[ref http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Top-Gear-USA-Sneaking-Around-In-EVs-Sun-11-10-11pm-pst-td4666152.html ]
First, though the BBC's UK TopGear crew has done some devious things against plugins, IMO the UK TopGear is far better than the U.S.A. version of the show. Some might say in comparison, the UK TopGear crew has talented moxie, while others might say they've got chutzpah with panache. The following is from after watching the episode. It is showing again Nov 23 http://www.locatetv.com/tv/top-gear-usa/season-4/8335071#schedule 'Top-Gear sent us to Michigan to find out which entry level EV was the best' Ridiculous. MI was touted the ice capital (motorcity) of the U.S.A but, it is definitely not a plugin capitol. They should have gone to the west coast (CA, WA, OR) where 'all' the EVs are. Their quoted purchase prices: $43k Leaf, $37k Fiat 500e, $40k Focus One purpose built, and two compliance EVs Two U.S. built and the Fiat is an import. The winner of their goofy challenges gets to drive a Tesla-S performance plus at the end of the episode. They drove their Production EVs 20 miles to the race track. Where they used a Camero ZL1 racing ice' 12s 1/4 mile time as the one to beat. They each in turn raced a performance EV down the drag strip: a Shawn Lawless' S-10 truck (11.72s) and a dragster (8.58s), plus a black unlabeled Porsche 944 (11.0s). After they got their 1/4 mile times racing the performance EVs on the drag strip, they drove their Production EVs a few miles down the road to do their challenge: To race the Production EVs in reverse, fastest speed wins: Focus 20mph, 500e 27mph, Leaf's speed-limiting was defeated so it could win the weird race @57mph. Next stop, they drove their Production EVs 30 miles away to a shopping Mall, all the while mentioning how worried they were about range. Their next challenge was to know who had the best EV by racing inside the mall, from on side of the Mall to the other, all the while being chased by a mall-cop, on what seemed like a souped-up segway, who was trying to bust them. At the end they each exited out the Mall's open double doors with security's segway on their tail: First to exit was the Leaf (the winner), then the Focus, and the Fiat 500e was last. They stopped the challenges for the day and charged their EVs over night. With their EVs fully charged in the morning, they headed to next challenge: Sneak out of the second floor of a house, drive around a cul-de-sac and back without making a sound over 30db. Loud sound violations add time to their overall time. Now on to the Tesla. To see how fast the Tesla-S can go, they raced it against the Camero ZL1 racing ice. It beat the ice, 0-60mph:4.2s The Tesla was now taken out for a test drive. They commented that driving on roads was good. Then had their Stig (an anonymous professional race car driver) compare the Tesla-S EV to a $100k Mercedes S550 ice. Stig raced the Mercedes on a 1mi road course without a passenger, while the Tesla-S was driven raced a passenger. % IMO this was not a valid testing of anything other than the viewers patience of how long before they would change the channel. The U.S.A crew may not have been as outspoken against EVs as the U.K. crew is (probably so they did not get sued again), but the whole premise was bogus. They wouldn't have done these goofy things to test an ice. % {brucedp.150m.com} ... http://www.paradefloats.com/ Lawless Industries, Parade Floats 8431 South Avenue, Building 3, Suite 3, Poland, Ohio 44514 330-758-9920, 1-800-336-1667 info @paradefloats.com -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/BBC-Top-Gear-USA-s-strange-EV-episode-next-showing-11-23-tp4666282.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
