coldel

It doesnt matter if anyone here could remember the date of the Falklands, its that the Argentinians did. And is it vague to them? Given the current attitude of Kirchner and her very public proposals around the Falklands and references to the war the majority of Argentinians would know the date of course. James May was right, that the majority of the trip was very pleasant and no problems arose. The point is, they antagonised a specific group of people, ie those living in a particular area where the Belgrano was built, by driving a car, which was already widely spoken about on the internet, which had the Falklands war date written on it driven by someone who has courted plenty of controversy with quite racist remarks in the past, straight to that place. It was idiotic, bordering on reckless as we saw.

That black MK2 looks really nice, I think of the MX5 range they have visually the least appealing look, but that looks very nice

Argentina/Chile do sell cars, would have been able to buy a replacement within a day no problem, for the money that show makes the cost would have been negligable. Clearly they just didnt take any warnings that they might inflame tensions in that part of Argentina seriously enough to consider it. It was all very avoidable. Like I say, lesson learnt with any luck that they take the security and safety of their crew a bit more seriously.

Scary stuff indeed, like I say, if they had paid a little bit of respect when warned at the start this event (which was almost inevitable!) wouldnt have happened. The crew wouldn't have been in danger and so on. Lessons learn't one would hope.

TBH there is enough You Tube content to search for what you want to watch - star in a car, the news section, pretty pointless in my opinion and usually skip through it which leaves the test drives, which I can watch anytime on You Tube.

No, I think if some Islamic presenters of a middle eastern TV show with a history of broadcasting offensive racial slurs against the US drove a car with aforementioned number plates across the US to end up at the site of the towers then I would think that we might see a US version of the 'animals' that live in Argentina. Similarly if we saw a UK version I am pretty sure we would have UKIP up in arms and the far right looking for a punch up. Thats the difference I don't think some people get, its the intent, it was avoidable. On the actual show, I agree with Will it is getting so tiresome, it so needs a revamp but I dont think the lads know how to do that neither clearly do the writers or producers.

Yeah it did escalate very quickly, and they seemed really concerned, shame they didnt heed the warning when they first started. I still think they were on the wind up, they have form for it. My theory is it went something like - pick a nice place we havent been to, Chile/Argentina, tick - check the route, and choose the car least capable for the journey to make it fun, sports cars, tick - lets add a theme, V8s, tick - go hunting on classifieds for V8s and see the number plate, a big Clarkson tick. Having lived abroad a number of times, and visited outside the main cities, I think you have to really respect that you are a visitor in their country. I would imagine anyone wandering through the outskirts of Manchester waving a flag celebrating the Munich air crash would get a very similar reception!

I always wonder about the claim that flying is safer than driving, when I looked into it there is some measure that is about 'passenger miles' of planes vs cars - given how many miles you get in a round trip to Oz for instance, you have to do a heck of a lot of driving to get even near that. They dont measure it in trips which it should, shouldnt it?

Love the colour, as mentioned previously not a fan of it in silver, but that looks very nice.

Happy birthday mate!

I think they were ebaying for any V8 sports car, of which there are many, and saw the plate, and that was the deciding factor in buying it.

I did too! V8 Esprit v nice!

I struggle to believe the claim about only 2 for sale, loads for sale right now, and have been for some time. There also seems to be some antagonstic reasoning for having that plate and going to the place the Belgrano was built...just too many coincidences for my liking. I guess they just didnt appreciate how much the Falklands mean to some people in certain parts of Argentina. Still, they basically got attacked just like you would over here if you wandered through a BNP conference wearing a bhurka. Nutters, but still didn't help themselves antagonising it.

So what did you guys make of it? Clearly they knew from the start that online there were stirrers upset about the plate, the excuse that they couldnt take the plate off was a poor one, I mean just buy another old V8 car they easily have the budget. No way can any of that 31 man crew not have noticed the number plate without it being pointed out to them, if they think thats true then they are 31 of the dumbest people in Britain. But the organised rioting and brick throwing was not on. Although from the commentary I presume that the 3 stooges were not in the convoy that was attacked...so avoided the biggest scare moments. I just hope a lesson has been learned...although doubt it.

Well it must be at least a 3.6 litre engine as it has an extra MR2 badge on the bonnet as well as on the back, so must have double the engine size of normal MR2s

The much sought after Type R Not only that, but it must have lots of extra bhp due to the presence of an eBay SPORT badge on the back.

Meh Christmas all!

Yeah, not bad...okish....alright.... ...bah, looks awesome mate nice work!

I agree its sad that people are collecting at food banks, it is all linked to the economy though as far as I can see as you might expect, that poverty levels in the UK decreased for quite some time before something like 2008 when they started going up again.

I am not denying there are investors but they are not the majority (something like 20% of homes in the UK are investor owned) but that is still 'demand' - regardless of who is demanding it, that drives house prices. If there are buyers, be them investors or people wanting to live in the houses as long as people continue to pay the money that's what drives the price - until market conditions change that is the market that people have to play in. It is tough on people at the moment to get on the ladder, although we are very much in a mini cycle of turbulence, a quick Google shows that over the last 50 years the average yearly increase in house prices has been just under 3% vs a salary increase on average of 2% - so yes house prices are out stripping salaries but its not always going to be the levels seen in the last couple of years. Its easy to sling up house price changes over a course of a few years as being huge but what does that mean? Historically, it has shown this has always happened even way back in the 50's, this is not a new issue for people today yet people still got on the ladder somehow - interestingly the data shows that house prices tend to fall rapidly after such price hike.

...and people still buy at the prices they are at - so there is a demand, so the price stays as it is. I remember the 80s/90s and 15% interest rates although it was only at that rate for a month or two before dropping down into single digits once again and remember housing issues. No country is immune to this, it happens everywhere globally (except maybe North Korea!). Prices are not unrealistic as people are buying, they are just unrealistic for a quite a lot of people.

She faniced you!

Interesting post Bock - I would say some of the comments in response to the above were - growth in population is not gradual or linear, it is exponential - people arent homeless, more people than ever are living at home than in their own places - petrol/food/holidays/take aways are all consumables a house is an investment which is why price increases are good - a couple on an average salary can afford a home, its just not in a desireable area where all the people live who earn a high salary...etc. It is going to be a very emotive thread this - I am not saying its not tough for first time buyers, but like Dan said, they are at the bottom of the food chain in house buying terms even if they are on a reasonbable salary because so many other people out there are second or third time buyers with capital to invest.

But the economics of people on above average salaries buying modest property in good central areas doesnt work. Population growth is immense, the available housing isnt matching it, cost of travel is high in the UK which makes central property even more premium. Theres lots of factors involved. I am 40 and my wife and I are going to move next year, we will be living miles away from London with travel costs and child care costs despite good salaries - I have just accepted that as how it has panned out and where we are now. We cannot afford a modest a modest house in a city centre down here in London as we do not already own a big house here worth half a million pounds. So we will get a reasonably good house somewhere further out - we are lucky in that we have a flat already that we invested in to help but even that doesnt get us a house here in zone 3 London. I get your argument marzman, my parents were paying a mortgage of £150 a month on a house worth £300k - when we move next year we will be paying nigh on £2k a month for a £400k house - but then again in 20 years time we will stil be paying £2k on a house worth £3m, its a cycle, so I am trying to look at it positively!