Top Gear's Old Car Destruction Habit Got Way Out Of Hand
Earlier in the week CT Editor Matt posted a list of five cars that Top Gear used as cheap beaters during features for the show. Think BMW 635csi, Alfa Romeo 75, Jag XJS V12 and so on. Every single one of them ended up either totally smashed up or just broken enough to warrant being sent to a sweaty makeshift museum in southern England to rot.
The more I think about it, the angrier this makes me. As good as Top Gear was, is a TV show really important enough to get away with destroying so many really awesome old cars that could have been salvaged, repaired, cherished and kept alive?
Anything with a Maserati badge should be more or less sacred, as long as it’s not a Saxo with a Maser badge on it. Yes, the BiTurbo was a bit questionable at the time, but just like we always knew that good 996-era 911s would eventually get expensive, even the BiTurbo has come full circle. Top Gear dropped a skip on one. FFS.
Fair enough, plenty of the wrecks in the cheap car challenges involved cars that nobody really wants to pay to repair. That’s fine. But when it comes to the likes of the Porsche 928 from the Patagonia Special, that car would have been better off kept in the UK and restored. And then used, taken to shows and shared on forums.
That 928 was left there to be destroyed by Argentinian vandals, but don’t forget Clarkson’s prior modifications had ruined it long before that. The same goes for James’ once-awesome Lotus Esprit. That could have been turned into a prized possession for someone like us. Imagine that project thread on CT, following a dedicated owner as he or she breathes new life into an absolute classic. Wilfully driving them to their deaths is just wrong.
Even the Nova SRi and VW Golf GTi from the 80s hot hatch feature were far too good to abuse the way the show did. I can’t be alone in feeling a pang of anger when cars I’d have loved to have seen restored get thrown away.
The reason I’m so pissed at this is that some of these cars are getting really rare, and all of a sudden there’s a panicked realisation that there just aren’t that many really tidy examples of old Alfas, classic Land Cruisers, early VW-era Audis and the like.
If a car doesn’t even make it into the manufacturer’s own museum, or at least the museum’s storage warehouses that keep the extra stuff on standby, it’s probably a fair bet that no one actually cares. But that’s not the case with far too many of these cars.
Clarkson’s Maserati Merak was a prime example. In the episode where the trio had to buy a supercar each for less than £10,000, the orang-utan mercilessly kept on pushing the V6 motor until it eventually ate itself and spat its own insides out of its exhausts. That can’t be right. A good right-hand drive one will now fetch more than £50,000 in the UK, and while the one Clarkson bought wasn’t exactly a good one, someone could have made it that way.
Maybe the average man or woman on the street - who likes checking texts while driving, doesn’t flinch when kerbing wheels and gets their car washed once a year at the local machine - quite enjoys seeing old cars get destroyed. I don’t; not when there are so few of some of these models left. Here’s hoping new new new Top Gear doesn’t go down the same route - the new team have thankfully avoided the trope so far, but we’ll have to wait and see if Clarkson, Hammond and May get up to the same classic car destruction in The Grand Tour.
Leave the old classics to the enthusiasts – even the ones that aren’t quite classics yet.
Comments
Nobody is going to buy those beater cars and restore them. They will get trashed by young guys that can barely afford such a car, and will goon about in it.
This is such a crap post. I’m sorry can see where your coming from but dude, these cars were old and just plain junk. If you want to go restore the car, by all means, go do that. If you want to play with cars that you don’t really care about but you bought JUST FOR FUN, then go do that. You’re saying a point of view that makes less since then sticking a Prius on a canvas and calling it a work of art. You are the Prius of this community
Are you going to complain about all the cars mythbusters broke next?
I’ve had this discussion with a lot of friends.
On one had, yes they do wreck a lot of cars. However, i do believe they give those cars one last chance to be part of history and give them a few moments of stardom before their eventual death in a scrap yard. Cars are ment to be driven and enjoyed. Most of those beaters were destined to sit and rot or on the way to the scrap heap. So why not do some crazy adventure in them?
And funny picture for laughs
I see what you mean, but most of the cars they destroyed were cheap and no one knew that they were going to shoot up in value. Hell, my dad bought a 1963 Mini for £15 30 odd years ago and here I am about £1700 into my 1985 Mini. No one knew that a car manufactured for 41 years, 5.4 million made would have foreseen the prices of them going through the roof
I do have to say, i was angry at James wrecking that awesome Volvo 850 R in the Africa Special…only 3000 of tose were built and his was in very good condition if i remember correctly.
well they saved hammonds lotus cortina and james’s lotus used in Patagonia would have been fine if the protesters didn’t smash it
the only cool destroyed car
Roadkill addresses this perfectly. In the future, enthusiasts are going to be enraged at Roadkill be cause they destroyed THREE iconic Dodge vehicles. Hell, the Viper isn’t even going to be made anymore. But you know what, right now that doesn’t matter.
Back in the days of General Lee, numerous legendary 1960s Dodge Chargers were destroyed, and muscle car enthusiasts scream at the thought. Those Chargers are getting rare and expensive, and back then they were treated like HotWheels. But you know what, its because they were just average cars back then. Moral of the story: not your car, not your worry,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOQe1hWvX_c
Just imagine the car rotting away… Or the person who bought it as a project car couldn’t finish it as his wife left and he’s broke! All these cars had their last hurrah! That’s way better than letting it erode away in the wind!
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