Series 19 Episode 4

[lymaze]

Discuss.

[inky]

I really enjoyed tonights episode. Reviews of fairly normal, everyday cars, mad car rugby and Lewis showing the other F1 drivers how to get round the track :-) The C apostrophe D looks like a decent little motor too ;D

[Wyvern]

Very silly, lots of fun and a very thorough road test of the Cee'd - it's not often cars get road-tested to destruction, and it was a great way of showing how tough those cars actually are, given that the guys could pretty much t-bone each other and keep going.

And to be honest, the pitch didn't look much worse than it does after any other wet match

[amie8]

I try never to review the show, but suffice to say I enjoyed that. Jeremy's "sensible" car tests are becoming a bit of a highlight and nice to see they've got the clout to persuade various Hollywood actors and A List musicians to look daft on their behalf

[adrianmay]

I'll just cut to the chase. Best episode in a long time. Enjoyed every segment. Please more like this.

[TheDaisy]

Any episode that has Eric Clapton and Bruce Willis in it gets a 10 from me ;D

[Vivienne]

Very enjoyable episode. I couldn't believe Eric Clapton was playing his guitar plugged into the car. I thought something idiotic would happen. Bruce Willis all bloody and Matt LeBlanc. I liked Richard's mask of Jeremy in Mexico. The episodes just fly by for me. I'm not bored at all. Yes Jeremy I do know about Rugby. My best friend's husband played in college in NM. Every game there was a new wound and lots of dripping blood. Cars is a better idea.

[jacqui]

I really enjoyed this episode, best so far in my opinion ;D I would pay money to play car rugby, especially with the boyz ;D More of that please

[Flying Lady]

Finally got a chance to sit down and watch the episode. Loved the bit during the News segment when they were all discussing their teenaged attempts to impress girls via handbrake-action. Hammond's story was particularly endearing. I used to hoon around with a boy who pulled stunts like that. And lo, they regularly failed to get him laid.

Then again, I used to try to impress boys by squealing the tires on my Volkswagen Type 1, and all that ever did was make them think I was mental. And possibly interested in other girls.

[Wyvern]

I tried it in a mate's 2CV once. The less said...

Then again, there was the time I was learning to drive (actually a considerably number of years after the 2CV incident - god, we used to trash that thing around the car parks of Torbay) and there was a tight junction at the top of a nasty hill and I used to handbrake around it without really thinking about it. One day my instructor looked at me in horror and said "If you do that on your test, we'll both be in trouble," but she couldn't fault my logic when I turned to her and said "Well, it works, doesn't it?"

[amie8]

Don't 2CVs have a handbrake that pulls out from under the dash?

[Wyvern]

Feb 19, 2013 23:27:11 GMT amie8 said:

Don't 2CVs have a handbrake that pulls out from under the dash?

I can't remember now, but would explain why it ended up going badly (I've checked - it does. It's amazing how you think anything's possible when you're 17 and stupid ).The gearstick definitely pulled in and out of the dash though. I just could not get the hang of the bloody thing. That was how I got stuck in reverse and ended up driving it backwards in circles around our favourite car park. The moral of this story is that a 2CV is both a good and bad choice for teenage hooning around in... because basically, you can't.

[ladylurker]

Well, hooning might be difficult, but it certainly lends itself to silliness! ;D We were once 9 persons in a 2CV. No. 9 was very tall and skinny, and had to stick his head and torso up through the open roof. Very practical, because this meant he could jump out and walk alongside when we went uphill, and we didn't even have to stop and open the doors for him to get out. *)

I liked this episode, except the rugby was a bit too long, Richards Mexican segment was a bit silly (but not as much as i feared) and there was not enough James.

*) This sounds ridiculously hasardous, but 1) we were in a very low-speed residential area 2) there was hardly any traffic and 3) with 9 passengers the car hardly managed more than a walking speed ...

[Flying Lady]

We got 13 into my Volkswagen once. And one of them was also tall & skinny too (6'4") But we made up for him with twin sisters who were 4'10" each. We had people stacked three deep across the back seat. Like your experience of the 2CV, we were barely above a walking speed.

You had the advantage of comfort and practicality with the sliding roof.

[ladylurker]

We did! Couldn't have done it with the roof closed, that's for sure. Another advantage: We didn't die from suffocation when the considerate tall guy left us a little "gift" before jumping off ...

(What kind of Volkswagen was it? Important info in this kind of situation, but impressive no matter what. ;D)

[Flying Lady]

Oh, it's a 1959 Type 1 (a proper Beetle). Despite all of the horrible things I did to it in my foolish youth, it's still among us, though battered and rusty. I'm having the rust repaired this summer, though, and will get it re-painted. Right now, you can see daylight through one of the wheel-wells where the fender bolts on.

This is how it looked back in the days when we wedged 13 students into it.



And here is its current sad, disgraceful state:


I had to get the fenders off to determine how bad the body rust was. It's bad.


This is a helpful illustration I made after I got the fenders off and surveyed the damage.

[ladylurker]

I don't care what Top Gear says, a proper, old Beetle in good shape is a lovely, lovely car! Seeing some of the older ones all polished and blinking in the sun can make me almost misty-eyed. Yours seems to have been through a lot, but some of these older, rather basic cars are really hard to kill, aren't they? I hope you'll treat us to pictures of the finished result.

13 in a Beetle, that's very impressive.

(Edit: Oh dear, we seem to have gone rather off-topic ... Sorry about that! ;D)

[Flying Lady]

I feel free to enjoy Top Gear and disagree vigorously with them all at the same time.

Like when they rubbish the Honda Jazz/Fit. Or mock the 2CV and the Beetle. Or maintain that you can't be a proper petrolhead if you've never owned an Alfa Romeo. It's all part of the bombast and hyperbole that makes Top Gear work.

[amie8]

Couldn't agree with you more about the original Beetle. Brilliant cars. I had two of them and I could also see the road from inside one of them.

Solved the problem by putting a bit of carpet over the hole

[ladylurker]

The sound of a Beetle is probably the only car sound I actually remember from my childhood. My friends' mum had a bright orange one.

Oh, I also remember the engine sound of my neighbours huge, old American van. That was noisy. ;D As children we were sometimes driven around in it sitting on upturned soda crates in the back. Oh, the carefree early 80's ... A wonder we survived.

[FizzyLogician]

I thought this was a very good episode. I also couldn't believe Eric Clapton and Bruce Willis were in it. My only real complaint is that there wasn't enough James.

And oh yeah, I once got 11 people in a Ford Pinto hatchback.

[Vivienne]

I used to have one in 1975. It was blue and had a sun roof. Too bad they were bombs waiting to explode. 11 people..............mmmmm little people?

[FizzyLogician]

Mar 5, 2013 17:30:48 GMT Vivienne said:

I used to have one in 1975. It was blue and had a sun roof. Too bad they were bombs waiting to explode. 11 people..............mmmmm little people?

Teenaged girls, mostly medium. No sunroof.