I'm in Argentina with my Argentinean wife, kids and extended Argentine family. No one gives a shit, the one conversation that raised it was about how Top gear used to be pretty good and now it's a it formulaic. All agree it was to provoke and raise ratings. Likewise they are equally scathing of La Kirchner and her deliberate stoking of the Falklands/Malvinas debate to detract from raging inflation and poor governance...
Jeremy Clarkson = pantomime villain.
i.e. there to draw a reaction and not worth spending your time getting angry about.
I reckon it's a good thing that the vets didn't actually catch up with the crew until the very end of the road.
I wonder who told the Argies about their silly number plate gag and told them where to find the TG guys at just the right moment?
The IP address of the online whistle-blower might prove interesting...
Just watched it.
I have never wanted to visit a country as much as I want to visit Argentina right now. It looks simply stunning. Beautiful, in fact.
Oh, but they're still British. Sorry about that chaps. Let's agree to disagree and have a Quilmes to get along, shall we?
i feel bad now.....when i say hate, i mean i a way that i dont like riding in the rain, or eating well done steak, or standing in dog turds.
so more like dislike than hate........ 😳
CFH - go, it and the people are beautiful. Can't understand why such beautiful people resort to so much plastic surgery. Was told a few years ago that it's the plastic surgery capital if the world?
Wine and meat aren't bad either. I think the first real mountains were the Paine group. Stunning.
I enjoyed part 1 and will watch part 2 on iPlayer. It's all getting a bit jaded but worth watching.
As a follow up to CFH's / TMH post above Patagonia has been on my bucket list for the longest time, just need to go at a time of better weather than Part 1, don't mind snow just don't want rain rain rain
Bit of an own goal by the Argies - the programme was fairly mundane apart from the stunning scenery they were driving through being a fantastic advert for Argentina's tourism industry. I'm sure a few people who were thinking it would be a beautiful place to visit might have been put off by the actions of the mob at the end.
I spent quite a lot of time there in 2005/6. Great place and never had any animosity. Quite the contrary - apart from paying golf with a top lawyer who cheated! My folks also went down to Tierro del Fuego not that long ago. I would definitely go back. Southern Chile looked nice too!
Anyone run the Porsche plate through the dvla to see if its actually from a grey 928 ?
Anywhere with folk who'd run those three dickheads out of their country goes straight on my bucket list...couldn't give a shit what the scenery's like. I think they might have been a bit pissed off when they found out that one of them wasn't even a real hamster.
"Anyone run the Porsche plate through the dvla to see if its actually from a grey 928 ?"
Yes it was, and widely reported at the time
i think i hate clarkson even more than i hate micheal macintyre..............and that is like loads and loads
Nah, Clarkson can, on occasion be funny, something that Macintyre has never achieved, in my experience.
And I still don't understand the number plate thing; I went through the whole Falklands War thing, with personal experience of close family being on a bombed ship, and having looked at the numbers several times, I still find it hard to make any connection.
Seems there was some very deliberate shit-stirring over something most people would never have noticed.
Watched both parts tonight, laughed, smiled and enjoyed it. Exactly as you would expect 3 blokes on holiday to have fun. The ending needed to be shown as was, there appeared to be an organised rent a mob prepared and stirred up to cause trouble. I thought it was well done.
ERM, I pay for it...
Song of Praise and other religious clap trap
The Archers
Strictly Come Prancing
etc.
I wish I could have a TV channel making programmes just for me, would help reassure me that I was always right.
Wouldn't have thought the locals would get upset by a number plate sporting fkl surely they only recognise Malvinas?
The plate was what the car was first registered with. It changed to a private one at some point for a couple of years then back to its original one. It was advertised for sale with it a couple of months before TG went off to film.
I don't think anyone noticed until photos of them filming started getting posted, someone made the (tenuous) connection and an argentine journo picked up on it started whipping up ill feeling. Proper mob at the end 😯
Interesting to see the size of their on-location crew too - that's a hell of a lot of work to get a show like that done.
Seems there was some very deliberate shit-stirring over something most people would never have noticed.
That pretty much sums it up in my opinion.
Then once its been brought to their attention all the people with nothing better to do with their lives can watch it just so they can be offended and complain 😆
Noticed on several occasions, mainly in part 2, that the plate was missing from the front of the porche.
Not the best special by a long shot but certainly not bad enough to stop me watching in future.
Given the amount the front of the cars were dragged through stuff I'm not surprised the front plate was missing.
I cannot think how such a thing happened to those three [s]jingoistic[/s] purveyors of subtle and respectful humour as they are never rude about other countries or cultures.
How does a TV programme create so much angst on here?
Probably because one the presenters would quite happily mow down every cyclist on this site in his car if he thought he would get away with it.
STW is Top Gear demographic. Any 'angst' is self-loathing at identification with pot-bellied, middle-class, middle-aged schoolboys caught in a never-ending pantomime of one-upmanship and chauvinistic banter. If we thought we could get away with it we'd probably mow ourselves down 😉
jamesy01 - Member
Noticed on several occasions, mainly in part 2, that the plate was missing from the front of the porche.
Not the best special by a long shot but certainly not bad enough to stop me watching in future.
There was a shot quite early on in part 1 of it falling off as the car was driving along a rough bit of road. Given the usual shonky editing though, I think it appeared back on the car after that at times.
Edit, beaten to it
Just watched it. Not the best of their specials, although Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego did look spectacular.
That mob was pretty scary however. I know Kirchner has been stoking the fires to distract from her disastrous economic policy, but amazed that anything got that bad, and that the police did so little. Does appear that there wasn't any intent to offend, but I guess their reputation precedes them.
I've got it recorded to watch later as I've been working 12hr nights all Christmas.
