A poke in the eye from Top Gear !!!

[wessexrfc]

Just reading Novembers edition of the Top Gear magazine on the launch of the new Ferrari 458, and could'nt help but feel that the comment Paul Horrell made in his article could only be aimed at Noble. Is he being overly damming or does he have a point?:

Until recently, if you were poking around in the £150,000-200,000 area and wanted a dramatic and uncommon two-seater you could only buy a Lamborhini Gallardo or a 911 GT2. Some might not think the Porsche is exclusive enough because it looks like any estate agent's Carrera. The other option was one of those men-in-a-shed supercars which are announced with the words "to be built in strickly limited number's" where the subtext is that the numbers are limited to about half-a-dozen shoddy almost-prototypes because after that the firm goes belly-up. Thats a little too exclusive. But now the Ferrari 458 is being released into the world where the number of proper competitors has risen to the tune of the McLaren MP4-12C, Mercedes-AMG SLS, Lexus LF-A and the Aston V12 Vantage. You could argue that the Kexus, SLS and the Aston, being front-engined, don't count. But that still leaves the revolutionary McLaren

It all reads a bit bitter to me, as if Top Gear did'nt get the exclusive and someone else did!!!!!

[deevlash]

I think they were probably referring to cars like the Keating, which was universally panned in the motoring press, autocar did an article on it and it was so bad you could actually feel the anger its shoddiness had caused the road tester.

[mrdemon]

IF I had super car money I would have this

[Waiter]

As I said on another thread:

Waiter said:

They are probably quite wary of Noble after wasting valuable programme time track testing and bigging up the M15.

I doubt the M600 will get the same reverential treatment - on paper or in the programme.

Payback time!

[Adrian W]

Waiter said:

As I said on another thread:

Waiter said:

They are probably quite wary of Noble after wasting valuable programme time track testing and bigging up the M15.

I doubt the M600 will get the same reverential treatment - on paper or in the programme.

Payback time!

I sort of agree, but if it realy is that good TG will swallow their pride

[Waiter]

Oh I agree, and I can't see them NOT liking it but I think they are making a point.

Edited by Waiter on Wednesday 21st October 10:11

[andygtt]

mrdemon said:

IF I had super car money I would have this

the ascari was originally designed by lee... they spent well over 20million on the development of that car so I guess its a completely different car now tho.

[Jenx]

I'm sure the Ascari is a great car, but parked next to a Saleen S7 or Ford GT it looks underwhelming..

[Gadgeroonie]

i would have the koennigseg if it wasn't my money, i think it looks quite radical. Quite an eye opener

[wessexrfc]

Remember Jeremy Clarkson introducing the early M12 as a car "built by a man in a shed" hence the connection again to Noble.

[AMG Merc]

wessexrfc said:

Remember Jeremy Clarkson introducing the early M12 as a car "built by a man in a shed" hence the connection again to Noble.

Reminds me of Trevor Wilkinson - AFAIR he really did build the first couple of TVR's in his shed.

[motorheadmadness]

i too would go for the ascari. the A10's exhaust note is biblical.

[bernhund]

Am I being naive? Do TG really care that they did a piece on the M15 and it never came to fruition? They are there to test cars and have a bloody good time, which they did. What difference to them does it make if the car never made it? I don't think anyone is slagging of TG for testing a car that never made production.
For all we know, Noble might not want TG to test it. What if they ran it alongside the McClaren and the McClaren got all the plus points? It would be very bad news for Noble.