Top Gear Mistakes/Gaffs

Since you've brought up squirrels - and since Jezza's been bashing Germany/Germans again last night:

Clarkson's declaration that no German, no matter how good his English is, could pronounce the word "squirrel". He actually made that claim twice, can't remember the two exact episodes in question. While I'm certain that a lot of my compatriots would struggle with this one (and with many other words in the English language), I for one would've been perfectly capable of passing that form of identity-check had I been a Nazi-spy living in England in WW2 ... :D


S.
 
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erick295 said:
It must be a regional thing because everyone I know pronounces it with an "R." At least it actually has one... I'll never understand how the British managed to get "purr" out of "Peugeot." It sounds like a cat's trying to say it :lol:
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How do you pronounce Peugeot in Georgia?

Because here are some French people saying it and they are pronouncing it "purr".
 
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stiggie said:
How do you pronounce Peugeot in Georgia?

Because here are some French people saying it and they are pronouncing it "purr".
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Yes, I too am baffled by this. How else do you pronounce Peugeot?
 
stiggie said:
How do you pronounce Peugeot in Georgia?

Because here are some French people saying it and they are pronouncing it "purr".
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No one actually says it anymore since they haven't been sold here in 20 years, but this is how I've always pronounced it, and since that's a Peugeot commercial I'd tend to believe it's not wrong :) It's pronounced the same way in the French ads, just with a slightly different accent.
 
stiggie said:
Also, this is a Peugeot commercial too and it is a very clear "purr"-
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I have no idea where you're hearing a "purr" from the US one but yours clearly has it, however it's from the UK which kind of goes back to what I was saying... I guess you'd have to watch the French ones to get the official word ;)

Before this thread goes completely off the rails I feel like I should point out a minor gaff. I don't have it anymore to confirm but in the recent US special I remember them showing a yellow sign on the Blue Ridge Parkway and calling it a speed limit. Only white signs show enforceable limits, yellow ones are just advisory.
 
She is saying it really fast, but I am hearing "purr". You can't hear a clear "r" sound, but you have to remember that most non-american accents don't pronouce the "r" sound.
 
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Sascha77 said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot

I've heard tons of frenchmen pronounce the name. Trust me when I say: There's no "purr" in Peugeot. Just as there's no silent "e" in "Porsche"... :D


S.
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Trust you? Never! We'll just have to agree to disagree. Americans and Brits and Australians pronounce things differently.

Which is where we came in.
 
Wallio said:
Well if the whole wiper is covered, the spindle being a part of the wiper, is also covered. 6 years before the Princess. And other cars have done it even earlier than......
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A 1968 Chevelle had obscured windshield wiper spindles.
 
18x05 @ 43:00 - James explaining the biggest problem in the early days of SAAB was the two-stroke engine:
Because, in a two-stroke the engine oil is mixed with the fuel. So if there's no fuel going in, there's no oil going in.
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While that may be true of the 92's, and many other, two-stroke engines, it's not a characteristic of the "two-stroke" but rather those engines' particular design.

Two-stroke engines with sump lubrication systems are quite common - and four-stroke engines lubricated by fuel-oil premix are not unheard of.

(Not a big mistake by any means and quite a common misconception, but I expected James would be pedantic about such intricacies.)
 
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Ravenlord said:
While that may be true of the 92's, and many other, two-stroke engines, it's not a characteristic of the "two-stroke" but rather those engines' particular design.
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That did occur to me, I've never been aware of this problem with bikes or chainsaws.
 
stiggie said:
I don't think chainsaws know whether they are going down hill. :unsure:
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I thought the problem was when there's no throttle. If it's particularly when going down hill then that makes sense.
 
two-stroke engines, it's not a characteristic of the "two-stroke" but rather those engines' particular design.
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From what I understand it's a flaw inherent to any 2-stroke that burns a fuel/oil mixture.

S.
 
When I was little, my dad had a two-stroke Trabant. I even drove the damn thing (well...steered the wheel, while he was operating the pedals. I was only 5 or 6). There were no such shenanigans of pressing the gas and the brake downhill, even down the engine took oil in the gas tank. (I'll ask him if you don't believe me)

Ahhh...gotta love the smell and the blue smoke coming out the back of that thing.
 
Just checked to make sure nobody had posted this one.

When Clarkson was reviewing the Vauxhall VXR8 (I believe that's what it was called over there... Holden Monaro with the 6.0), he said it's got a 6-liter engine that "only develops 300 horsepower.... but 500 torques!"

In actuality it developed 400hp/400ft-lb or torque (I should know as I own the exact same engine in the US version of the car). What he quoted were the engine figures using the units they use in Australia, which is kW/N-m. Due to some convenient conversion factors, it 400hp/400lb-ft actually comes out to almost exactly 300kW/500N-m. It's always bugged me (probably due to my familiarity with it) that he could get that so wrong.

Whew, I feel better having gotten that off my chest.
 
Sascha77 said:
From what I understand it's a flaw inherent to any 2-stroke that burns a fuel/oil mixture.
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As common as it may be, it's nothing to do with the two-stroke cycle, but rather the design of the engine (for financial/technical ability/whatever reasons).

It's only a "flaw" (of the engine design, not the 'two-stroke cycle') when nothing is done to address this issue.

Which is why the SAAB 92B James drove down the hill, as well as Trabants and other two-stroke powered cars of the era, had freewheels to return the engine to idle on overrun [That whole tricky throttle-action scenario was a dramatic recreation of 'what it might have been like in the earlier model']. However, this also meant no engine-braking, so the end result was the same: cooked brakes at the bottom of a hill.
 
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