James May has Car Lust
"The older I get, and the longer Top Gear goes on, the more I enjoy driving rubbish. The XK Jaguar is a wonderful thing, but an Audi for £65 makes me skip around like an imbecile. ... I can't deny it for a moment longer. I actually like crap cars, and I think I'm going to ask if I can be fired."
Just when I think I can't love James May and Top Gear with any greater intensity, they go and do something like this. This is exactly what Car Lust is all about--the idea that it's not greatness in isolation that makes cars compelling. As I said last September:
"We now live in a world of near-universal automotive excellence. Exotics abound. More common sports coupes and sedans perform like supercars of past years. Family sedans boast 250 horsepower--all while modern technology marries decent fuel mileage and emissions with this scorching performance.
Even subcompacts are depressingly competent. I've driven the Chevy Aveo and Kia Spectra, both of which look on paper as if they are terrible cars. Neither are.
This is all tremendously exciting, I suppose, but I miss the terrible cars.
Cars are like people--beautiful, perfect people are interesting from time to time, but if that's your entire world, they get very dull. That's one failure of some car magazines, I think--they overdo the exotics to the point where they become mundane and commonplace. There is beauty and wonder in all levels of the automotive world."
Frank Black on July 23, 2008 at 02:43 PM
I've been saying for a while that it's almost inarguable that we are in the Third Golden Age of automobiles (the first being the '20s, the second the '60s, IMO). In my household we have a 1978 Mustang II and a 1997 Honda Civic so almost daily I get to experience two decades of automotive technology. As much as I love my Mustang, the little Honda bests it in almost every regard -- and the Honda is the most basic model they make!
Still, there's something charming about the creaky, clanky, drafty, squishy '78 (er, um, apart from its newfound massive amounts of power) that makes me smile whenever I drive it.
As much as I like the TG folks when they drive some maniacally fast car, it gets a little tiring since approximately .001% of their viewers will ever drive, let alone buy, one of them.
There's a semi-famous quotation about flaws or oddness making a woman more attractive that would be ideal here. Blast it all.
Anthony Cagle on July 23, 2008 at 06:40 PM
"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion." -- Francis Bacon
David Drucker on July 24, 2008 at 06:30 AM
I absolutely love Top Gear's beater adventures. Why, just last night I watched the guys play with three "non Porsche coupes" each had purchased for under 1500 pounds. May's V12 Jaguar XJ, despite spewing fluids of all kinds over and over again, and breaking down five times, won the competition against Clarkson's Mitsubishi Starion and Hammond's sweet BMW 635Csi.
And then there was 2wd car African safari, which featured an ancient Opel Kadett (Hammond), Lancia Beta (Clarkson), and a W123 Mercedes (May). Great stuff!
Rob the SVX guy on July 24, 2008 at 07:03 AM
Yeah, I just wish they'd improve the beaters, instead of destroying them or turning them into some monstrosity of pointlessness. I agree though. Supercars are boring. Once in a while, they're interesting (read, Veyron), but for the most part, going fast is all about how much money you can throw at it. Today, the common accord or camry has more HP than even my SVX, yet.... it's not the same.
David Drucker on July 24, 2008 at 08:07 AM
Rob said: Yeah, I just wish they'd improve the beaters, instead of destroying them or turning them into some monstrosity of pointlessness.
But Rob, pointlessness is much of what Top Gear is all about, and what makes it fun. The sight of James May, sailing across the desert in a doorless W123 Mercedes, is tons more satisfying than a chalk talk about making the same car run on bacon grease and bird droppings. For that, we've got Consumer Reports, et al.
And remember the immortal words of Elizabeth Taylor: "The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues."
Rob the SVX guy on July 24, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Sorry, I see pointless destruction as just that: Pointless. It's very easy to destroy things, and a lot harder to improve things. I think if they had to do challenges in these beaters, actually improve them and fix parts of them, then donated them to charity or audience members, it'd be more intelligent, and more appreciative of older vehicles.
David Drucker on July 25, 2008 at 05:53 AM
True enough, Rob. Of course, once Top Gear converted itself into the no-fun zone you propose, you'd probably be able to fit all of the show's potential viewers into its studio.
Rob the SVX guy on July 25, 2008 at 10:53 AM
I think fixing a few issues with an old car, racing the hell out of it, or doing a silly challenge without destroying it, would still be very entertaining.
Mochi Mochi on July 25, 2008 at 10:26 PM
Rob:"I veered towards it, and lined it up with my right front fender, and smashed it at 45mph... I still have this amazing memory in slow motion of a construction sign, blinking steadily as it arc'd across the ditch and plowed into the earth. It was amazing."
