Top Gear Season 22 & Xmas Special

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Glad to see you've still not read the blog post by TG. I'll post it again just so you don't have to waste 10 seconds looking for it : http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2014/10/10/top-gear-in-argentina-what-really-happened

How exactly do you search for a car with a specific numberplate of that age? The DVLA won't allow it for data protection reasons.

OK, suppose they found a way around that, I'll indulge you a little. It's a 25 year old car. They'd be many times more likely to find it was a base model Fiesta or Escort that had rusted away and got scrapped 10 years ago than by the luck of the draw pull up a very rare manual Porsche 928 that's still roadworthy and co-incidentally up for sale.
 
Slam62 said:
I cannot believe it was a random event, it is just too unlikely,
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I keep seeing people who haven't actually looked into what happened going on and on about how it was unlikely to be a coincidence or how high the odds were, etc. Do you actually know what the odds were? (Well obviously you don't or you wouldn't have made the comment): ONE IN THREE!!

That's how many Porsche 928's were for sale that met all the criteria (price/mechanical condition/etc) when the car sourcing team were sent to get one. Three cars, and they picked the one they thought best matched the criteria.

None of the car sourcing team realised the number plate may cause minor offence in Argentina, because the oldest of the four was 6 when the war ended. And I use the term minor offence, because that's all it actually caused, the authorities/townsfolk of Ushuaia were perfectly happy with the apology and having the plates removed before the car entered the town, everything was smoothed over and would have been fine, until the Argentinian equivalent of the EDL turned up looking for a fight.

And that is the crux of the matter, the "veterans" (almost all of which were children/unborn during the war) came looking for a fight, they didn't care at all about the plate they just wanted to stick it to the British, they even tried to claim the other two plates were offensive because if you round the number on them up and then rounded up certain war figures they were the same (that's not a joke, it just gets missed by most reports because the FLK plate complaints on their own are not as ridiculous).
 
Acme said:
To play devils advocate;

Disprove it.

This debate is somewhat pointless until we know more.
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That's not how devils advocating works.

All the facts so far point to an innocent coincidence, nothing more. Anyone claiming otherwise has the onus on them to make a convincing argument. Nobody has so far other than baseless raging against Clarkson and TG.
 
MagicBoy said:
i've provided far more evidence that it was an unfortunate co-incidence than those stating the car was picked by the numberplate and are unable to back it up.
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For the record: I like top gear, clarkson and risky jokes.

1) top gear regularly 'over sells' how much clarkson, Hammond any May actually do on the show. They are personality presenters, not grunt work engineers.
2) they would not have picked the cars, somebody in the production team would have.
3) It is highly likely this nameless someone saw this plate and thought it hilarious (I agree - it is a genuinely funny joke the over sensitivity brigade can't cope with, which makes it even funnier).
4) That nameless person didn't need to discuss it with the presenters, the crew or anyone else. Somewhere, a suggestion is made, a car is purchased, only one person 'knows' the significance of the plate.
5) In the light of what happened, that one person is never, ever going to own up to their mistake. Why would they, they would be crucified.

This isn't nasa faking the moonlandings conspiracy. It's likey one person keeping quiet about a joke that backfired.
 
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MichaelAwkward said:
All the facts so far point to an innocent coincidence,
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No they don't. You are telling me that Clarkson et al, did not immediately notice that the car had a number plate that in the best way a number plate can, said 1982 Falklands? On their first special in Argentina? That had a lot of references to the Falklands conflict? In a special where they were purposefully driving to the port where the Belgrano set sail from?

To think they did not immediately notice it, or that the car was not bought purposefully because it had that number plate, is to totally disregard the personalities and life history of Clarkson, May and Hammond as well as the history of Top Gear and those that produce it. They are car fanatics and have made jokes with number plates before, I can say with 100% confidence that Clarkson would have noticed the reference as soon as he saw the car.

The car was used and bought because of that number plate. The only coincidence was that they happened to find an old V8 sports car with that number plate whilst they were on the hunt for the star cars.
 
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MagicBoy said:
As I said before - prove it. The press for all their postulating have so far been unable to do anything other than throw accusations that won't stick in light of the facts. In the current climate the BBC wouldn't dare back them up if there was any evidence otherwise.
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No one can prove anything. What facts are you referring to? What the Top Gear team has told us? Great "facts".

To anyone with half a brain, who is aware of the history of Top Gear and is aware of the interests and personalities of the three stars, it is pretty obvious what happened.
 
MagicBoy said:
He broke three ribs.
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lmao. You must also believe that Hammond and Clarkson actually walked that mammoth distance to the nearest shop just to get bolt cutters then.

:D

Perhaps you should step away from the TV.

This isn't reality TV, there's a script and they are the BBC's three most profitable and valuable presenters ever.
 
The company director of the business that sold the car to the BBC which specifically deals in classic Porsches says he was contacted asking specifically for a Manual 928GT. He also says if he knew it was for TG he wouldn't have sold it to them as they are rare & should be cared for.

Nowhere does he say he was contacted asking for one with an offensive plate.
 
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