[Closed] Top Gear - Clarkson in "IDIOT" shocker!

Their downfall had a lot to do with being on strike for most of the[s]the Japanese taking market share in the[/s] 70s.

But what about that bus!

I forgot the essential in my last post. Top Gear did a Le Mans special in 2012 which raised the awareness of the event among "laddish" Brits who then rented something special for the weekend in 2013.

Of course British petrol heads were totally unaware of the very secretive Le Mans 24 Hour Race

That was until "Evil Top Gear" brought it to their attention in time for 2013 of course !! 🙄

(And decreased accidents to zero in the process apparently.)

... No accidents this year

What is 85% of zero by the way ?

But what about that bus!

The first ones in use are on a route that goes through my neck of the woods. Not been on one yet (Too busy using a bike!) but they look brilliant. A really good re-interpretation of the classic Routemaster, and a welcome return to the open platform at the back!

CaptainFlashheart - Member
But what about that bus!
The first ones in use are on a route that goes through my neck of the woods. Not been on one yet (Too busy using a bike!) but they look brilliant. A really good re-interpretation of the classic Routemaster, and a welcome return to the open platform at the back!

really? less capacity than the bendy buses, astronomical cost, design is OK but slower to move people on and off than bendy buses and require a conductor, I dont think they are bad just a silly mayoral vanity project paid for by the tax payer

I'll add an increase of 86% in the number of people caught speeding (mainly Brits according to the media) around Le Mans between 2012 and 2013 which I attribute entirely to the TG special.

The "no accidents" refers to the Le Mans weekend, lots of Brits will kill themselves rushing for the ferries as usual this year.

Their downfall had a lot to do with the Japanese taking market share making incredibly shit cars in the 70s.

To be fair, they spent a lot of their time not actually making anything at all...

[img] http://www.unionhistory.info/britainatwork/emuweb/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=1555&size=264x200 [/img]

lots of Brits will kill themselves rushing for the ferries as usual this year.

So... not actually anything to do with Top Gear at all then?

Conductor - Security, ensure fare payments more effectively, and double the number of people employed per bus!
Slower on and off - Not so sure about that. Three doors, and some people can and will get on/off where they want to, rather than sitting waiting for the bus to move the twenty yards to the bus stop.
Cost - Seen how much was wasted on the bendy buses? Buses which were never suited to London streets.

Also, tourists love our buses. Seriously love them! Now, I can't quantify if that does anything to offset the admittedly very large initial investment, but they sure as hell make people smile. That's got to be a good thing! 🙂

After all, 'only a moron' would have wanted to get rid of the Routemaster.

lots of Brits will kill themselves rushing for the ferries as usual this year.

And of course, not a single French person will die on the roads either.

FFS.

What had he GFC and sub prime etc got to do with the demise of the UK car industry in the 1970s?

If anything the renaissance of e UK car industry (with a large dollop of foreign direct investment) has occurred more recently despite the probles in the financial sector and the high levels of debt in the UK.

I stil do not get why the TG haters keep watching it. Are there no other programmes to watch, or better still a few hours of final daylight to ride in?

What had he GFC and sub prime etc got to do with the demise of the UK car industry in the 1970s?

Well, he wasn't exactly specific as to what was declining.

And of course, not a single French person will die on the roads either.

FFS.

No, all accidents will only involve Brits.

Apart from this one obviously.
http://www.localrags.co.uk/index.php/News/2013/3/8/police-arrest-man-after-lorry-driver-seriously-hurt-in-a20-crash-near-dover/

Edit, managed to go cross eyed on two different articles. I probably do something similar when driving after top gear.

This thread needs graphs

Interestingly but not surprisingly, the percentile of fatalities involving cyclist is 6% for the UK (101) and 4% for France (141)

Interestingly but not surprisingly, the percentile of fatalities involving cyclist is 6% for the UK (101) and 4% for France (141)

So presumably there are more accidents overall in France then? Guess it must be all those British Top Gearists the unedukated one is blathering on about.

[quote=piemonster ]This thread needs graphs

[img] [/img]
Does this help?

Bloody nora!

[img] [/img]

This?

I'm surprised at you, piemonster. I would have thought you could at least manage this graph yourself:

[img] [/img]

I'll add an increase of 86% in the number of people caught speeding (mainly Brits according to the media) around Le Mans between 2012 and 2013 [b]which I attribute entirely to the TG special.[/b]

That's funny 😀

I didn't see the Top Gear Le Mans Special.

