The real italian job

kaiowas · 30 Dec 2008 at 10:28

lordrobs said:
I can see that I'm in the minority here but to me he seemed like a perfectly decent bloke. Don't forget the guy was fulfiling a lifes ambition, in a car worth a ton of money, he was probably quite anxious about the whole thing, his gf/wife didn't seem hugely supportive and fancied tagging along for a bit of a holiday, the beeb were pushing cameras into every crevice and probably weren't giving him a minute to get his head straight..... Is there any wonder the guy seemed a bit twitchy

I've never seen or heard of the guy before but thought he came across as a clueless sexist idiot with more money than sense who had recently heard about the Mille Miglia then decided he fancied a crack at it.

I got no sense that he was a true petrolhead who had dreamed of doing the event since his childhood at all.

timbob · 30 Dec 2008 at 10:57

I enjoyed the program - it's nice to see something on telly being made by someone who has an obvious passion for nice cars.

With old engines, there always seems to be some underestimation as to how good they were...

The Maserati A6GCS had a 2 litre straight six, developing 120bhp at 6000rpm. It weighed about 600kg, giving 200bhp/tonne. Hardly shabby. The A6GCM was the racing version of the A6 model, and was the forerunner to the infamous 250F.

Just as a "wow" fact regarding old engines - the Alfa Romeo 158, the company's F1 racer of the early 1950s was a late 1930s (pre-war) design. It had a 1.5 litre straight-8 in the 30s, with 200bhp. When F1 begun, they bolted a supercharger onto it, and it made over 300bhp.

A redesign at the end of 1950 produced the 159 - still a 1.5 litre supercharged straight-8, but this time producing 420bhp at 9600rpm. Those figures are amazing!

Westyfield2 · 30 Dec 2008 at 15:36

Just watched it.

I didn't think he was that bad :confused:

, seemed fine to me.

Re the engine, from what they said it dropped a valve and it had only done 200 miles so wasn't properly run in. When we got the Westfield engine back from the builder he said "Just keep it below 8,000RPM" as he'd given it a fair few miles on the dyno. So surely as they knew James's car wouldn't get many road miles before the event why didn't they have it run in on the dyno?

Re the GF, she's Miss England isn't she? :cool:

Memphis · 30 Dec 2008 at 16:36

kaiowas said:
I've never seen or heard of the guy before but thought he came across as a clueless sexist idiot with more money than sense who had recently heard about the Mille Miglia then decided he fancied a crack at it.

I got no sense that he was a true petrolhead who had dreamed of doing the event since his childhood at all.

I genuinely have no idea how you got that impression.

Thomas. PLease. · 30 Dec 2008 at 17:22

timbob said:
I enjoyed the program - it's nice to see something on telly being made by someone who has an obvious passion for nice cars.

With old engines, there always seems to be some underestimation as to how good they were...

The Maserati A6GCS had a 2 litre straight six, developing 120bhp at 6000rpm. It weighed about 600kg, giving 200bhp/tonne. Hardly shabby. The A6GCM was the racing version of the A6 model, and was the forerunner to the infamous 250F.

Just as a "wow" fact regarding old engines - the Alfa Romeo 158, the company's F1 racer of the early 1950s was a late 1930s (pre-war) design. It had a 1.5 litre straight-8 in the 30s, with 200bhp. When F1 begun, they bolted a supercharger onto it, and it made over 300bhp.

A redesign at the end of 1950 produced the 159 - still a 1.5 litre supercharged straight-8, but this time producing 420bhp at 9600rpm. Those figures are amazing!

engine probably only lasted a matter of hours though. still pretty impressive however.

Housey · 30 Dec 2008 at 17:36

timbob said:
A redesign at the end of 1950 produced the 159 - still a 1.5 litre supercharged straight-8, but this time producing 420bhp at 9600rpm. Those figures are amazing!

Good figures there no question but the BRM V16 was over 550bhp at it's peak with a 1.5 Litre engine though with 8 extra cylinders of course and it was an utter dog too that delivered max power at around 10K RPM and above but that was 1949/50!

In 1939 Mercedes produced a 1.5 Litre GP car to compete at Tripoli where the ruling Italians decided to run the GP for 1.5L cars to stop the Germans walking the race with their 3L GP cars and to give Alfa and Massa a chance. In total secret Merc built a 1.5L GP car and simply turned up at the event...and won!

254bhp in 1939 from a V8 which equated to 170bhp per litre.

Fr0dders · 31 Dec 2008 at 19:14

<(Multi)> said:
Saw this, really enjoyed watching it actually. Was amazed a fatty like him bagged a stunning girlfriend like her, really does show the influence money has with certain women as Im not so sure she was after his personality...

just got round to watching this

People are being way too harsh on him.

And the fatty comment ? wtf are you on about. When will you realise women dont give a damn about weight, just look at the naked shots of Gavin and Stacey's James corden in this months heat magazine. Ask your girfriend if they could date James Corden or Johnny vegas and i bet they wont say they're too fat. Women care far more about personality and face than weight

This thread stinks of jealousy to me. I fail to see why everybody dislikes him, just because he possibly got a bit excited and drove the car too hard ?

