Clarkson: Racist

[anonymous-user]

rohrl said:

Or they could just make a car-based entertainment show with less of the jingoistic tttery and keep everyone happy.

Viewing figures suggest the public still want the show. It makes a profit. If it wasn't on the Beeb then plenty of other channels would pay handsomely to have it. 9 out of 10 car shows are rubbish, all widely available to view anyway..

[Chim]

rohrl said:

Impasse said:

pablo said:

If you want anger then I begrudge the fact that those three morons travel the world at tax payers expense only to ps off loads of people for the sake of a cheap joke whilst funded by the BBC. Thats as much anger as I can summoun for Top gear though I'm afraid, pretty poor really.

If it's just a question of cost to you, then the TV Licence fee is one of the few taxes you can opt out of very simply. It's also worth pointing out - again - that Top Gear is one of the few shows which actually generate a profit for the BBC (quite a substantial one, too). So if these three morons didn't travel around in search of a cheap joke, then the BBC would have to look to cut funding to other projects to balance the books.

Or they could just make a car-based entertainment show with less of the jingoistic tttery and keep everyone happy.

Then nobody would watch it other than a few sad car geeks like us, back to funding cuts and no doubt cancelation of the show.

[anonymous-user]

Chim said:

rohrl said:

Impasse said:

pablo said:

If you want anger then I begrudge the fact that those three morons travel the world at tax payers expense only to ps off loads of people for the sake of a cheap joke whilst funded by the BBC. Thats as much anger as I can summoun for Top gear though I'm afraid, pretty poor really.

If it's just a question of cost to you, then the TV Licence fee is one of the few taxes you can opt out of very simply. It's also worth pointing out - again - that Top Gear is one of the few shows which actually generate a profit for the BBC (quite a substantial one, too). So if these three morons didn't travel around in search of a cheap joke, then the BBC would have to look to cut funding to other projects to balance the books.

Or they could just make a car-based entertainment show with less of the jingoistic tttery and keep everyone happy.

Then nobody would watch it other than a few sad car geeks like us, back to funding cuts and no doubt cancelation of the show.

Because nobody watched the good "adventure" episodes where they managed to keep everyone amused without having to run away from an angry mob too though, I'm thinking of Botswana when they actually got a visit from the president(?), the North pole expedition, the Amazon, Albania, India, Burma and at least one trip to the USA didnt invovle them having to run away from an angry mob!

[Ayahuasca]

Remember the Spain TG special when they set up a street circuit and called it 'Cicuito de Sir Francis Drake'?

Was choosing that name just coincidence too?

[TedMaul]

JuniorD said:

It would not surprise me in the very least if TG have reels of footage of the trio unveiling their vehicles on Argentinian soil with the one of them, probably May, taking the role of the enlightened one, pointing out the connotations of the plate, with Clarkson feigning ignorance and with Hammond doing his usual hammed up faux-aghast panic act. Cue much merriment and fake trepidation as the three set off with a wink on their merry jape. Then, much to their actual surprise things get genuinely nasty, Clarkson in a sweat and under night vision camera breathlessly can’t hide the fact he's about to have a brown haemorrhage, while Hammond disappears up his own backside.

Which, as has been pointed out before, remains a successful formula which generates revenue for the individuals and the broader BBC. The more stupid, the more publicity, the higher the ratings.

I think you could find tenuous links in a thousand plates if you wanted to, perhaps they gave their summer intern the challenge of finding a suitable car with a suitably questionable plate. Nevertheless, the outrage is a bit ott and more than Thatcher got after the sinking of the Belgrano.

I admit Clarkson is a pillock, but a funny pillock at that and funnier than many comedians on TV. The anti-JC campaigns are just so dull, even the daily mash has stopped commenting on it, for now at least, though the sniffpetrol article was quite good.

