The Grand Tour - Season 3

[SC Tiger]

Well, all is right with the world aside from political bullshit.

Clemson has won the College Football Championship.   And now we have the new season of The Grand Tour. 

 

Well, outside of that everything pretty much sucks.  But back to the point -

 

Anyone check this out yet?  Episode 1 was pretty good - they tested three musclecars - the Dodge Demon, a version of the Ford Mustang called the RTR, and a Chevrolet Camaro done up by Hennessey called the Exorcist.  Basically a stock (abeit top end) Camaro with a 1000HP engine in it.  And stock brakes.

 

We learned that the Demon is faster than the Exorcist, but only after you spend over an hour rebuilding it.  And then barely (though both cars have to run racing fuel).

We learned that the Mustang is the best handling car of the three, but can't compete in the top end.

We learned that Hammond cannot design a race course to save his life.

We learned that the McLaren Senna is a bad-ass machine.

 

The season looks pretty promising.

Edited January 22, 2019 by SC Tiger

[M&P15T]

It's looking good. But they're close to retirement, and that makes me sad.

I must admit to wanting to jump in the car and head back to Detroit. Drive around where they shot the episode.

[Moeman]

It was pretty good. Can’t imagine driviving a 1000hp Street car. At one point they called out the gas mileage and one was getting 3.9 mpg.

[M&P15T]

Putting 1000hp into a Zl1 Camaro, without any suspension and tire upgrades...........fun, but not as fast as it should be.

Edited January 22, 2019 by M&P15T

[SC Tiger]

21 minutes ago, Moeman said:

It was pretty good. Can’t imagine driviving a 1000hp Street car. At one point they called out the gas mileage and one was getting 3.9 mpg.

May basically told us that car was not a street car when he said it used racing fuel.  Hennessy does some insane stuff but that takes the cake.  And the ready-built racer (my original idea) makes no sense because......

13 minutes ago, M&P15T said:

Putting 1000hp into a Zl1 Camaro, without any suspension and tire upgrades...........fun, but not as fast as it should be.

I don't know what Henessey was thinking when they built that thing.  Unless they figure someone would just put their own suspension in it.

[SC Tiger]

I honestly didn't realize how much you had to do to the Demon to get the full power out of it.  And I thought it had more than 840 HP when you did all of that.

I knew about the tires.  But apparently you also have to:

- replace the airbox (why not just leave the high performance one in?)

- replace the ECU (I thought you just reprogrammed it with some sort of tuner).

- replace the center console with one that has one extra button (seriously - why would you not just leave that one in?)

- add racing fuel (but what if you have a full tank of normal fuel?  Do you have to drain it?)

 

The first three items make me think that Hammond had some sort of preproduction prototype or something.

Edited January 22, 2019 by SC Tiger

[M&P15T]

46 minutes ago, SC Tiger said:

I honestly didn't realize how much you had to do to the Demon to get the full power out of it.  And I thought it had more than 840 HP when you did all of that.

I knew about the tires.  But apparently you also have to:

- replace the airbox (why not just leave the high performance one in?)

- replace the ECU (I thought you just reprogrammed it with some sort of tuner).

- replace the center console with one that has one extra button (seriously - why would you not just leave that one in?)

- add racing fuel (but what if you have a full tank of normal fuel?  Do you have to drain it?)

 

The first three items make me think that Hammond had some sort of preproduction prototype or something.

That's all pretty much car-guy stuff. Some love tinkering and changing parts and acting like a pit-crew. Maybe they took theatrical license with some of the stuff.

 

[SC Tiger]

28 minutes ago, M&P15T said:

That's all pretty much car-guy stuff. Some love tinkering and changing parts and acting like a pit-crew. Maybe they took theatrical license with some of the stuff.

 

Yes and no - car guys hate messing with interior ****.  Cylinder heads, exhaust, carburetors - hell yeah.  Consoles and glove boxes?  Nah.  But they may have taken some license with it.  Although I imagine Dodge would take a dim view of that.  

Not that it matters.  Dodge will sell every Demon they make regardless.

[SC Tiger]

Episode 2 of Season 3 dropped last night.  It was kinda.......different.

The bit with the guy and the donkey.......

[PNWguy]

Figured the Exorcist would have beaten the Demon with a nearly 200hp advantage, and the RTR Mustang was a poor choice for the competition.

Jeremy made a comment in which he said the RTR only cost $40,000.  No, it is a $40,000 option above the cost of a $45k Mustang GT.

[M&P15T]

Just watched the Columbia special.

I'm too sick & tired to laugh at it, but it was good entertainment. The bit with the donkey......very weird.

How they managed to not talk about cocaine until the very end was hilarious. And I knew that the hippos were gonna be ones that Escobar had imported, that went wild. They did a really good job of avoiding discussing him too. 
 

[RenoF250]

1 hour ago, M&P15T said:

Just watched the Columbia special.

I'm too sick & tired to laugh at it, but it was good entertainment. The bit with the donkey......very weird.

How they managed to not talk about cocaine until the very end was hilarious. And I knew that the hippos were gonna be ones that Escobar had imported, that went wild. They did a really good job of avoiding discussing him too. 
 

 

There is a Vice story on the Columbian donkey humpers, apparently it is pretty common.  If you will stick it in a dirty old donkey I guess you will stick it anywhere.

