**** Thread closed. Discussion continues in Vol 8 ****
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=18401
Subject: That Toyota Pick Up!!
Well was it staged or that really happen? That was the sort of publicity Toyota could never buy! Obviously better built than my mother's Corolla then!
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assuming you mean on TG, thought it a much better prog tonight
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I very much doubt any of it was rigged, what would be the point of rigging it?!
I think it's a genuine testament to the build quality of those 4x4's, and quite rightly so, they seem to last forever.
Enjoyed TG tonight too, even if it was a bit silly.
PP
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The questions are not did it happen, rather what was the point and why did I waste my time watching it ???
Bora - what Bora ?
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Most of the article was silly, but loosing it in the sea, then digging it out, AND getting it going was really remarkable.
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Have to admit I was impressed by that - not so impressed with driving it into trees and buildings. The images of its use around the world does give new meaning to the phrase "bullet-proof build quality". I might get myself one & run it on veggie oil ....
andymc
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The Taliban and the Somali warlords between them can't be wrong.
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What about after the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster? ISTR that at least one vehicle was stared OK after being cleaned of seawater after several weeks of being submerged.
So perhaps some vehicles are better designed for this treatment than others!
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Plays into the hands of the greens though. When I moved into PU Towers around 1987, we "found" a Massey Ferg. Tractor - which proudly proclaimed "Made in England" by the way - which according to the previous owner of the du..sorry pile had stood since he moved in in 1970 actually started when its batttery was replaced and is still in service here wiih very little work on it since....
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Regarding this piece on TG, I felt pretty outraged at the damage to Bristol pavements, stairways and walls.
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That tractor is the most amazing piece of kit. We have one on the family farm (bought new in 1950s)that is used every day, and I cannot ever remember it being a problem in the last 30 years. They were even used by Edmund Hillary's expedition to the south pole, with only very minor modification (see his recent autobiography). This was the expedition led by Bunny Fuchs (he of the "Bunny Fuchs off to Antarctica" newspaper headlines...)
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Joe - The guys first name was Vivian and have you seen todays Telegraph letters page.
Yes - the old grey Fergie - what a machine , if I remember rightly you had to press a button with your ankle at the same time pushing the gear lever forward to start.
We had various other tractors made by Case , David Brown and Nuffield on the farm where I grew up - Drove them off road from the age of 8 - Happy Days.
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Re Telegraph, yes, that's where I got the gag (his nickname was Bunny by the way)
The Model we have is the MF 35, which is the red one.It has more advanced hydraulics and PTO, as well as 6 forward gears and 2 reverse. It will only start if the range selector is in the "Start" position.
Apparently Dad used to plough the entire farm (500 acres) with this tractor and a single furrow plough. Blimey. We also used to use it to tow the homemade fire engine (used while stubble burning). What a top crack that was!
In my opinion, this machine is a total design classic. It makes a Landrover look like a flimsy old Trabant in comparison. As far as I can tell, there is not one single bit of plastic on it.
I learned to drive on it, which might explain a lot.....
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Your old Fergie sounds like a bit of a youngster to the one that I used to drive on the hill farm - they were always battleship grey, Nuffield was orange and the younger David Browns were red.
Does it have the hand throttle?
The Case was brown as I recall but I'm talking around 45 years ago so forgive the memory lapse.I can even recall being allowed to drive iton the road at the age of around 10
We of course had the obligatory Land Rovers and the farmers car of choice was the Humber Super Snipe or Jaguar MK 2 3.8. That was in the days when farmers made some money.
We literally had never heard of Volvo ,Toyota or Honda until the 60's.Subaru's didn't arrive until much later.
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Hand throttle, no pedal.
The grey model was one of the very first proper 4 cyl diesel tractors. Before that was the yellow Allis(?) and the single cylinder Field Marshall. These tractors were more suited to static work, driving threshing machines etc.
The MF's main competitors were the Fordson Major and Fordson Dexter. Dad had one of each of these too. Very similar design and just as robust. The dexter was marginally faster than the 35 (now how on earth do I know that?)