[paranoid airbag]

bodhi said:

pablo said:

I couldnt give a toss either way but Clarkson's little army of devoted followers here on pistonheads do need to question how it can all be a huge coincidence the plate in question makes an apparent reference to the Falklands War if they also had "spare" UK spec plates (which according to Clarkson was a random plate made up on the spot because all Argentinian motor factors can knock up UK spec plates right?) but this "random" plate had previously been assigned to the vehicle? Seems to me that they knew it was a potentially inflammatory political gesture and had a contingency plan ready...

And yet, Clarkson's little devoted band of haters seems completely incapable of accepting that this might, just might, have been a coincidence. Inflammatory number plates are not above Top Gear in the slightest (the anagram for instance), but they don't tend to be quite this subtle.

My money's on the Argies having sand in their vaginas as usual. They might do better to sort their own country out before laying claim to other people's....

+1

I don't particularly defend him, but this is seeing Jesus in a piece of toast. The pattern is in your mind.

[Wills2]

Ayahuasca said:

Remember the Spain TG special when they set up a street circuit and called it 'Cicuito de Sir Francis Drake'?

Was choosing that name just coincidence too?

No that would have been deliberate but it was over 400 years ago, I think it's safe to say we've forgiven them for sending it and they have forgiven us for setting fire to it.

[johnxjsc1985]

Idiot or not tosser or not this Christmas special will no doubt receive record viewing figures

[Scuffers]

let's face it, only the Argentines could get so wound up over SFA

look at what TG did to the Germans!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5xd97HeY70

the equivalent would be to fly into Argentina in XH588, dropping 'we won' posters on them.

[Dr Jekyll]

For anyone who hasn't seen it, this is the account given by JC in the Sunday Times:

The car arrived in Argentina with the offending plates. Nobody noticed.

The team then travelled to Chile.

Someone on twitter pointed out the possible problem so the plates were removed.

The car travelled to Tierra del Fuego with no plate on the front and a 'meaningless jumble of letters and numbers' on the back. (Which I took to mean a dummy plate but could mean a genuine plate that could not be regarded as having any connotations.)

In Ushuaia the team posed for photographs and accepted requests for autographs.

A group of protesters arrived and our heroes were advised to get out of Argentina ASAP. They went first to Buenos Aires where 'sensible Argentinians couldn't believe what had happened'

Then UK newspapers started saying it was all because of the number plate, but the protesters hadn't mentioned that.

[pingu393]

I read in the paper today (only because it was free in the Mercedes dealership while I was waiting for a recall to be sorted * ) that if he had really wanted to upset them he would have used the plate W3 WON

• tenuous PH driving link

[strummerville]

Scuffers said:

get's longer when you consider there are only some 921 928's left in the UK register.

way I see it, that car originally had that plate, and I find it very unlikely TG could have found it that way (short of stumbling on it)

Shame they destroyed a 928 GT by the looks of the rear panel in the Sunday Times photo.

[///ajd]

According to this, they had an old plate the 928 used to have before 2001 - with them in Argentina. And they put it on after it kicked off.

Why would they have a 20 year old invalid number plate with them, 8000 miles across the world?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jeremy-...

[jdw1234]

///ajd said:

According to this, they had an old plate the 928 used to have before 2001 - with them in Argentina. And they put it on after it kicked off.

Why would they have a 20 year old invalid number plate with them, 8000 miles across the world?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jeremy-...

Its the private plate the previous owner had on it.

I.e. they transferred it when they sold the 928 and the plates just got chucked in the boot.

My car has its old plate in the boot.

[Chim]

jdw1234 said:

///ajd said:

According to this, they had an old plate the 928 used to have before 2001 - with them in Argentina. And they put it on after it kicked off.

Why would they have a 20 year old invalid number plate with them, 8000 miles across the world?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jeremy-...

Its the private plate the previous owner had on it.

I.e. they transferred it when they sold the 928 and the plates just got chucked in the boot.

My car has its old plate in the boot.

