Hmm never thought this

[FrankM83]

Just wathcin on Youtube feature of top gear about British leyland pt1,pt2.pt3 and pt4 it's amazing the tricks they made to make British car industry look so cheap! It's so sad to see that dolomite being treated like that thought these were good cars!

[MoggyTech]

Well if you watch episodes when they have to do some maintenance, you will soon realise that driving skills aside, May Clarkson and Hammond are really just three useless twots. They drive £200,000 super cars like they have a death wish, with little or no menton of insurance/running costs, or speed limits. The program has grown into a bizarre freek show.

The British Car Industry produced some great cars, including the SD1 Dolomite and Princess. The Aston Marting DB range proves what the industry can really achieve. A mechanic friend has a DB5, and it has never broken down once!

[sii803]

The program has grown into a bizarre freek show.

That's exactly why i love it

[FrankM83]

very true MT they have tendency to destroy good cars just because they're a little old and maybe where not the greatest cars produced, especially when they refer to the Marina I don't know your thoughts about this car but over here in Malta the Marina is still plentiful and has outlived many other cars of the 80s like Ladas, Fiats etc

[Orkney]

May Clarkson and Hammond are really just three useless twots

Could not have been said better without using a swear word

[dunketh]

I think Hammond actually has some genuine affection for older stuff, as does May. Clarkson is the only 'useless' one in those terms.
I was gutted to see the sprint get such a hard time - and how it didn't storm around that track to victory I'll never know.

But, I still love the show. I watch it for the banter between the three of them and the ludicrous stuff they do.
I dont think its even intended as a proper motoring show anymore, more a televised 'lads mag'.

[RogerRust]

Well what a surprise! On balance, all things being considered, looked at it from all angles. This limited survey indicates that 4 out of 5 Morris owners don't like Clarkson! I wonder what response we would get from Caravan Club members?

[alex_holden]

I think Clarkson can be a bit of a prat sometimes but the programme is very entertaining, especially the road trips they do (like the one where they drove three bangers across America).

[moggiemadman]

I do like top gear,I find it entertaining,Such as there challanges,But Apart from that,Thats about all really lol.

Cheers
John

[chickenjohn]

Top gear is not to be taken seriously. It was obvious that the three BL cars were knackered and the Japanese car looked to be fully restored/ refurbed, hence the better performance.

They should have compared like with like to get a fair comparison.

[ndevans]

My main argument against Clarkson is that he panned the Nissan Bluebird when it came out. Not exactly a sexy car, a bit plastic inside, boxy on the outside, but 22 years on and with 180000 miles on the clock it is still going strong & still capable of 44mpg. Facts speak for themselves.

He also did that Britains' Greatest thing about Brunel. Now IKB was a great engineer, yes, but he was the son of Sir Marc Brunel who was a wealthy man, he had a good education and lots of connections in the right places. Brunel was a flamboyant, big thinker, a showman, maybe the Branson of his day.

For me, George Stephenson towers above IKB. Little or no formal education, self taught, a miner, he laid down the principles on which railways and steam locomotives were built around the world, a legacy that lasts to this day.

My point is that Clarkson is easily seduced by the flashy, the sexy, the eyecatching, and often totally fails to see and appreciate that which is practical, real-world, workmanlike. So if he wants to be a pr@tt in a 200k wagon with the speedo at stupid o'clock then let him be. Personally I just ignore him.

Rant over

[Packedup]

Top gear is not to be taken seriously. It was obvious that the three BL cars were knackered and the Japanese car looked to be fully restored/ refurbed, hence the better performance.

They should have compared like with like to get a fair comparison.

If comments on other forums are to be believed, the Sprint was certainly not knackered at the time it was sold to the dullards of Top Gear...

It's quite clear the cars (and not just the BL ones, but the many various "challenges" shows) are doctored for "good TV" rather than to maintain any semblance of reality. The writers clearly start with an agenda that will appeal to the ignorant masses (lets face it, the majority of viewers aren't going to know a Dolomite from an Alpina, and don't care either) and then work out how to mangle/ polish the machinery they can get their hands on to achieve the results.

Ignoring my personal distaste at the willful destruction of classic cars (and the way they are obtained, allegedly) I'm still disgusted by the fact Top Gear managed to win an award for factual programming. The only verifiable facts I can find in the whole show are the credits.

[chickenjohn]

Which forums?? Links, please. I seem to remember the BL cars looked in far worse condition and the engines sounded worse than the Datsun. Hence the result.

[Packedup]

First and easiest http://www.austin-rover.co.uk/cgi-bin/f ... hp?t=11817

There was a thread on the TDC (Triumph Dolomite Club) which I'm sure had mostly the same source info. And I recall reading various threads elsewhere at the time, but it was a while ago so I can't remember specifics and don't much fancy trawling through Google to try and dig up mostly forgotten months old car gossip!

I never searched out any info on that cheapo supercar edition they did, but if you remember Clarkson's car allegedly had had an expensive rebuild, and was "shockingly" down on power before throwing bits of crankcase over the road. Now, I know some expensive specialists are cowboys (you only have to read through this forum to see how people have been ripped off at times), but I know a great many are certainly not. So was it coincidence that the car died on the day of filming after years of service, or was there a fib involving either the tale of rebuild or the nature of the failure?

Watching the old episodes on Dave with a more cynical eye there's signs that there's never really been much emphasis on truth, but certainly the more recent series have seemed to give up on having any acquaintance with it at all.

[bigginger]

See also the Practical Classics forum, the Retro Rides forum and many others. There's tons of stuff about this if you look
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[chickenjohn]

Thanks, I'll have a look. I just thought they rigged the contest by using a fully working example of the Japanese car and three knackered BL cars. Was that not the case?

I don't frequent BL forums, not being a fan of BL cars myself.

[Packedup]

I'd say the BL cars were on the knackered side - The question is, were they knackered before Top Gear got hold of them though..? And in what way were they knackered? An HT lead that "falls off" here, a quick turn of a mixture nut there, and you've got quite a poorly power output. From what I read that seems more the case than the cars actually being in fine fettle and being driven in such a way as to rig the outcome.

How can you say you're not a fan of BL cars!? The evil empire was in control as the last of the Minors rolled off the line ;)

[chickenjohn]

I say that because I consider the Minor to be the last decent mass market British car. Which year was BL in control?
Convertible is a 68
Traveller a 69
my 4-Door a 1970 (is his a BL car?)

[chickenjohn]

"British Leyland
In 1968, in further rationalisations of the British motor industry, BMC became part of the newly-formed British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), and subsequently, in 1975, the nationalised British Leyland Limited (BL).

The Morris marque continued to be used until the early 1980s on cars such as the Morris Marina. The Morris Ital (essentially a facelifted Marina) was the last Morris-badged passenger car, with production ending in the summer of 1984. The last Morris of all was a van variant of the Austin Metro."

OK, all my cars were BL! Technically, but in reality I expect it took a few years for the BL rot to set in, so spiritually, they were still Morris.

[bigginger]

'Spiritually' or no, they were a Morris design carrying a Morris badge. Just like the Austin badged LCVs they were a Morris product. What on earth does it matter? Do you seriously hate everything that Leyland produced? Seems a curious view to me
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