Top Gear w/ Tesla, Clarity, Leno, Tom Jones!
03-28-09, 08:04 PM
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Top Gear w/ Tesla, Clarity, Leno, Tom Jones!
well, i just watched a top gear with a review of the tesla sports car (interesting, ridiculously expensive, runs out of power after 55mi. of hard flogging and then requires 16 hrs of recharge, um no), the Honda FCX (hydrogen) Clarity (James May thinks it's the most important car in 100 years! and leno beautifully trashed the moral superiority of ugly prius drivers), Tom Jones did the test lap...
wow, what a show!
HIGHLY recommended
wow, what a show!
HIGHLY recommended
03-28-09, 09:03 PM
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one thing you have to consider is that topgear is full of ******. it's great entertainment...but there was a lot of talk about the tesla show...I think they admited in the end that the car was still running when they pushed it into the garage. Clarkson has a hard on for electric cars. he hates them.
03-28-09, 09:27 PM
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thats so funny that you brought this up. i remember seeing the episode on youtube last year (it aired in december), but i found it on my Comcast OnDemand under TV Series, then Top gear, and watched it again today.
03-29-09, 01:47 AM
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http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/12/tesla-cries-fou.html
Tesla Cries Foul On Top Gear's Test
By Chuck Squatriglia December 16, 2008
All may not be as it appears with Jeremy Clarkson's test of the Tesla Roadster for Top Gear.
As we mentioned yesterday, Clarkson raved about the EV's sublime acceleration, but ultimately decided the Roadster doesn't live up to the hype because the two cars Tesla sent over for the test ran out of juice after 55 miles, needed 16 hours to recharge and broke down.
Or did they?
Tesla spokesman Rachel Konrad dropped us a line to clarify a few points in Top Gear's test.
First and foremost, she says, the lithium-ion batteries in the two cars never went dead. In fact, they never fell below 20 percent charge. "They never had to push a car off the track because of lack of charge or a fault," and it isn't clear why the segment included footage showing exactly that, she said.
She's also puzzled by Clarkson's claim that the car needed 16 hours to charge. She says "the vast majority" of people who have a Tesla in their garage -- and there are now more than 100 of them -- "have much faster systems that recharge from dead to full in as little as 3.5 hours."
As for the breakdowns, well, Clarkson engaged in a bit of hyperbole. At one point in the segment, Clarkson is shown behind the wheel of a Roadster that comes to a halt because, he said, the engine overheated. That followed a brake failure in the other Roadster.
Konrad says the brake failure was nothing more than a blown fuse that was promptly replaced. "The Roadster was back up and running literally within minutes," she says. "They were never without a car, and the Top Gear testing did not put the Roadster's reliability or safety in question whatsoever."
Konrad didn't know the story behind the overheated engine -- Clarkson did flog the car mercilessly -- so she referred our question to UK sales manager Don Cochrane because he was present for much of the Top Gear filming. We'll let you know what he says.
Despite his technical complaints, Clarkson was impressed enough by the Roadster to declare himself a "volt head" and say "it is snowing in hell" because he had such fun driving it. "This is amazingly high praise from Clarkson, whose entire schtick is to savage even his most beloved petrol-guzzling sports cars," Konrad says.
Tesla Cries Foul On Top Gear's Test
By Chuck Squatriglia December 16, 2008
All may not be as it appears with Jeremy Clarkson's test of the Tesla Roadster for Top Gear.
As we mentioned yesterday, Clarkson raved about the EV's sublime acceleration, but ultimately decided the Roadster doesn't live up to the hype because the two cars Tesla sent over for the test ran out of juice after 55 miles, needed 16 hours to recharge and broke down.
Or did they?
Tesla spokesman Rachel Konrad dropped us a line to clarify a few points in Top Gear's test.
First and foremost, she says, the lithium-ion batteries in the two cars never went dead. In fact, they never fell below 20 percent charge. "They never had to push a car off the track because of lack of charge or a fault," and it isn't clear why the segment included footage showing exactly that, she said.
She's also puzzled by Clarkson's claim that the car needed 16 hours to charge. She says "the vast majority" of people who have a Tesla in their garage -- and there are now more than 100 of them -- "have much faster systems that recharge from dead to full in as little as 3.5 hours."
As for the breakdowns, well, Clarkson engaged in a bit of hyperbole. At one point in the segment, Clarkson is shown behind the wheel of a Roadster that comes to a halt because, he said, the engine overheated. That followed a brake failure in the other Roadster.
Konrad says the brake failure was nothing more than a blown fuse that was promptly replaced. "The Roadster was back up and running literally within minutes," she says. "They were never without a car, and the Top Gear testing did not put the Roadster's reliability or safety in question whatsoever."
Konrad didn't know the story behind the overheated engine -- Clarkson did flog the car mercilessly -- so she referred our question to UK sales manager Don Cochrane because he was present for much of the Top Gear filming. We'll let you know what he says.
Despite his technical complaints, Clarkson was impressed enough by the Roadster to declare himself a "volt head" and say "it is snowing in hell" because he had such fun driving it. "This is amazingly high praise from Clarkson, whose entire schtick is to savage even his most beloved petrol-guzzling sports cars," Konrad says.
Last edited by MGS4; 03-29-09 at 05:47 PM.
03-29-09, 05:49 AM
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03-29-09, 05:50 AM
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MGS4 - link to source of your quoted article please? or it gets deleted. thanks.
