• The development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system, is prohibited using the contents and materials on this website.

[18x02] February 5th, 2012

[18x02] February 5th, 2012

  • Total voters
    391
Ai yi yi... I don't know how I cocked up the bit about the TG 300; you guys are right, it was at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina in May. So that idea goes into the scuppers...

To make it up, I'll point out one mistaken comment from Hammond. The race he was at wasn't 500 laps; it was 500 miles. TMS is a 1.5-mile track, and the total race distance was 334 laps, which works out to 501 miles.

Additionally, on the China front, there was one model of Chery that was an exact duplicate of a GM car--I want to say a last-gen Chevrolet Cavalier, but I'd think even the Chinese would think that sucked too much to copy--to the point of actually still having all the GM markings and numbers stamped on the parts, which were interchangeable with parts for the actual GM car, except that they'd have never passed even pre-bankruptcy GM's QC standards...
 
An enjoyable hour worth of entertainment. Couldn't stop laughing after the Chinese Stig made his unique style of arrival.
 
I watched it again last night and liked it a little more on second viewing. I know this is me being too emotional, but I was not pleased with Jeremy's reference to running over a cat. Nothing Jeremy says ever grates on me; I love him and his out-there comments and the fact that he doesn't censor himself, but that comment just left me thinking of James' cat, Fusker, who suffered the same fate :( I know it's scripted and all, of course, but...

I think James should really have bought Jezza that Oil of Tact.

tumblr_legpjkE0XB1qexx5po1_500.png
 
Very nice. The presenters really played to their strengths. 8.5/10.
 
Worked for me.
 
Good episode.

I was wondering, though, did anyone else spot the R8 in the Chinese car segment?
 
Last edited:
aaurora said:
I watched it again last night and liked it a little more on second viewing. I know this is me being too emotional, but I was not pleased with Jeremy's reference to running over a cat. Nothing Jeremy says ever grates on me; I love him and his out-there comments and the fact that he doesn't censor himself, but that comment just left me thinking of James' cat, Fusker, who suffered the same fate :( I know it's scripted and all, of course, but...

I think James should really have bought Jezza that Oil of Tact.
Click to expand...

Same here, but i am biased (we have 2 cats and are getting a 3rd :) but we also lost a cat to a traffic incident :( )
 
Last edited:
A Mitsubishi engineer once told me they were shown a Chinese copy of one of their cars that had been duplicated so accurately that it even included subtle 'line rectifications' that would've been unique to that car.

I was also told somewhere, (may have been the same source) that the reason the Chinese will copy items so freely is that their copyright laws don't apply once something goes from a 'paper' design to the 3d physical domain. So once a car goes from drawing board to being produced it's regarded as in the public domain and thus open for duplication. Anyone know anything more on that?
 
Great episode all round. I enjoyed the NASCAR segment, even though I'm not a fan. The news and SIARPC was pretty good too. Didn't think Mr. Bean would get beaten by Joey Tribiani on the boards. Chinese car segment was good too, and Chinese Stig was :lol: Gave it a 9/10
 
Last edited:
Another 10 from me. Good guest this week for Star in a Car, and another strong episode overall. I didn't find myself 'wanting' for the next segment at all, and I thought the nascar piece was very well done: There was lots of opportunity to do it badly and make a farce of it, but they took the high road and gave it a fair shake.

So far this series has 20/20 out of me. I know they warned of a bit of a mess-around episode next week, but I suppose a 2:1 ratio of "Petrolhead to 8 year old" episodes is fair enough, especially if the messing around is naturally funny.

I laughed at the montage song... and in 5 years I'm buying a chinese aventador :p
 
In the Chinese segment;

Did anyone else notice that the last two cars they were testing were also copycats? Respectively Hyundai and Kia.
I was surprised to see no one has mentioned it yet. I know that they're not as well regarded, but to show all other copycats before and show the last two as their own was a bit strange.