But I got stopped for speeding on the A11 north of Le Mans on my way to La Rochelle for a wedding.

So that's pissed on your fireworks hasn't it 🙂

.

Conversely I often speed on my way past LeMans en route for the Pyrenees and don't even own a TV - where do I fit into that pie chart?

Why do you speed, any of you?

It's more dangerous to drive faster.
It's illegal - you may get banned/fined/imprisoned.
It's very bad for the fuel economy.

[img] [/img]

Are you all on call or something?

Edukator - Member

I'll add an increase of 86% in the number of people caught speeding (mainly Brits according to the media) around Le Mans between 2012 and 2013 which I attribute entirely to the TG special.

The "no accidents" refers to the Le Mans weekend, lots of Brits will kill themselves rushing for the ferries as usual this year.

So presumably there are more accidents overall in France then? Guess it must be all those British Top Gearists the unedukated one is blathering on about.

Yes, and by quite some margin.

UK - 1960 fatalities - 3.10 per 100000

France - 3963 fatalities - 6.09 per 100000

So he is either talking a load of prejudiced bllx or Top Gear viewers are mowing the French down in their thousands.

It's more dangerous to drive faster.
It's illegal - you may get banned/fined/imprisoned.
It's very bad for the fuel economy.

You're in denial I see.

Please feel free to provide any contradictory information for any of those facts.

Why do you speed, any of you?

It's more dangerous to drive faster.
It's illegal - you may get banned/fined/imprisoned.
It's very bad for the fuel economy.

Agree with all that - I speed generally because I am "time poor" and don't like spending a long time driving.
Speeding saves time. Simple as that I'm afraid.

Any other unquantified "facts" you'd like to present?
Cycling is bad for global warming due to the increased production of CO2 that cyclists create......

See, the thing, is gofasterstripes' facts are actually true.
Whereas yours is nonsense.

(cyclists partake in the existing CO2 cycle - they don't add anything extra to it by breathing. Now if you'd said the extraction of materials, production of bike parts and the CO2 emissions from shipping them from halfway round the world then you'd have done a bit better)

Please feel free to provide any contradictory information for any of those facts.

This one's easy:

It's more dangerous to drive faster.

Try driving at 50 mph on the motorway and see how safe you feel. Repeat at 80 mph and compare.

This one:

It's illegal - you may get banned/fined/imprisoned.

I don't doubt it, but the only time I've been caught speeding, I was doing 40 km/h over, and got told to 'just calm it down a bit' by the friendly Tasmanian copper, who was also late for lunch.

Last one:

It's very bad for the fuel economy.

Define 'very' bad. Worse than not driving smoothly?

Are you all on call or something?

Well, as I said, I was on my way to a wedding.

Bad form to be late (unless you are the bride, which I wasn't)

Its a pretty serious accusation to make that a british tv show is/ was soley responsible for and increase in road traffic accidents in another country. Have you (beyond your posts here) made this public or indeed have the french government made the same accusation?. If any of these accidents were fatal then surly TG and/or the BBC should be held to account and possibly face criminal charges. I dont read french papers and therefore have no idea what was reported and the supporting evidence i assume they have, but id say that if they have not persued this then they are are guilty as the alleged culprits. I've watched TG for years and it does have good and bad shows but i cant ever remember it being proven that it was the cause of an increase of RTA due to a single episode. Just to be clear edukator what you are saying is the due to a single episode of TG there was a provable link to an increase in RTA in France? and that the proof (lets not suggest that media reports are proof because they are not) comes from a reliable source ( lets say something like the French version of the HSE). I dont want graphs of anything fancy just a reliable unbaised source.

I don't doubt it, but the only time I've been caught speeding, I was doing 40 km/h over, and got told to 'just calm it down a bit' by the friendly Tasmanian copper, who was also late for lunch.

> It's more dangerous to drive faster.

Try driving at 50 mph on the motorway and see how safe you feel. Repeat at 80 mph and compare.

Non sequitur.

"It's more dangerous to drive faster" doesn't exclude other forms of dangerous driving.

See, the thing, is gofasterstripes' facts are actually true.
Whereas yours is nonsense.

Nice here is't it got a warning last time

It didn't sound like it was going to end nicely. Any conversation with a policeman who's just pulled you over that starts with "I had trouble catching you" has the chance of going very badly. It was only when we both clocked each other glancing backwards and forwards between my car and his 20 year old troopy that we both smirked slightly and silently agreed that it wasn't too surprising that he had trouble catching anyone in that!

