Top Gear 'hooligans' damage classic car

its a racing car its meant to be driven hard, ever watched at the end of rally's when they donut the cars? thats not the best thing you can do to the diff's but do you think they care?

no.

build a bridge and get over it ,please, crying about a lump of metal is pathetic.

:)
 
While I totaly agree that cars are to be driven rather than looked at, I guess my definition of driving hard differs from others.

I'm guessing owner thought they were asking if they could use the full RPM range and generaly push the car hard around a circuit. I don't consider doing donuts as "driving hard", it's just arsing around. If it had been something a little more modern, then I wouldn't have an issue with this, but this car is a piece of motoring history, one of only three in the world.

It's all very well saying it can be repaired, but I imagine that getting a new clutch for a C-type Jag is going to be a little more difficult and expensive than a trip to the local Jag dealer.
 
Originally posted by Dogbreath


It's all very well saying it can be repaired, but I imagine that getting a new clutch for a C-type Jag is going to be a little more difficult and expensive than a trip to the local Jag dealer.
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differing economies of scale mate, i can happily afford £500 to fix my clutch, as a ferrari owner can afford £1500 for his clutch, if you own a c type you can afford to repair it otherwise your a wee bit short sighted(which the owner sounds like he is tbh).
 
A few thoughts come to mind:

1. Is the owner of the Jag really trying to claim that he's never watched TG rag the balls off cars before? Surely it was pretty obvious as to what they were going to do with it, hardly as though they'd claimed that they were going to take it easy.

2. The chap did agree with them to they could drive it "hard", see point 1 for more on that. On top of that, I cannot imagine that there wasn't an actual contract drawn up between the owner and the BBC to absolve responsibility for potentially smashing the car to pieces in the event of a potential accident. Which means that not only did the owner agree verbally, he will almost certainly have agreed in writing. Frankly it's his own stupid fault

3. As for the car. As already stated, most cars seem to come away completely unscathed by being driven by TG. To me that would simply suggest that they clutch and drive shafts were already on the "way out". So the owner is basically saying "well how about you pay for already worn gear, thanks BBC".

I simply have no sympathy for the chap. Would you after all risk your beloved motor in the hands of them if you watched the programme regularly? Personally I wouldn't let them anywhere near my car, so he was simply asking for trouble.
 
Originally posted by v0n
But you'd be screaming off the top of your lungs if Clarkson brought your precious £1mln baby smoked and bald, wouldn't you?
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I'd have nobody to blame but myself if I hadn't stipulated what could and could not be done with the car.
 
Originally posted by Will Gill
differing economies of scale mate, i can happily afford £500 to fix my clutch, as a ferrari owner can afford £1500 for his clutch, if you own a c type you can afford to repair it otherwise your a wee bit short sighted(which the owner sounds like he is tbh).
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But had they been simply driving "hard" they wouldn't have damaged the clutch etc. There was simply no need to do donut in a C-type Jag, they could have used a common or garden Imprezza etc. to make some tyre smoke.
 
Originally posted by Mr_Sukebe
A few thoughts come to mind:
3. As for the car. As already stated, most cars seem to come away completely unscathed by being driven by TG. To me that would simply suggest that they clutch and drive shafts were already on the "way out". So the owner is basically saying "well how about you pay for already worn gear, thanks BBC".
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Most cars appear to be unscathed, you can't possibly know if they have been damaged or not. There is an awfull lot of footage that they dont show!
 
Originally posted by Dogbreath
But had they been simply driving "hard" they wouldn't have damaged the clutch etc. There was simply no need to do donut in a C-type Jag, they could have used a common or garden Imprezza etc. to make some tyre smoke.
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or an mr2 :o

if i got to drive a million pound motor and the owner said "yep" you can rag it then wehey i'm going to, quite frankly this debate is about people that buy a car to look at it rather than enjoy it, i know what i would rather be referred to :)
 
The real question is, did they do a timed lap?:p The owner knew what topgear was like so he lent it, I mean how many times do you see a car on that show get a nice 30mph cruise? Maybe Jezza's sl55 but even that got thrashed in the end!
 
Originally posted by EyeDot
:) no locks on the TVR :p
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He also deals with alarms, immobilisers and god knows what else. He got into my mates 911 in 3 mins without setting anything off!! :eek:

BTW. He's a scouser ;) Probably explains everything.

Simon/~Flibster
 
Having watched classic Ferrari racing, I take my hat off to the owners who put thier million pound cars on a track in competitive racing. But doing donughts in cars of this age is just plain stupid especially from one who should know better.

This isnt the only kill attributed to the boys at TG. Remember the Norris Evo? Well this was written by Simon on the Lancer BBS

Well the ND Evo 7 is very poorly after todays hammering it took, On our fifth run the engine blew up! The first four runs were about getting the right angle and seeing how the caravan would behave and different speeds then the 5th was a proper go where we got to 126Mph ish and the engine let go!

The day was very hot and the runway was very short but I was still confident that the car could do the business. The main problem was that I was not driving and able to monitor the engine whilst attempting the record. After taking the datalogging from the Motec it transpires that we had 1170C exhaust gas temps...............result...................melted piston!

I am not going to let anyone else drive this car again! Last time the clutch died when a journo drove it then this time the engine died, oh well you live and learn!
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Simon also goes on to say that TG will not be paying for the rebuild.
 
Originally posted by IntegraR
Simon also goes on to say that TG will not be paying for the rebuild.
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TG guys were not driving the car, and the record attempt would have put his car in the record books, so why is it top gears fault/problem and why should they pay?
 
I see it liike this:

either a) Have classic car and keep it looked up and never drive it

or b) drive it.


If he said they could drive it, then hard luck on him for not stipulating his conditions. If i was daft enough to let my car be driven by a racing driver, then i would make it plain that if he so much as revved it i would expect a full engine rebuild!!

Its his own fault, should have let them film him driving it, not Stig....;)
 
Originally posted by matty
I see it liike this:

either a) Have classic car and keep it looked up and never drive it

or b) drive it.
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Right, agreed so far. Cars are for driving.

If he said they could drive it, then hard luck on him for not stipulating his conditions. If i was daft enough to let my car be driven by a racing driver, then i would make it plain that if he so much as revved it i would expect a full engine rebuild!!

Its his own fault, should have let them film him driving it, not Stig....;)
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Sorry no. If they had said, "can we rag the bits of your car and do a few donuts in it for the cameras", and he said yes, then...well, that would be his own fault. He agreed to let them drive it hard, as in push on around the track.
 
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