Don't be daft, this is a conspiracy theory, its far more likely that they had checked back on the cars history, found it had this plate on it 20 years ago, had just one made up and took it with them just in case they needed to change it. Just ignore the fact that it would have been far easier to make up a couple of random plates as both would be equally invalid anyway.

[jdw1234]

Chim said:

jdw1234 said:

///ajd said:

According to this, they had an old plate the 928 used to have before 2001 - with them in Argentina. And they put it on after it kicked off.

Why would they have a 20 year old invalid number plate with them, 8000 miles across the world?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jeremy-...

Its the private plate the previous owner had on it.

I.e. they transferred it when they sold the 928 and the plates just got chucked in the boot.

My car has its old plate in the boot.

Don't be daft, this is a conspiracy theory, its far more likely that they had checked back on the cars history, found it had this plate on it 20 years ago, had just one made up and took it with them just in case they needed to change it. Just ignore the fact that it would have been far easier to make up a couple of random plates as both would be equally invalid anyway.

In fact, in the photo you can see the residue of sticky pads on the H1 VAE plate. It was probably just left underneath H982 FKL.

I have had loads of cars where the previous owner didnt bother removing the plate and just stuck the new one on top.

[AstonZagato]

Chim said:

jdw1234 said:

///ajd said:

According to this, they had an old plate the 928 used to have before 2001 - with them in Argentina. And they put it on after it kicked off.

Why would they have a 20 year old invalid number plate with them, 8000 miles across the world?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jeremy-...

Its the private plate the previous owner had on it.

I.e. they transferred it when they sold the 928 and the plates just got chucked in the boot.

My car has its old plate in the boot.

Don't be daft, this is a conspiracy theory, its far more likely that they had checked back on the cars history, found it had this plate on it 20 years ago, had just one made up and took it with them just in case they needed to change it. Just ignore the fact that it would have been far easier to make up a couple of random plates as both would be equally invalid anyway.

Or that they called back to London in a panic when the twittersphere kicked off with the Falklands bks. A researcher found out that the H1 VAC plate used to be on the car, so they had that plate made up locally (it looked a bit of a bodge in the picture I saw). They would have done this on the basis that, if there was an official enquiry from local authorities about that plate, the DVLA could, in extremis, put 2 and 2 together to work out that it was this particular 928. Not legal but traceable.

[jdw1234]

AstonZagato said:

Chim said:

jdw1234 said:

///ajd said:

According to this, they had an old plate the 928 used to have before 2001 - with them in Argentina. And they put it on after it kicked off.

Why would they have a 20 year old invalid number plate with them, 8000 miles across the world?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jeremy-...

Its the private plate the previous owner had on it.

I.e. they transferred it when they sold the 928 and the plates just got chucked in the boot.

My car has its old plate in the boot.

Don't be daft, this is a conspiracy theory, its far more likely that they had checked back on the cars history, found it had this plate on it 20 years ago, had just one made up and took it with them just in case they needed to change it. Just ignore the fact that it would have been far easier to make up a couple of random plates as both would be equally invalid anyway.

Or that they called back to London in a panic when the twittersphere kicked off with the Falklands bks. A researcher found out that the H1 VAC plate used to be on the car, so they had that plate made up locally (it looked a bit of a bodge in the picture I saw). They would have done this on the basis that, if there was an official enquiry from local authorities about that plate, the DVLA could, in extremis, put 2 and 2 together to work out that it was this particular 928. Not legal but traceable.

Why does the plate have sticky pad residue on it (where the other plate was stuck on top) and why is it in the old UK font which isnt available anymore?

[Dr Jekyll]

Was the other plate VAE as in Vulcan Attacks Enemy or VAC as in Vulcan And Conqueror?

[marshalla]

Dr Jekyll said:

Was the other plate VAE as in Vulcan Attacks Enemy or VAC as in Vulcan And Conqueror?

Historic
1-woman
Victory over
Argentine
Enemy

of course.