James May's Cars of the People
Discussion
A lot of them were given in lieu of hard currency for foreign goods and services. They'd then be sold on in the west by the likes of Coca Cola to convert them into real money.
Although they were crap, they were presumably capable of operating in a Russian winter and would start in the damp and cold. Something many western cars of the time had problems with.
Although they were crap, they were presumably capable of operating in a Russian winter and would start in the damp and cold. Something many western cars of the time had problems with.
Good programme I thought. Certainly will be watching the next ones. I even thought that the dropping the car from the crane served a purpose as it proved you sure as hell didn't want to have a front end smash in a Lada!!
Brought back memories for me though as two of the cars featured are lodged in memory for two of the most eventful journeys' I have had as a passenger.
Fiat 500 - Godalming to Donnington.
Fine on the way up apart from as we arrived the throttle pedal stuck open. For the journey back my friend jigged something up which worked but meant that we couldn't go flat out, which as we know was never quick in one of those anyway. Which would have been ok... If it then hadn't developed an oil leak as well, which dripped nice and slowly onto the exhaust.... which then blew the fumes back into the cabin.
So we had the choice of either choking to death on the oil fumes or driving back with the roof off in the middle of November.
Left at 17.00. Many stops later got back at 23-15. That was a looonnnggg day.
Lada Riva - M25.
It was my first time going round the M25 and my mate had just got his new company car, a lovely red Lada Riva Estate. I say it was his company car, he had inherited it from his predecessor who had been given a sum of cash and told to my himself a new car. So he bought the Riva and kept the result of the money for a motorbike. So my friend was told he had to drive this until he had worked for the company for a while and he would get something better in the future.
Before we set off to Hendon, my friend went into great detail as to what a piece of s
t this car was and on the M25 it went about proving it. Slow and clearly a struggle for my friend to keep on the straight and narrow, it would of been a nasty journey even without its one close to fatal flaw.
"We'll be ok as long as it doesn't rain,"
"What happens then?" I asked.
"Well it cuts out randomly and then won't restart for about 10 minutes,"
So guess what we ran into half way round the 25? A nice big Bertha sized downpour.
Never have the words,"No. No. Its gone again," held such dread as we gently coasted with no power or even hazard flashers over to the hard shoulder, hoping that no one would run into the back of us. Scary days.
Brought back memories for me though as two of the cars featured are lodged in memory for two of the most eventful journeys' I have had as a passenger.
Fiat 500 - Godalming to Donnington.
Fine on the way up apart from as we arrived the throttle pedal stuck open. For the journey back my friend jigged something up which worked but meant that we couldn't go flat out, which as we know was never quick in one of those anyway. Which would have been ok... If it then hadn't developed an oil leak as well, which dripped nice and slowly onto the exhaust.... which then blew the fumes back into the cabin.
So we had the choice of either choking to death on the oil fumes or driving back with the roof off in the middle of November.
Left at 17.00. Many stops later got back at 23-15. That was a looonnnggg day.
Lada Riva - M25.
It was my first time going round the M25 and my mate had just got his new company car, a lovely red Lada Riva Estate. I say it was his company car, he had inherited it from his predecessor who had been given a sum of cash and told to my himself a new car. So he bought the Riva and kept the result of the money for a motorbike. So my friend was told he had to drive this until he had worked for the company for a while and he would get something better in the future.
Before we set off to Hendon, my friend went into great detail as to what a piece of s
t this car was and on the M25 it went about proving it. Slow and clearly a struggle for my friend to keep on the straight and narrow, it would of been a nasty journey even without its one close to fatal flaw."We'll be ok as long as it doesn't rain,"
"What happens then?" I asked.
"Well it cuts out randomly and then won't restart for about 10 minutes,"
So guess what we ran into half way round the 25? A nice big Bertha sized downpour.
Never have the words,"No. No. Its gone again," held such dread as we gently coasted with no power or even hazard flashers over to the hard shoulder, hoping that no one would run into the back of us. Scary days.
Watched it again on iPlayer last night - did anyone else notice the 3000mile Lada in Russia was LHD, and the one smashed up (looking like it was in the UK) was RHD?
I did think it would have been exceptionally nobbish to smash up a rare 3k mile example of any older car, however st, rather than simply nobbish to smash up a car in the name of humour full stop.
I did think it would have been exceptionally nobbish to smash up a rare 3k mile example of any older car, however s
t, rather than simply nobbish to smash up a car in the name of humour full stop.Vocal Minority said:
May did an interview on Chris Evans' show, and apparently it is part of an extended 'series plus 4 spin offs' contract that the BBC had with the makers of Top Gear, so they are part of the same 'franchise'. Hammond's Bond Cars was one spin off, these are the other three.
I enjoyed it, but I'd have liked it more it had been in the "May" style (Manlab, Toy thing etc.) rather than TG, you could almost hear Clarkson saying some of the script at times. Kitchski said:
Watched it again on iPlayer last night - did anyone else notice the 3000mile Lada in Russia was LHD, and the one smashed up (looking like it was in the UK) was RHD?
I did think it would have been exceptionally nobbish to smash up a rare 3k mile example of any older car, however st, rather than simply nobbish to smash up a car in the name of humour full stop.
Someone did:I did think it would have been exceptionally nobbish to smash up a rare 3k mile example of any older car, however s
t, rather than simply nobbish to smash up a car in the name of humour full stop.XAF on Monday said:
Anyone else notice that the car they dropped was the '3000' mile one they filmed with? Just a right hand drive car in a similar colour but with different seats and a pair of number plates from Russia...
What's that? I need to get a life? Point taken, I'm off!!!
What's that? I need to get a life? Point taken, I'm off!!!
carinaman said:
I've yet to watch this. This looks like it could be based on Drive On, the book by the late LJK Setright that I thought May finished, or was it another book by Setright about driving tales that May finished? Sunday was Setright's Birthday.
If it was based on Drive On it would be 26 two hour programmes with no Lada destruction featured.It is a wonderful book as I am sure you know but is late night BBC4 material as 90% of the viewing public would be too thick and/or lazy to get it.The book you are thinking of was Long Lane With Turnings which was vrey short autobiographical piece with input from James May. He is the one motoring presenter with the real mental heft to discuss technical and sociological stuff about cars and I just wish he'd bloody grow up on this effort - it doesn't need to appeal to 10 year olds with learning difficulties.
Pickled said:
I thought it was pretty good show, thougt that 124 looked lovely no mention of the yugo 45 which if I remember was another fiat based car (126?)
Wonder if the BBC did a block booking on the old rooftop test track it's been on 3 programmes I've watched this week, Italy unpacked, francesco's Italy and this!
Yugo 45 was very loosely based on the Fiat 127, but the body itself was unique, unlike the Lada which commenced with the original Fiat 124 tooling and then 'evolved' over the years.Wonder if the BBC did a block booking on the old rooftop test track it's been on 3 programmes I've watched this week, Italy unpacked, francesco's Italy and this!
berlintaxi said:
nickwilcock said:
Not a bad programme (but if you're going to speak German, May, at least learn the pronunciation!)
On occasions he seemed to struggle with the correct pronunciation in English.
Always puzzled me why he pronounces was as WUZ & because as BECUZ. Anyone any idea, considering he is middle class but who many people describe as posh, it seems more of a working class pronunciation. Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff