DRIVEL again

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big rumbly

Original Poster:

973 posts

284 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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I guess I'm still mad from last night, so I've sent this E mail to Drivel, wonder what their response will be (if any)

'editor@4car.co.uk'

Sir,
I must say that last night's Driven, plumbed the depths as far as lowest common denominator television is concerned.
What in previous weeks, with Jelly tests, and such like, was surpassed with the absolute Drivel spoken with regards to the sports car group test.
For example how can the Ferrari with 2 votes, and the Porsche with 6 and TVR with 9 in the desirability test score
23,23,and I think 24 apiece.
Why did they have a practicality test?, that is missing the point by a country mile.
The performance test on the cct proved the point that if you put someone who can't drive, in a car that does everything for you, then that car will win.
Why did all the presenters have only one hand on the steering wheel , when speaking to the camera?
When are we going to have a motoring programme that does'nt treat its viewers as idiots, and have some intelligent articles for the enthusiast?

Yours very disappointedly

Frank Bailey


big rumbly

Original Poster:

973 posts

284 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
quotequote all

I've just had this reply from DRIVEL, they must have been waiting for the complaints.
Full marks though for the quick response.

Russell Hayes [rhayes@4car.co.uk]

Hi Frank,


Sorry Driven annoyed you so much. Two e mails after you someone was singing it's praises - at least it provokes a reaction. Unlike a self selecting car magazine it has to please a far more diverse crowd than the enthusiast. And it will get as many brickbats for getting that group together (a task in itself) and not doing MPVs than when sports cars are not featured.

Maybe the scoring system isn't perfect and the team are aware of it - watch this space. Dare I suggest it is also a programme that's meant to entertain, not an electoral system?

Practicality? Have a look at the transcript of the Driven 100 on the site. You might see to what great lengths the team went to explain why they were doing it.
And why not? It's just a way of trying to add an interesting angle for the viewer. Or you could just go the default constant tyre squealing round a circuit and generate far more complaints.




Russell Hayes
Associate Editor, 4car.co.uk


cirks

2,472 posts

283 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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Nice of them to reply at least...

>Why did all the presenters have only >one hand on the steering wheel
Did you notice the fatter one of the brothers driving the Noble on the road with no seat belt? At least he had the harnesses on whilst on the track.

AndrewD

7,537 posts

284 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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No no no, you're all missing the point. The Tuscan won because they had a phone in competition to win a day at Lotus or something like that if you could guess the winner in advance.

Now, who honestly didn't call in and say 911 or 360?

JSG

2,238 posts

283 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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First prize is a Lotus Elise for a year, second prize - Elise for 2 years

Just joking guys.

Captain Chaos

393 posts

276 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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quote:

Now, who honestly didn't call in and say 911 or 360?



It was obvious the Tuscan would win - on Price alone it trounces the others. I thought the winner would be pretty obvious myself......

Jezer

66 posts

272 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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quote:

Nice of them to reply at least...

>Why did all the presenters have only >one hand on the steering wheel
Did you notice the fatter one of the brothers driving the Noble on the road with no seat belt? At least he had the harnesses on whilst on the track.


Harness? - I thought those were his braces.

Edited by Jezer on Wednesday 28th November 15:05

Edited by Jezer on Wednesday 28th November 15:06

gnomesmith

2,458 posts

276 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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Not to mention that the female 'presenter' seems to think that Steyr is an Australian company (4WD Merc). Was it an Aussie Allard that Sid used to hillclimb, I think not. For me the only bright spot is Jason Plato, he can drive a bit and even knows how to pronounce Porsche. Lets team up Tiff, Jason, Viki BH and even QW and we may have a TV programme worth watching.

PetrolTed

34,425 posts

303 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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What's all this nonsense about catering to the masses? Anyone who drives can get excited about flash cars. I'm sure there's an analogy with showing premiership football but I can't work out what it is

JonRB

74,546 posts

272 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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Even my 7 year-old son knows how to pronounce Porsche. But that's only because my wife and I correct him whenever he gets it wrong.

pbrettle

3,280 posts

283 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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Slight diversion here, but I had a John Watson driving school day with Jason Plato in 1993! Nice chap before he was famous. But was hungover from hell and used lots of arm movements - just like his bit in the Porsche Turbo round the track....

