…the Merlin powered Bentley. Oh. Dear. God. How beautiful is that! Roll on the 24million lottery win.

Awesome – to own a car with a Spitfire engine! 27 litres!

Alex James “star” WTF?

Was in a very good band 15-20 years ago…

Morgan for me

He’s still in the band Al…not sure what your point is.

VERY pretty girl in white with a scarf……or girl in white with enormous bazooms?

I prefer the Brutus, I don’t thingk by bike rack would fit though 😉

sc-xc…what have they done in 15 years is my point. Lifetime achievement award is what is behind it – he achieved what he did musically in 5 years….and done what since?

Fair point Al…but I’m sure there have been some more tenuous stars over the last few years.

And at least he makes cheese.

i saw the girl with massive boobs too….i want hammonds morgan, the sound of it is beautiful

I can only imagine (but don’t really want to) how big the Stig’s testicles are after hammering those two beasts around the track!

Aye, I am a Blur fan, I guess it’s the “Lifetime Achievement award” that gets my goat.

I think Duran Duran got it too, which is marginally worse, not sure of anyone worthy that has.

Best TG in ages, some proper nice cars for a change.

I haven’t got a telly.
This Merlin powered Bentley;
Was it by chance a Meteor powered Bentley from Worcestershire ? If so, I might have met the owner and driven his other Bentley. 8)

The only reason Blur got that award so the organizers of the Olympics could brag and draw in more publicity.

Like most thing in our world today a nice bribe does wonders.

MTG yes they mentioned it was a non supercharged RR engine, May called it the Meteor version.

he achieved what he did musically in 5 years….and done what since?

JESUS! what kind of cave have you being living in not to have heard him presenting of Radio 4’s “On Your Farm” ?????????

cynic-al – get a life, don’t take notice of award shows if its gets your goat
Mtg – watch tg on your pc then like the rest of the world

rewski chill the **** out…what’s wrong with questioning an award?

Best one for ages, mainly because there seemed to be lots about cars.

The only reason Blur got that award so the organizers of the Olympics could brag and draw in more publicity.

Why would they need to do that when Alex James’ “The A-Z of Classic FM Music” on Classic FM has already been named ‘Commercial Radio Programme of the Year’ (2009) at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards ???????? to be honest I reckon the rest of the members of Blur only reformed so that they could bask in the reflected glory.

Rorschach
VERY pretty girl in white with a scarf……or girl in white with enormous bazooms?

yep, I clocked those ladies too

The Morgan’s lap was the second best ever round IMO. The Ariel Atom v8 was the best. Both were made to dance on the edge beautifully by the Stig 😀

MCC…I think Damon Alburn has had some success since?

That place they stopped to buy winter clothing is in Shere, random little shop. Terrible consistency with the editing though, annoys me that sort of thing, they flitted back and forth between places!

The Brutus was utterly mental, sod that! Agree the Stig’s lap in the Morgan was excellent. The Caterham R500 was impressive too when he did that a couple of years ago.

I assume MCC is being ironic? Or is he serious?!

“Terrible consistency with the editing though, annoys me that sort of thing, they flitted back and forth between places!”

Don’t let it annoy you, it’s not real !

The only quibble with the programme was that they said they were testing trackday cars and then criticised them for not being great in really heavy rain commuting, but then it made a story for them.

Cool episode from our family side, I had a caterham for a few years & my old man had an original mog 3 wheeler.

I know where they are coming from about using the cars in bad weather, my 7 had a windscreen & hood (which took 45 mins to put up after leaving it in the airing cupboard for a couple of hours) was a nightmare in the rain, not enjoyable.

That Bentley though, that made me feel all funny (in a very good way)

I’m pretty sure I saw that Brutus racing at Silverstone about 20 years ago – it was racing with Morgans which buzzed around it like flies. The Brutus would come flying into the corners, lose all its speed as it had no grip and the Morgans would all overtake it. Brilliant to watch.

yes they mentioned it was a non supercharged RR engine, May called it the Meteor version.

It doesn’t sound quite so cool to have a car with the engine from a Centurion tank though does it?

the bentley was built in devon.
looked good.
sevens are cool.

FunkyDunc – Member

The only quibble with the programme was that they said they were testing trackday cars and then criticised them for not being great in really heavy rain commuting, but then it made a story for them.

I thought that as well, but I think they were trying to tie into the comment at the end of the show that the cost of these cars was such that you could buy something like an M3 that will be good on a track, but still good for everything else.

I think this series of Top Gear is the best for several years. They seem to have got their focus back a bit.

In the 50s my old man’s mate had a Merlin engine in a 1930s Roller. In times of fuel rationing huge engined cars were very cheap.
A mate school had one in his garage his Dad was building.

1920s Sunbeam’s that broke numerous land speed records had aero engines and the Silver Bullet had supercharged twin V12 motors rqualling 24 litres (or 11.5 cubic feet in old money!) and a 4,000BHP (claimed)

The only quibble with the programme was that they said they were testing trackday cars and then criticised them for not being great in really heavy rain commuting, but then it made a story for them.

Suppose it depends if you drive your trackday car to the track or trailer it..

…..or if you ever plan to use it at Knockhill

I was fortunate enough to be at the filming for this episode, the BMW Brutus was incredible, at the end of the show they drove it out of the studio to take it away in a trailer. The noise when it started up was LOUD !! There was a sort of removable cover over the exhaust but they chose not to put it on. I got this photo just as they turned the corner then it went fish tailing up the road setting off car alarms as it went and spitting flames !!

I do like the Brutus in a completely mental, hopelessly impractical in every possible way kind of fashion, but the Bentley was just so bloody beautiful!

I assume MCC is being ironic? Or is he serious?!

TOTALLY SERIOUS. Not really. Blur, The Brits and the Olympics are irrelevant. It might be what they talked about but its not why they booked him. The reason Alex James was on, rather than anyone else for Blur is because James is currently doing the book-plugging schlep across all the chat shows. Look out for him on Saturday Kitchen next.