Feel free to read that headline as many times as necessary, but yes, it's true: Clarkson-san wrote "Out of nowhere, my car of the year," the Corvette ZR1. The man who pooped on the spearhead of electric cars has given an American high horsepower pushrod V8 the gold and glory. And this is after comparing the ZR1's predecessors to Big Macs: "Cheap, plastic and at the right time, and in the right place, sort of just what you want." Not only that, but to put the ZR1 on its pedestal, Clarkson went so far as to remove the Caterham 500 he had previously placed there. On the show, he said that the Caterham was the best of the year, but in his article writes, "However, if you broaden the search engine and look simply for the best car of the year, the Caterham isn't in with a shout because it's ugly and geeky and I wouldn't have one even if the option was the loss of my right testicle." And so the ZR1 reigns, even though "it's not built very well." In Clarkson's words, it is "both docile and extraordinarily savage," looks good, goes fast in a straight line and around corners, "most of the time bumbles about like a forgetful uncle," and costs "lots for a Corvette" but is a bargain for the performance. His only lament about the car was this: "unless the healthcare and pensions company that makes it can be turned around, it will be the last of the breed." The ZR1 - winning hearts and minds...
The Top Gear team is going global. Location shoots are planned to take the British trio all over the planet, starting with Vietnam. Clarkson, May, and Hammond loved the idea when they were plotting it in the pub, but they didn't actually plan for the fact that Nam doesn't have adequate roads... or very many cars. That made the idea of finding a £600 vehicle and racing it across the country a non-starter, but that doesn't mean the crew couldn't come up with an adventure worthy of Top billing. James May didn't want to give too many details of the Vietnam show during his interview with the Daily Mail, but he did provide enough of a tease to make us want to watch. The program will include the bike-loathing Clarkson on two wheels, and there's even footage of the Top Gear star strapped to a third world Ski-Doo (pictured above). The Vietnam show will be followed next year with trips to Hong Kong, Johannesburg and Sydney. Since there is a 21-year waiting list to see the Top Gear crew do their thing in-studio, these exotic locations may be the best chance anyone has to see the popular show in-person.
Extending the controversy between Tesla Motors and Top Gear even further, Jeremy Clarkson has offered his own opinion regarding the issues of the Roadster's battery capacity and brake failure while being run 'round the Top Gear test track. Remember that the BBC already admitted that neither of its test cars actually ran out of juice, suggesting that the scene was filmed to show what would happen if it actually had. Clarkson's comments don't quite jive with that assessment, though, as he says, "We never said once that the car had run out of power. The car had to be pushed into the warehouse because you are not allowed to drive cars into a building. We calculated that it would have run out of power after 53 miles but they can't argue with that because that is a fact." One area on which we agree with Clarkson is that it doesn't matter why the Roadster's brakes failed. Clarkson says, "Nobody gives a flying **** how the brakes failed. Whether it was a blown fuse or not, they were still not working." On the other hand, whether the now infamous scene of the electric car being pushed into a garage was to show what would happen in the event of a drained battery or because Clarkson wasn't allowed to drive it into the building (seriously, when did that ever stop them?), that image is now indelibly etched into the minds of Top Gear fans, for better or for worse.
We've been following the roller-coaster ride that Top Gear's recent test of the Tesla Roadster has turned into with interest. Since Clarkson's video review first aired, reactions to the way the Tesla was presented have been mixed, and much of the debate has centered on one particular scene where the Top Gear crew can be seen pushing one of their Tesla test-cars into the garage after apparently running out of juice... except that it never happened. The BBC has released a statement admitting that Clarkson's tester still had power left and the scene was filmed to show what would happen if the battery had actually been depleted. Regardless, "Top Gear stands by the findings in this film and is content that it offers a fair representation of the Tesla's performance on the day it was tested." So far, we've heard no word on whether offering "a fair representation" includes future reviews of petrol-powered cars that include scenes of each one being pushed into the garage after not running out of gas. more ...
Anyone who's been watching the original Top Gear knows it took a bit of switcheroo to get the chemistry right before things really took off (James May replaced the rotundish Jason Dawe after Series 1 of the current show concluded), and TG Australia is no different. Charlie Cox (the bloke on the left) is reportedly leaving the young show due to commitments in Britain, and word is that he will be replaced by Australian jazz trumpeter James Morrison.
Thankfully, Morrison not only arrives with an instrument, he comes with a revhead pedigree: He hosted a show in the '90s called Behind the Wheel, and he currently holds the quickest time for the Star in a Bog Standard Car on TG Australia. After some ups and downs during the first season, perhaps now the show has a shot at making some real music.