I was out in Argentina in 2010, working in central Patagonia in one of the largest towns called Neuquen. First time we went out for a meal, we walked into a restaurant recommend to us by the Brazillian company we were working for and the owner promptly asked, "English or American, Rail or Oil?" To the obviously non South Americans amongst us so we replied "English and Rail" good he said, welcome, if you'd said either of the 2nd options he would've shown us the door!!
In another restaurant the waiters were discussing if I was German (Germany had just dumped Argentina out of the World Cup) I said no, English (who are even worse at football) and the laughed, came over, gave me a beer and carried on to serve me.
So in my experience they is very little hatred towards normal English / British people over there, the definitely don't like the Yanks. But the one strange thing is, in Neuquen airport (think a budget version of Blackpool) there are lots of painting my depicting scenes from the war with ships getting blown up, planes shot at and soldiers being taken captive and a book of rememberance where you can enter your thoughts on the war and as expected once prompted there is rather a lot of aggression towards the British army and Britain in general.
You're right though, it's a stunning place and I would love to go back one day, but maybe not in a Porsche
Best post on here so far, above.
When you travel a lot you can't fail to come to the conclusion that despite the obsessions of the media, the vast majority of people all over the world have exactly the same concerns as you do: earning money, living peacefully and securely and raising their kids. Most people are completely clear about politicians' lies and the tactics they use to divert attention away from their own shortcomings.
I watched it, pretty lame by all accounts, great scenery though.
If you want to watch great cars in great scenery the best car show in the world [Dakar] will be starting next week 🙂
And talking of Dakar, the shots of the crew convoy let slip the presence of what looked like a full on 4x4 Dakar style support truck. Wonder if that had something to do with that "outback welding"......
The top gear Africa special gave a good indication the size of the crew involved when they were queuing up to use Clarkson's toilet.
I've already upset people on the other thread, so I'll just add that I love the assertion that Clarkson wants kill all cyclists.
If you read his articles, in full, and with an open mind (rather than just read internet sound bites taken out of context when he needs to advertise something) he actually talks a lot of sense about appropriate cycling infrastructure.
But as we are now in a black and white internet age, seems a growing number of folk cannot cope with any concept of humour, nuance etc
uhuh.
We already have
it's just that some of the folk we share it with don't respect our right to use it.appropriate cycling infrastructure
Yes he loves cyclists and caravans and talks sense on both subjects
I do love your point that Clarkson is doing a nuanced argument...now that was funny.
We already haveappropriate cycling infrastructure
it's just that some of the folk we share it with don't respect our right to use it.
We do not have appropriate cycling infrastructure.
Appropriate cycling infrastructure is what they have in the Netherlands and to a certain extent in Belgium.
I watched some of the first part but couldn't be bothered with the second, I just find all three of them too annoying. Shame, I really wanted to enjoy it as I spent some time in Chilean Patagonia in 2008 and was looking forward to seeing it again. I was around Coyhaique and recognised quite a few road sections that they showed in the first part.
Any of you that felt inspired to go and visit I can only say do it, it is the most stunningly beautiful place I've been to.
I'm quite happy for my licence fee to go towards SoP etc, my issues with TG are:
It could be so much better, and used to be, some of the specials at least tried to inform.
Other channels are doing better stuff on cars (esp classics) now.
JC's attitude to cyclists and the worrying way in which so many think it's just a joke etc.
The general lowest common denominator/Express reader/taxi driver approach to whatever they want to mian about (cyclists, bus lanes etc).
I liked it. So there.
Careful al, the point of my thread nearly got you then.....
It was worth it to see the Beaver gloves and hats...
The whole number plate thing smacks of a production meeting,followed by a possible tip-off to local media that TG were filming??. A part of me very suspicious about the FKL plate being "originally" fitted to the 928!!, BE11END plates ready in the back??. They had all that hassle in the US with the "Queer" graffiti on their 3 cars. TG for the most part enjoyable and best when they prank just each other..... 🙁
A part of me very suspicious about the FKL plate being "originally" fitted to the 928!!
Which part of you is very suspicious.
Is that part of you not very clever?
Stunning place. Great advert for Argentina.
It has been stated by BBC/Top Gear team that:-
Plates original
Car not bought for plate.
My only conspiracy theory is around the fact that car could have been bought for any of the things they usually do to them and then, after it was bought, the plate was noted and a hilarious jape planned around it.
I found it suprising that cameras captured the moment the plate fell off.
ps: I thought it was a great travel programme.
It could be so much better, and used to be, some of the specials at least tried to inform.
Other channels are doing better stuff on cars (esp classics) now.
JC's attitude to cyclists and the worrying way in which so many think it's just a joke etc.
The general lowest common denominator/Express reader/taxi driver approach to whatever they want to mian about (cyclists, bus lanes etc).
I concur with this. Most of me hopes the "butch cassidy" style ending was a subliminal end to a production of the program. I'd be all in favor though of a reinvention with new presenters (perhaps May could stay) of a motoring magazine style show with serious day to day car reviews, topical issues and so forth - I'd watch it. No need to lose the supercars, but real issues and reviews of day to day cars with the odd bit of petrol head fantasy thrown in would be welcome.
Yet - hold on - that's Fifth Gear isn't it? So how does one move away from the gimmick the two programmes have become?
But as we are now in a black and white internet age, seems a growing number of folk cannot cope with any concept of humour, nuance etc
Is this the same sort of nuance the show used when Hammond said "Cars reflect national characteristics...a Mexican car's just going to be a lazy, ****less, flatulent oaf with a moustache, leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat"
or when Clarkson used the term "Slope" to describe Asian people in Burma?
That sort of nuanced humour you mean?
