Be Excellent To Each Other

*impotently shakes gnarled walking stick at Trooper*



Thank fook for that, you've stepped away from the Abyss.

I agree: the Miura is indeed the most beautiful car ever made - automotive porn:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h ... CE0Q9QEwAg

I'd almost be tempted to spoiler that link with 'NSFW'. UTTER FILTH.

I preferred the Toyota 2000GT, although it was a complete E-type rip-off, granted.

That looks nice, until the headlights pop up and then:

Aw, he looks so sad.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h ... CB0Q9QEwAA

Anyone got any tissues?

I still think the 240z is a lovely looking car.

Most beautiful car ever made?
If we allow racing cars, I think it's the Maserati 250F:


If not, then I think I'm going to go for a TR4A.

Yeah, I love the 240Z as well, before it started getting all fat and horrible, once the joyless, killjoy safety and eco-dicks got hold of it (280Z etc.; E-Type suffered the same fate). It's one of the few Jap cars that I really love, as opposed to simply respect.

* posts pics of the Pontiac Aztek and Fiat Multipla just to spoil the party *

That's just fantastic isn't it? Can you imagine ranting cars like this under full bore race conditions... the guys who did this were true heroes IMO, not like today's very impressive, but for me ultimately annoying, prissy F1 drivers and their cars; the tech has moved on so much, obviously, but all the romance and derring-do of old is long gone. (But then, I am proper Old School lol).

I bet the sound of it alone is enough to rise the hairs at the back of the neck.



I love it too mate, though I'm more of a TR5 man? Lovely, lovely car, but I wouldn't call it beautiful in a classic sense, not like the shapely, almost pornographic Miura and Daytona. But hey, that's just my take on it.

The '60s and early '70s really were a golden age.

I think that a lot of modern cars are equally as beautiful. As much as I like the new jag thing and think it beautiful I'm not keen on retro-rehashes. It's just a bit...lame.

Quite well, actually
I used to help look after one for a very rich chap who took it (and a lot of other things) racing, and (after getting over the pain of the start as he bounced it off the rev limiter and dropped the clutch) they are fantastic things to see running.


And the smell when it fires up is fantastic.

Sorry, this is the opposite of nice looking cars, but I saw a Lamborghini Countach (I think, it was cheap and 80s looking) trying to go down Ivybridge highstreet with it's speed bumps...

Everytime it went over one, the front bumped on the ground making an audible thud..

It looked plastic and was bright blue! The driver was turning heads, but for all the wrong reasons.

Malc

Oh man, I am so jealous mate - fantastic stuff.
Mind you, I take it that this guy wasn't mechanically sympathetic though - dumping the clutch on a cold, priceless, irreplaceable, ~60 year old engine bouncing off the rev limiter...?



I can only imagine mate; a fine Summer's day and the smell of racing engines... ah, the stuff of dreams. Synthetic 2-stroke oil smoke does the same for me; only last month I was sniffing the air with a tear in my eye at Oulton as the 125 racing 'strokers screamed noisily past, deep into their incredibly narrow powerbands, doing 150mph. People looked at me as though I were mad... they don't understand.

I don't like those type of racing cars, they're all just uninteresting-looking tubes with wheels sticking out the sides. Maybe it's because they aren't the ones I grew up with or because I've never seen one for real but they've never done anything for me.

Well if you insist on falling asleep in the day room acting out these fantasies it's no wonder.

You swine!

That's it, it really is.
I am going to have to come to a Beex meet at some point, just to prove that I am not some toothless old git in a zimmer frame! Hmmph, I'll show you lot; I've still got what it takes and have plenty of lead left in my pencil, thank you very much!

Hey, each to his own mate. These things hark from the '20s and '30s, so I think it's fair to say none of us grew up with them; it's just a case of whether they do it for you, or not.

Personally I think they are fantastic beasts and the men who raced them must have had hearts of lions.

I think they were fucking nuts myself, what with the numbers of deaths. Climbing into a Spitfire facing death to defend the country is one thing, climbing into a car facing the same odds for kicks and glory is just demented, I like that people like that exist, though.

Campbell in the Bluebird. Fucking mental. Hero with no reason to be. Rightly lauded.

Well, that's what it was built to do. Sure, he could have slipped it a little and used lower revs, but then he might not have won. If you're going to drive it, you might as well drive it.


* It wouldn't have been cold, it would have had to do a lap to come out of the pits and get to the grid, and it would have been well warmed up before he got in it.

Wasn't Noel Edmunds going to have a crack at that? I'm sure I remember seeing pictures of his boat and everything.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1992-04-01 ... nwright/3/

Wow. I'd love to have seen that.

Chinny?

Top Gear has started again, good TV fans.

S20E01 was funny "But in a hire car? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees. Because it's not yours!" and had Rachel Riley in, who is loveliness refined.

