Stevo985 Posted February 20, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2012 I don't see it. The Cruise Diaz times maybe, because they'd be pandering to the mega stars. I still don't see why last night's would have been faked. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houlston Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Easily one of the best episodes I've seen in ages and ages and like others have said even the potentially disastrous wheelchair section was decent and Hammond was bearable. I dont think Fassbenders time was faked either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amsterdam_Neil_D Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Love that Bentley, what a car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 20, 2012 Moderator Share Posted February 20, 2012 Bentley sets quicker Icy-Silverstone time and has "better studded tyres". Eh, that's quite a big deal Jezza. Good episode I thought. Back to what they do well. Keep it simple. The India special joke I liked too I also see no reason why Fassbender's time wasn't genuine. The track looked bone dry and the ice on the 2nd to last was gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 my take on the celebs is that they have taken a leaf out of Jay K and Simon Cowells books and are putting in lots of practise despite the false modesty and what not could also be that new Stig is better than old stig and showing them how to take the line correctly ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 One thing that could explain the consistantly top of the table times is the car getting more run in over time. It might also have new brakes or exhaust which could improve performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eames Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 my take on the celebs is that they have taken a leaf out of Jay K and Simon Cowells books and are putting in lots of practise despite the false modesty and what not could also be that new Stig is better than old stig and showing them how to take the line correctly ? Also, Cruise and Fassbender could have had some advanced driving training prior to top gear. If you have even a vague interest in performance cars and the cash to buy them, its not unreasonable to suggest you may have had a track day or two..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted February 20, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2012 I'm just very cynical - theres been talk for a long time, for example, that the cut of the lap we see is actually a composite of all their laps. It's unimportant anyway. I just hope the series carries on in this vein now. It was a good episode after lots of middling and crap ones in the last year or so. I have to reiterate how happy I was that the scooter skit wasn't the disaster I'd feared (lacked the obvious stupid playacting), and I'm really glad they didn't go mawkish with the injured soldiers. They'd done that a series or 2 ago with the soldiers intending to do the Dakar, it became more about the fact they were injured than that they were people doing something amazing. With the scooter skit they completely avoided it, let the guys involved speak for themselves on screen rather than play with the heart strings in a grim way. EDIT - Oh and did anyone else get the feeling with that Ferrari that it was more a 'tech demo' than a genuine product? It struck me that it was less Ferrari going 'Lets make a Ferrari 4WD GT car' and more Ferrari going 'We'd maybe want to go into 4WD seriously in the future, but lets see what we can do first as a starting point to work from', the FF being that launching point with lots of new tech (that needs work) and a big pricetag associated with it, even taking the badge into account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted February 20, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2012 Yep, I thought exactly that Chindie. An experiment more than anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 20, 2012 Moderator Share Posted February 20, 2012 One thing I found interesting was that Top Gear were being overly critical of Ferrari for trying to be innovative by developing a brand new 4WD system so as to keep their car's CoG down rather than opting for the normal system. TG pointing out (rather speciously) that the clearly much higher nose of the Bentley didn't mean it handled like a house at all. It's like they knowingly missed the point of the technical exercise (and it's achievement) just so that they could, I dunno, compliment the British(sic) car instead by poking a stick at the Ferrari. It's not like they're under any illusions that modern Ferraris are a very complicated beast at the best of times. I thought credit should have been given to Ferrari for thinking outside the (gear)box on that one. Though the notion that it becomes 2WD from 5th gear onwards is slightly scary The Fister was nice though wasn't it And just how cool is Brian Johnson. Being lead singer of one of my favourite bands and being a funny f**ker with a great sense of humour isn't cool enough. The fact his daily drive is a blower Bentley just puts him even higher in my awesomeness scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted February 20, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2012 Annoyingly they didn't tell what the MPG was on the Fisker when running on the generator. I guess I could google it but it's more rewarding to whine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 20, 2012 Moderator Share Posted February 20, 2012 It was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be. Yes, it's hardly a snip at £86k but given it's supercar looks and the ingenuity in it's design & technology, I thought it would easily be north of £100k. It did appear to be plausible too. Plus 1,000 lbs/ft of torque :shock: Wawa weewa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Still...... not as good as an Evoque JOKING!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted February 20, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2012 The Ferrari was better looking than the Evoque, that's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 The Ferrari was better looking than the Evoque, that's for sure. thought the Ferrari looked like an old scirocco estate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted February 20, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2012 Its got the sportback-y look but I think the Scirocco look ends there. Saying that I like the old Scirocco, so it wouldn't be the worst look imo . Hell, the Scirocco's successor, the Corrado, is a dream car of mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 20, 2012 Moderator Share Posted February 20, 2012 I actually thought it looked more like a Reliant Scimitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houlston Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 One thing I found interesting was that Top Gear were being overly critical of Ferrari for trying to be innovative by developing a brand new 4WD system so as to keep their car's CoG down rather than opting for the normal system. TG pointing out (rather speciously) that the clearly much higher nose of the Bentley didn't mean it handled like a house at all. It's like they knowingly missed the point of the technical exercise (and it's achievement) just so that they could, I dunno, compliment the British(sic) car instead by poking a stick at the Ferrari. It's not like they're under any illusions that modern Ferraris are a very complicated beast at the best of times. I thought credit should have been given to Ferrari for thinking outside the (gear)box on that one. Though the notion that it becomes 2WD from 5th gear onwards is slightly scary The other point is how often are these cars going to get driven like they were in the show in those conditions. I'd say never. Whilst the Bentley was better at high speeds in those conditions the point of the Ferrari's new system is it will allow the Ferrari to handle much better in normal conditions than it would with a conventional system. However when it does snow you can still pop down the shops in it or drive home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I actually thought it looked more like a Reliant Scimitar. yeah that's the puppy ..just I'm not a petrol head ..did well to get it beginning with "s" :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houlston Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Well two weeks in a row of good shows thats rarer than a Heskey goal. However much Clarkson slagged off that Maserati gearbox I would seriously love one of those, theres just something about a Maserati that makes it so much cooler than many of the other supercars knocking about. Matt Smith wasnt as big a knob as I thought he was. Also raised a smile when Hammond made some comment about him being just baggage. Yep been like that for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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