As mentioned in an earlier post, the BBC America channel that I get here in the US, is a couple of years behind in broadcasting episodes of Top Gear, but they’re all new to me (and the BBC info actually credits them as 2008). This week James May tried to record the Allman Brothers song Jessica (the Top Gear theme song) using notes found in the engines of various cars, from Enzo’s to steam rollers. May found the “D” note at 4500 RPM in the s2000.
The final result was a bit of a mess and just sounded like a bunch of farting, but it was fun to see him attempt it, and great that the s2000 was a part of it.
On this week’s episode of Top Gear, the boys drove and compared the new Audi TT, the Nissan 350Z and the Chrysler Crossfire, all in their convertible variants. To be different they drove them all on the beach where of course the all wheel drive TT excelled. Their general conclusions were that the least expensive car, the Crossfire looked the best (I’d definitely disagree), the interior of the 350Z seemed cheap (I would definitely agree), and that overall they were less than impressed with all of the cars they took out.
So when they were back in the studio, recapping their experience, they decided to choose the three convertibles in that price range that they would have preferred to have. May said he would have wanted a Porsche Boxter for the balance and feel of a sports car. Hammond said he’d want the BMW Z4, and Jeremy closed the show saying that he’d “have the Honda s2000.” The overall consensus was that if you want a convertible, buy one that was designed as a convertible, not a coupe that was later converted to one.
During the whole convertible segment, I was wondering why they had chosen the Audi, Nissan and Chrysler. Here’s to hoping next time they do a shoot out between the Porsche, the BMW and the Honda.
Update 09/07/08:
Reader Beardie tipped me off to the fact that Top Gear looked at the exact shoot out I was hoping for, and the fact that they did it 2 years before the episode that the article was about, explained exactly why they had preference for those cars: they were the cars they liked in the episode where they compared the Boxter, Z4 and s2000. I found a clip of the first half of the episode from Series 3, Episode 2, but couldn’t find the second half when they’re back in the studio, except for a version that wasn’t in English. Here’s the first half, if anyone has a good clip of the second half, please post it here. Thanks again, Beardie!