Non sequitur.

"It's more dangerous to drive faster" doesn't exclude other forms of dangerous driving.

They could be driving perfectly lawfully in the inside lane of the M1 at 50 mph. The only dangerous bit would be that they were driving slowly, so no, not a non sequitur.

Conversely, you could quite safely do over a ton on an empty motorway.

Zokes - you are, of course, right that going too slow on the motorway is dangerous. However I was referring to "speeding" - ie breaking the speed limit.

WRT fuel economy - see the previous equation [the drag equation] I posted. See the v^2 - that bad.

Here's a crappy graph that shows the gist of the effect [I cannot vouch for those exact figures, but the trend is correct].

[img] [/img]

This is the same reason you can bike at 10MPh on the flat easily, 20 is still pretty easy, but 30 is NOT as hard again as from 10 to 20. Also the reason the Veyron needs 1000HP to hit 240 or whatever, but an MX5 can hit half of that with 110HP

Drag - it's a real drag.

The smoothly/faster tradeoff is much more complex and I have no idea how you'd calculate it.

EDIT: 100MPh on an empty motorway may be as "safe" as 70 on a fuller one. But your reaction times will still do you less favours if something goes wrong, and there's that V^2 again in
[img] [/img]
so if you stack there's a lot more energy to dissipate.

I guess I'd just like it if we all chilled out a bit with the cars, save the gofasterstripes for the racetrack [see what I did there 😉 ]

I don't doubt that most of you [inc Zokes] are comparitively safe drivers. Take care all.

Cheers
Sammy F

I know about drag, gfs. But, Gently cruising at 65-70 on an NSL road will probably be more efficient than mashing the pedals at 55. i.e. other forms of poor driving may be worse on fuel economy than smoothly driving faster

.

I agree - and am amazed by the loons that hoon betwixt speedbumps and then jump on the anchors - how do they afford it??!

I do a "Clarkson" on Top Gear threads and the reaction of the fans is always the same. Think about it, you're the ones telling me not to take Clarkson seriously. To quote Clarkson from a Frontera test years back "it"s all nonsense of course ... dreamed up by advertising copywriters in blue-tinted spectacles trying to sell you something" (I used the report as teaching material for years). That was before he realised he could make more money being a yob slob gob encouraging the persecution of minorities rather than making pertinent comments about lousy cars.

other forms of poor driving may be worse on fuel economy than smoothly driving faster

Yes, but they aren't exclusive. You can save fuel several ways, keeping the speed down is one.

I'm sure it's been said - but last time I watched Top Gear there was a serious lack of actual car reviews/discussion.

What do I know - we own a Twingo Freeway*!

*In which it is very dangerous to speed as it may very well explode in fire**.

**No wait - that was the Dyane

yob slob gob

The issues most people have with top gear would be solved by using the red button or watching something they like. If you want to blame everything on it can we have gory horror and super violent games back as everything will be top gears fault instead.

I do a "Clarkson" on Top Gear threads and the reaction of the fans is always the same

The Edinburgh defence, French variant?

[img] [/img]

In other news I've had a pot noodle for lunch.

Love the stuff on drag. Its all true of course but completely irrelevant to real life. I get 25% better fuel economy on an 80mph motorway cruise than I do on my daily commute at an average speed of around 15mph. Cars are far more efficient at ahigh speed on uninterrupted runs rather than stop-start traffic which is where most of us spend our time in cars.

I suggest you start a thread about it, keep us all informed.

Going back a long time the BBC used to take its royal charter seriously. The Open University dominated daytime programming, documentaries were informative, Raymond Baxter was their well-informed motoring correspondent and it all had an aspirational feel.

People were encouraged to aspire to being better people and contribute to the good of society. Dramas highlighter prejudice and injustice and showed them to be unacceptable.

The last time I watched the BBC it was a lot of dumbed-down nonsense vaunting greed, opulence, selfishness and bad behaviour. Clarkson epitomises the new-model BBC. The BBC is no longer aspirational unless you aspire to a dog-eat-dog society.

It was going so well until your last paragraph. I'm really not drawing a connection, non-existant statistics notwithstanding, between clarkson and the decline of modern Britain. That's a leap, even for you!

Its all true of course but completely irrelevant to real life.

