While You Were Sleeping: April 22, 2015

Mark Stevenson
by Mark Stevenson

Those final episodes of Top Gear will be shown on BBC2 later this year, but there isn’t enough footage for three full episodes.

Mark Stevenson
Mark Stevenson

More by Mark Stevenson

Comments
Join the conversation
8 of 13 comments
  • Evan Williams Evan Williams on Apr 22, 2015

    Anybody have a link to the Clarkson column that's not hidden behind a paywall?

  • Tedward Tedward on Apr 22, 2015

    TrailerTrash That reason is easy to discern. You get more interior volume from FWD and it is cheaper to assemble. The downsides are equally obvious. FWD cars do not handle nearly as well as RWD options once you hit a combination of wheelbase length and power levels, and the proportions just don't seem to be as attractive (on average) as the long hood longitudinal layout cars. The industry has not abandoned RWD/transverse cars. Any brand with a healthy uplevel badge has a full line up available.

    • See 1 previous
    • Tedward Tedward on Apr 22, 2015

      @TrailerTrash I love this debate. I agree about the weight, but it's not a massive difference. There are plenty of light weight rwd cars out there. I also think that at short wheelbase and modest power levels the performance difference had more to do with road or track design than anything else. I doubt making a mx5 front wheel drive would necessarily slow it down. Depends onthe venue. As far as enjoyment goes I guess I'd present the same context related argument. I have both layouts in my garage and I find myself on throttle more often while having fun in the rwd car, at least on my roads. The technique for driving fwd fast hinges on high corner entry speeds, which feels less responsible to me on public roads. Simply put, brake early, then throttle on is more enjoyable with a rwd layout, and I feel like I'm playing with the balance of the car more often without having to be reckless to get there. I do also enjoy b and some c segment fwd cars for this, but they'd be improved by rwd subjectively if not objectively. Imagine a rwd Fiesta. Of course without windy local roads I probably wouldn't have this add a priority. In poor weather I still prefer rwd. All the advances that have helped fwd cars have also been applied to their rwd cousins. Tires, weight and stability control programming matter far more than drive layout in this era.

  • Voyager Voyager on Apr 22, 2015

    Here's an extra item: http://www.blogcdn.com/cars.aol.co.uk/media/2013/04/rexfeatures2297395aj.jpg Btw, I think that Tim Shaw, who presents CAR SOS (is that aired in the U.S.?), might make for a good replacement of Clarkson.

  • PrincipalDan PrincipalDan on Apr 22, 2015

    So here's a question: Is the CT-6 WIDER inside than the XTS? My biggest pet peve with the "SUPER EPSILON" was that it was still pretty narrow considering the extra length and it made the proportions strange.

Next