The wisdom of Jeremy Clarkson!

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Scuderia_Russ
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Joined: 17 Jan 2004, 22:24
Location: Motorsport Valley, England.

The wisdom of Jeremy Clarkson!

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:lol:
"I'm sorry, but having a DB9 on the drive and not driving it is a bit like
having Keira Knightley in your bed and sleeping on the couch. If
you've got even half a scrotum it's not going to happen."


"We start tonight with the highlight of my childhood. It's the Ladybird
Book of Motorcars from 1963, and as you would imagine it's full of
rubbish really. Just endless boring grey shapes, until you get to page
40, where you find the Maserati 3500 GT. Now this for me, when I was
little, was like kind of Jordan and Cameron Diaz. In a bath together.
With a Lightning jet fighter. And lots of jelly."


"[about Porsche Cayman S] There are many things I'd rather be doing than
driving it, including waiting for Bernard Manning to come off stage in a
sweaty nightclub, and then licking his back clean"

......"the last time someone was as wrong as you, was when a politician
stepped off an aeroplane in 1939 waving a piece of paper in the air
saying there will be no war with Germany"


"America: 250 million ******s living in a country with no word for ******"

On the Alfa Romeo Brera...
"I only have to imagine this in black, with tan leather and I'm nursing
a semi!"

Illustrating the lack of power of a Boxster - 'It couldn't pull a
greased stick out of a pig's bottom'

On the Vauxhall Vectra VXR:
"there is a word to describe this car: it begins with "s" and ends with
"t" and its not "soot".
Hammond:"So its fairly terrible then?"
Clarkson:"Oh no...losing your leg is fairly terrible: this is another
league of badness!"

"some say, that he used to throw microwave ovens at homeless people -
and that he long before anyone else realised that jade goody is a racist
pig faced waste of blood and organs............all we know, is that he's
called the Stig!"


"the Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like unprotected sex with an
Ethiopian transvestite"

"Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary... that's what
gets you."

'The air conditioning in Lambos used to be an asthmatic sitting in the
dashboard blowing at you through a straw'

"Koenigsegg are saying that the CCX is more comfortable. More
comfortable than what... BEING STABBED?"

"The only person to ever look good in the back of a 4-seater convertible
was Adolf Hitler"

(Fed up during the caravanning trip)
"You aren't allowed to have a party, you aren't allowed to have music,
you aren't allowed to play ball games, you aren't allowed to have a camp
fire, you have to park within two feet of a post, you have to keep
quiet, you have to be in bed by eleven. This is not a holiday, it's a
concentration camp!"


"This is the Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers.
Not that that's much to shout about. That's like saying "Ooh good I've
got syphilis, the BEST of the sexually transmitted diseases.""

(Mercedes CL S55) "Braking in this car is so brutal, it would be less
painful to actually hit the tree you were trying to miss."


"I don't understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places
quicker than I do?"

Clarkson's highway code on cyclists: 'trespassers in the motorcars
domain, they do not pay road tax and therefore have no right to be on
the road, some of them even believe they are going fast enough to not be
an obstruction. Run them down to prove them wrong'


"I was reading The Mirror the other day and came across a letter from a
reader who wrote, 'I was riding my bike to work when this red Ferrari
pulled up next to me. Out of the window, Jeremy Clarkson shouted 'Get a
car', and drove off.' What I actually said was, 'Get a car you hatchet
faced, leaf-eating Nazi"


"Britain's nuclear submarines have been deemed unsafe...probably because
they don't have wheel-chair access"


"Now we get quite a lot of complaints that we don't feature enough
affordable cars on the show......so we'll kick off tonight with the
cheapest Ferrari of them all!"


On the Lotus Elise:
"This car is more fun than the entire French air force crashing into a
firework factory"

"Now as you can see I lost the battle to have two engines on the back
because of three very important reasons. One: weight. This is 600 Lbs
and that's the same as having a whole American sitting on the tailgate..."


"I would still buy the DB9 over this, and save myself the £60,000. The
problem with this car is its gearbox, its just........"
Hammond:"THAT bad is it?"
Clarkson:"Oh no. Robert Mugabe is bad, this is in a whole different
league!"

In the olden days I always got the impression that TVR built a car, put
it on sale, and then found out how it handled. Usually when one of their
customers wrote to the factory complaining about how dead he was.


