The whole point of the P1 was to reduce the fuel comsumption and combine an engine with an electric motor to show it could benefit the motoring world instead of your usually boring pruis crap thats around (not that the dont benefit but in a different way) Imagine similar tech in smaller engines cars, the benefit of the electric motor as it prodcues pure power from the moment its on, meaning flat power and torque curves as soon as its on, delivering full power all the time. Hence the filling in the powerband, im presuming the electric motors will fill in before the turbo spools properly and top end wher it runs out of puff. I love the car, lovely to look at the the technology is awesome, shame that or the 4c never went around the track. As for the 4c, lovely motor to look at, poor engine and crap gearbox (check any review site) but hammond never really mentiond that, or that the test cars all have the optional sport exhaust on which adds more cost the ridiculous money they are already asking for it.
The Veyron is designed to be a GT car, albeit one of the fastest straight line GT cars in the world. It was also designed to do this while being as easy as a normal VW Golf to drive. That equals lots of heavy ridged bits that are bolted together well all wrapped in a car full of the luxury that doesn't crash shake and rattle the driver at 250 + mph. The P1 is clearly designed as a fast race car. Clarkson went out of his way to show that it was sparse inside, that it had been built in such a way to make it as light as possible and while he said it was quiet and comfortable on the road he never stated how quiet or comfortable it was when you were pushing the loud pedal at the limit. Which is? The in town cruising around hybrid non sense is a moot point, noone buys a £2million+ hyper car for it's in town properties, so all that leaves is it's performance, which, without any official timing, comparison or proper specs on the car, all we have is the speculation that Clarkson put forward during the segment. I don't buy the electric motor filling in the gaps where the petrol engine is lacking, dual turbo, turbo / supercharge and DSG gearboxes have pretty much filled in the power band gaps in most hyper cars to a degree that installing a whole other drive system plus the gubbins to make it work seems like total overkill to make up for the split second where a petrol engine isn't working as well as it should. The other stuff is amazing but I am still not sold on the whole hybird electric engine making the car much much faster than it would have been with a tuned v10 instead of a v8 with hybrid system.
Long time! Don't think the gearbox would put me off If I had the cash, the enginge though doesn't seem to be that bad surely? And with the standard exhaust its a got a pleasant engine note to it. Did you see the videos by Chris Harris?
A few reports of laggyness and not very responsive, something which I wouldnt expect for £47,00, thats jag F type money pretty much. Yeah ive seen nearly every chris harris vid, awesome vids. Dont get me wrong i like the 4c but a carbon tub and nice looks dont change the fact its priced very highly for what it is and id expect more for that money.
That's true but it is what it is. You have to really want an Alfa to get that. I don't know why you would be in the market with that kind of money and NOT get the F type.
Agreed, its damn close on the F Type (and its not really a direct competitior) costs however the Alfa 4C sales have allegedly been amazing and they have decided to increase production numbers per year to cope (premiums would be next). Also a carbon tub isn't cheap, yet. And Alfa Romeo have bought this technology down to a very reasonable price in an interesting package, that being a relatively inexpensive mid engined Italian sports car. I have to admit that the steering wheel is a bit shoddy
Yeah id agree the F type is a much more appealing package for the similar money. I like the technology behind it but dont think its priced right for what it is, its 10k over budget for me.
Just found this thread So I watched the two part special and the finale was terrifying. I don't think that the number plate of the Porsche was intentional. Hope the whole crew is OK...
Well, either it was a custom plate approved by the Argentinian government, or it was a fake plate. I doubt the latter was the case as they could have been arrested for that (inciting unrest, driving with a fake plate etc). They couldn't do that if it were an approved plate.
In some countries it changes when you for eg. sell the car and someelse register of on his name. So there is no problems with custom plates.
How many episodes in the new season? I'm getting bored of Top Gear... 10 episodes of drivel... They're not even particularly funny any more.
Clarkson suspended for being a woolly haired pillock etc...not on friendly terms with a producer apparently (or all of them). No Top Gear this Sunday seems strangely familiar after episode 7, though.
Well oddly enough the executive producer was a very, very good friend of Mr Clarkson. So its going to be interesting to see what happened! Allegedly they are behind schedule with filming.