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Model S on Top Gear?
- Thread starter Rob Fairman
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bollar
Disgruntled Member
The Model S appearance will come with one of Top Gear's famous "races." In this event, I see the guys starting at Lizard, Cornwall and racing to Skarfskerry, Caithness, Highland, Scotland. The vehicles will be as follows:
Clarkson -- a 2000 hp luxury Superboat (like the XSR48)
May -- Tesla Model S P85D
Hammond -- A motorcycle -- any motorcycle really, but especially one with a painful saddle, to maximize the bollocks jokes.
The Stig -- Public transportation, including Air
The journey begins with Clarkson powering off in the boat filled with bikini models; Hammond feeling very smug in the motorcycle; The Stig waiting for a bus to Plymouth; and May driving off on the A30. As usual, all in a private vehicle waffle on about the utter awesomeness of their vehicle, all feeling confident of the win.
The unforeseen challenge: Clarkson runs out of fuel, which allows him to pontificate about what he would do with the last barrel of oil on Earth. Unfortunately, this is interrupted as the bikini models start getting seasick aboard the awash boat. Hammond is suffering such severe pain, he stops in Bath to give his bollocks a rest. This ensues much ribbing over the mobile phones (six minutes worth on BBC and four minutes on BBC America) about Hammond's plight and good feelings all around at how lucky he is that he's already had his children. The Stig is unable to pass through security at the Plymouth airport because he won't remove his helmet. May, inexplicably, has insufficient charge to make the Exeter Supercharger at highway speeds, so we cut to him doing 20 miles an hour on the A-30, trying to keep the Energy Prediction graph above zero.
Break to stars driving the new reasonably priced car -- all of them own a Model S, but none mention it, aside from an offhand comment from Lisa Rinna that she usually wears Depends in her daily driver.
Back to the race: Towards the end, all inexplicably overcome the challenges! Clarkson meets a Saudi prince in the English Channel happy to trade 10,000 gallons of Diesel for his promise to flog even larger SUVs in America; Hammond, stands over his bike for the remaining 660 miles; The Stig moves to an alternate that technically meets the rules -- a chauffeur-driven Plymouth Barracuda; and May gets to demo a SuperCharger while feeding his face at the Little Chef.
Clarkson wins, of course and Hammond comes in second. May third because Edinburgh to Skarfskerry is 275 miles, slowing him again and proving how impractical EVs are. Not sure what happened to The Stig.
Clarkson -- a 2000 hp luxury Superboat (like the XSR48)
May -- Tesla Model S P85D
Hammond -- A motorcycle -- any motorcycle really, but especially one with a painful saddle, to maximize the bollocks jokes.
The Stig -- Public transportation, including Air
The journey begins with Clarkson powering off in the boat filled with bikini models; Hammond feeling very smug in the motorcycle; The Stig waiting for a bus to Plymouth; and May driving off on the A30. As usual, all in a private vehicle waffle on about the utter awesomeness of their vehicle, all feeling confident of the win.
The unforeseen challenge: Clarkson runs out of fuel, which allows him to pontificate about what he would do with the last barrel of oil on Earth. Unfortunately, this is interrupted as the bikini models start getting seasick aboard the awash boat. Hammond is suffering such severe pain, he stops in Bath to give his bollocks a rest. This ensues much ribbing over the mobile phones (six minutes worth on BBC and four minutes on BBC America) about Hammond's plight and good feelings all around at how lucky he is that he's already had his children. The Stig is unable to pass through security at the Plymouth airport because he won't remove his helmet. May, inexplicably, has insufficient charge to make the Exeter Supercharger at highway speeds, so we cut to him doing 20 miles an hour on the A-30, trying to keep the Energy Prediction graph above zero.
Break to stars driving the new reasonably priced car -- all of them own a Model S, but none mention it, aside from an offhand comment from Lisa Rinna that she usually wears Depends in her daily driver.
Back to the race: Towards the end, all inexplicably overcome the challenges! Clarkson meets a Saudi prince in the English Channel happy to trade 10,000 gallons of Diesel for his promise to flog even larger SUVs in America; Hammond, stands over his bike for the remaining 660 miles; The Stig moves to an alternate that technically meets the rules -- a chauffeur-driven Plymouth Barracuda; and May gets to demo a SuperCharger while feeding his face at the Little Chef.
Clarkson wins, of course and Hammond comes in second. May third because Edinburgh to Skarfskerry is 275 miles, slowing him again and proving how impractical EVs are. Not sure what happened to The Stig.
Lol! I can't help if Elon had never seen Top Gear before.
Then, as now, had Tesla issued a statement along the lines of: "Well, it didn't go exactly like that, but it was still good entertainment--We'd be happy to give them a Roadster again whenever they'd like."...the whole situation would have blown over at worst, and more likely would have won over a few naysayers. The suit made them look petty an insignificant and was, quite frankly, embarrassing.