I can still remember the day that we bought our first tractor with a cab. We had really arrived then. Had a tractor with Aircon 10 years before we had a car with same.
However, the best bit of kit of all is a 1968 Fiat Crawler. Max power at 1200 rpm. Incredibly noisy, but more torque that you can shake a stick at. I once got a big 4 wheel drive tractor stuck in mud (it had a full 10 ton grain trailer attached). The Fiat towed the lot out without the engine note even dipping!
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Joe, Of course we had the Fordson Major - I must be getting old not to have remembered, they were the big blue jobs,
Aircon - on a tractor ??? . The only aircon we had was the east wind from the Urals. Wrapped up in an old army greatcoat with a bit of baler twine to hold it all together.
You boys these days are lucky - (takes puff on fat cigar) In my day ..... .
(Bores for England)
I got to admit that those big John Deere jobs look a lot more comfortable - bit more pricey though.
Shall we start a tractor thread?
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Clarkson should have given it to my mate, decided to pull a 2 tonne trialer load of sand that had sunk in the mud on his building site, long piece of chain attached to trailer and chassis of his "new" Toyota 4x4 pickup, lots of revs, dropped clutch, tailer didn't budge, but his chassis split!
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I work for a council in London, Top Gear have arranged to put it on the roof of a tower block that is being demolished. This is happening on Sunday, but I don't know if it will make it to this week's programme though.
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I should add that it is one of our tower blocks, but I better not mention which council it is
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Go on - spill the beans - what tower block where?
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This is happening on Sunday, but I don't know if it will make it to this week's programme though.
No programme this week. BBC2 have decided Snooker is more interesting to watch.
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Hackney - saw two tower blocks blown up on the news
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Re Telegraph, yes, that\'s where I got the gag (his nickname was Bunny by the way) The Model we have is the MF 35, which is the red one.It has more advanced hydraulics and PTO, as well as 6 forward gears and 2 reverse. It will only start if the range selector is in the \"Start\" position. Apparently Dad used to plough the entire farm (500 acres) with this tractor and a single furrow plough. Blimey. We also used to use it to tow the homemade fire engine (used while stubble burning). What a top crack that was! In my opinion, this machine is a total design classic. It makes a Landrover look like a flimsy old Trabant in comparison. As far as I can tell, there is not one single bit of plastic on it. I learned to drive on it, which might explain a lot.....
The headline was actually in the Nottingham Evening Post and read \"Fuchs off again\"
I know because I was there at the time!
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\"Rude, crude and socially unacceptable\"
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My goodness a long time since I last posted, but I really enjoyed TG this week. The trouble at the end of the Toyota bit was that they obviously put the fire out before it really got going. I agree about the damage done to Bristol but then I suppose they had already said they would repair any damage. But then maybe not. God only knows what tynwald in the IOM is going to do re speed limits following the BM M3CSL report the other week.
Bill
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Lets face it, it was all an act for the cameras. When whoever drove it into the studio after the fire, the interior didn't look that charred and burnt.
As for damaging Bristol, would anyone notice?
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Makes you wonder just how a current Toyota 4x4 would do oin view of the Top Gear model's age.
The legendary Toyota reliability is, of course, why the Aussies and others who live many, many miles from civilisation always buy LandCruisers etc in preference to Land Rover Discovery or Range Rover variants.
They don't like walking for miles - or baking to death - when their vehicle breaks down yet again...:-)
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>>The legendary Toyota reliability is, of course, why the Aussies and others who live many, many miles from civilisation always buy LandCruisers etc in preference to Land Rover Discovery or Range Rover variants.
So some claim, however...
If they'd done all of that to a 30yr old Land Rover at least if could have been back on the road after a few weekends work on the front lawn of a semi in Nottingham...just with a couple of s/hand spares stored in the loft.
I doubt that Toyota is going to see another MOT.
M.M
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I really do consider that whole sequence (particularly last night's demolition survival test) to be one of the most entertaining bits of television I have seen in years. I particularly liked the lack of care they took getting it off the pile of rubble with a JCB.
I don't know about anyone else, but I was really rooting for the thing to start.
