Top Gear Season 22 & Xmas Special

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Kamerad said:
Intentional or not someone should have noticed it.
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TG's producer on the subject:

The truth is the first time we realised the plate could be a problem was on the third night of our shoot in Argentina (19 September, I believe), when Jeremy was scrolling through Twitter and spotted a comment on one of the auto fan sites, next to a photo of the plate. I remember his surprise and concern.

There are other witnesses to this fact. In fact, one of them – a mechanic we were using for the first time – has written to the Telegraph Letters page stating he saw Jeremy’s reaction and that it could have been nothing but genuine. (Weirdly, although he’s chased them, the Telegraph has so far not bothered to print his letter.)

Knowing this could be a problem, our office spoke to the local authorities in Ushuaia, the town where the war issue was most sensitive, and where we would end our trip in ten days’ time with a massive game of car football. We agreed with those authorities that the plates would be removed before we entered the town, and it was at this point – not before we left London – that we decided to get the BE11 END plates made for Jeremy’s car for the football match in the town.

Before we entered Ushuaia we duly removed the H982 FKL plates from the Porsche. For a day or two, the plate on the back said H1 VAE (the plate left there, underneath H982 FKL, from when one owner had privately registered the car). An advance party of our guys had been in there for a few days already, prepping the football game with no problem whatsoever. The local ski resort was looking forward to us filming there too.

There was nothing in the air to suggest trouble was brewing until the Argentinian veterans arrived and kicked off. We apologised that the existence of the plates earlier on would have caused offence. We explained they were now gone, and that they had not been a deliberate act. They didn’t believe us, told us to leave town or face the consequences, we did that very thing and drove into a night of violent terror.
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Wasn't really any more they could do...
 
And there lies the problem, the oversight could have cost somewhere their life. When travelling abroad you need to be aware of cultural differences as you don't have a safety net to fall back on when things kick off.

The chances of it being a coincidence are highly unlikely though IMO.
 
Kamerad said:
No as I'm not easily offended, but if I was travelling to Argentina It would be quite obvious to me how such a number plate would antagonise people.
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However it's not obvious to the average person, and the four people who saw the car before its arrival in Argentina were in that majority.
 
this_is_gav said:
There's a picture of it on the car in Argentina in the Independent article.
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I think you misunderstood what I meant, they never used that registration on the car as they don't own it, they never put it on the car either, however when the offensive plates were taken off that one was still underneath on the rear from when the car had that plate in the late 90's.
 
What are the chances of that number plate being on a car selected for a trip like that by chance.

I challenge someone to find a car for sale with anything similar.

Or 1976 Vietnam or whatever the correct year would be,

Certainly, that is not going to happen by chance.
 
Slam62 said:
What are the chances of that number plate being on a car selected for a trip like that by chance.

I challenge someone to find a car for sale with anything similar.

Or 1976 Vietnam or whatever the correct year would be,

Certainly, that is not going to happen by chance.
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Read the article from Andy Wilman that was linked earlier. It was a co-incidence. Step away from the tinfoil hat. ;)

Slam62 said:
Yeah obviously they wouldn't recognise flk
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It's just three random letters, nothing more. It's your brain thats pattern matching having been given the answer to a question that no-one asked.
 
MagicBoy said:
Read the article from Andy Wilman that was linked earlier. It was a co-incidence. Step away from the tinfoil hat. ;)
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Yeah, because he's going to hold his hands up and state they did it deliberately, or didn't do anything about it once they realised (depending on which way you see things) shortly after a time of heightened tensions between the countries. :rolleyes:

Personally I think they've been forced to eat a bit of humble pie, and that's possibly one of the reasons why the episodes were so tame - they heavily cut anything which could be contrived as provocative in order to save face, other than what was widely reported in the immediate aftermath.
 
Kamerad said:
You are just focusing on a minority and think that represents the whole country because the media tells you thats how it is. I spent 6 months on a UN peacekeeping tour in Cyprus working with many nations one of which happens to be Argentinians. Really nice guys and they don't have any problem working alongside British troops. They will even discuss the Falklands issue with you if you ask and don't get heated up about it.
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No, I'm focussing on the country as a whole, I'm sure there are some decent people in their armed forces, and I'm sure Argentinians assigned to the UN are quite tolerant, but just look at their presidents 'outbursts' over the 30th anniversary..

BBC said:
Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner gave a speech at the southern port of Ushuaia, where crowds gathered to remember the Argentine servicemen who died.

The president paid tribute to the "hundreds who came to fight here, to this territory, to the islands, and to the hundreds who laid down their lives".

'Usurping environment'
She attacked the UK government's stance on the Falkland Islands, saying: "Every day that goes by it looks more ridiculous, more absurd to the eyes of the world."

President Kirchner went on: "It is an injustice that in the 21st Century there are still colonial enclaves... 16 colonial enclaves throughout the world - 10 of those belonging to the United Kingdom."

She added: "We also demand that so they stop usurping our environment, our natural resources, our oil."
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I'm pretty sure her words and sentiments will resound quite heavily around the country, and this has been going on for a couple of years at least..

CNN - Dec 2011 said:
Britain's foreign minister on Wednesday expressed concern about the Mercosur bloc's decision to block from their ports ships bearing the Falkland Islands flag.
"There can be no justification -- legal, moral or political -- for efforts to intimidate the people of the Falkland Islands," Minister Jeremy Browne said.
Mercosur, or the Common Southern Market, is an economic and political bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, plus several associate members.
Argentina in recent months has reinvigorated its claims of the British-controlled island.
At Argentina's behest this week, the other Mercosur members announced that they would not allow Falkland Island ships in their ports.
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Its interesting to see how many people exclaim that they don't like jeremy clarkson (and the others?) then go on to also say there is absolutely no way they are going to believe this was anything but intentional. :P
 
In the Vietnam special they were riding around on a American themed chopper with Born in the USA bellowing out of the speakers. I didn't see any mad Vietnamese brandishing AK47's? Regardless of whether the plate was intentional or not the Argies especially in that region need to leave the past behind them and start getting on with their life!
 
p1RATE said:
Its interesting to see how many people exclaim that they don't like jeremy clarkson (and the others?) then go on to also say there is absolutely no way they are going to believe this was anything but intentional. :P
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I love Clarkson. He's an opinionated arse, but that's why he's polarises people so much. It's not like you have to listen to what he says. The books which stemmed from his paper columns were brilliant. The issue is he's started to play along to the reputation he built for himself, so rather than being opinionated, he's increasingly coming across as provocational instead.

My main complaint problem is just how contrived Top Gear has become. It was a lot more fun when it genuinely appeared to be three blokes larking around. It still still scripted idiocy, but it seemed more honest, heartfelt and, well, mature. The £1000 Porsche Challenge era is when Top Gear was at its absolutely peak in my opinion.
 
MagicBoy said:
Been done already. The plate was legit.
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If it was legit, that could mean he searched for a car with that number plate which is warped, although having seen a repeat of his apology for the enimeani mino no word, nothing would surprise me, he is entertaining and sometimes right, but totally a slave to what he considers will grab him attention.

I cannot believe it was a random event, it is just too unlikely,
 
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