All Entries Tagged With: "Top Gear"
Bentley T2 Video With James May
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: YouTube ::: James May’s old Bentley T2
WOW. James May had ears. Anyway, here’s an oldy and goody; where the then fresh Top Gear star introduced us to his cap’n slow style and his very own “Bentley for Mondeo money” – a T2. Fancy that. We’ve already talked about the T2. And here it is popping up again.
Cue the theme to It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia in three, two…
Mz Top Gear Oz
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG YouTube
THEY should’ve hired her.
You have to wait for the revs to climb, but, Dee-Anne’s character peaks at about 4:40… Doubtless one of seemingly countless Top Gear audition entries, her delivery would’ve needed some tweaking from the producers.
-breathe-
But if they’d had the brass to stray just a little from the UK formula, and see past a few preliminary jitters, they would likely have found a great new dynamic to add to the Top Gear franchise.
But they didn’t, so they haven’t.
If there’s a company ready to produce a Fifth Gear Oz, Dee-Anne Joseph’s your girl.
[LinkedIn: Dee-Anne Joseph]
Not An Advertisement: SniffPetrol on Twitter
Sniff tweets…
By Gunnar Heinrich
SNIFFING something other than petrol, Top Gear‘s top scribe Richard Porter has taken to twittering.
Fortunately, his tweets are not so much:
I’ve just dropped my toothbrush down the loo… it won’t flush. 1 minute ago
And more:
Sniff in a minicab (an occasional series): Pug 307 SW, weird engine whine, brake pedal used like on/off switch, smells like fruity burp. 12:06 PM Apr 7th
and
Sniff in a minicab: Current Passat, ghostly whine from pained clutch, being driven in manner of TOCA driver very late for own wedding. 5:55 PM Apr 7th
Thanks to “Sniff’s” bold new foray onto a painfully over-hyped and intrusive new medium Twitter, grateful SniffPetrol fans everywhere will no longer have to wait in anxious expectation for their monthly Porter-fix.
Now, they can sniff fresh Porter tweets every day – save for possibly UK Bank Holidays and days when the Duke of Edinburgh has something prescient to say on telly.
Richard, can I have my cheque now, mate? Made out in sterling would be brilliant. Cheers!
Not An Advert: Richard Porter Strikes Again
Hold your fire: this ad is not real. It’s just really funny.
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG SniffPetrol.com
SNIFFING and sniveling while wiping away tears from wheezing gaffaws last night, yours uncovered this month’s “issue” of Richard Porter’s web rag SniffPetrol.com.
The above mock advert was one of many comic jabs that Top Gear’s top writer and notorious Crap Cars author (hey, I liked the XJ40!) took at the automotive community. It’s good to know what the show’s talent really thinks when unplugged from the nanny standards of H.M.’s BBC.
Better than the mock ads, however, was an article covering the Isle of Man from a couple “issues” back. The literary piece was called: “Mad Island Insanely Shut”.
Read it and weep, sorry, sniff with laughter.
[Linked: SniffPetrol]
Clarkson Rags on BMW For Left-Handed Thinking
Mr. Clarkson pondering BMW ergonomics with pipe
By Gunnar Heinrich
THERE is something acutely strange that happens when you first try to reverse in a right-hand drive car in a country whose traffic flows from the left – you turn right to look back and instead of having that clear view through the windscreen, you jam your hand and shoulder against the door and find a close up view of the seat belt mounted to the car’s b-pillar.
It’s disorienting and you’re left feeling really, really foolish.
Anyway, this happened to me, discouragingly, in the middle of a test drive at a Land Rover dealer in Scotland. It wasn’t my first time driving on the left, but it was my first time behind the wheel of a car in at least three weeks (not a healthy way to live). So, it took adjusting.
It might be hard for the majority of the world to consider, but those who do drive on the left are forced to be ambidextrous. Most of the car’s functions are featured on the dashboard which is inevitably placed left of the driver’s left knee.
Fortunately, the pedals are in the same left to right order as nature intended. But in the case of BMW’s all encompassing iDrive, it isn’t.
Jeremy Clarkson pointed this out in his Sunday Times column this week.
“As any normal person who’s tried to operate a computer mouse with their left hand knows, it’s nigh-on impossible. In short, then, the right-hand-drive 7-series works only for left-hand-drive people.”
For Bimmer drivers in the 75 countries that drive on the left side of the road, including but not limited to the UK, Japan, India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Cyprus, Ireland, Malta, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, and Guyana, they must be left feeling really, really foolish.
[Linked: Sunday Times]
Clarkson Plays DEE-FENSE On Tesla Fiasco
Tesla broke through the BBC defenses earlier in the game.
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG from AP
JEREMY Clarkson is fighting back.
There was plenty of online chatter and lots of backlash from Tesla’s P.R. people last December resulting from the Top Gear personality’s decision to push the electric car (plus editorial honesty standards) off the track (O.C.) to make it appear to viewers as though the car’s lithium ions had run out of juice when in fact they hadn’t.
