brickboy

I saw it was an Accord but my darling wife started talking over the commentary at the wrong moment, so I missed which model & engine. :grr:

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

it's on again at tomorrow at 23:20 on BBC2...make sure you gag her with something ( ) this time

TheBigMan

2.4

brickboy

Just the ordinary 2.4 petrol? Not even a Type R?

@ Ali-B -- thanks, but I need to focus on the programme this time

ScoobyJawa

It will be the 2.4 Type S, not a bad bit of kit as I've been in one, 190bhp, 60 is 7.5 ish or something................

Jap2Scrap

Mind you looking at that DB5 move it might has well have been a Honda Jazz.

GaryK

Yes nothing special engine wise but then nothing special car wise either, the db and the jag are timeless and the kings of cool, in 40 years time who will even remember what a honda accord was???

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Plus a Jag can pull away in top gear from standstill - try that in a honda

Completely useless, but with decent gear/diff ratios it would probably have done better better.
Unless we start talking in gear 50-70 times

E-type v12's were choked up on 4 tiny and crappy zenith/stromberg CD175 carbs for US emissions regs

Brendan Hughes

As I won't get to see this for 3 weeks (if at all, I often miss them on BBC World), can someone provide a brief summary? How were they compared, surely not just laps around the track?

Anyway, well done to TG for making the comparison. They did it last year (or before) when they put Jim Clark's (?) Escort up against a Mitsi Evo, and was it an old GT40 against a Noble. It's a question I often want to see answered - should I buy an old classic or spend the same money on a new slightly more boring car. Heart says the former, head (and now TG) say the latter.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I haven't seen it yet either...I'm just stirring it 'til I get to see it Tomorrow

brickboy

The Honda / E-type / DB5 thing was just a straight-line drag race from rest, not sure what distance it was over.

The Stig also took the DB5 & E-type for a lap of the track, the DB5 was the slowest car they've tested round the track -- slower even than a Range Rover (admittedly an Overfinch 6 litre conversion). It was on original brakes, suspension and crossply tyres however.

The E-type was standard looking but quite highly modded, with AP brakes, modern tyres (still on wires) and uprated suspension but stock engine and was only 0.1 sec outside the Audi TT 3.2's time.

I'd rather have a series 1.5 Interceptor anyway, I'd like to see the Honda keep up with that

Brendan Hughes

Who cares if a DB5 is slower than a Honda? Isn't that what the machine guns in the headlights are for?

brickboy

You wouldn't want anything under the bonnet that would make it any more likely to overheat -- the DB5 disgraced itself on the programme by p1ssing all its coolant out after some hard driving ... cue warped ally head and you won't find one of those down the breaker's ...

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Aston Martin Works service will make and supply you a new cylinder head.....

Depending on how deep you pockets are

dpb

E- type was a *cheap* 50k example...100k for a good one..

gsm1

I didn't see it, I stumbled across JC's review of a Boxster and Merc SLK at the end which was totally pointless and most of the driving edits were not even done during his course.

What's the point of comparing a Honda with an old E-Type or DB5? Hardly a great scientific test, as if we didn't already know many a modern saloon could beat one of these classics in handling and speed. I can just see all those potential E-type/DB5 buyers rushing to the Honda forecourts!

I'll say it again, Top Gear is crap.

dpb

and your point is....

Jap2Scrap

It wasn't a comparison was it. The Honda was solely there to highlight how dog slow the sports cars of the 60's were by today's standards.

Top Gear fits into the 'infotainment' category. Yes, there's some information to be gleaned but generally the programme is for entertainment purposes. If you want reams of statistics on the cars watch Auto Mondial.

GaryK

Actually Brendan they (TG) weren't saying the latter, its all about what you want you either pay a reasonable amount of money for a classic car and accept its foibles or go for something more modern without any of the hassles or if you have an unlimited budget go for a classic fitted with modern brakes and suspension! Buy an old classic but dont expect to use it as your daily driver, for me classics are where its at but you cant beat the build and performance of modern motors.

Gary

Bubba po

You're telling me the Yanks had emissions regs at that time?

gsm1

My point, dpb is that Top Gear is sh*t. A load of self indulgent tossers stating the obvious ( I know I've lined myself up for that one - don't bother ).


Jap2Scrap, that's still a comparison and only the stupid would not know that cars have advanced over the years. Hardly a major surprise. I don't want endless performance figures but I would like some real information and an attempt at a semi-decent review not what Clarkson and his clones decide to say depending on their mood that week.

brickboy

IIRC the V12 wasn't introduced in the E-type until 70 / 71, at that point the emissions regs were starting to bite ... all the big US makers also started detuning their standard motors with smaller carbs and lower compression (although you could still specify hot motors if you looked hard enough at the options sheet )

Jap2Scrap

I know what you're saying but to be honest I must be an idiot because I wouldn't have thought a DB5 would get that roasted by a Honda Accord, in any guise. Of course, we all appreciate the advances in safety aspects - brakes, steering, suspension, etc. but some of us still dream about classic Jags, AM's, Ferraris, etc. and think they're quick cars, if a little impossible to stop!

As for TG itself; 5,000,000 viewers can't be wrong. It's entertainment pure and simple.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I like top gear, its entertaining. To cram it full of facts, figures and tech specs of each shopping car they test would make as dull as 5th gear. And in the end their judgement of if a car is good or bad really is something that can only made on a personal level and not for the whole country. Unless it is a truely awful car Ever read the motoring articles in your local paper and their opinions on cars they test? Bloody hell that is dull, every car is nice. Is comfortable to drive, nippy round town, yet smooth on the motorway...thinking about it not sure what is worse 5th gear or my local paper's motoring journo. Both seem to have biased opinions clouded by sponsors and backhanders of the manufacturers loaning the vehicles. Which I don't think Top Gear is yet to succumb to - thankfully

As for comparisons of old and new. Well, I'd like to see how a 67 Pontiac GTO 400ci or a '67 Plymouth Belvedere GTX with the 426hemi fairs against a New age Impreza WRX on a quarter mile and 0-60. Or a S2000 versus an original AC cobra round a track

All of which are statistically, very closely matched cars. But it would be laugh to see a 60's 2ton muscle car beat a scooby (in a straight line - f**k the twisties )