Dogbreath · 31 Dec 2008 at 20:20

Westyfield2 said:
When we got the Westfield engine back from the builder he said "Just keep it below 8,000RPM" as he'd given it a fair few miles on the dyno. So surely as they knew James's car wouldn't get many road miles before the event why didn't they have it run in on the dyno?

A few miles on a dyno hardly counts as running in! However, modern engines are build with such close tolerance that the running in process is much less important than it is with old engines.

thecremeegg · 1 Jan 2009 at 01:49

MrLOL said:
just got round to watching this

People are being way too harsh on him.

And the fatty comment ? wtf are you on about. When will you realise women dont give a damn about weight, just look at the naked shots of Gavin and Stacey's James corden in this months heat magazine. Ask your girfriend if they could date James Corden or Johnny vegas and i bet they wont say they're too fat. Women care far more about personality and face than weight

This thread stinks of jealousy to me. I fail to see why everybody dislikes him, just because he possibly got a bit excited and drove the car too hard ?

This

Guy seemed fine in the show, dont quite understand the hatred. So he may have revved it too hard? He admitted it in the show that he shouldnt have done it!

ironman · 1 Jan 2009 at 12:08

How is everyone saying the co-driver is stunning? His GF is far prettier and should have been sat in the passenger seat to be honest. I found it funny when the bubble car completed the race, he could have saved/made a hell of a lot of money using what he already had!

lordrobs · 1 Jan 2009 at 12:24

gurdas said:
How is everyone saying the co-driver is stunning? His GF is far prettier and should have been sat in the passenger seat to be honest. I found it funny when the bubble car completed the race, he could have saved/made a hell of a lot of money using what he already had!

Probably the same reason that people love the hugely annoying Vicki Butler-Henderson. Girl + Cars = Phwoar apparently.

Got to say though, my other half would be the last person I would want with me on a trip like that

Attu90 · 1 Jan 2009 at 12:40

Yep i enjoyed it and thought he came over as a genuine guy who was passionate about what he was doing though under stress.
The reason he didn't take his girl friend was because of the stress of the event and didn't want to argue with her, im sure there will have been moments that we didn't see where he and his co-driver would have had arguments, saying that they only lasted one day so they probably didn't get to that stage

All in all i enjoyed it and hope they do it again and film it next (this) year.

djbenjo · 4 Jan 2009 at 19:18

No ta, I don't want to smash my telly!

Fr0dders · 4 Jan 2009 at 22:40

djbenjo said:
No ta, I don't want to smash my telly!

why ?

whats so wrong with him. So what if he got carried away and bent a valve. I expect most would get excited doing this sort of thing.

He doesnt come across as arrogant at all, and was deeply apologetic to his co driver for ruining their race.

Master_X · 5 Jan 2009 at 11:37

I watched this and though it was a pointles program. Yeah nice cars and all but i thought it was about him doing the race and not failing then moaning the rest of the program about how gutted he was.

rare · 5 Jan 2009 at 11:52

I enjoyed it,felt sorry for him to be honest. Some of the views in this thread seem way off the mark to me :confused:

timbob · 5 Jan 2009 at 12:18

gurdas said:
How is everyone saying the co-driver is stunning? His GF is far prettier and should have been sat in the passenger seat to be honest. I found it funny when the bubble car completed the race, he could have saved/made a hell of a lot of money using what he already had!

The co-driver was hot, really hot. Possibly not as "front-page-of-FHM" hot as the model girlfriend, but hot. And lovely. And really, really, really into cars. And a racing driver. And seemingly very intelligent. And down-to-earth, not stuck up, big-headed or arrogant.

As opposed to his missus, the model, who appeared a bit stereotypicaly blonde, rather annoying and quite stroppy.

I know which I'd rather have.

Sagalout · 5 Jan 2009 at 12:53

MrLOL said:
why ?

whats so wrong with him. So what if he got carried away and bent a valve. I expect most would get excited doing this sort of thing.

He doesnt come across as arrogant at all, and was deeply apologetic to his co driver for ruining their race.

It was the way he treated people that annoyed me. Going nuts at the co-driver for using the pen, chastising her like a naughty child in front of the cameras, then having a go at the cameraman. Just struck me as being a bit of an arse, and thats just what they showed. The co-drivers comment that she was so glad it didnt go pop whilst she was driving, and the way she genuinely meant it, spoke volumes of what she thought of him.

Might be wrong though - you can never really tell the way these sorts of programs are edited.

Giddy · 5 Jan 2009 at 13:22

Sagalout said:
It was the way he treated people that annoyed me. Going nuts at the co-driver for using the pen, chastising her like a naughty child in front of the cameras, then having a go at the cameraman. Just struck me as being a bit of an arse, and thats just what they showed.

I'd be **** too if someone started to attack my 600K classic Maseratti with a marker pen!

Don't swear! FF.