Assessing Hammond's crash:
Clarkson:"you can see from the tape that the tyre is starting to come
apart. now why didn't you spot that?!"
Hammond:"I had a lot on: I was doing 288 mph."
Clarkson: "What do you mean you had a lot on? I can be in the office on
the phone, doing the paperwork, kids are shouting at me, wife etc, if a
lion walks in, I'm going to notice it!"


"Sure it's quiet, for a diesel. But that's like being well-behaved...
for a murderer."

"I don't often agree with the RSPCA as I believe it is an animals duty
to be on my plate at supper time"


"there are footballers wives that would be happy with this quality of
stitching.........on their face"

"Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work.
It's like making a hard core adult film, and then editing it so that it
can be shown in British hotels. You'd just end up with a sort of half
hour close up of some bloke's sweaty face. "


"Much more of a hoot to drive than you might imagine. Think of it, if
you like, as a librarian with a G-string under the tweed. I do, and it
helps."



"you cant have this car with a diesel, its like saying, I wont go to
stringfellows tonight, I'll get my mum to give me a lap dance, she's a
woman!"


"During the break we got complaints that we don't show enough green cars
so here's one..."
Pointing to a Lamborghini Murcielago... in bright green

Tonight, the new Viper, which is the American equivalent of a sports
car... in the same way, I guess, that George Bush is the equivalent of a
President.



"Honestly, I have seen more attractive gangrenous wounds than this. It has
the sex appeal of a camel with gingivitis."
(Jeremy said this of the Porsche Cayenne!)
"Whether you think you can or can't, either way you are right."
-Henry Ford-

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modbaraban
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Joined: 05 Apr 2007, 17:44
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Thanx for a good laugh. Surprisingly I've seen most of that in U-tube :shock:

kurtiejjj
kurtiejjj
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Joined: 21 Jan 2007, 17:40

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Great stuff, I'm a big clarkson fan! I was hoping to contribute some quotes but actually I can't think off any you haven't listed already :P

mx_tifoso
mx_tifoso
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Joined: 30 Nov 2006, 05:01
Location: North America

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These are some of my favorites from that list :!: :lol: :lol:
"Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary... that's what gets you."
'The air conditioning in Lambos used to be an asthmatic sitting in the dashboard blowing at you through a straw'
(Mercedes CL S55) "Braking in this car is so brutal, it would be less
painful to actually hit the tree you were trying to miss."
In the olden days I always got the impression that TVR built a car, put it on sale, and then found out how it handled. Usually when one of their customers wrote to the factory complaining about how dead he was.
:lol:
(And the American jokes as well!)

Thanks for the much needed late night laugh!
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modbaraban
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mx_tifosi wrote:
In the olden days I always got the impression that TVR built a car, put it on sale, and then found out how it handled. Usually when one of their customers wrote to the factory complaining about how dead he was.
One more from that series (not a 100% precise quote)

...there were no airbags (TVR), their approach was "Well, don't crash then!" :)

Belatti
Belatti
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Joined: 10 Jul 2007, 21:48
Location: Argentina

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What wisdom?
I dont know this guy, but he seems to be a jerk.
"You need great passion, because everything you do with great pleasure, you do well." -Juan Manuel Fangio

"I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence." -Ayrton Senna

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Tom
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Joined: 13 Jan 2006, 00:24
Location: Bicester

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If you take him seriously he's a jerk. He's rude, arrogant, zenephobic and knows about as much about cars as my sister, Many people do take him too seriously and hang onto his every word, becoming jerks themselves.

However to enjoy Clarkson and his 'wisdom' you have to understand that he knows his car knowledge is appaling, he actively tries to be rude, arrogant and zenephobic because it entertains people and at the end of the day thats what he's paid for. If you ignore the gaping holes in his logic then he does become quite amusing, and its as much the way he tells it as what he says.
Murphy's 9th Law of Technology:
Tell a man there are 300 million stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.

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Scuderia_Russ
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Joined: 17 Jan 2004, 22:24
Location: Motorsport Valley, England.

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If you can get to Silverstone this weekend you will see the Top Gear crew taking part in the Britcar 24 hour race. We are on the bill too racing a Norma M20 sportscar in Britsports series. My boss and I were looking at the entry list for gthe 24 hr and it said 'Class 4 Diesel: Team Top Gear. Drivers Hammond, May, Clarkson, Stig. Car:BMW 330.' They must be filming for the new series. Our last race finishes at about 2p.m. on Saturday (they try to get everyone out of the way ready for the 24 hr.) so I'm going to try to hassle them up and get some pics. Gotta get some sleep now though. Qually 1 and race 1 tomorrow.
"Whether you think you can or can't, either way you are right."
-Henry Ford-

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checkered
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Joined: 02 Mar 2007, 14:32

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Scuderia_Russ wrote:We are on the bill too racing a Norma M20 sportscar in Britsports series. ...

'Class 4 Diesel: Team Top Gear. Drivers Hammond, May, Clarkson, Stig. Car:BMW 330.' ... I'm going to try to hassle them up and get some pics.
Cool, pics would be nice, but don't push too hard on our account. Wouldn't be surprised if Stig and Cap'n Slow (having been instructed by Stewart) were the most reliable drivers. Clarkson will be fighting the urge to cause some drama, I'm sure. Stig's real identity must be known by a select few in the event, but I'd rather not know even if you came up with a document listing his real identity!

I visited Norma's website; space frame, Honda engine etc, impressive looking machine. It must be a decent challenge to set up. What kind of equipment are you up against? I wouldn't mind making comparisons and finding out a bit more if you just pointed my browser in the right direction.

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Scuderia_Russ
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Joined: 17 Jan 2004, 22:24
Location: Motorsport Valley, England.

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See Look who I met Yesterday thread.
"Whether you think you can or can't, either way you are right."
-Henry Ford-

bogartrules
bogartrules
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Joined: 28 Jul 2007, 08:40

clarksons wisdom

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I am a huge top gear fan, I even like some of clarksons jokes albeit not the ones that just go to the sick on Americans as we are not what he makes us appear to be. Like in the f150 review oh how we are all incestuous I think even that was way over the top. I love da hamster he is a great presenter and James May is every thing a proper British gentleman should be LOL. well that is my 2 cents worth.

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Rob W
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Re: The wisdom of Jeremy Clarkson!

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Scuderia_Russ wrote:"Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary... that's what gets you."
:lol: Class.

Rob W

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Re: The wisdom of Jeremy Clarkson!

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Recommended:
Jeremy Clarkson wrote:You may not understand the appeal of motor racing. You may not like it. But me? I have never understood how it is technically possible. Think about it. If you are in the lead, you take the fastest line through the corner which means the chap behind has to be on a slower line. This means he cannot get past. It is impossible.

And how do you outbrake someone into a bend? The chap in front will brake at the last possible moment, which means you have to brake beyond the last possible moment. And to make matters worse, you have to brake more because you'll be going faster, and you'll be off line.

Any attempt, therefore, to make an overtaking manoeuvre in motor racing can only result in one thing: your untimely and extremely painful death.

This is one of the reasons why I have always found it easy to say no when someone has offered me "a drive". There are other reasons though. I look stupid in racing overalls. My head is too large and misshapen to fit in a helmet. And for some extraordinary reason, I'm always busy doing something else when the invites arrive. "Oh I'm sorry. I'd love to. But I've just looked in my diary and I'm planning on laying an egg that day."

Once, however, I gave in. It was for a charity of some sort, and though it would be held in front of a Silverstone Grand Prix crowd, we'd all be driving measly Honda Civics. Better still, I wouldn't be up against lantern-jawed superheroes called Clint Thrust. It was a field full of people like John Alderton and Jeremy Irons.

At Stowe, on lap one, I put my theory about the impossibility of overtaking to the test and found it flawed. I did get past. But I don't know how, because I had my eyes shut from the moment I stamped on the brake pedal.

It was so frightening I began to hyperventilate, which caused my visor to steam up. And as a result, the chap I'd got past retook the place immediately.

The next lap, I realised I was catching him again and that if I wasn't careful, I'd be in a position to overtake once more at Stowe. Since I'd tried it once, and had found the experience to be less enjoyable than catching genital warts, I lifted my foot ever so slightly from the floor.

No one was any the wiser and it meant I didn't have to do any silly hero plunges into the corners. Everyone was happy, and I came third. Feeling a bit sick and vowing that I'd never do it again.