V
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After last night definitely not - awarded honourary retirement.:-)
Done wonders for Toyota's image though hasn't it, especially as the Hi-Lux was no chicken?
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Well, it's convinced me - bought a 1986 4WD Hilux last friday for £750! A slightly rash purchase, in fact i'm just about to pose some questions in technical matters....
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As a piece of engineering, I think that truck is now obviously immortal; I bet Toyota are well chuffed. Its descent from 200 ft up it was certainly well-filmed and as it turned over and fired up, simply amazing.
And that JCB showed no mercy either.
Brilliant TV.
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That haunting music when Top Gear demolished the tower block complete with Toyota Pick-Up.
Played on a percussion instrument, like a smell metal xylophone perhaps?
What is the tune, as I have heard it before somewhere?
Thanks.
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It's from one of the spaghetti westerns, I think. Lee Van Cleef had a pocket watch that made the tune on the hour.
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that will be (for a few dollars more) if it's the same tune watched it this afternoon on dvd how ironic.
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For a Few Dollars More.
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For what it's worth, you may not be aware of a mobile phone thingy called Shazam.
Basically, wherever you are, you dial the number, point the phone at the speaker so it can hear the music, and they text you back the title. I think it costs about 50p.
Amazingly, it actually seems to work, even in a noisy pub.
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Dipstick - more details please ?
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Well, you call 2580, and the site is found at
www.shazam.com/uk/do/home
That help? I have to admit I've not personally used it, but I have a mate who uses it all the time and he's very impressed!
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I've used this, and it is very effective- even spotted an obscure dance track playing in a busy coffee bar. Largely a gimmick, impressive when you need it.
--
Dr Alex Mears
Seat Leon Cupra
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner.
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Sounds perfect for pub quiz music rounds!
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For a Few Dollars More.
No, wrong.
I downloaded that from Kazaalite to test. By Ennio Morricone. I remembered it from years ago when I heard it, but sadly that was not the tune I heard on TG.
Any other offers?
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I'll remember the title later, but Charles Bronson was the hero - he played a kind of haunting tune on a harmonica.
andymc
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You're leaving this hanging now.
I'll bet both my right arms that tune is from "For a few dollars more"
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On more than one occasion I have found songs on those file sharing programs (Kazaa, Napster, Audiogalaxy etc)incorrectly labelled. Try downloading two or more other files of the same name and see if they are the same song.
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Have you tried contacing TG directly?. A sensibly worded e-mail sent through their website might get a reply.
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Charles Bronson + harmonica music = the theme from the superb Western 'Once Upon a Time in the West',(IIRC)
Regards,
P.
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Definately 'For a Few Dollars More'. I don't think it was the theme from the film, but the watch that played the tune was an essential part of the plot. The full version was the prelude to the final shootout. Great stuff!
Regards DougB
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Try going to
www.clinteastwood.net/film_music.html
Scroll down and click on "60 Seconds to What" under the For a Few Dollars More heading...
You'll need Real Player to play it.
Paul
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Just email top gear - i did just this once and got a reply same day with the name of the trrack used.
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Try going to www.clinteastwood.net/film_music.html Scroll down and click on "60 Seconds to What" under the For a Few Dollars More heading... You'll need Real Player to play it. Paul
Won't connect to that site/tune, but have found this one on Kazaalite. Downloading to test this one out ......
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Yes, that's the one.
With a touch of Toccata in Fugue thrown in.
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cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2448...4
£4600 at the mo
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Somewhat surprisingly, its not pink.
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exclusive or not, I cannot believe anyone would pay more than £2500 for this.
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Reached £4,800 now and hasn't met its reserve. Bit of an optimist I think, bearing in mind the work done didn't cost him anything, SFAIK!
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Hmmm, no MOT or Tax, no cheques.....
Who wants to bet it has been ragged to within an inch of its life and the tin-worm has been feasting.
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Reached it's reserve of five grand now. When I was a Lada dealer(Yes really!) I had a tweaked 1600 Riva, with gas flowed head,hot cam, two 40DCOE Webers, tuned exhaust, (all from Lada UK), lowered suspension, two tone red & white + my decals on the sides.
Oh the joy of blowing off GTIs !!
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"Rude, crude and socially unacceptable"
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I am staggered by these bids, can't think they are genuine. OK so this car has had five minutes of fame but go to a classic auction and see the real prices there...you could get something genuine and interesting for that money.
It is also likely corners were cut to fit in with the TV schedule.
I've seen one-off stuff like this come out of garages after a few years standing...for nearer £150 in a non-MOT condition!
M.M
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malteser, the Lada rally cars were impressive considering what they started with, sounds like your car was almost to that spec?
Gareth
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Well, I had the lads in the workshop do it in slack times (not too many of those with all those lovely warranty claims at 90% of retail hourly rate). We always had a bit of a job with the carburation as they weren't expert tuners, but all the parts were available from Lada UK and came in our normal parts order.
Went pretty well for a Riva though!
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"Rude, crude and socially unacceptable"
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Oh and the bog standard 1200 Riva god go a bit on occasion too. My Salesman was nicked by plod on the M4 at just under the ton. They could hardly believe it! BTW I made him pay the fine!
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"Rude, crude and socially unacceptable"
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I've had 102 on the clock from a pristine Lada 1200 (pre-Riva).
The oil light was coming on and it wasn't happy :o)
I may have posted a thread on here in the past, something like "Best top speed from worst car" can't find it though...........
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All this makes me very envious.
I could only manage about 80 in the Riva 1500 E that I had.
Was it something to do with that carb together with the catalytic converter I wonder?
It does seem daft though. I decided to part with it before its MOT was up as I understood that those carbs were a pain to get through the MOT on emissions etc, whereas there were much older and fithier ones sailing past MOTs because emissions were not an issue.
Hugo
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I ran a demonstrator Riva 1300 Estate for a while, onto which we had fitted a downdraught Weber (again available from the Bridlington import centre). It went like the "proverbial" off a shovel! Impressed a few punters too, not to memtion other dealers when they had a lift to a sales conference in it!
The real reason Lada stopped UK imports WAS the harsher EU emission regulations.The Russians did not have the development money to make their cars meet these regs. and the franchise in the UK died.
The engines were a "lift" from the old Moskvitch and were nigh on unburstable if looked after. The 1200/1300/1600 engine was massive for the capacity it produced, which probably, along with recirculating ball steering, helped to give the "Lada shoulder" syndrome. You had to develop muscles like the new governor of California to drive one!
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"Rude, crude and socially unacceptable"
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You don't see many Ladas around now. I seem to remember reading that a lot of them were sent back to Russia. In some cases this was arranged by the same people who'd either worked for the importers or dealers who brought them here in the first place.
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Wonder if "you know who" will bid for it.
Assuming he/she still thinks they are "cool".
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Years ago Russian trawler crews were buying Ladas in Scotland and taking them home, for spares I think. The bidding has reached £5,500 on E bay and ends at about 8pm Thursday 18th
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I don't think £5,500 is bad for that Lada. A difficult thing to value, but what else could you get with that performance and exclusivity for that price? Not much!
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Given the initial high value of the Lotus add ons, I wonder if the buyer will strip them all out, and shove them in a decent car?
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I'm interested that it's being sold as seen, repeated more than once. Could the engine be blown/damaged? If the bloke doesn;t have the money to MOT it perhaps he didn't have the money to maintain it?
All supposition, but it'd be interesting to know.
V
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Talking about Russian seamen - Ladas were imported into UK via Bridlington, being offloaded at Hull, I believe. Many travelled as deck cargo!!! They were packed so tightly that if a Russian seaman wanted to go across the ship he RAN OVER THE ROOvES as a shortcut.
That is why so many UK Ladas were sold with vinyl roof coverings - to hide the beaten out dents and scratches!
The UK importers spent serious amounts of money on rectification of all sorts of faults before releasing them to dealers and we still had to do a three hour PDI !!
A Riva 1200 sold for three grand in 1986 and based on our margins & the importer's I guess they must have landed in UK for about seven hundred quid!
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"Rude, crude and socially unacceptable"
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And before the link ceases to work due to the auction now being closed,
The final selling price was £7,400.
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You can view closed auctions for 90 days......
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Ah, but you know what forums are like, people still reply to threads that are several yrs old. When the ebay link eventually dies, people will still be able to see the price it fetched.
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Said he couldn't drive! See: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/3509191.stm
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I feel I've been giving Jezzer the benefit of the doubt for too long - my instinct was right, he's a human incarnation of Mr Toad.
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What became of him, anyway?
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I feel I've been giving Jezzer the benefit of the doubt for too long - my instinct was right, he's a human incarnation of Mr Toad.
That's not fair -- on Mr Toad
As far as I can remember, Mr Toad never even drove into a tree accidentally, never mind intentionally. (Methinks this behaviour would be more in keeping with some character out of Viz magazine.)
Mind you, if Clarkson feels like following Mr Toad's example and dressing up as a washerwoman to escape the long arm of the law, it might make some rather good television!
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Perhaps Clarkson was aiming for the sandal wearing, muesli munching individual hugging the tree at the time.
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And this makes for good TV, does it? talk about dumbing down ...
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I think the point of the article was to demonstrate that a Toyota pick-up is the toughest car in the world. As well as driving into various objects such as trees, they also left it on Western-super-mare beach and let the tide come in, dropped a caravan on it, set fire to it and finally put it on top of a tower block which was subsequently demolished by explosives.
It still ran.....
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Proof if ever it was needed that TV production people are best viewed from the other side of the road.
Take it from me, laughing boys like these do not give a monkeys about who's toes they tread on as long as they get the footage. And yes, it's great that the BBC paid rather than the people who did it. Not.
Never mind asking permission, what kind of world is it when TV production people think it's okay to damage a tree for televisual purposes anyway? Just torch a forest next time!
Come to think of it, I've just had a great idea for a new reality TV show: 'Celebrity Car crashes that Maimed'. Now, don't you think it would make for great viewing?
No, neither do I.
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I seem to remember he knocked a chunk of someone's wall down as well. The promotion of yob culture.
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Come to think of it, I've just had a great idea for a new reality TV show: 'Celebrity Car crashes that Maimed'. Now, don't you think it would make for great viewing? No, neither do I.
OK, so you may have been joking, but check out some production companies idea to put a bunch of England football hooligans on a yacht with croatian hooligans www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_869247.html?menu=new...s
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I used to do things like this to Tonka toys when I was three. Sums the man up.
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I think the point of the article was to demonstrate that a Toyota pick-up is the toughest car in the world. As well as driving into various objects such as trees, they also left it on Western-super-mare beach and let the tide come in, dropped a caravan on it, set fire to it and finally put it on top of a tower block which was subsequently demolished by explosives. It still ran.....
This is probably just proof that I have an incurably warped mind, but this all sounds to me like a whole lot more fun than a bunch of anoraks driving fast and worying whether the car had biased positive outersteer (or whatever it is they worry about), and whether the cupholders are as good as those in a BMW.
Haven't seen it, but from the dcescriptions I'd say this was a brilliant piece of programming -- let down only by the gratuitous assault on the tree.
Mind you, the folks living in the tower block may have been more inclined to focus on the discomfort of being detonated than on the damage to the tree ... {grin}
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Haven't seen it, but from the dcescriptions I'd say this was a brilliant piece of programming -- let down only by the gratuitous assault on the tree.
I thought it one of the better bits of Top Gear. OK, so damaging a tree was a bit silly but they didn't exactly hurtle into it - about 5mph I reckon. It was also a bit of coverage for Toyota which they couldn't have possibly bought with any amount of advertising.
Oh and, yes, the tree ended up better off than the tower block.
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Oh dear - he must be desperate. Is he down to his last million, then? With a bit of luck, the pick-up will last longer than he will...
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Just to revive this thread, the TG website has the Toyota Pick-Up video available for download.
You'll need RealPlayer to view it, btw.
Broadband users, click here:- www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/downloads/hilux_broadband.ram
Dial-Up users, click here:- www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/downloads/hilux_narrowband.r...m
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