New Top Gear (2011) BBC 2 8PM!

rypt · 31 Jan 2011 at 18:10

Fiorano favours top end speed far more than TG track, TG is more about corner balance and acceleration out of corners surely

Tax Evader · 31 Jan 2011 at 18:28

rypt said:
Ford wanted all the development of the engine to be done "in secret" afaik, hence why all certification and road testing had to be done in the van

TWR built it. The problem they had when developing the XJ220 was they didn't want prototype XJ220's driving around the city centre and having problems & breaking down, so they built this thing as a disguise. If it did have a problem no one would bat an eyelid at a broken down Ford Transit. And you can't do ALL your testing on a circuit so they had to do normal city stuff.
This van was purchased from TWR just before the company was wrapped up.

rypt · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:13

Yes TWR may have built it, but it was a decision made by Ford and Jag with regards to not having a prototype running around

Jonnycoupe · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:57

Like pretty much any X1 build then? You should see what i hashed up on an XF today for the estate.

Tax Evader · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:19

Jonnycoupe said:
Like pretty much any X1 build then? You should see what i hashed up on an XF today for the estate.

X1? Don't go getting all technical with me! haha

Ptikobj · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:33

Only caught the last 10 minutes last night. The rally challenge at the end between the Aussies and "James" was awesome

mjt · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:55

Firestar_3x said:
I hope they do some sort of roadtrip / featurelength this series.

Aye, they go to Albania in a Ghost and an S Class.

ZG002 · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:57

I enjoyed it,

What I was surprised about with the GTO time was that the GTR was quicker.

either the GTR is quicker than I've given it credit for or the lap time in that GTO could have been better,

Did the stig drive both with all the gizmo's off? or just the GTO? hhmm

Freefaller · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:58

Thoroughly enjoyed it. That's what Top Gear is all about - they were en forme, certainly when it came to some of the jokes. Brilliant stuff.

dsb · 1 Feb 2011 at 00:14

Freefaller said:
Thoroughly enjoyed it. That's what Top Gear is all about - they were en forme, certainly when it came to some of the jokes. Brilliant stuff.

If it was like that every week there would never be any complaints, still dont see the need of siarpc.

ZG002 · 1 Feb 2011 at 00:22

siarpc is more than likely quite cheap to film and covers a lot of air time. bang for buck as it were.

I enjoy some of them myself

Vonhelmet · 1 Feb 2011 at 00:25

rypt said:
Fiorano favours top end speed far more than TG track, TG is more about corner balance and acceleration out of corners surely

Yep. I remember reading about it one time. The article went on about how the hammerhead tests the steering very hard, as either understeer or oversteer will be very obvious there.

ZG002 · 1 Feb 2011 at 00:28

The hammer head can be a pita on GT5 lol, It does show cars up.

Firestar_3x · 1 Feb 2011 at 09:55

mjt said:
Aye, they go to Albania in a Ghost and an S Class.

Great success!

Dup · 1 Feb 2011 at 10:09

http://jalopnik.com/5747914/watch-the-new-stig-talk

Dunno if this was posted, works net is really slow today so can't go back too far pages wise.

I'm still none the wiser, but not a Tiff voice and certainly not a woman although new Stig seems quite petite. Anthony Davidson does seem a likely candidate seeing as this has been filmed off season or maybe someone like Johnny Herbert.

GravyMonster · 1 Feb 2011 at 10:23

Johnny Herbert sounds quite plausible. Also the way he said to Becker 'I'll take you around' did sound quite like him.

alx · 1 Feb 2011 at 11:02

Lopéz said:
I'd hardly say it was "so slow" and Fiorano is a very different circuit to the TG test track.

"So slow" was probably an exaggeration, "odd" is probably a better word.

As you say it's probably due to the track, but can a track really make 0.8+ secs of a difference between cars? Lets not forget the cars aren't that disimilar - it's not like you're comparing an elise to a v8 muscle car. Feel free to correct me though, I wouldn't exactly say this is my field of expertise....and Clarkson did say it was a pretty wild car at times.

Puts doubt in my mind about the consistency of the Top Gear Power Laps though.

Clarkey · 1 Feb 2011 at 11:14

alx said:
Puts doubt in my mind about the consistency of the Top Gear Power Laps though.

You thought there was consistency, with greatly varying conditions and different drivers :/

alx · 1 Feb 2011 at 11:21

Clarkey said:
You thought there was consistency, with greatly varying conditions and different drivers :/

Well no not really, guess in a very round about way that's what I was suggesting/getting at

Dutch Guy · 1 Feb 2011 at 11:36

I think the spin on the practice lap caused Stig to take it a bit slower and not drive the car on the limit, possibly being forced by the insurance company not wanting him to write off a 400k hypercar.