dont forget 8pm BBC2.

could be interestng, unless they make a complete farce out of it.

http://www.topgear.com/content/tgonbbc2/

Well, they are cheating, the car is already half built!

thats why its called a kit car!

half done

[Edited on 23/7/06 by ch1ll1]

utter bollocks... westfield state 100 man hours for there most complete kit!

they shouldnt show that...had 5 mates txt saying why did mine take so long!!!

Even caterham reckon 100hrs for the first time builder. If you had Clarkson there you can probably add 25 hrs! And as said, it was half built already.

bloody daft and Jezza just anoyed me.. the way they treated that kit was offensive!

i wanna Lambo though! just asked the missus if we could mortgage the house and by one, oddly she is somewhat reluctant

But what a great car the blue Caterham was.
Very nice colour, if only those headlights would be a bit lower.

if your missus is a pain you might slow your build rate....

plus i doubt their kit would of passed the sva!!!
i don't think i would of trusted it even for one slow lap

if i said that to my lass she would opt for the lambo!!

Ive got to watch what i said.. keep my dreams to my self

just thought it was a load of c*@p tonight, especially as so many of them have been funny just lately.
i can not imagine any of those idiots knowing were to start, never mind finish it in 8 hours.
as in earlier thread BO@@OCKS

looked to me as if it was a car driven in then partially dismantled for ease of rebuilding and running ,seemed to only need one wire connection for the whole car to work.pants

At least there is a badge on the dash warning future owners!

Caber

i think some of you are taking it far too seriously...lol

i wonder how many kit car builders will complain....

anyhow i thought it was thoroughly enjoyable
at least they didn't rip they wee out of kit car builders ...well not much

If some of us are upset over that episode, think how pissed off the shed draggers are from last week.

I don't think it's a case of being offensive to our, or anyone else's, particular interest in motoring. I think it's a case of the whole thing becoming stale. It appears like they sit round a table & decide which branch of motoring they can rip the p**s out of this week. JC will act like the bumbling idiot that doesn't know one end of ANYTHING from the other, May will act the part of the seriously organised know-it-all & Hammond acts the part of the court jester running between the two but generally creeping up to JC (obviously the boss) The Caretham episode would have been quite funny if we all hadn't seen it 20 times before in a different guise.

My guess is that it can't have too much longer to run in this format which is a great pity as I actually like JC as a presenter but they really need to come up with a fresh approach.

I lost interest in Top Gear a while ago, just drifted away and didn't make an effort to watch it as I did in the past. However, I watched it last night - and decided that my instincts were correct. They're all trying too hard to be 'laddish', with potentially interesting stuff (e.g. the Lambo) being spoilt by the stupid attitudes of the presenters. I could see that the Caterham thing was just too contrived right from the start.

The only real alternative is 5th Gear, which can also be really boring - but at least they do make an effort to DO something with their programme. For example, the features they do at MIRAS are usually well worth watching. Last week was the effect of using just-legal tyres on a wet road, which was a real eye-opener. In the past they've simulated motorway pile-ups, the effect of having a LHD lorry pull out on you at motorway speeds, and other stuff like that.

In the end, I'll watch 5th Gear if it happens to be on, but I won't make a special effort. Nowadays I avoid Top Gear as there are better things to do with my life.

David

How oversensetive would you have to be to take offence at anything said or done on the excellent sitcom "top gear" last night. This show is on the top of its form, right now - well done to the team responsible! And there's even some genuine real world car stuff in there.
The scope for mickey taking in our hobby is huge (as with any minority interest) - I thought they were surprisingly reserved, May & JC summing up the pros & cons qiute succinctly. Except we DO have filth & rust to contend with. . . . .
Bob

I think it is seriously irresponsible for JC to admit leaving out washers etc. By inference kit-car builders don't regard safety and build quality as important (which of course we all do because its our lives at stake). Plus my missus wants to know why my 3 year build hasn't taken 8 hrs! Cheers, Pewe.

Surprised that the kit cost £15000 with a fullty assembled car costing £17500.

Guess the extra £2500 of work takes a bit longer than 8hours. I'm sure most watchers will have picked up on that too (my wife did)

At least the Seven they built ran, and the Stig's one ran all the way to the circuit.

Far more reliable than Clarkson's GT40

would have loved to see a 'wider' shot so you could see the team of Caterham mechanics stood to one side fixing everything they f*****d up.......

Missed it but can see it tonight on NTL - yipeee.

Dont intend to take it as seriously as some do - Top Gear is now a motoring-themed entertainment show and shouldn't be considered as a specialist interest show with geeky attention to technical detail. Personally I like the format. It's much more generally accessible now - my mum and sister love it for example, whereas they'd be bored to tears by something like 5th Gear or the original Top Gear format, with straight faced boring car reviews and other dull features.

The antics and style of the presenters has always treaded a fine line between funny and contrived/annoying, and imho has stepped well into the latter in a few recent episodes with way OTT fake ladism, e.g. pretending they've destroyed a car wash and ran away, pretending they accidentally set fire to their caravan etc etc. Still up until now there has been some pure genius entertainment - full-size RC racing, boat building and car football spring to mind.

Hope this episode is a return to form. If they keep up the club 18-30 laddy tosser behaviour too long it'll go downhill fast. They can be funny without pretending to be annoying louts.

Liam

If anyone can find it, look for the competion between prodrives Touring Car techs & WRC techs building up a kit car.

All the bits were in bags and they built it in a rediculously short period of time. Have the feeling (but dont quote me) it was something like just shy of 2 hours to build and drive.


I think its quite possible they built the car (possibly with some off camera assistance) in 8 hours, however im sure any paneling etc was pre-drilled and only partly fixed.

Ive also got no doubt in my mind the whole car has since been stripped & re-built by the caterham techs.

I enjoy top gear for what it is, as some one said above, a sitcom. Its not a serious programme anymore its just entertainment. Which for one i enjoy.

Still wasnt as funny as the boats episode.

I should add that I don't take the programme seriously! Nor do I expect too much from it...

It's just that I can't be bothered to watch it any more...

David

missed it but we should get a collective group on there and do a group thrash or something!!! even allow some cec's maybe!!!!!

I screwed a Caterham together back in 1988 and then they reckoned build time was in the region of 100 hours. As supplied it was fully panelled complete with dashboard gauges wiring and brake lines.Even the liftadots were fitted to the body. Assembly consisted of putting together the suspension, sliding in the steering column bleeding the brakes and screwing together everything supplied in the kit. Nevertheless 100 hours was quite a realistic figure so unless it is supplied with even more work done nowadays, completion in 8 hours even by 3 people is hard to credit.

John