The Grand Tour

[227bhp]

r11co said:

If it weren't for the white applique on the front grilles I wouldn't be able to tell what make and model each car was purporting to be. Am I correct in saying that WRC is effectively a sillhouette formula these days?

I was thinking the same, what is the Redbull sponsored one, a Ford?

[hairyben]

r11co said:

If it weren't for the white applique on the front grilles I wouldn't be able to tell what make and model each car was purporting to be. Am I correct in saying that WRC is effectively a sillhouette formula these days?

And that's kind of the problem, part of the appeal of rallly and stock car racing is there's a link to what you can buy. Wtf do citreon even make that's even peppy, while they were winning all those titles?

[djdest]

Exactly. I would never be remotely interested in the road going versions of the cars that are in that pic above.
However, make one that looks the same or similar (without all of the lights obviously) to those above and give it some decent performance then I might be interested

Edited by djdest on Sunday 21st January 16:48

[irocfan]

El stovey said:

Wow that’s a great documentary. The bbc link didn’t work on my iPad so I used this one.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xty1w4

Apologies if it’s hooky.

Well worth watching and I agree with the Yipper, the original BBC one is much better. I don’t think it’s a direct copy though, just two documentaries about the same era.

thanks for that link El S - Mrs Iroc's not too happy with me as I've just watched the "Still too fast to race (Group B rally cars)" docu (next one on). Apparently the engine noise was giving her a headache I was loving it though

Edited by irocfan on Sunday 21st January 18:44

[skinny]

l354uge said:

gallery_full/public/atmosphere01mc17cm247.jpg?itok=l8M7PYsR[/img]

Any of these would piss on a group b car, even group s cars wouldn't been close

Probably. It's not just about performance tho is it. I'd rather have a rally spec 037B in the garage than a Hyundai i20 rally car.

I guess they also don't need to homologate the modern rally cars in the same way which is kind of a shame. Actually, in all of that line up, do any of the manufacturers do a vaguely sports car for the road of the sane model?

[StottyGTR]

I'm already looking forward to next weeks Grand Tour, ep 6 and 7 have been just like old top gear. The Lancia Audi piece was absolutely brilliant.

[J4CKO]

Yes, been pretty good recently.

[Blayney]

skinny said:

Actually, in all of that line up, do any of the manufacturers do a vaguely sports car for the road of the sane model?

Fiesta ST
Yaris GRMN
i20N should be coming
C3? Err, no.

[Jonesy23]

l354uge said:

Have you watched WRC recently? Last year was a great year.

Any of these would piss on a group b car, even group s cars wouldn't been close

Edited by l354uge on Sunday 21st January 12:47

Shame the cars look st; they've gone down the BTCC styling route of making them fit a regulated idea of 'sporty' styling with stupid wheel arches and standard aero.

The old OEM+ WRC look was so much better.

Can't believe the top rank rally stuff does much for sales these days.

[Welshbeef]

hairyben said:

And that's kind of the problem, part of the appeal of rallly and stock car racing is there's a link to what you can buy. Wtf do citreon even make that's even peppy, while they were winning all those titles?

Why are Citroen even racing?

As you say they have no warm hatches or saloons let alone “Hot” or anything even more.

Maybe they are going to bring something out?

[TheGuru]

Welshbeef said:

Why are Citroen even racing?

As you say they have no warm hatches or saloons let alone “Hot” or anything even more.

Maybe they are going to bring something out?

No, they've been doing that for years, the Xsara was one of the most successful WRC cars ever, then the C4 after that. As far as I'm aware there were never any hot hatch versions available.

[chrisga]

Thoroughly enjoyed last weeks episode. Watched it in the proper 8-9pm slot last night. The MILF rig was funny.



I have time for Anthony Joshua despite not being a boxing fan in any way, have seen him on a few things and he comes across well.

The lancia/audi piece was sublime, the slowmo shots of the 037 in on gravel were fantastic. I love group B and never knew Lancia got up to such shennanigans and that Rohrl never wanted to be world champion. More of the same please. Can they do one about the peugeot/lancia battle a few years later please.

[Dog Star]

checkmate91 said:

I thought the celeb section was alright. Anthony Joshua doesn't take himself too seriously for a boxing world champion and Bill Goldberg knows what he's doing.

I did too - both guests were funny and Bill Goldberg (who I'd never heard of before) was excellent. I'd watch more stuff with him in it.
Lancia-Audi thing was what Clarkson does best IMO. Great.

One thing I have liked the last few weeks has been "Conversation Street" - I know it's obviously scripted but they are definitely good fun, although they're going to do something pretty special to eclipse the "wizards sleeve" thing on TGs "news".

