Tonights top gear... There was a rover on it!

cookci · Post by **cookci** » Sun May 23, 2004 9:57 pm

Did anyone watch tonights top gear?

Am i right in thinking that the rover 416 GTI they thrashed round the track was pretty quick. I thought it did it in 1 min 42 seconds - was that right?

Steve220 · Post by **Steve220** » Sun May 23, 2004 9:59 pm

yeh, its been the topic of discussion on MG-R.org for a few weeks now. To be honest, i think it survived pretty well going into the wall

xr4x4 · Post by **xr4x4** » Sun May 23, 2004 10:18 pm

really crap mpg tho...

Sheaf · Post by **Sheaf** » Sun May 23, 2004 10:27 pm

I got the impression it was seriously abused, taped up sunroof, no head unit, 24mpg on a run I think it was, and did anyone else see all the smoke coming out the back?

That volvo was a bargain at Â£1... not bad for a tank...

cookci · Post by **cookci** » Sun May 23, 2004 10:30 pm

did you see the stig when he was starting off the line in the volve... he looked down to his feet as if to check he was pushing the correct pedal down

radddogg · Post by **radddogg** » Sun May 23, 2004 11:31 pm

The 416 must've been well poorly as my 216 returns at least 35mpg

radddogg · Post by **radddogg** » Sun May 23, 2004 11:32 pm

The 416 must've been well poorly as my 216 returns at least 35mpg plus my brakes are far better than that.

malcolm_durant · Post by **malcolm_durant** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:20 am

Unsurprising introduction to the car...

"Look he's bought a Rover...HA HA HA HA HA"

And then the guy driving said they were crap when new. Convinced all the tests of the 200/400 range at the time really quite rated it (especially the GTi twin-cam)...

Just what the brand needs...some more idiotic bias on prime-time telly.

Malcolm

Grant620 · Post by **Grant620** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:33 am

I just emailed the team and told them they were full of cr4p.

MGJohn · Post by **MGJohn** » Mon May 24, 2004 2:09 am

What you guys doing watching 'Germany Clarkson' :twisted:

on a fine Sunday evening? Beautiful sunshine, Holly Blue Butterflies fluttering around my evergreen bushes and birdies singing plus, you should be out enjoying your cars like wot I do.,,,,,

That's what I did - infinitely preferable to watching "I hate all MGs and their Drivers" Herr Clarkson.... :roll:

Apart from two hours watching the F1 coverage (Go'rn Jenson - good race eh?), I spent a pleasent few hours tinkering and achieved quite a lot. The Montego Turbo I bought last summer needs three different keys for door and ignition and none of those is able to open the boot lid for which I have to use the remote lever, central locking, or depress the boot lock button when central locking is deactivated. Bit of a pain all those keys.

Couple months back, there was a low mileage F reg Silver Montego Mayfair in the local breakers - fine condition with less than 60,000 on the clock. One of the local "Arfur Daleys" used car lots must have taken it in in part exchange and if the trade can't 'earn' out of these fine old cars within a few weeks on their lots, they're off to the crusher. That's where I come in...

Two keys in the car and both fitted everything in this well cared for car including the lockable glove box. So, I removed the complete steering column assembly including intermediate shaft, totally rust free driver's door including stainless steel finished electric door mirror, all the various boot (incl. electric motor), fuel filler flap, glove box and door locks, all the fine chrome door handles and that little lot cost me less than 40 quid and about an hour to remove from that car.

With the exception of the driver's door which I want for another car, all those bits are now on my Silver Leaf Montego Turbo. Fitting the steering column, I carefully aligned the front wheels straight ahead then connected the splined intermediate shaft to the steering rack ensuring that the steering lock was locked in so doing. Thus, my steering wheel now locks in the straight ahead position - I hate it when cars dont do that but lock at some awkward angle.... often an indicator that something is not right!

So I gave Herr Clarkson a miss, as I did last week and again I don't think I missed much. That is apart from the usual anti-brit snide comments about british cars like MGs and Rovers which quite frankly may appeal to the owners of Built in Spain Novas and what have you, but never to me. Yes, smugly pleased I gave our "Germany' a miss...

... and the bonus is that the old Monty Turbo is shaping up nicely, in good time for it's 20th birthday... and STILL going strong ... VERY strong!

Post by **SubCat001** » Mon May 24, 2004 3:17 am

Sorry John I've got to disagree with you. Clarkson certainly isn't biased towards German cars. Quite the opposite...He used to hate the 911 & he's often made his views on BMWs clear. Rover & MG are just easy targets.

Top Gear is well and truely turning into a Middle Class Max Power.

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Mon May 24, 2004 8:35 am

Missed this, has anyone Recorded it so that I can get a copy / maybe get it encoded :?:

mach1rob · Post by **mach1rob** » Mon May 24, 2004 10:40 am

There's also a feature on it in this months TopGear magazine, just had a quick scan through, and it did say that 'Titch' was gunning it everywhere, so that would explain the low mpg

The Rover beat the others in everything except braking, and the mpg test. Thought it stood up very well to the wall. OK they drove the volvo off it and away, but doubt it would've got very far judging by the amount of coolant that came out of it :wink:

Si · Post by Si » Mon May 24, 2004 12:12 pm

mach1rob wrote:The Rover beat the others in everything except braking, and the mpg test. Thought it stood up very well to the wall. OK they drove the volvo off it and away, but doubt it would've got very far judging by the amount of coolant that came out of it

Yeah we thought that, no doubt the rovers fuel cut was activated too

Lisa · Post by **Lisa** » Mon May 24, 2004 5:33 pm

Grant620 wrote:I just emailed the team and told them they were full of cr4p.

Did you ?? Good for you Grant !! And thanks for sticking up fior us all

Marco · Post by **Marco** » Mon May 24, 2004 10:54 pm

The problem with Top Gear is the three guys on there are used to driving nice, newer cars such as Porsches, Merc's, Ferrari's etc. I think Clarkson owns a Merc 500 in real life, the other guy owns a Porsche 911 and the older guy drives a Bentley / Rolls (can't remeber which). Now, they go out and spend upto Â£100 quid on a car - what do they expect of these cars? They were at that price for a reason, sorry, but it was a complete waste of time, as all they've done was slate Rovers, Audi and Volvo on prime time Sunday evening TV when most people aren't watching Heartbeat. Now lets see them go out and find a Â£100 BMW, Â£100 Merc - you can't find one cos they don't exist. And if they did, they'd turn the car into somekind of hero - remember the toyota pick-up truck they had?

Marco
(Thanks Top Gear, had the Pi$$ taken out of me at work today because of them!)

metro nut · Post by **metro nut** » Mon May 24, 2004 11:00 pm

didnt clarkson hav one of those merk sl55 amg things??? if i remember it is a gay car??? wot a loser :twisted:

roverspeed · Post by **roverspeed** » Tue May 25, 2004 11:39 pm

Merc SL55 AMG

3rd gayiest car currently! or so we're told

he used to have a 355! Lanky *sniff* I love u!!!!