Don't be daft! It's relevant because, when you are on a long motorway journey, you have the choice of anything between 56mph and about 85mph. You will notice a big difference between those two speeds. Even between 70 and 80 in fact. The Passat will return no more than 52mpg at 80mph, but can get between 60 and 65mpg at 70mph.

The last time I watched the BBC it was a lot of dumbed-down nonsense vaunting greed, opulence, selfishness and bad behaviour

What show was that?

representative of the entire thread, from what i've read, but Stuart Lee was quite good.

Edukator, spot on.

mikewsmith - Member

Clarkson is a fictional character on the BBC, he plays to an audience in very successful way for which he is rewarded.

No he isn't.

Alf Garnett was a fictional character, loved by the very morons Johnny Speight used him to satirise.

Clarkson uses an exaggerated version of his own views and personality to legitimise the kind of selfish, boorish, hateful views held by his fanbase of the pre pubescent and imbecilic.

There is a difference.

350+million viewers worldwide
Biggest single earner for the BBC.

So that's 5% of the world who are selfish, boorish and hateful.

So that's 5% of the world who are selfish, boorish and hateful.

I thought it was just 1%, or so occupy said!

Clarkson uses an exaggerated version of his own views and personality to legitimise the kind of selfish, boorish, hateful views held by his fanbase of the pre pubescent and imbecilic.

LHS - Member

350+million viewers worldwide
Biggest single earner for the BBC.

So that's 5% of the world who are selfish, boorish and hateful.

Ooohh, an absolute minimum, I'd say. 😀

You could eclipse those viewing figures easily if you showed the live castration of child murderers or Katie Price being inseminated by her own horse.
Wouldn't make it right though, would it? 🙂

The last time I watched the BBC it was a lot of dumbed-down nonsense vaunting greed, opulence, selfishness and bad behaviour

Really? Well, I suppose that excellent documentary on rockpools the other night did have some violent barnacle on anemone fight scenes.

They had some coverage of an opera the other day where someone was drinking. Lager louts, eh?

And as for the rubbish on Radio 4? Etc.

The fail is strong in you.

5thElefant - Member

That's the beauty of it. Those that appreciate his humour get it. Those that don't throwing hissy fits just add to the entertainment value.

It's not humour - that's just a slightly caracatured version of what he actually believes. 🙂

350+million viewers worldwide

I was just about to point out that branding hundreds of millions of people from all over the world who you have never met as "imbeciles" or "terminally stupid" just for watching a TV programme does make you out to be a bit of a ****. 💡

You have to love the TG threads, how will we manage now this series has finished? The BBC, aspire, good of society, Ha. Where did you get those rosé tinted lenses from? The 60's and 70's? For my BBC tax I wanted to be entertained not preached at.

It's not humour - that's just a slightly caracatured version of what he actually believes.

What makes you think he doesn't believe it?

sbob - Member

350+million viewers worldwide

I was just about to point out that branding hundreds of millions of people from all over the world who you have never met as "imbeciles" or "terminally stupid" just for watching a TV programme does make you out to be a bit of a ****.

See, I knew the haterz would be along in a minute. Lol.
You lot are so uptight, jeez, get a sense of humour, it's all made up to get a reaction etc, etc............

[s][s]Clarkson is[/s] I'm just a fictional character on [s]the BBC[/s] STW, [s]he[/s] I play[s]s[/s] to an audience in very successful way for which [s]he is[/s] I am not rewarded. When people get worked up it proves [s]he is[/s] I'm getting [s]his[/s] my act right.

Cheer Up
😉

The last time I watched the BBC it was a lot of dumbed-down nonsense vaunting greed, opulence, selfishness and bad behaviour. Clarkson epitomises the new-model BBC. The BBC is no longer aspirational unless you aspire to a dog-eat-dog society.

Without actually being able to question JC directly, who knows what the truth is.
He's clearly no moron if you actually bother to read some of his stuff. How he actually is will go round and round in circles though, as nobody can answer that.

Edukator - Member

One of the episodes you missed must have been the "lads" racing through France on public roads at average speeds over the national speed limit. Brits racing through France immune to speed cameras is a serious safety issue with something like 85% of cars flashed on some radars having foreign plates even though foreign plates are only 5% of the traffic.

So, Top Gear is responsible for accidents in France. Gotcha.

Edukator - Member

The percentage of Brits involved in accidents near the channel ports is possibly worse than the 85% of vehicles flashed. Even for France as a whole foreign vehicles are a quarter of the total flashed. The combination of high speed and driving on the other side of the road mean a lot of holidays end badly.

