RANT:Top Gear

[Mohawk Freak]

Please excuse my seething indignation, but what the fuck is up with these shows now where they rip the shit out of old cars?
First we had that self absorbed pretty boy Jesse James tear up a rust free California hearse and run it into a shredder.
Bert and Ernie on Mythbusters have defiled a few also.
Now we have these 3 dickless idiots filling a 71 Cutlass with water and smashing it to hell. I'd have driven a bulldozer over the wine and cheese Italian sports cars they jerked off on a couple weeks ago before I trashed the choice old Coupe De Ville they did.
Fuck these hybrid worshipping poindexters.
I feel better now, thank you.

[hotroddwayne]

Agreed. The British version of this show is excellent, hilarious, & well established on BBC, but this new American version is just annoying.
This is my favorite BBC episode:

[Mohawk Freak]

That's more like it, tear up some little dorkmobile. Those 3 would probably take that car and put a bubble over it like it was their wet dream.

[mr x]

I agree , it sucks watching a nice classic get destroyed for a tv show. I also got pisst of at the jesse james one.

[Mohawk Freak]

That one got my nuts in a twist worse than any of them. Hey Jeff, I got that hood trim waiting for you whenever we can get together. It will be there when things slow down.

[mr x]

thanks man, i got your casket end reserved for ya to .

[Psychoholic]

I actually like the new one - to me it's like the difference between American Dad and Family Guy, if you are looking for them to be the same show then you will be disappointed, but if you view them as separate creations they are awesome.

As far as the damage done to the cars on the show - I learned a very valuable lesson when working at a Mustang parts salvage yard: "You can't save them all". How many hearses have found their way to demolition derby cars or have gone on to be parade vehicles for those Shriner bastards? 71 Cutlass with a 350 in it? I hate to see any old iron get abused then junked, but not really a big loss to the world. I notice nobody is bitching about the Fiero or the Roadmaster getting thrashed - people can argue that they aren't as rare or as desired but give them 30 years and someone will think they are cool and will have the same rant. That Coupe DeVille they trashed was a piece of shit and other than the motor wasn't really worth saving. As far as the wine and cheese Italian sports cars are concerned - Elvis would have had to have owned that CDV and died in it for it to be worth half of what any of those Lambos are worth now or will be worth in 20 years.

The point they were trying to make was valid - GM needs to quit watering down cars with actual heritage and bring back something with some substance to it. Personally I love old wagons, I think they are cool as shit. Give me a Vista cruiser and we'll roll out with 10 people in it. The new Malibu is a joke, killing off the Oldsmobile brand, Hummer, Saturn and Pontiac - probably going to whack off Buick next since the only people buying them are old folks and they will die off or pick up a nicer European car for the same price point - I think GM is making terrible decisions and is trying to dictate to the market what people want instead of the market showing them what they need to be making. What do they have in their performance arsenal right now? Vette of course, Camaro, what else? CTS-V at $70k?

[Creepy Cruiser]

I actually like the new one - to me it's like the difference between American Dad and Family Guy, if you are looking for them to be the same show then you will be disappointed, but if you view them as separate creations they are awesome.

As far as the damage done to the cars on the show - I learned a very valuable lesson when working at a Mustang parts salvage yard: "You can't save them all". How many hearses have found their way to demolition derby cars or have gone on to be parade vehicles for those Shriner bastards? 71 Cutlass with a 350 in it? I hate to see any old iron get abused then junked, but not really a big loss to the world. I notice nobody is bitching about the Fiero or the Roadmaster getting thrashed - people can argue that they aren't as rare or as desired but give them 30 years and someone will think they are cool and will have the same rant. That Coupe DeVille they trashed was a piece of shit and other than the motor wasn't really worth saving. As far as the wine and cheese Italian sports cars are concerned - Elvis would have had to have owned that CDV and died in it for it to be worth half of what any of those Lambos are worth now or will be worth in 20 years.

Thank you, I agree.

I like the new show for what it is, not for what it should be. I think that over time, all the very scripted feel will go away, and it will flow much like the show should. They'll just have to work together long enough, to know how feed off each other without it sounding like they are reading it off cue cards, lol.

[Mohawk Freak]

It does come down to how you look at it, like everything does I guess. Up here where cars without major body rot are a valuable commodity it's looked at as a foolish act to ruin a solid car that is a desireable model. Guys go through major heroics welding old cars back together. My hearse is a good example. If they'd have pulled some old rust buckets with Flintstone floors out there it wouldn't have seemed so offensive to me. It isn't so much the cash value of the cars, Christ my hearse isn't worth a fuck to anyone but me. It's having some respect for the heritage they represent.

[v8nightmare]

Those cars will get destroyed by dumb-shits eventually, I guess It might as well be by dumb-shits on tv for my entertainment... I mean as much as it sucked it was pretty cool to see a coupe deville get that much air

[Psychoholic]

Oddly there is a silver lining to those guys doing that to those cars if you think about it. This is probably the first main stream real American car show that has a legit chance of getting viewership. Nikki will actually watch Top Gear UK with me and doesn't give half a shit about 99% of the cars on the show, but it's the entertainment value of the show that she appreciates and the off-beat way they describe the experience. If this show manages to stick, you'll have much more awareness and a renewed sense of 'car' community that comes with it. We can't relate to the UK guys driving supercars all day - but we have a yankee, a southerner and a drift racer out there thrashing on everything they can get their hands on. I love it.

You should see the floors and runners on my buick and the heroic effort that it would probably take to finish welding that shit if I wasn't addicted to playing Gran Turismo 5 all day. =)