I actually live in Bagdad, Florida. I never would have thought in a million years that Jeremy, Richard, and James would be only a few blocks from my house. Now I'm kicking myself that I wasn't around when they came through town. Yesterday I drove around looking for the place that they filmed writing on eachother's cars, and sure enough there was the spot, right across from the fire station. It's absolutely insane to think that they were actually in my town.

Someone asked why it's called Bagdad. I'm not exactly sure, but it's an historic town so I imagine it was named Bagdad when things in the world were much different. I haven't actually lived here for very long, and I'm not native to the area.

 

[dMa]

i noticed that hammond looked a lot youger, he looks older after the crash

 

[ricochet]

i noticed that hammond looked a lot youger, he looks older after the crash

Odd thing about big crashes. I had a pretty bad rollover a few years ago, and when I returned to the States, I got several comments of "wow, you look older." Oddly enough, my hair started to part on the opposite side, too. Human bodies seems to get all screwed up when put into a blender.

 

[I'm not Takumi]

Does anyone know if any Stateside right-wing media has caught on to this episode? It seems like PERFECT fodder for people like Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh to start railing on how our alleged "allies" are actually just laughing at us! I have many friend sin the UK and it's really not causing any sor tof dust-up, other than ratings. This was a big on for the BBC! Not as big as the crash, but it was definitely water cooler material for a while.

O'Rielly would be butt-brothers with Clarkson...they both hate the French and are blowhards with agendas.

In fact, i'd pay good monies to see Clarkson belittle O'Rielly on a show.

 

[BlaRo]

:lol: Roscoe P. Stig.

I don't know why they made a big deal about roadkill. Are Europeans too sophisticated to crash into animals?

Also, I want a Freedom Grille; just because Team America named it doesn't mean that it's incredibly useful and cool.

Lastly, the slogans. They weren't as offensive as I would have expected them; after all, Alabama did give us the 16th Street Church bombing and Governor George Wallace. That would have been really ugly, but at least the gas station lady took the piss herself: "you know you're in hick town". Only in America. It honestly had me on the edge of my seat, something even the last few eps of 24 haven't been able to accomplish. I know I would have been scared shitless, those producers are pretty sadistic.

I've also driven in huge storms like that and it's pretty unnerving as well.

Lastly, 56 pages? Really? Of what? A bunch of Southerners who conveniently came out of hiding to repeat the same thing? I think we here get the idea, America isn't that bad, and that we can laugh at this while the hicks at the gas station couldn't.

 

[LoneWolf]

No I don't have such a problem with the show; I love 99.9% of it. That's way more than enough to bother watching it. And I don't whine about the show; I was merely commenting further on my previous post regarding Clarkson's statement "If you come to America everyone's very fat, stupid and rude. And that's the truth". Others here have made a valid point about that and maybe it's the ONLY thing that went too far in the very long time I've been watching the show. And I will keep watching it, because I'm still an avid fan.

None taken. I wasn't implying that opinions of the BBC abroad were anywhere near as relevant as the British. But the BBC is a tool to promote the language/culture/point of view and I commend that. I enjoy the BBC. But suppose they would broadcast something completely inaccurate about a subject relevant to people outside the UK, but viewed by those people, I would suspect those people would have a say to correct that (and I'm not implying the BBC has ever done that i.e. being incorrect). THAT is what I meant. I wasn't really talking about TG.

Yes I understand that completely. It's the same system here. I know selling TG is a bonus, which is why I said it shouldn't have any effect on the show. However it does relieve pressure, if tiny, off the licence fees. I thought you could've read that between the lines.

I don't feel upset about JC crossing the boundaries, but I do understand it a little when others do. And I know my opinion is irrelevant to him and the BBC. I'm cool with that. It was more a discussion of Person X saying something on a show that others, dispite being used to the nature of the show, may have found a little too much and others saying they're crybabies because of that. Whatever the reason.

OK I'll take that back and apologize. It's just that sometimes these threads get too much of a patriotic tint and I don't like that. I guess I misread your post. I'm just trying to get people understand eachother better. Maybe I suck at that.:lol:

BTW if my post was a little over-the-top I just want to say I didn't want to start an argument/row/firestorm and I'd like the atmosphere to remain humorous, mmmkay?

Same here, I'd like the atmosphere to remain calm too, but there are a lot of younger posters as well as first time posters, a recipe for fireworks

The BBC is extremely politically correct (or tries to be) and tries to go about offending as few people as possible. TG is one of the big exceptions in it's programming, which is why many people in the BBC (as well as outside it) have tried to close it down. It's an island of un-PC'ness in on otherwise sanitised schedule, and for people like me it's a breath of fresh air.