(http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/07/car-lust--1974.html#comment-123413328)
Rob:"Sorry, I see pointless destruction as just that: Pointless."
Hmmm... am I the only one who has a little "problem" resolving these two statements?
Now I know that a car and a construction sign are very different things, but wanton destruction of property for personal satisfaction is still, ummm... wanton destruction of property for personal satisfaction. And not that different than the "pointless destruction" exhibited on TG.
I'm not into abusing cars. But James May is incredibly funny. I can't help feeling sorry for the Toyota. Perhaps its because it is an automaton undeserving of abuse after a life of service. Perhaps its because on some level as an automaton I anthropomorphize it into a "pet". So I'm actually with Rob here, I'm not crazy about the destruction segments, though the Toyota piece made me rethink Toyota trucks. It was probably one of the best marketing pieces Toyota never did. I was likewise upset when "Long Way Round"'s Charley Boorman trashed a Honda C50 Cub. These destructo challenges are a bit of a sore thumb in an otherwise wonderful and entertaining show. But focusing on that would be missing the point of the TopGear and overlooking the humor and wit. I haven't watched a lot of Top Gear but what I have seen has been exceptionally well done and a breath of fresh air.
Great to hear that James May thinks as little of Super Cars as I do. I loved his critique of the Dodge Magnum and its "typically American problems in handling". I think the comment was something on the order of "this will never be a car for Alpine passes". Seems like a great wit - let's see if we can get him to appear on CarLust!
David Drucker on July 26, 2008 at 05:56 AM
Rob: "I've literally pooped on the hood of an H2 before. I will do so again." (http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/04/car-lust--1973.html#comments)
Just providing a little more context, folks. No need to thank me.
rob the SVX guy on July 28, 2008 at 04:10 PM
I don't feel any lust for construction signs. I do feel lust for cars. And I feel hatred for H2s.
That should clear up any confusion. :)
Mochi Mochi on July 28, 2008 at 06:22 PM
no matter what - a smile always helps ;)
OldCarGuy on August 04, 2008 at 02:23 PM
James May: "The older I get, and the longer Top Gear goes on, the more I enjoy driving rubbish."
I feel the same, although it has less to do with Top Gear than this (James May again):
"And then . . . there's the smug satisfaction that comes from learning the foibles of a clapped-out motor: which gears jump out unless you hold on to the knob, which switches have to be wiggled a bit, how to stop the seat moving about.
I'm also staggered to think how many people are ruining their lives and living in less than domestic bliss just to finance a nice car. You can have a nice car for £500 these days. And when a car's life is already over in the eyes of most people, and when every turn of the wheel is just a moment of grace stolen from the jaws of the crusher, the burden of ownership is nil."
One of our stable of vehicles is slowly but surely failing. It has had cooling system troubles, the transmission slips now and then, it resists running smoothly despite all manner of tuning methods, and the smell of hot oil wafts alongside wherever we travel. The dreaded cancer -- rust -- is making an appearance, too. Family and friends advise, "Sell it or trade it in on a new one," but I resist, partly because I am by nature cheap, but it's more than that. I have owned this particular ride longer than any other, and for all but two of its 13 years. In that time, I have had glorious trips in it, alone and with others, I have made numerous modifications to it to suit my wants and desires, have treated it roughly and yet maintained it well. I feel it's my goal, almost my duty, to keep it going, even while I sense its pending mortality. And driving it, among newer and shinier rides, gives me a kind of reverse status smugness, a rebellious feeling of bucking the system. Anyone can drive a new car. Keeping an old car going, now that's an achievement.
Sillypickle on August 05, 2008 at 08:58 AM
OldCarGuy: "Anyone can drive a new car. Keeping an old car going, now that's an achievement."
Amen to that! I am currently driving an 85 Corolla which has many of the typical problems of an old car. 4th gear doesn't really work, you have to hold it in 5th, it has no A/C, body panels only sort of match, the paint is coming off in many places, but the car just won't die! 338,000 miles and counting, and it still has never failed me and returns 36 mpg if I don't drive it faster than is probably safe. It cost me $700 a little over a year ago, and I've really fallen in love with the car, not least because of the reactions I get when driving it among the sea of leased or borrowed new cars in the greater LA area.
On sort of a side note, in this day of mileage-consciousness I wish advertisements for cars (especially used ones) would include $/mpg. No other metric better demonstrates the HUGE advantage used cars have over new cars. For the Corolla, each mpg cost me $19.44. I'll be impressed if anyone can beat that.