Damn you Top Gear! 👿

Edukator - Member

It works both ways, a French acquaintance survived a fatal accident near Devil's Bridge in Wales. The driver pulled out from the pub on the wrong side of the road and hit a Land Rover head on.

So Top Gear are now making the French drive dangerously on our roads.
The bastards!

You do talk some right trot, but I suppose at least it can be amusing. 🙂

See, I knew the haterz would be along in a minute. Lol.

Speak English boi! 🙂

(Seriously, your post makes no sense to me.)

bigyinn - Member

Without actually being able to question JC directly, who knows what the truth is.
He's clearly no moron if you actually bother to read some of his stuff. How he actually is will go round and round in circles though, as nobody can answer that.

I've read quite a lot of his stuff, back when I was stupid enough to believe his TV persona was just a facade to expose the moronic.

It's bog standard, right wing reactionary bullshit.
Nothing I've read of his shows the slightest originality or independence of thought.

He's a product of Thatcherism and a certain kind of minor public school.

His appeal to the lowest common demoninator is his true genius.
That and getting people he obviously despises to laugh at him and spend money and time on his products, obviously.

sbob - Member

See, I knew the haterz would be along in a minute. Lol.

Speak English boi!

(Seriously, your post makes no sense to me.)

Er, it means you should give me the same benefit of the doubt you show to your adulterous, right wing, cyclist-hating man crush. 😉

Er, it means you should give me the same benefit of the doubt you show to your adulterous, right wing, cyclist-hating man crush.

You must be mistaking me for somebody who has previously mentioned JC in this thread, or watches TG, or even owns a television. 🙂

sbob - Member

Er, it means you should give me the same benefit of the doubt you show to your adulterous, right wing, cyclist-hating man crush.

You must be mistaking me for somebody who has previously mentioned JC in this thread, or watches TG, or even owns a television.

No need to own a TV to despise Clarkson.
He writes books, so anyone capable of reading can hate him too. 🙂

So - who thinks TG would be better without Clarkson on it?

So - who thinks TG would be better without Clarkson on it?

5th gear fans. All three of them.

Some French tourist driving on the wrong side of the road crashed into one of my crews last year, tipping over the vehicle and injury my staff.

I wonder which French TV programme and presenter is at fault for that as 100% of accidents my crews had last year were caused by French tourists. Not 85% but 100%.

Jeez, there is some reet guff spouted on here...STW at its best!

TG responsible for speeding brits (no other nation speeds in France....you'd never catch an Italian chap enjoying his supercar on the way to Le Man), brits knowing nowt about Le Man's until Top Gear, people vilifyiny speeding as though they've never done it etc.

I quite like Top Gear but admit that it's gone downhill and got a bit samey. They did someone good stuff once - the 24hr race in the 330d was ace, the arctic special was very good. It did used to feel like three mates having a laugh in cars but now feels very forced. The 'characters' are too extreme now.

What really gets me is that all of you who are outraged by it still watch it! If it winds you up that much pick the remote up and change the chanel or turn the TV off! I hate TOWIE, Big Brother, Eastenders along with a lot of other stuff so don't watch it. I know it's a tough concept for some....

As a form of entertainment it works and Fifth Gear are introducing challenges and much more track based mucking about with Tif banging on about power. No one gets upset when VBH is filmed tootling along a country lane in an RS4...

Maybe Fifth Gear encouraged speeding too...

5th gear fans. All three of them

I was going to make some cheap quip about one of those fans being Vicki Butler Henderson mum.

But whilst googling the first thing that popped up on the search suggestion auto fill jobby was "vicki butler Henderson feet"
http://www.wikifeet.com/Vicki_Butler-Henderson

Piemonster, Rule 34, I believe.

So - who thinks TV would be better without TG on it?

FTFY 😉

No one gets upset when VBH is filmed tootling along a country lane in an RS4...

No, of course not.

If she starts making 'jokes' about shooting motorcyclists in the face, this might change.

I like cars.
I just can't stand TG.

Just watching it now on Sky+, was out last night. Normally I fast forward the Star in a Car bit as the weakest part of the programme but this one with Mark Webber is very good, I like Webber.

The bus segment was very funny too. 🙂

The bus segment was very funny too.

female pillocks watch hollyoaks, male pillocks watch top gear.. it's just a fact of life