The world’s most famous motoring journalist thinks that all Americans are fat, they build big shoddy gas guzzling cars and generally use them for cruising between hamburger joints.
Or does he?
Clarkson shuns the Europeans and embraces big fat American cubic inches
Jeremy Clarkson used his Sunday Times column to reflect on the year that almost is, and made the stunning announcement that yes, despite it not being built well, he considers the best car of 2008 to be the Corvette ZR1.
Oh, it’s not built very well. After just three days in my care, the boot lock disintegrated and the keyless go system refused to acknowledge the keys were in the car, but I didn’t mind because there is simply no other car that looks this good, goes this fast – in a straight line and around corners – and that most of the time bumbles about like a forgetful uncle. And when you throw in the price tag of just £106,690 – lots for a Corvette but modest next to a similarly powerful Ferrari – the case for the defence can sit down and put up its feet knowing that the prosecutor simply has nowhere to go.
The Corvette ZR1 is an epic car
As far as Clarkson is concerned, his recent jaunt from San Francisco to Bonneville in the ZR1 was enough to prove that this particular Vette, with its supercharged LS9 mill, swings beautifully between being mild-mannered and completely psychotic. It is in fact epic.
It is an epic car and I’m only sad that unless the healthcare and pensions company that makes it can be turned around, it will be the last of the breed.
The Chrysler Sebring is not an epic car… at all
Clarkson wasn’t waving the stars and stripes with completely gay abandon. While he now admits to liking a Corvette, he confesses to despising the Chrysler Sebring, claiming it is ugly, hateful, poorly designed and not especially well made either.
That’s more like the Clarkson we know and love.
[Source: Jalopnik ]
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Poor Nissan & Porsche
Clarkson is only successful due to his idiotic comedic journalism, who really takes his preference for cars literally. Coming from a man who praises Aston Martins British heritage and buys a Ford. I mean seriously who would buy a Corvette and enjoy the frustration of the glove box not clicking in while driving over a speed hump or that the dash light suddenly won’t turn on at night. (I know, I drove a Maloo). If you were meant to buy a car for the track then by all means buy a Corvette, I mean you’re sooner rather than later going to strip the interior out of it since it was going to fail in the end, just as long as the screw holding the steering wheel is in place before you yank it out during a corner.
Best Drivers Car all arounder would have to be without a doubt the GTR35. You can count on quality interior compared to the Corvette. The Shell is basically a Z06, like a reuse Porsche shell with minor tweaks. The GTR,new, the drive train new. What ever racing heritage Porsche has is in the past. They have presently been conquered at nurburg. As for G.M with their self disintegrating supercar..enjoy it as long as it last
Who’s fat, again?
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/03_02/JClarksonSPL_468×527.jpg
I guess that’s part of Clarkson’s charm. He loves to deride those from the colonies (incl Australians) but happily rolls with the punches that are thrown his way.
He’s well fed, a rather ordinary dresser and no oil painting and embraces all of those qualities without a qualm.
I think Australia was recently awarded the ‘fattest population’ gong?
I’m pretty sure he’s exaggerating. The car comes with a 100,000 mile warranty. You can’t even use the advertised launch control on a GTR without voiding the warranty. I’ll take the zr1 over an ugly wheeled playstation with a glass transmission.
I think I bought this ZR1 last week. Undercarriage had small pieces of gravel in every crevis, like it had been to Booneville. Production # is #4
You can “count on the quality interior of the GT-R”?
You’ve never owned a Nissan before, have you? Of all the major Japanese manufacturers, Nissan is the most Hansel-like in its ability to leave a trail of parts from its home to where it’s going.
Don’t get it wet then. If that salt dissolves in water, your car will rust faster than an Italian thoroughbred.
You’re no less spastic than Andy is.
Glass transmission? Only one gearbox has failed out of all the cars sold, and there’s a world of difference between doing a hard launch in an AWD car like the GT-R and a RWD car like the ZR1.
If GM could get any of their cars with the same failure rate per unit, people might actually buy them. While I’m no fan of Nissan’s build quality, it still defecates all over anything from the General.