Top Gear Mishap

[McP]

The reslult of racing the Jaguar Project 212 (value 3 million pounds)
at Goodwood is (just a random example):

and the result of TG's C-type test is just a few worn-out parts.
So , i agree, there is a difference between racing at Goodwood and the TG test.

[pimrusis]

That was a race right? Not a joyride?

[McP]

Judging from what TG showed on TV (I wasn’t there when it was recorded), I wouldn’t call it a joyride, just a standard TG report, with the standard tire smoke (of course, its TG ).

[Tumbler]

can and has been replaced so who cares....

[snacky]

All this time I assumed the stig was tiff. btw, they practically NEVER test ALL the cars under the same weather conditions. and all that sliding around the stig does just slows the cars down and adds seconds to the laptimes. I think each manufacturer should provide their own test driver to maximize each car's potential.

[levensnevel]

Snacky,

the beauty of an 'independant' autoprogram on the telly is that able drivers who are not on the paylist of the manufacturer of the car in question do all the driving.
Otherwise it is all an excercise in futillity.
And do you really feel that those laptimes are the final verdict ? As far as I'm concerned they are just an indication of the car's potential, using the 'same' driver each time gives you a valid reference point, that's all.

[TeflonTron]

Originally Posted by Tumbler can and has been replaced so who cares....

Who cares? Oy vey!! his is about a fundamental lack of respect for other people's property. If I lent them my *insert expensive car* and all they did was bust it up, I would not be happy. Racing at Goodwood is one thing, as you accept that the car could crash, but lending it to Top Gear to drive "hard" is something else.

[snacky]

levensnevel,

I want the driver to post up fastest possible lap times, not subjectively rate/review the cars, that makes independence a non-issue.

What did that guy that handed over the jag expect from top gear? I wouldn't give those guys my R/C car to test obviously he shoulda put some stipulations on the program like "you break it, you pay for it."

[TeflonTron]

I'm sure that he would have expected nothing more than a little respect. People forget that Top Gear used to do many, many reviews that had no spinning wheels, smoking tires and all the rest. Money is not the issue here. What is the issue, is the fact that Top Gear didn't have the respect to look after someone else's property.

[levensnevel]

Snacky,

If you want fastest laptimes you have to watch championships like e.g. F1, CART or BTCC. TG is supposed to be an objective program about passengercars for a wide audience. Nowadays it is all about infotainment. The only way you can compare passengars driving characteristics in an objective manner is how 5th Gear did:
> 1 circuit
> 1 driver
> 2 or more cars which are driven back 2
If I remember correctly there was an episode in the 2nd series in which featured a green TVR T350C. Der Stig drove the car around the circuit in two different settings, 1 set up for a circuit and the normal set up as it left the Blackpool factoryd,. Richard the Midget drove with both set ups on the public road. Suppose you can gues which set up was the fastest on the circuit and which setting the most driveable on the road. And you might remember with which car Der Stig smashed the laptimes of the Subaru WRX and the new Honda Civic Type R. If you do, you also know how Jazza felt about the car when he had driven it on a several B-roads.
So TG laptimes is a nice gimmic which they use as a red line throughout the series but it has no value whatsoever.

[McP]

I agree with levensnevel completely, the TG laptimes, in this form, have no real value. I hope TG will change this in the new series.
They have tried to make it a more ‘level playing field’ when they emptied water tanks on the track to make sure that the track was always wet (in most corners). They stopped doing this because they didn’t have enough water (it was too expensive).

[McP]

With the Goodwood example I was just trying to put the TG C-type incident into perspective.

I think it’s horrible that these (automotive) museum pieces get damaged.
If it were up to me (which it clearly isn’t) I would ban ‘driving hard’ with these rare classics.
Then Goodwood would show the original cars in the car park, and do a parade lap with them, and the racing would be done with replicas.
The Jag project 212 (from my earlier post) has been turned into a replica, in my opinion, when they repaired it after its crash.

Putting it into perspective again:
The celebration of 100 years of airplanes at Kitty Hawk: they tried (and failed) to recreate the original flight of the Wright brothers. They used a replica plane and not the original plane (don’t know if it still exists).

[stradale]

Originally Posted by McP The Jag project 212 (from my earlier post) has been turned into a replica, in my opinion, when they repaired it after its crash.

Can I put this into perspective?

If it had been crashed one year after it was built and it had been repaired it would still count as the original car. You'd be amazed how many 'original classics' have been damaged throughout the years and have lots of parts that aren't the original parts that were fitted by the factory. You can't avoid that if you want them to be used. I understand it's a bit of a shame, but I like to see that they're still driven today and carparts simply don't last a lifetime.

[altedza]

regardless, with the money im sure the show has, they should repair ALL damages incurred to borrowed materials, whether they be cars, roads, etc. thats really jacked ;/

[jaybv6]

Originally Posted by altedza regardless, with the money im sure the show has, they should repair ALL damages incurred to borrowed materials, whether they be cars, roads, etc. thats really jacked ;/

Not true. I am sure that some insurance company somewhere pays the damage. If cars are lent out for demo then it's the manufacturers insurance company that pays up.

My best mate used to work at a Porsche Dealership. About 5 years ago he gave me look round the showroom and workshop. He pointed to a 911-993 Carrera 4 that was in the workshop. It was a beautiful looking example and looked mint. He then told me to take a look at the front. I walked round and the front wheel was halfway in the drivers door. I asked what happened and he told me that the car had been used by Top Gear's Tiff Needell had he had munted it big time. The car was then delivered back to the Dealership in this condition and they had to fix it. Not too sure who paid for it though.