And, unless I'm mistaken (and not counting the montage at the start) there were no supercars on the show at all.

Pistonheads went a bit nuts about how crap the episode was, but I thoroughly enjoyed it

Did you know Rachel Riley is presenting The Gadget Show now?

Huh. So it has. Seems odd, there's normally trailers for weeks before each new series. Shall watch at lunch, ta Grim...

I enjoyed it very much.

Probably the previously-mentioned lack of supercars.


Yes, yes I did. And I like her clothing choices far more on that than Countdown

I went off Top Gear a few years ago. Has it got any better?

No.

Me too. Clarkson being a numpty, May being abused, the only type of Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment I watch, a hot hatch roundup - proving my original choice correct, no less! - and not much of Hammond.

Of course, hiring a car in Italy in September is going to cost a fucking fortune now. More of one.

This is a photo from an upcoming feature:



So, you can see an amphibious vehicle, the Red Bull F1 car, some ride-on lawn mowers, and the (fantastically beautiful) Eagle E-Type on the left.

WTFF?

I'm assuming it is "made in britain" stuff, rather than british manufacturers.

Last Sundays episode was a mixed bag. The Mono was great, the taxi segment was shit, the SIARPC was ok-ish, the free running bit was fucking awful and the Ferrari was great.

The taxi bit was a sad reminder of how great the "lets race daft stuff" segment used to be, before they put in loads of scripted cobblers. Fair microcosm of the show, there.

It was always scripted, just not as daft.

I loved the free-running bit - that trials rider was immense.

I should have said "obviously scripted". The races weren't, though - the bit with the rolling Merc was just stupid and they never used to do stuff like that in the "solve stuff with racing".

It made no sense whatsoever. And I saw Dougie Lampkin on telly many times in actual trials competitions which is far more impressive to watch.

Ummm..... See at the end of the show there, after they had done all the usual good bits but had broken them with nonsense, and Jeremy was driving that Ferrari about on very good roads... I could have sworn he kept saying he was in Hertfordshire when actually, he was driving around in my home town of pitlochry, central Scotland. This is evidenced by a) the fact that it was pitlochry. B) the Edinburgh woolen mill shop that has "pitlochry" printed in huge writing on the sign and c) the tennis court he was in is in the grounds of the atholl palace. In pitlochry. What the hell am I missing here?

I believe he was joking

Big stompy boots then, I think I'm too bitter about the way its gone to get the subtle stuff, ah well time to stop watching.

I like Pitlochry. It has some nice restaurants.

Yon Greek/Turkish yin is right gid.

Really enjoyed it this week

I watched the 2nd ep on iPlayer on Saturday because the BBC are daft and only keep things up til the next episode is broadcast. Sundays I'll watch next Saturday because I'm on my way to Germany for the week (as is a japanese colleague so ive made it my goal for the week to get him pissed in a third country) and there's no winpho7.5 player. One stupid rule and one technical hole but generally fuxking brilliant that it exists.

Wow, just ("watched" - Ed) the last one, top stuff! The caravanning segment was hilarious, up there with Clarkson's test of that three-wheeler a while back.

Gnngh.
I thought the caravan thing was very funny in places (if wasteful), but it's all been done before umpteen times, and TG is just so frustrating in other ways.

I mean, why would they not put that beautiful Singer (and the new 911 S they had) round the track, for the same of missing perhaps a minute or two of yet more caravan smashing up nonsense (or SIARPC tedium for that matter)?

I'm sure Clarkson's "Porsche are crap engineers" was just another example of his rather crass polemic, but James May's "I don't care about [electric] steering" comment, on a sports car which, above all else, is (was) known for its feedback-rich, feelsome steering, for the sake of saving a thimble of fuel every 100 miles or so, truly was clueless and belies his own complete lack of understanding. He should stick to presenting stuff about lego and train sets.

Top Gear is just so annoying for me, on so many levels. It would be perfectly possible to have a show that's every bit as entertaining (if not much more so), and still keep petrolheads like me a good deal happier too? It's pretty much a programme for kids these days.

Maybe they asked Singer and they said "no"?

I'm impressed that you think that James May - easily the most knowledgeable of the three (and owner of three Porsches, two of which are 911s) - is clueless and has a complete lack of understanding.

Yeah, believe it or not, they can't just put cars that they don't own around the track. Half the point of the Stig is that when the car companies insist on their own drivers, (which I'd imagine would be quite common for the really expensive cars) they just put them in the overalls and helmet

I really enjoyed that episode.

The 911 S was meh.
The Singer was lovely.
The Aventador was meh.
The sixth element was awesome.
SIARPC was ok
Caravaning was actually funny for once, and they managed to do it without all the scripted "spontaneity"