[anonymous-user]

Watched this weeks last night as I always do, thoroughly enjoyed it, as said the Lancia/Audi segment was superb.

In fact I have really enjoyed all of season 2 so far, much, much better than season 1.

[PhantomPH]

Dog Star said:

checkmate91 said:

I thought the celeb section was alright. Anthony Joshua doesn't take himself too seriously for a boxing world champion and Bill Goldberg knows what he's doing.

I did too - both guests were funny and Bill Goldberg (who I'd never heard of before) was excellent. I'd watch more stuff with him in it.
Lancia-Audi thing was what Clarkson does best IMO. Great.

One thing I have liked the last few weeks has been "Conversation Street" - I know it's obviously scripted but they are definitely good fun, although they're going to do something pretty special to eclipse the "wizards sleeve" thing on TGs "news".

I must confess to being a long-time WWE fan (Yes I am middle-aged now and should know better) so I was looking forward to seeing Goldberg. Added to the fact that I am an AJ fan as well, it was one of the very, VERY few times I watched the celeb bit. And I guess that's fine - always something for everyone.

Goldberg's comments about WWE being pre-determined were spot on...any real WWE fan knows this and enjoys it for the soap-opera-esque spectacle. Like the man says, being pre-determined doesn't make the other guy any lighter...or being slammed into the floor any less painful.

A short Goldberg showreel for those who maybe thought he was just all mouth. https://youtu.be/-JBA2965jN8

ETA: IN the clip above, entry 2 (second last) is only from last year when Bill was 50 years old. There's only 4 years between him and James May!

Edited by PhantomPH on Monday 22 January 10:32

[Cupramax]

Am I the only one having problems getting ep7 to stream last night? I have 50mb fibre so bandwidth isn't an issue and previous episodes work fine. It just kept buffering with no sound on the intro and wouldn't go any further ended up watching it on the IPad amazon video app. Tried doing a factory reset on the Firestick and even that didn't sort it...

[chrisga]

No, I couldn't get it to work over firestick either. Same thing as you spinning round buffer thing for ages. We have rubbish 3.5mbps broadband though so thought it was that. Finally got it working through the xbox amazon app.

[r11co]

Dog Star said:

Bill Goldberg (who I'd never heard of before) was excellent.

I'd seen him before on Jay Leno's Garage - he's definitely a car guy.

[l354uge]

Jonesy23 said:

Shame the cars look st; they've gone down the BTCC styling route of making them fit a regulated idea of 'sporty' styling with stupid wheel arches and standard aero.

The old OEM+ WRC look was so much better.

Can't believe the top rank rally stuff does much for sales these days.

Nothing regulated about the aero on the latest cars, compare the yaris and the C3. Not too different to the size of arches and wings we saw in group b...
late 90's and early 00's WRC was my favorite era, mostly because of the drivers and THOSE blue subarus. (too young for group B, although the cars and drivers are legendary, the results were nowhere near as close as WRC era)
That era definitely had enough coverage to make homoglation specials worth making, sadly after years of Sebastian dominance, Subaru leaving and poor promotion the sport has fallen off the radar, only BBC articles on last years season was for a spectator death and evans winning rally GB!

Looks like Toyota and Hyundai are taking the WRC links most seriously, hopefully they can haul WRC back into the spotlight and the FIA can stop trying to make it compete with World - RX and bring back proper stage length!

Anyway - back on topic. Have enjoyed the last two episodes, hope they keep it up.

[RemyMartin81D]

l354uge said:

Nothing regulated about the aero on the latest cars, compare the yaris and the C3. Not too different to the size of arches and wings we saw in group b...
late 90's and early 00's WRC was my favorite era, mostly because of the drivers and THOSE blue subarus. (too young for group B, although the cars and drivers are legendary, the results were nowhere near as close as WRC era)
That era definitely had enough coverage to make homoglation specials worth making, sadly after years of Sebastian dominance, Subaru leaving and poor promotion the sport has fallen off the radar, only BBC articles on last years season was for a spectator death and evans winning rally GB!

Looks like Toyota and Hyundai are taking the WRC links most seriously, hopefully they can haul WRC back into the spotlight and the FIA can stop trying to make it compete with World - RX and bring back proper stage length!

Anyway - back on topic. Have enjoyed the last two episodes, hope they keep it up.

Agreed.

Whilst I love thr group B cars my era cars were the imprezas. It had a big influence on me hence why i owned two of them including a sonic blueand gold wheels jobbie.