The truth was one of the test car’s brakes had stopped working and another’s motor had overheated.A total of two test cars were involved, with Tesla staff on-hand to make sure things didn’t go too badly. Which, in fact, they did.
And now in Mr. Clarkson’s Sunday Times column, he strikes back at the heart of the Tesla fiasco calling the Roadster “good for your sex life” but as useful as a “muddy bag of spinach.”
Ouch!
For the rest of us auto scribes, Mr. Clarkson shares a little inside-football with stories of previous fallings-out with the likes of Renault, Toyota, Kia, and BMW.
Apparently, the Bavarians didn’t take too kindly to Mr. Clarkson’s attitude towards BMW drivers which he insists are known for their “pushy attitude, their silly sunglasses, their awful short-sleeved shirts, their hair gel, their orange wives, their awful houses, their fondness for golf and their membership of the Freemasons.”
In sum, his bit in the Times this week makes for a bloody good read.
[Linked: Sunday Times]
This Week @ Coys: Exotic Dreams Revisited
Fuel for a young imagination.
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via RapidCars.com
WHEN the eighties turned into the nineties, there were three 200+ mph supercars that diverted my attention from grammar school studies and fueled my passion for cars.
They rank as follows: Bugatti’s EB110, the McLaren F1, and the Jaguar XJ220.
Of the three, the Bugatti was my favorite for being a) Italian - molto bene! b) blending luxury with exotic performance and c) all-wheel drive.
IMHO back then, the true blue EB110 would’ve been the perfect choice for replacing the family Volvo in taking yours to and from school.
Indeed, yours was taking practical considerations into account.
The all-wheel drive would ensure that I’d make it to class on snow days; a selfless act of sacrificing liberation from school.
The EB110′s four turbochargers, performance shoes, and decisive lack of ground clearance didn’t factor in my assessment.
Time rolled on, our Volvo 740 (not-so-good in the snow) was replaced by a 940 (truly dismal polar performer) and then an 850 (damn near unstoppable), and history forgot the first and last of the super three to remember only the McLaren – a stripped down bullet that like the XJ220 wasn’t sold Stateside.
Back then, American emissions standards barred entry. And since then, we’ve all grown more practical and pragmatic. Or have we?
Olde Top Gear Review of Lexus LS400 versus Traditional Euro Set
By Gunnar Heinrich
TOP GEAR wasn’t always Top Gear.
And there’s no better proof of that than this clip of ye olde Top Gear from the Y.O.L. nineteen hundred ninety one. In it, a very un-Clarksonesque presenter takes us through an arc-storyline presentation of the Lexus’ then new LS400.
Assembling a crowd of “The traditional European competition” – a BMW (E32) 735i, Jaguar (XJ40) XJ6, and Mercedes-Benz (W126) 420SE (with those bloody Euro-spec lights ‘n bumpers) – the presenter performed a rather matter of fact review of all three’s kit and tags next to the cheap ‘n cheerfully stuffed and hushed LS.
The presenter’s notes on the Europeans was firmly stiff upper lip.
- Speaking of the Jag, “It’s got exceptional ride and handling… and extra instrumentation; something the Americans demanded.” Hey don’t blame us, pal.
- The Bimmer, “Very much a driver’s car. Very efficient in design and layout.” Naturally.
- The Benz, “Long in the tooth. Good performance, ride, and handling.” I beg your pardon?
- And the Lexus, “Toyota have undoubtedly produced a quality car.” Quite.
And that’s about as heated as the review gets. No rants nor raves. Just a mild assessment of the qualities and shortcomings of four luxury sedans.
Top Gear really wasn’t always Top Gear.
This Week @ Coys > 300SL Roadster
By Gunnar Heinrich
IF you were to search through Top Gear’s list of 100 sexiest cars of all time, you won’t find the 300SL roadster there. In fact, the current SL isn’t even listed and that car gives – to loosely paraphrase Chris Matthews – most women a charge up their silk stockings every time one parades into view.
No, what you will find on Top Gear’s twisted list (the Brits can be so strange) is that a Citroen C6 took number five sexiest car ever and that the epitome of sex on wheels is the old Fiat Cinquecento.
I guess that’s what happens when you eat stewed tomatoes with breakfast.
Anyway, the sexiest car in my book, at least, the smooth ’61 300SL roadster is on the list of one tasteful UK source – Coys of Kensington.
The Richmond (London suburb) based auctioneer is featuring one silver on red (naturally) three liter, straight six engined Benz that they state has gone under full restoration since their catalog photos were taken.
Comme toujours, Coys is mum on the price. But, if the 300SL roadsters listed on Hemmings are anything to go by, spending $500,000 or so is a safe bet.
Steep price, but then again, you’d own the world’s sexiest car.
"The Car That Nice People Drive"
Classic Top Gear. Classic. Have a look see.