Still got the certificate with his signature on it too - for all of those screaming Plato fans that want it...?

He was a good teacher too. Learnt a lot that day and his enthusiasm was infectous. Good to see that he moved onwards and upwards - shame my career didnt rise as well as his.... boo.

Cheers,

Paul

Puny Mammory

21 posts

269 months

Wednesday 28th November 2001
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Mr Gnomesmith,

Unusual name - do you work in a gardencentre ?

I assume you're refering to me in your harsh message. Well I meant Austria but my mind was in Australia (I'm hoping to get a job on a holiday program).

You're all so critical, I didn't want the job anyway (I wanted to do Changing Rooms, but that grinning idiot got it), my agent only sent me for Drivel because they said they wanted a pair of tits - but Mike and Jason had already got that job.

Must go now - the jelly is set.

quote:

Not to mention that the female 'presenter' seems to think that Steyr is an Australian company (4WD Merc).



When you've mastered how to dribble work for Drivel

gnomesmith

2,458 posts

276 months

Thursday 29th November 2001
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No garden centre I'm afraid,name comes from being the bastard off spring of Lord Gnome abandoned at birth and found, wrapped in an Irvin flying jacket, on the back seat of an MG SA (allegedly).

eddied

273 months

Thursday 29th November 2001
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I have to agree with Big Rumbly. I gave up watching Drivel ages ago. My friend told me on Tuesday morning that they were going to test those three cars that night and I should watch it. I told him not to bother and told him the outcome before it even started and I got it exactly right. ( By the way I still haven't watched it but have had to listen to my friends rantings ever since). He's gutted because he happens to own both a Ferrari 360 and a Porsche 911 ( although it's a Carrera 4, not a Turbo). Not to say that I disagree with the choice of a TVR Tuscan, I am planning to buy the Tuscan S myself next year, but those cars are each different. You can't drive the Ferrari and TVR every day, they just aren't up to it, and I can say that as my friends Ferrari is in the garage half the time and also I have a friend who owns a Cerbera and it has been in the garage 65% of the time that he has owned it. The Porsche however is the shining example of performance, build quality and reliability. I don't like Drivel because they tested my old car, a Peugeot 406 V6SE against a fiat Coupe, alfa GTV and a BMW 323i and even the BMW beat the Peugeot in the 0 - 60 run. REASON - Penny the useless "so-called" rally driver. She kept changing up at 4000 rpm, when the car really came into it's own between 4000 and 5500. Well that did it for me! What that woman knows about driving cars you could scribble on the head of a matchstick. Give me Vicky Butler-Henderson anyday. Not only has she really got it going on (Sexy), she can drive too. WHAT A WOMAN! I couldn't imagine getting beaten by a 323i in the Peugeot, no way, it was almost a match for the 328i, read the PROPER magazines they'll tell it how it is. Anyway, I should know, I owned one. I do like Jason Plato though, top man and top driver, totally wasted on this second-rate program.

williamp

19,256 posts

273 months

Friday 30th November 2001
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Yeah, but the noise was they made was good.

Anyone see it last week? Plato was in the new Aston Vanquish and he loved it. He came across as a real enthusiast, giggled every time he put his foot down. A man after my own heart.

Dave_H

996 posts

283 months

Friday 30th November 2001
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Driven/"Drivel" currently is crap!

TopGear has been forced into the weeds because of the nanny state green sandle wearing limp wristed benders that want us to all to conform to driving electric cars with no design flare nor performance whatsoever.

All the non teresseral TV car related programs seem to be way below even the C4 "Drivel" standards.

I say we all flood the C4 website (they seem to be our only public voice as far as a motoring TV mag goes) with e-mails suggesting what "We" really want.

How else can it get better?

Richieboy3008

2,058 posts

183 months

Thursday 1st June 2017
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I remember Driven, it was boring

daddy cool

4,001 posts

229 months

Thursday 1st June 2017
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I remember this thread...