The "Top Gear", Season 24/25/26 thread

Soldato
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An unfortunate return to the usual form this week. Seriously, purposely running an EV out of power may have been OK back when the OG New Top Gear did it with the original Tesla Roadster but that ship has sailed now and they really need to be embracing the technology.

To be honest, other than not being able to do the tired range anxiety dialogue followed by "OMG I'm out of 'leccy" they may as well have done the whole episode in three identical Dacia Logan's as there was pretty much nothing said about the actual cars they were driving.

Breaking stuff, spitting milk all over the inside of a press car, leaving **** everywhere at the campsite... its all a bit stale now and pretty tragic seeing three middle aged men acting like 14 year olds.
 
Man of Honour
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Haven't finished watching either of the past 2 episodes - got about 15 minutes in and just bored and turned it off. Hope the next one is more interesting.
 
Soldato
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fifth top gear new series on quest/freeview last night and repeats over next week - will tape that.

not too bad - karkikeyen drove tesla model 3 versus polestar against one another, weight of polestar/2nd his main critcism
- ev versus ice ownership cost - buying a new e-mokka they 'justified' a £50 /week saving for 7.5k miles 4 years ... but failed to compare the more sane purchased of a used/pre-reg ice mokka <£20K versus £25K they used
 
Soldato
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I enjoyed last night, liked the racing licence etc, about as good as tv for motoring enthusiast it gets. However does sound like the race with Harris was the second of the day as the first race with just Freddie went without issues.

wonder what the car failure was too.
 

NVP

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Soldato
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The Victor looked both stunning and ghastly at the same time - quite an achievement.

The racing license section had me hooked, well done Freddie. Making me want to give it a go - how much cash you reckon would be needed to do a decent amount of lessons/training and then take a test? Although.... I suppose if you've got no official races to race in afterwards, what's the point?
 
Soldato
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The Victor looked both stunning and ghastly at the same time - quite an achievement.

The racing license section had me hooked, well done Freddie. Making me want to give it a go - how much cash you reckon would be needed to do a decent amount of lessons/training and then take a test? Although.... I suppose if you've got no official races to race in afterwards, what's the point?

The ARDS really doesn't need any training at all tbh :p

I did my ARDS this year at Castle Combe, the actual driving laps were some of the slowest laps of that track I've ever done :p It's more about showing you're in control/doing the lines/being sensible etc. Then the test itself is pretty hard to fail.

Of course that's just getting your licence, if you want to get fast that's a different ballgame :p
 
Don
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Although.... I suppose if you've got no official races to race in afterwards, what's the point?

I suppose it's a case of if you haven't got it then you would always use it as an "excuse" as to why you can't then go looking for opportunities to race?
Once you've ticked the box then it's one step closer, and means you can look at arrive and drive packages etc if your wallet is healthy enough,
 

NVP

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Soldato
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Yeh good point.

Are there arrive and drive packages for actual tournaments or races? With your own car or a teams car?

How "healthy" are we talking?
 
Soldato
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Yeh good point.

Are there arrive and drive packages for actual tournaments or races? With your own car or a teams car?

How "healthy" are we talking?

Definitely, you can get arrive and drive packages for loads of different series.

What is your nearest track? Any thoughts on what you might want to race, I'm thinking club level so usually normal road cars converted like MX5's or hatches or whatever?

As for healthy, well... :p

I hired an MG ZR to race at Castle Combe in both the Hot Hatch and Saloon series. Only did two days but both series, first day was a double header so 2x qualifying and 4x races, second day was just 2x qualifying and 2x races. I pay £500 per race so that first day was £2k car hire, plus ~£650 race entries :eek: Second day was 'only' £1k in hire costs.

I'm planning to hire the same car next year, looks like 6 races per series but I'm considering only doing 1 series as I'm also planning to build a race car for the year after and that's a whole lotta money as well :p
 

NVP

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Soldato
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Oh I see! Not too bad then I guess, if you're using your own car as opposed to continually hiring. Although I can guess it could soon spiral!

I am planning on doing some mods to the R53, however I would also like to do similar with an older BMW to get back into RWD... so I've no idea about what series etc. I'm an uneducated chav when it comes to that subject anyway, but I suppose once you get emersed into the process and culture the understanding will come.

Nearest track to me was Birmingham prior to the place being littered with avg cams. I'm from the days of meeting at Star City then heading off for a race on "The Track" :D Certi Drivers ain't nothing compared to how stupid we were! I guess I am near Bruntingthorpe or Donnington, I think perhaps Malory Park may be closest but I think that's more for Bikes.

The main reason this is tempting me is the potential to include my kids with it as a hobby when they are a little older.
 
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