In my opinion, out of all the models, Korean and Japanese cars are the ones that get copied the most, since they are very close to each other. (Thus more cultural influence)
I think virtually all models by Hyundai/Kia/Honda/Toyota gets copied in China.

I was just a bit sad to see that part of ignorance shown in the segment..
 
I quite liked this episode. I've always been against TopGear doing anything Nascar related because it's too easy a target for their unoriginal insults, but they actually gave it a very unbiased film. SIARPC is always more interesting to me when it's someone I'm familiar with, so I liked this one and Matt did an awesome job with that lap time. And the Chinese film was great also, very educational while still being humorous.

Overall a very solid episode, so I gave it a 9/10, but I may have been a bit over-generous after recent years of 'bean counter' TopGear episodes.
 
Ref: NASCAR. As an Aussie I've been drawn into the sport through following Marcos Ambrose. It's taken me a while but I've really learned to appreciate the sport and its many subtleties. I think Hammond did a good job in the time available.
 
t_sage said:
In the Chinese segment;

Did anyone else notice that the last two cars they were testing were also copycats? Respectively Hyundai and Kia.
I was surprised to see no one has mentioned it yet. I know that they're not as well regarded, but to show all other copycats before and show the last two as their own was a bit strange.

In my opinion, out of all the models, Korean and Japanese cars are the ones that get copied the most, since they are very close to each other. (Thus more cultural influence)
I think virtually all models by Hyundai/Kia/Honda/Toyota gets copied in China.

I was just a bit sad to see that part of ignorance shown in the segment..
Click to expand...

Which Hyundai/Kia model did they copy? The Trumpchi looks more like a mixture of Accord/Camry to me, while these three are being produced at the same factory (Guangqi). Chinese car manufacturers have a tradition of 'learning from' foreign cars produced at their factories.
 
t_sage said:
In the Chinese segment;

Did anyone else notice that the last two cars they were testing were also copycats? Respectively Hyundai and Kia.
Click to expand...

Here are the two cars in question:

g96fJ.png


sc37Z.png


Which Hyundai and Kia do they resemble? I can't think of any.

Also note that the Roewe 350 was first shown in April 2009 (as the N1 concept), and the Trumpchi was first shown in Nov 2008, as the VIP Lounge concept:

http://www.chinacarforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3410&page=2
 
JosephGan said:
Which Hyundai/Kia model did they copy? The Trumpchi looks more like a mixture of Accord/Camry to me, while these three are being produced at the same factory (Guangqi). Chinese car manufacturers have a tradition of 'learning from' foreign cars produced at their factories.
Click to expand...

I think it is pointless to argue which models they copy off exactly. Because they are mash-ups of several cars. I agree those two cars at the end have more Korean cars' influence than Japanese but again that does not matter. The 4wd in that segment also resembles Pajero(front) and Fiat Multipia(rear) to me.

Korean cars started off initially by buying mechanicals from Japanese then moved onto copying with Koreans' own technology. But never to Chineses' extent.

I hope the next episode carrys over with the Chinese trip (like the Japanese trip before) and points out Chinese-market-only German cars. Really interesting for those who do not know. They have Mercs, Audis, Beemers that are half price, built in Chinese and for Chinese market only. With slight design differences from the actual German production models. Well, I guess you can imagine the quality and you are not wrong!
 
I don't like, or have EVER liked, NASCAR. But that Top Gear segment really made it look fantastic.

LOVED the SLS review (I frothed when he pulled out the XKR convertible, as well as the Miata MX-5).

The news was funny, and it had car content (not enough, but still...)

SIARPC.... "Joey" was gracious, polite, and appeared genuinely interested, unlike last week's prat.

The Chinese segment.... gold. Entertaining, but also very "classic" Top Gear to me, with how they discussed the progression of cars over the times. The Chinese Stig had me in stitches. I normally don't like the scripted bits... but this one was well done.

THAT's HOW YOU EFFING DO IT, BOYS!!! Don't give me the "we need to satisfy the non-hardcores" speech, Clarkson. They're not the ones that made you big (granted, they made you REALLY big, but still....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top