The political comments were unnecessary but at least they are trying to be somewhat even by having a liberal, moderate, and conservative with the two extremes being stupid.  The problem is, Trump is hardly extreme.

[Moeman]

Columbia special parts one and two was good. The choice of vehicles was crazy.

[SC Tiger]

On 1/26/2019 at 5:14 PM, Moeman said:

Columbia special parts one and two was good. The choice of vehicles was crazy.

Hammond's truck - while mainly selected for comedic affect - was probably the most poorly 'engineered' vehicle in history.

The stock truck from Chevrolet would be halfway decent for what they were doing (though far from ideal) but one must remember:

1) The 454 in those trucks was a slug - very weak for it's size.  350 would have been better since it would be lighter.

2) The oversize tires effectively raise the final drive ratio and puts a lot of strain on the driveline - hence the snapped driveshaft.  May had something similar happen on a challenge to go find Hammond on a snow-covered mountain in Canada with a new GMC.

3) It was WAY too wide and the COG was too high.

 

Clarkson actually had a really good vehicle for that.  Another would have been a Land Rover Discovery.

May's pick of the Fiat Panda was very - May.

 

[PNWguy]

10 minutes ago, SC Tiger said:

Hammond's truck - while mainly selected for comedic affect - was probably the most poorly 'engineered' vehicle in history.

The stock truck from Chevrolet would be halfway decent for what they were doing (though far from ideal) but one must remember:

1) The 454 in those trucks was a slug - very weak for it's size.  350 would have been better since it would be lighter.

2) The oversize tires effectively raise the final drive ratio and puts a lot of strain on the driveline - hence the snapped driveshaft.  May had something similar happen on a challenge to go find Hammond on a snow-covered mountain in Canada with a new GMC.

3) It was WAY too wide and the COG was too high.

 

Just think of the poor previous owner of that Chevy in Colorado who had to watch his pride and joy get trashed.

Somebody put a lot of work into it with the solid axle swap and custom paint job.  But it was basically a mall crawler that was under engineered.  Would love to see a properly built American off-road crawler get used...

Something like this...

[M&P15T]

Let's commend those old guys!!!!

To do all that, at their advanced age, speaks volumes for the magic of entertainment filming, and the support of their film-crews!!!

[RenoF250]

2 hours ago, M&P15T said:

Let's commend those old guys!!!!

To do all that, at their advanced age, speaks volumes for the magic of entertainment filming, and the support of their film-crews!!!

 

Yeah and it is still dangerous.  There is no way to go to the North Pole safely, nature does not mess around up there.

[jfost11]

As far as the Camaro being stock, the ZL1 already has that magnetic voodoo set of shocks and massive Brembo brakes to begin with from the factory. I'm not even a chevy fan and I know they painted it in a poor light on those points. But it's an American vehicle so I already knew they weren't going to be completely fair to any of them. 

[PNWguy]

16 minutes ago, jfost11 said:

As far as the Camaro being stock, the ZL1 already has that magnetic voodoo set of shocks and massive Brembo brakes to begin with from the factory. I'm not even a chevy fan and I know they painted it in a poor light on those points. But it's an American vehicle so I already knew they weren't going to be completely fair to any of them. 

Yeah, I find it ironic how much hate they profess for American vehicles and America in general when Amazon saved their butts when Clarkson and his pompous ass torpedoed their careers with the BBC.  

If it wasn't for Americans supporting their show, they wouldn't be anywhere as successful as they are today.

[jfost11]

8 hours ago, PNWguy said:

Yeah, I find it ironic how much hate they profess for American vehicles and America in general when Amazon saved their butts when Clarkson and his pompous ass torpedoed their careers with the BBC.  

If it wasn't for Americans supporting their show, they wouldn't be anywhere as successful as they are today.

I've grown used to it. Now it doesn't seem like it's hate as much as it is an annoyingly arrogant acquaintance just trying to get under your skin. At least they're not complete sell outs that started saying anything American is great and the British motoring industry is rubbish. Although the one episode where Clarkson is raving about his blue F150 Raptor was a complete 180 from the time he drove a Lightning around Britain and did nothing but bash it.

We all know most of us wanted the real top gear back and this is as close as we will ever get. 

[SC Tiger]

15 hours ago, jfost11 said:

As far as the Camaro being stock, the ZL1 already has that magnetic voodoo set of shocks and massive Brembo brakes to begin with from the factory. I'm not even a chevy fan and I know they painted it in a poor light on those points. But it's an American vehicle so I already knew they weren't going to be completely fair to any of them. 

True and I did wonder if there really was anything better available for that car.  James also did "try to hide" that it took racing fuel.

 

6 hours ago, jfost11 said:

I've grown used to it. Now it doesn't seem like it's hate as much as it is an annoyingly arrogant acquaintance just trying to get under your skin. At least they're not complete sell outs that started saying anything American is great and the British motoring industry is rubbish. Although the one episode where Clarkson is raving about his blue F150 Raptor was a complete 180 from the time he drove a Lightning around Britain and did nothing but bash it.

We all know most of us wanted the real top gear back and this is as close as we will ever get. 

I don't let them bashing American cars bother me because I realize (and they probably do too) that American cars are not built for the European market.  The Ford Lightning would suck in England because their roads are so narrow.  

If they loved everything it wouldn't be funny.

Edited January 30, 2019 by SC Tiger