DRIVING: that's what it's ALL ABOUT! A blog and website for automotive driving enthusiasts, featuring my interests as I see them: news and opinion about manufacturers of interest, significant enthusiast cars, and driving them hard and well.
We're right in the middle of watching every single episode of Top Gear and just found this parody of Top Gear's infamous Challenges that Something Awful produced.
It's right on - they've noted the spirit of the show. Although there is one historical inaccuracy and one Challenge that has been obsoleted:
1) James May wasn't in Series 1 - he didn't come along until Series 2.
2) Big Foot truly exists - we read it on the Internet just this past week!
The complete list, from Something Awful, follows (note that they are incorrectly using the term "season" - in Britain these are known as "series"):
Season 1: Episode 7 Hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May purchase three hatchbacks for under £1,000 apiece, then determine which is the most reliable by falling asleep in a very small garage with the engine running.
Season 2: Episode 3 Who can take a standard London cab and convert it into the most efficient solar-powered vehicle? The gang settles this ages-old argument once and for all by playing a three-way game of chicken in Meredes S 600s without wearing safety belts.
Season 2: Episode 10 Three high-end sportscars have their brakes put to the test when they're dropped from the back of a cargo plane eight thousand feet above Stonehenge.
Season 3: Episode 5 Which four door sedan is the most sensible car in its class? Garry Kasparov goes head-to-head with three sedans in a chess tournament to find out. The outcome might surprise you, provided you believe the first part of this sentence!
Season 4: Episode 1 How many women can a minivan attract? Jeremy, Richard and James leave their vans (which have been modified with leather jackets and patches of chest hair) outside of a popular nightclub and see which vehicle gets dry-humped by the most women.
Season 5: Episode 4 Our hosts must convert pickup trucks into fully-functioning boats, then see which is the fastest at being towed on a trailer.
Season 6: Episode 9 The guys determine which SUV makes the best demolition derby car by running over felt hats with rounded crowns of varying sizes.
Season 7: Episode 3 Three DeLorean DMC-12s are purchased, then made into time machines in an effort to see who can stop the 1975 assassination of Ringo Starr first. Featuring the inadvertent butterfly effect that led to the death of John Lennon.
Season 7: Episode 4 Which convertible is capable of holding the most water? The lads find out by lowering each car into the ocean via helicopter, lifting the filled car back into the air, then carefully measuring the tideline.
Season 8: Episode 8 The boys set out to prove that a Maserati 200S can launch itself into outer space under its own power by systematically running over every scientist and engineer that claims it can't be done.
Season 9: Episode 2 Can a fancy in-car navigation system be used to find Osama bin Laden? Three such systems are sent to a holding facility in an unnamed country, then tortured and held indefinitely.
Season 10: Episode 5 In order to determine which station wagon has the best suspension, the hosts play a game of Operation on a cobblestone road with full cups of hot coffee in their laps while their cars' suspensions are digitally examined in a nearby garage.
Season 11: Episode 1 Is Bigfoot real? Jeremy, Richard and James pack a Rolls Royce with C4 and detonate it to find out.
Head over to the Acurazine Forums and check out the Nissan 370Z engineering prototype that was spotted driving on the street. Per previous reports, the new Z sports the updated FM platform (with the ability to adjust camber all around - finally!) and the existing 3.7 Infiniti liter engine. It's also been said to be somewhat lighter, thanks to a shortening of the chassis behind the doors (all wasted space on the current 2-seat 360Z). The styling updates are controversial, starting with the fangs in the grill below the bumper line.
The picture reveals the details of the new rear hatch, which is probably less expensive to produce but which clearly doesn't improve rear sight lines. And while nobody has seen it yet, we're willing to bet that the large brace underneath the hatch will be very different from it's present form. Hopefully, too, the 6-speed manual transmission will again be revised, because even in it's recently revised form it's still getting bad reviews.
Note that the picture also reveals a true dual-exhaust system, a hallmark of the new FM platform. The current 350Z has a single exhaust system with dual tips.
Our hosts must convert pickup trucks into fully-functioning boats, then see which is the fastest at being towed on a trailer.