Tesla Motors is crying foul on a few of the claims made by Jeremy Clarkson in his recent review of the electric Roadster. You might recall that Clarkson ran out of juice while flinging the slinky Lotus-derived Tesla around the Top Gear test track. This was the main point driven home by the TG crew as to why electric vehicles are not yet ready for prime-time. Not so fast, says Rachel Konrad, Senior Communications Manager at Tesla Motors. Clarkson's Roadster still had 20% battery capacity left when it was pushed into a nearby hanger. Why the deception? We can't imagine Clarkson ever calling an end to his tail-out fun just because the gas power gauge reads a quarter-tank.
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Jeremy Clarkson finally got his chance to thrash a Tesla Roadster on the Top Gear test track during the most recent episode and things definitely went better than his time with the G-Wiz. Clarkson pitted the Tesla against its chassis progenitor, the Lotus Elise and the results were... mixed. The Roadster, with the new drivetrain 1.5 featuring the final version of the single speed gearbox and torquier motor, ran away from the Elise in a drag race. However, when it came to going around corners, the extra 1,000 lbs of lithium ion batteries didn't help. As good as the Tesla handles, weight is always the enemy and the Lotus easily beat the Roadster around the corners. On the straights though, the electric torque won the day, for a while anyway.
As we all know, the range of electric cars depends on driving style and the EPA cycle doesn't evaluate a car like the Roadster the way it's meant to be driven. When we tested the Roadster last January, we estimated the range on our drive to be about 120-130 miles. Clarkson managed to exceed the G-Wiz's 40 mile range, but not by much. He got a mere 55 miles before the battery was flat.
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We can see it now: The Clarkson defense. An Australian man, mistaking the TV show Top Gear for proper driver training and experience, got his 4x4 into an oscillating mess while pulling a trailer and crashed. (Image above is of an art installation outside Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, not the actual accident. Just thought we should clear that up.) The accident unfortunately claimed the life of the man's 85-year-old passenger, and while it's been deemed an accidental death, Richard Browne's justification for his actions is a head-scratcher. "Top Gear... always say to put the accelerator down and get out of it, the worst thing you can do is brake," Browne explained, missing the point that driving dynamics and techniques are rather different when towing. After all, a vehicle that's being wagged by its trailer is an altogether different animal than hanging the tail out when exiting a fast sweeper. Apparently, however, stupid is universal.
We've been watching Top Gear for quite a while now, and for our money, no one on this planet mixes cars, TV and entertainment better than the blokes from the Beeb. Having said that, the Brits may have outdone themselves this time, and with a car few would have chosen as the most likely candidate. Top Gear superstar Jeremy Clarkson was tasked with giving a thorough, exhaustive review of the all new 2009 Ford Fiesta. The affable Clarkson takes the Fiesta through the usual paces on the open road and at the track, and then he gets creative. We don't want to ruin it for you, so check out the ten-minute super review after the jump. If we haven't given you enough reason to click through, Clarkson does get chased by a black Vette inside a British mall, and he finishes by taking a beachhead in a Fiesta full of Royal Marines while under heavy gunfire. Oh, and smoke grenades fit in the Fiesta's cup holders. Impressive stuff, indeed.
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It's the battle of the big chins! (Who are we kidding, Leno would win that fight against anyone.) Two gentlemen who stand as giants in automotive culture have finally weighed in with their opinions on whether or not the Detroit 3 should be rescued by the U.S. government. Jay Leno is all for it, citing the loss of this country's manufacturing infrastructure as the most compelling reason to save the automakers. He also cites a number of points that have been mentioned here and elsewhere, including the disparity between helping white collar workers on Wall St. while hanging blue collar workers on auto assembly production lines out to dry, the huge number of suppliers and businesses that depend on U.S. automakers, and the fact that domestic products have become competitive with the world's best in the last few years and it would be a shame to "get so close to the finish line and not win the race."
Jeremy Clarkson, on the other hand, disagrees. Though the top host of Top Gear says that we may be encountering the "end of days" for the auto industry, he fears the repercussions of letting another industry off the hook. Clarkson claims that he's against state intervention while at the same time acknowledges the immensity of Ford and GM (he calls Chrysler "two bit") and the number of people who depend on them for employment. Despite the ramifications of letting the Detroit 3 slip into oblivion, he leaves us with, "Where does it end?" We'll find out soon enough.
