Just finished the last ever episode of "The Grand Tour" featuring Clarkson, Hammond, and May. I've watched every last episode of Top Gear (with the three of them) and the entirety of The Grand Tour. I've watched their specials a bunch of times over.
Hell, I even got my wife watching the show and despite not really liking cars... she loved their relationship and banter. She even developed a crush on James May. Who could blame her?
It may be dumb or silly because I don't know them and they don't know I even exist... but it feels like saying goodbye to 3 friends.
Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx:
Just finished the last ever episode of "The Grand Tour" featuring Clarkson, Hammond, and May. I've watched every last episode of Top Gear (with the three of them) and the entirety of The Grand Tour. I've watched their specials a bunch of times over.
Hell, I even got my wife watching the show and despite not really liking cars... she loved their relationship and banter. She even developed a crush on James May. Who could blame her? ��
It may be dumb or silly because I don't know them and they don't know I even exist... but it feels like saying goodbye to 3 friends.
My sentiments exactly. Although I may plan a trip to Clarkson’s farm. I teared up a few times. I actually teared up at the opening sequence when The Grand Tour first aired. It was seeing three friends after a few year absence. My wife also enjoys the show. I’ve gotten her into Clarkson Farm and James May’s our man in series. This show will be my most missed. [Reply]
I also can relate to Clarkson’s comment about one of the reasons why he’s walking away… he hates EV’s and recognizes that it’s where his profession is headed. He likened them to kitchen appliances.
I could never see myself owning an EV. From a performance perspective with full torque at 1RPM, I get it. But the growl of an ICE engine just evokes simpler times. Better times. And I’ve dropped tens of thousands of dollars and hours of sweat modifying my cars to make them faster. That’s passion. I don’t know how it’d get that with EV’s. [Reply]
Originally Posted by modocsot:
I also can relate to Clarkson’s comment about one of the reasons why he’s walking away… he hates EV’s and recognizes that it’s where his profession is headed. He likened them to kitchen appliances.
I could never see myself owning an EV. From a performance perspective with full torque at 1RPM, I get it. But the growl of an ICE engine just evokes simpler times. Better times. And I’ve dropped tens of thousands of dollars and hours of sweat modifying my cars to make them faster. That’s passion. I don’t know how it’d get that with EV’s.
Can you think of no way to improve upon an EV? Battery longevity, suspension and handling, lighter… it’s late and my brains dead, but I had this conversation with my step-dad and he came up with quite a few ways to improve upon ev performance. [Reply]
Originally Posted by UteChief:
Can you think of no way to improve upon an EV? Battery longevity, suspension and handling, lighter… it’s late and my brains dead, but I had this conversation with my step-dad and he came up with quite a few ways to improve upon ev performance.
The richest man on the planet and owner of Tesla is struggling to improve EVs. And from my understanding, tech giant countries are toying around with ammonia ICE engines.
EV sucks. The range and time to recharge is going to keep it from being a mainstream form of transportation. Not to mention the cost of replacing the batteries. People want to talk about no maintenance but you still have tires to replace and while the average annual cost for repairs of an ICE vehicle is like $500, it costs like $12k to replace the batteries in an EV and thats going to be every 10 years or so. [Reply]
Originally Posted by UteChief:
Can you think of no way to improve upon an EV? Battery longevity, suspension and handling, lighter… it’s late and my brains dead, but I had this conversation with my step-dad and he came up with quite a few ways to improve upon ev performance.
I can recognize that Citizen Kane is an objectively 'better' movie than Top Gun.
Still gonna prefer Top Gun.
I absolutely understand where he's coming from. The EV is a natural evolution. It will eventually evolve to the point that it's simply the better option than the ICE. Or something else will come along like a hydrogen cell or whatever.
They'll be better than this thing we invented 100 years ago. But I'm going to prefer my snarly old gas guzzlers with their thunder and flash.
That said, I think he's being a little melodramatic. The ICE is going to outlive Clarkson. And their best episodes weren't because they were out there with the newest wiz-bang supercar. They were usually in old clunkers they were limping through some insane series of tests.
They'd be able to do that for another 20 years if they wanted to.
It's fine to just say "Hey, I'm old and fat, we're running out of ideas and we have other things we enjoy doing with the piles of money we've accumulated over the years..."
And why wouldn't they? I mean man, if you have the kind of life those 3 all have, why would you ever go out there strapping yourself into a Vampire dragster again? May 'bout brained himself falling off a camel. Clarkson fucked his back/neck up a couple times. Just...why?
You don't owe anyone an explanation, fellas - we all know whats up.
We'll see ya in the reruns, guys. It's been fun. [Reply]