CannonFodder posted:

Also, is there a way to get a coachbuilder to make a shooting brake version of a Dodge Challenger? I see that Pontiac G8 Wagon and I see the occasional Dodge Magnum and I see loads of Challengers and dammit I want a Challenger Wagon with the same side tail lines as the Magnum but also with the iconic tail lights.

Preoptopus posted:

They made a C300 wagon in europe. Im sure there is an srt version.

Cojawfee posted:

You might be able to go back in time, buy an old challenger and make a shooting brake version of that. Nowadays, the body of the car is the frame, so you can't really do all that much to modify it.

Preoptopus posted:

They made a C300 wagon in europe. Im sure there is an srt version.

InitialDave posted:

Oh God, I really hope our resident EMTs and the like are watching this episode.

Edit:

Ola posted:

Best challenge in years. I could watch Hammond's patient delivery system all day.

A Handed Missus posted:

tuna posted:

So much gold in this episode, and Chile mugs.

CannonFodder posted:

Also, is there a way to get a coachbuilder to make a shooting brake version of a Dodge Challenger? I see that Pontiac G8 Wagon and I see the occasional Dodge Magnum and I see loads of Challengers and dammit I want a Challenger Wagon with the same side tail lines as the Magnum but also with the iconic tail lights.

Mister Kingdom posted:

keevo posted:

What kind of focus tests were they doing that said those cars were good ideas?

quote:

In the second hour, the participants were asked to sit down on the floor, like children, and use scissors and a pile of magazines to cut out collages of words they thought described the vehicle. At that point their chief concern about the prototype became clearer: It looked insubstantial and unsafe.

The discomfort was particularly notable with the focus groups in the U.S., where hatchbacks don't sell as well as they do in Europe. In the conversation after the collage making, many participants suggested the rear hatch's large window would let prying outsiders see in and make the car dangerous if hit from behind. Accustomed to hatchbacks, a group in Paris was more concerned about the car's utility than its safety. It described the prototype, Bostwick remembers, as a tantalizingly wrapped box under a Christmas tree that promised a great gift but didn't deliver one.



The result: The Chrysler team went back to the drawing board and later introduced a foam model of removable seats. That and a front passenger seat that folds forward to make a tray that can hold a laptop have become among the PT Cruiser's most talked-about features.

The third hour was perhaps the most bizarre--but also the most productive. Rapaille asked the participants to lie down on the floor. Then he dimmed the lights, began playing tapes of soothing music and told the group to relax.

Rapaille gave the participants pen and paper and asked them to write stories triggered by the prototype they had just seen. In the first focus groups, the stories centered again on toys. In later groups, when Rapaille asked participants to write about what they hoped the PT Cruiser would become, the stories contrasted a dangerous outside world with a secure interior of the car.

The general sentiment was that the participants wanted more of a sport-utility vehicle. "It's a jungle out there," says Rapaille, recalling the message. "It's Mad Max. People want to kill me, rape me." The consultant's message to the designers: "Give me a big thing like a tank."

So the designers made the PT Cruiser look tougher. They bulked up the fenders, giving the car a "kind of bulldog stance from the rear," says Nesbitt, the designer. And they made the rear window smaller, increasing the amount of sheet metal in the hatch to make it look stronger.

The result: a vehicle that thrills some and puts off others.

spog posted:

Please do a gif of Jeremy in the back of the Porsche.

Cojawfee posted:

That was Hammond's helicopter. The tail number is G-OHAM. May's plane has a tail number of G-OCOK.

Cojawfee posted:

That was Hammond's helicopter. The tail number is G-OHAM. May's plane has a tail number of G-OCOK.

Data Graham posted:

And, you know, occasionally scraping your skull open on a runway strapped upside down to a rocket

nmfree posted:

I was literally almost crying because I was laughing so hard watching this episode.

VodeAndreas posted:

Top Gear
Poorly People
Assistance
Headquarters

KakerMix posted:

aahahaha

VodeAndreas posted:

Top Gear
Poorly People
Assistance
Headquarters