 

[LoneWolf]

Completely agree. And if you remember the poll on Final Gear's main page about how the last FG season was, the vast majority said it sucked... and I have to agree it took a turn for the worst.

Just to clarify, the good taste/bad taste issue is secondary, that was just MY reason why I found the humor in this episode labored and scarcely funny. My gripe is not that he is making fun of americans or whatnot, my gripe is that it was an ENTIRE episode without automotive content. I don't understand why Clarkson needs to talk about americans SO much? To the point they turned an entire episode into a redicule fest, and left out all the automotive content. As an automotive journalist he is unparalled as entertainment goes, I love his views on the motoring world, and I love how he expresses them.... but I don't really care about Katrina, the crime rate in the USA, the religious views of Alabama and the diet of americans. You guessed right, I do generally like the old episodes better (I did absolutely LOVE the 2nd episode this year though).

You know, about a year ago I would have completely agreed with you about the automotive content in the show. I remember coming on here during S8 (I think it was season 8) and moaning about Hammond's race in the Porsche Cayanne (sp!) against the sky diver, and getting blasted for not saying 'it was a great episode'. But that was before I realised two things: one, TG is past it's best and two, it's more of an entertainment show then a car show. Some people have a problem with that, but now that I've accepted I don't. Whilst this season and last season is a massive improvement over the season before (IMO), and whilst I'm really loving it at the moment, for me personally TG will never be able to match the magic moments of Jeremy destroying the pick-up, or the episode featuring the ?500 bangers and 360CS vs 911GT3-RS, or the entire Enzo episode, etc etc. For me those are the golden moments never to be repeated.

And as for it being less of a car show, well that's sort of obvious (to me at least). If it was more of a serious car show, it wouldn't be so funny and light hearted. For a while it bugged me but then I just accepeted it. And as one poster rightly pointed out, they do cleverly dispense relevant car info during a test/trip.

I aslo believe it's not fundamental to be british to have an opinion on this board. I'm not talking from an american point of view, nor from a british point of view here, I'm talking as an automotive enthusiast, and this we all are (and fact TG crew reads this board is pretty indicative of their passion and interests). I'm sure my view is shared by some british viewers as well, I doubt every single brit found this episode "awesome". Probably not worth much, but that's that.

Just to be clear I do not in anyway believe you have to be British to have an opinion of the show. For me that idea is absurd, and believe everyone should feel free to come on here and let their thoughts be known, regardless of nationality (even if we can't read through all of them), as this is what this place is for. But I do believe that before posting about an episode, especially when it involves comments about non-UK related stuff, people need to bear in mind who this program is primarily aimed at from the perspective of the producers and presenters, and that is the British public. If the show were aimed at a global audience we would probably see much less nation bashing (well, maybe ), but all I'm saying is to the folks in other countries is try not to take the jokes/insults too seriously, they're not meant to be taken seriously and they're aimed at a British audience. Just sit back, relax, and watch the show from a light-hearted POV

 

[Dsemaj]

Holy shit, this is still going..

 

[flyinhawaiian]

You know, I have a question for a lot of you Europeans / Non-Americans: Do your motoring shows differ from ours in that they mostly only consist of test drives and car reviews? You see, we have quite a few here of just straight car reviews and car news, but we also have a bunch consisting of guys "cocking about" or have nothing to do with car reviews. The reason I love Top Gear is because I see it as the pinnacle of the motoring show as they maintain a healthy balance of both. The cocking about that people raise a fuss about is more, in my eye, of a celebration of the automobile, men enjoying that celebration and doing what men do best... stupid stuff... I haven't seen one Top Gear episode yet where the activity at hand did have anything to do with cars.

I'm not trying to start a flame-war or argument, but just trying to understand the differences in culture and viewpoint.

-Jeff

 

[USViewer]

:lol: Roscoe P. Stig.

I don't know why they made a big deal about roadkill. Are Europeans too sophisticated to crash into animals?

I must have missed that; I saw them making a big deal of eating roadkill

 

[Karoug]

When will JC learn that the c6 has a 6 litre engine...

 

[Justin.b]

What American car shows feature cocking about?

American Hotrod, American Chopper, Monster Garage, etc are more reality shows than car shows. Whatever that show is with two smiling idiots in a garage features more content about pickup trucks than cars (and is hosted by two grinning lobotomy recipients).

I'm willing to check out whatever's recommended, but I rarely see any car content worth watching.

-Justin

 

[flyinhawaiian]

Well I didn't have those in mind, but although they take it very seriously, Pinks is a non-review motoring show (and I love it). Tuner Garage Challenge is another as well as Overhaulin' (they do joke around quite a bit there). There's a couple others, but they're not coming to mind now. I think my point was that there are a number of american motoring shows that don't feature reviews but are still alright. None are a funny as Top Gear, but my point / question still stands.

-Jeff