Hubris is a nasty enemy.
YoungStranger
Member
Lol Bollar. Good scenario . Just add that Clarkeson manages to crash the boat into a wind farm
As a Tesla fan and Top gear viewer been waiting to see a review of the Model S. But it ain't going to happen and this deliberate snub on the part of Top Gear makes it a bigger story. Tesla may have been a small upstart when they reviewed the Roadster. But times have changed.
Elon could just snap his little finger and promise half hour of his time and a view of the SpaceX facilities and Clarkson (not one of the other two) would be commanded to come scampering over to California at short notice.
As a Tesla fan and Top gear viewer been waiting to see a review of the Model S. But it ain't going to happen and this deliberate snub on the part of Top Gear makes it a bigger story. Tesla may have been a small upstart when they reviewed the Roadster. But times have changed.
Elon could just snap his little finger and promise half hour of his time and a view of the SpaceX facilities and Clarkson (not one of the other two) would be commanded to come scampering over to California at short notice.
it wouldn't have anything to do with the idea that a car like the Nissan leaf is $40,000.00 with an equivalent ICE powered vehicle being a fraction of that? Or perhaps the poor electrical infrastructure that doesn't really support any significant move to EV transportation? There are a lot of assumptions being made about the general public and their ability to be lead blindly to conclusions; not understanding fact from fiction, or entertainment value vs. factual commentary.
I understand your concern. There are examples of what you are describing - we don't have to look much farther than the concept of 24hr "news" where its deeply lathered in editorial comment/opinions and being called news (Wolf Blitzer is a great example of that). But that is REALLY calling itself news, yet its not. Top Gear is not disguising itself as a Motorweek with flair...I drew the parallel before to John Stewart's "The Daily Show"....entertaining and the content is about the news, but its not nor does it claim to be "news".
"I can't find the gear shift."
"I don't hear the engine so I guess it doesn't work."
Hilarious, clearly you could be a script writer for TG.
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I've lived in the UK about half of my life and I go there about three time a year. I have watched top gear for years as has my oldest son who is a strong fan. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that top gear "reviews" influence people's opinions. I also don't think this is just down to stupidity (though assuming that everyone understands top gear humor is naive). Clearly some of top gear segments are intentionally ludicrous and no one in their right mind would do anything other than shake their heads and chuckle. Those segments are just fun and forgettable. On the other hand you have the segments where Jeremy clarkson puts on his serious man to man voice as he shares his opinions on the nuances of some super car or another. I've heard people repeat those opinions and they do have weight. If the roadster had been shown electrocuting Jeremy Clarkson complete with smoke coming out of his hair that would be one thing, but he gave a seemingly serious summary (yes he always has some funny analogies during these commentaries) followed by a seemingly real dead car. Typically TG gives you an inkling of which genre they are working in but apparently they can mix the semi serious with the fictional any time they want which means they can say or do anything they want and not be accountable. I imagine if they showed a Lamborghini bursting into flames on the track and said they were dangerous or a Porsche with the wheels falling off, those companies might push back. In the case of Tesla, they were fighting a very difficult battle to change the perception of EVs to the masses. The TG episode no doubt set them back. Not arguing the point would have potentially legitimized the episode. Of course Tesla are not the only car company to tackle TG. See Zenvo as an example. Arguably Tesla had a better case than Zenvo as they (Zenvo) seem to acknowledge that the car actually did catch fire - I.e. It wasn't scripted.
BANG ON! Although, the Stig would figure it out...Clarkson would be left stranded.
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Clarkson regularly dishes Porsche...hes reluctant to say anything nice about them at all. He trashes Lambo's too (especially the German engineered versions like the Baby Bull. He shows bias all over the place - its not exclusive to EVs. The other cars aren't catching on fire, but hes pretty clear in his comments sometimes that he wishes that they would.
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Define news.
In the mean time:
That seems like a pretty good definition to me. And by that definitions ”The daily show” is as much news as anything else. Of course – John Stewart would never say that it is, but that’s just part of his shtick.
Everyone is biased.
Everyone has an agenda.
Nobody is 100% objective.
There is always an angle.
There is always a selection, and as as a consequence there is also always an exclusion.
Unfortunately doing the right thing just isn’t as entertaining as just blowing s#!t up. Or as entertaining as crashing a POS Robin Reliant death trap into another POS Reliant death trap (and throwing in a pornographer – as in Peter Stringfellow – giving a ’helping hand’. Not that I can see ANY humor in that, but maybe there’s some little clever English context that I’m unaware of…)
So what’s TOP GEAR’s agenda?