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03-29-09, 05:53 AM
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one thing you have to consider is that topgear is full of ******. it's great entertainment...but there was a lot of talk about the tesla show...I think they admited in the end that the car was still running when they pushed it into the garage. Clarkson has a hard on for electric cars. he hates them.
but james may rightly so praises the honda clarity fcx as the real deal over the tesla with 6000 laptop batteries.
the tesla, while interesting, is still a pretty useless AND expensive vehicle.
03-29-09, 10:05 AM
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I think this is the link http://videos.streetfire.net/video/T...ric_205794.htm. Streetfire.net has almost every Top Gear episode. It's pretty nice.
03-29-09, 10:43 AM
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Tesla Cries Foul On Top Gear's Test
By Chuck Squatriglia December 16, 2008
All may not be as it appears with Jeremy Clarkson's test of the Tesla Roadster for Top Gear.
As we mentioned yesterday, Clarkson raved about the EV's sublime acceleration, but ultimately decided the Roadster doesn't live up to the hype because the two cars Tesla sent over for the test ran out of juice after 55 miles, needed 16 hours to recharge and broke down.
Or did they?
Tesla spokesman Rachel Konrad dropped us a line to clarify a few points in Top Gear's test.
First and foremost, she says, the lithium-ion batteries in the two cars never went dead. In fact, they never fell below 20 percent charge. "They never had to push a car off the track because of lack of charge or a fault," and it isn't clear why the segment included footage showing exactly that, she said.
She's also puzzled by Clarkson's claim that the car needed 16 hours to charge. She says "the vast majority" of people who have a Tesla in their garage -- and there are now more than 100 of them -- "have much faster systems that recharge from dead to full in as little as 3.5 hours."
As for the breakdowns, well, Clarkson engaged in a bit of hyperbole. At one point in the segment, Clarkson is shown behind the wheel of a Roadster that comes to a halt because, he said, the engine overheated. That followed a brake failure in the other Roadster.
Konrad says the brake failure was nothing more than a blown fuse that was promptly replaced. "The Roadster was back up and running literally within minutes," she says. "They were never without a car, and the Top Gear testing did not put the Roadster's reliability or safety in question whatsoever."
Konrad didn't know the story behind the overheated engine -- Clarkson did flog the car mercilessly -- so she referred our question to UK sales manager Don Cochrane because he was present for much of the Top Gear filming. We'll let you know what he says.
Despite his technical complaints, Clarkson was impressed enough by the Roadster to declare himself a "volt head" and say "it is snowing in hell" because he had such fun driving it. "This is amazingly high praise from Clarkson, whose entire schtick is to savage even his most beloved petrol-guzzling sports cars," Konrad says.
By Chuck Squatriglia December 16, 2008
All may not be as it appears with Jeremy Clarkson's test of the Tesla Roadster for Top Gear.
As we mentioned yesterday, Clarkson raved about the EV's sublime acceleration, but ultimately decided the Roadster doesn't live up to the hype because the two cars Tesla sent over for the test ran out of juice after 55 miles, needed 16 hours to recharge and broke down.
Or did they?
Tesla spokesman Rachel Konrad dropped us a line to clarify a few points in Top Gear's test.
First and foremost, she says, the lithium-ion batteries in the two cars never went dead. In fact, they never fell below 20 percent charge. "They never had to push a car off the track because of lack of charge or a fault," and it isn't clear why the segment included footage showing exactly that, she said.
She's also puzzled by Clarkson's claim that the car needed 16 hours to charge. She says "the vast majority" of people who have a Tesla in their garage -- and there are now more than 100 of them -- "have much faster systems that recharge from dead to full in as little as 3.5 hours."
As for the breakdowns, well, Clarkson engaged in a bit of hyperbole. At one point in the segment, Clarkson is shown behind the wheel of a Roadster that comes to a halt because, he said, the engine overheated. That followed a brake failure in the other Roadster.
Konrad says the brake failure was nothing more than a blown fuse that was promptly replaced. "The Roadster was back up and running literally within minutes," she says. "They were never without a car, and the Top Gear testing did not put the Roadster's reliability or safety in question whatsoever."
Konrad didn't know the story behind the overheated engine -- Clarkson did flog the car mercilessly -- so she referred our question to UK sales manager Don Cochrane because he was present for much of the Top Gear filming. We'll let you know what he says.
Despite his technical complaints, Clarkson was impressed enough by the Roadster to declare himself a "volt head" and say "it is snowing in hell" because he had such fun driving it. "This is amazingly high praise from Clarkson, whose entire schtick is to savage even his most beloved petrol-guzzling sports cars," Konrad says.
Source: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008...pagemode=print
Ya...it was quite a stir on finalgear forums where many actual didn't like what TG did.
BBC's reply to the incident..."Top Gear stands by the findings in this film and is content that it offers a fair representation of the Tesla's performance on the day it was tested."
03-31-09, 07:21 PM
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Yeah, I enjoy Topgear, but Clarkson is sure to insert his bias wherever he feels. I just saw this episode. They even portrayed the Nuclear power plant powering the Tesla with filter that made it appear dirty. Newsflash: Nuclear plants don't release air pollutants!
03-31-09, 10:37 PM
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As far as you million dollar FCX clarity: I'm 26 years old, maybe before I die we'll see a decent hydrogen car for a decent price. But for now, electric seems to be the way. Proton from Malaysia just announced they are partnering with detroit electric to make a $25,000 family 4 door electric car that will get 100-200 miles on a full charge.
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