So I don't quite know how I ended up back at Silverstone for last year's Britcar 24. But I do know this. I loved it. And that makes me very angry.

Over the years, I've tried my hand at all sorts of things that you might call hobbies. I collected stamps as a boy. I had a train set. I've attempted to put up shelves, gardening, reading, chess, jigsaws, golf, tennis, painting, bird spotting, and looking at pornography on the internet. And I've been extremely bad at all of them.

And then, at the age of 47, when it's far too late, I discover something that I can not only do, but which, more importantly, I absolutely adore. Endurance motor racing. At face value, it looks like normal motor racing.

There are motorhomes, and lap tops and people in branded shirts rushing about, pretending to be Bernie Ecclestone. But there is one difference...

For the first half of the race, everyone is keen to do as many hours as possible. And for the second half, everyone wants to finish. This means that when you want to overtake someone, they get out of your way. There's none of that scrabbling around that you get in a sprint race.

And what made this doubly enjoyable was that our little BMW diesel, which we'd bought from the classifieds, for £11,000, was such a joyful car to drive. Even with a revised engine management system, it wasn't what you'd call fast. In fact, it was what you'd call slow. But with lower, stiffer suspension, slick tyres and bigger brakes it cornered and gripped like no car I'd ever driven before.

All the way from Stowe to the pit straight, it was an easy match for everything up to, and including, the 911s. On one occasion, I made a lunge for the supercharged works Jag and, even though I'd started from a long way back, I damn nearly made it.

Lesser stuff: Golfs and so on? They were a breeze. Our car could outbrake them easily and outgrip them as well. Often, the stuff that comes out of the Top Gear technology centre is a bit of a disaster. But that BMW? Jesus. It was astonishing.

Truth be told though, you never really compete out there against other cars. When you come across a pair of tail lights in the night, you don't know what it is, what class it's in, whether it's 200 laps ahead or 300 behind. So, it's not really racing.

Honestly then, what you do is spend most of your time competing against your team mates. Trying to go faster than they did. Sadly, in my case, this was a waste of time. There was no way I could be as fast as the Stig, even if I'd fitted warp drive. And, without wishing to be too disloyal, May and Hammond were a bit pedestrian.

I therefore spent most of the time competing against myself. Trying to make each lap a little bit faster, and a little bit smoother and a little bit kinder to the tyres than the one that went before. I found this more satisfying than almost anything I've ever done. Certainly, it was more successful than my shelves. Or my golf.

And, for the first time, I began to understand all that motor racing chit chat I'd heard over the years. When the tyres go off, you really can feel the grip going. And when we lost the front splitter, which I'd only attached because it looked good, we also lost four seconds a lap. Yes. One bit of plywood makes you four seconds a lap faster.

But it was the night time I enjoyed most. Aiming for a corner you can't see and then feeling the inside tyres kissing the rumble strips was so wondrous that sometimes I think I may have even been nursing a semi. Conversely, aiming for a corner you can't see and then finding it's not there because you're on the other side of the track is so alarming that your blood boils and your teeth move about.

As a result of this massive range of emotions, you never feel tired. Not even when the tyres are shot or the tank is empty and you have to pull in for a break. You sit there, in the garage, with everyone telling you to get some rest, but you can't because your blood is fizzing like champagne and you are just so excited.

Strangely, however, I never felt like I was in any danger. Everyone assumes motor racing is only one stepping stone from the Pearly Gates, but at Silverstone, in a diesel BMW, it felt no more perilous than sunbathing. Mainly because the barriers are all so far away I would have died of old age before I hit them.

It's not a cheap thrill this. Quite apart from the cost of the car, and the modifications, our tyre bill at the end was £6,000. Money, though, should concern no one engaged in a pursuit of happiness. It was invented for spending. And I can think of nothing I'd rather spend it on.

Oh and just in case you think these are the ramblings of a senile old man who thinks he could have been Michael Schumacher if he'd been given the chance, consider this: James May aka, Captain Slow, agrees with every word. Next year, I suspect we may be back.

Clarkson on motor racing

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Roland Ehnström
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Re:

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Belatti wrote:What wisdom?
I dont know this guy, but he seems to be a jerk.
I agree. OK, he has his moments, but most of the time he's just plain annoying. :|