Tesla is ALL about doing the right thing. Sadly that currently just doesn’t seem to 'gel that well' with Clarkson and his BBC minions.
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Also:
TEAM gpetti (as in post #107 above).
And yes, bollar’s post was truly hilarious :biggrin:
Let me help simplify this:
news = fact that can be verified by more than one source. Like an investigation. Just the facts please.
editorial comment = opinion. Which can then be as biased as one likes back before these two clearly blurred responsible news would preface editorial comment with "its this reporters opinion" or something to let you know the editorial was personal and not news (not to be mistaken for newsworthiness). Nothing wrong with this form of gathering your own opinions as long as you understand the bias in which its being delivered - for example, I understand the Top Gear bias, and still love the show for all it has to offer.
"Doing the right thing" is subjective in itself. Does one assume and deliver the right thing for me (censorship); the right thing for them (all sorts of names for that) or selflessly the right thing for me at their expense? The exclusion or inclusion of editorial comment can be for entertainment (like Top Gear) or cloaked as news (propaganda) but don't call it something that its not to prove a point. The "right thing" is always subjective. News is merely a collection of facts to be shared - you form your own opinion.
I think Tesla is an example of a great concept that has a great vision for an alternative to the way things are done today...of course not without its resistance or faults. Like most things that offer change, it will be poked at - and I think it should be...it helps it grow and people will become more aware of the brand. I have to give the general population more credit than you do. That said, with your last comment, I find it hard to point to a publically traded company as an example of "doing the right thing". Right now that might be true; thats certainly how its starting but its ALWAY about shareholder value in the end. And the right thing will always be to drive that EPS onward and upward.
I love Top Gear. It is an entertainment show. They don't have to tell the truth. But, they pretend like they do tell the truth sometimes, and I feel like if I wanted to learn opinions about cars, that I could glean some from there. Tesla shouldn't care a lot about what Top Gear does because of all of this. However, if Top Gear wants to go ahead and do a half honest review (I think they do another Tesla review this year), so be it. Or they can drop pianos on Teslas. But if Top Gear completely represents a horrible lie about a Tesla that is presented in such a way that it ought to materially hurt Tesla, and it actually does hurt Tesla a lot, then Tesla ought to take action. I think that's what was claimed in the last go around, although to my mind it seemed like a weak claim, but I didn't fully study it.
But as has been stated, Tesla is in a manufacturing bottleneck, not a sales bottleneck.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
The US and other EV markets had to overcome those points too. The UK EV market is horrible even factoring that in. And I think the difference is perception.
Top Gear does sell itself as both though. Sometimes it's a humor show with cars injected, sometimes it's a car review show with humor injected (keep in mind that car reviews, unlike news, are heavily opinion based in the first place). Like gpetti says, some segments the presenters put on their "serious" voice and for the EVs "reviewed" so far that had tended to be the case.
Elon says with great pride that no-one has ever been given a free Tesla. If he were to give away cars, there are many better people to give them to.
Mjsais
Member
The only way to get a fair review (it would still have some anti EV bias/humor) would be for:
1. Tesla needs to built a supercharger within 5 min drive to the TG Surrey Airport
2. Elon should take the car personally to the TG facility and volunteer to be interviewed and to drive the reasonably priced car
3. Tesla (Elon) should be present during the testing procedures
4. Elon should invite and host Jeremy's BBC Boss at the Track during the filming of the episode
1. Tesla needs to built a supercharger within 5 min drive to the TG Surrey Airport
2. Elon should take the car personally to the TG facility and volunteer to be interviewed and to drive the reasonably priced car
3. Tesla (Elon) should be present during the testing procedures
4. Elon should invite and host Jeremy's BBC Boss at the Track during the filming of the episode
TG does not do "reviews" they create fiction for entertainment. Unfortunately many people consider TG a source for information about cars. It is not. But TG fails to understand that.
Mjsais
Member
Ok, Top Gear does not do reviews. I still think that Tesla could get better treatment from Top Gear by doing the points in my original post.
TG know very well what they are doing
just look at the review james may did of the Honda FX clarity, TG are biased against BEVs and pro fuel cells, because thats what they get paid to do
I like TG but still think Stewart Lee makes some very good points :biggrin:
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Cyclone
Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
Top Gear to car reviews is akin to Tool Time to a home improvement show (granted, Tool Time was a fictional show inside the sitcom Home Improvement, but still they are quite similar). Anyone who made a purchasing decision based on either show is fool soon parted from his/her money or this guy. Now, the entertainment value may influence your emotional desires, but it should not change your rational decisions.
Mario Kadastik
Active Member
I think Clarkson would love the P85D and with superchargers coming online I'm not sure the review would be that bad. The SLS review was good up to the point of price and range and both are for the P85D as it competes well in the high perf category and superchargers and 250+ mile range easily work too.
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