I wait for these with more excitement than I wait for Top Gear to come back!

>> ^Fletch:

That's two loops in succession, not a double loop.

I like it - a big loop with a little loop at the top! Someone call Clarkson!

>> ^Fletch:

That's two loops in succession, not a double loop.


My thoughts exactly! Hehe.

>> ^braschlosan:

Kinda cool I guess. Would have been MUCH better if it was a real production vehicle. Say a 92 ford escort


Towing a caravan.

This is really just a silly Hyundai Elantra commercial where they also talk to one of the Walking Dead creators about his work. There are roughly 3 different versions of the car depicted, and none of them are feasible.



Of course no one would pick a compact coupe as the foundation for an armored car if they had any kind of choice in the matter (and if they don't, there's no reason to talk about what a great choice their only option is). There are a couple key areas in which this car really shows the limitations of the basic platform (a compact coupe): Height, Carry Capacity.

Basics:
An Elantra weighs about 2,800lbs unmodified (and roughly 3,500 - 4,000 as imagined), has about 150HP (not impressive numbers from a 1.8L engine), and has a sunroof roughly 4'8" feet off the ground.

Height:
The idea of a turret on top of the car for offense is great, except for the part where he's talking about a car with a height of less than 5 feet. The average person is about 5'6" with an arm's reach of at least an extra foot. So, the person in the protected turret is still likely in range (the hypotenuse of an arm reaching to this height would be slightly longer than the ~4'8" car height plus the roughly foot and a half of turret). Have you ever stood out of a compact coupe's sunroof while the car was in motion? There's not a lot of room in that car period, there's certainly no room for a person to stand in the center of it while it's in motion in a high stress situation.

Carry Capacity:
The Elantra has a roughly 900lbs carry capacity (this weight includes driver and passengers, plus armor and such). I'm going to assume the weight of the cow catcher is about equal to an average small truck snow plow (250lbs), and that it's for hitting zombies not clearing the road of vehicles, and I'm going to place a fair shot in the dark of roughly 172.5lbs for the rest of the armor (assuming 7 gauge sheet metal is ideal, and assuming 23 square feet will cover enough glass). So far we've got 477.5lbs of carry capacity for driver, gunner, passengers, and gear. Each person likely weighs roughly 200lbs which means the car has enough capacity to deal with a driver, a single gunner, and two moderately well stocked bags of supplies. Any more than this and the car will start to run into issues, a lot more than this (say, loading it up with passengers and gear) and you risk significant damage to the car's ability to continue driving. All of this assumes they don't want to beef up the rear of the car to allow the vehicle to be able to "safely" ram other obstructions in the road (in a demolition derby drivers drive, and crash into each other, backwards to protect all of the sensitive components in the engine bay).

Other:
The roman chariot style blades on the wheels of a car was tried in an episode of the tv show Top Gear and it threw off the wheel balance to the point of making the car entirely undrivable for any more than a mile or two. Also, just about the last thing you want to do when dealing with zombies is damage their legs because it's much easier to see a zombie walking than a zombie crawling (our soldiers crawl when they want to be harder to see in modern combat for a reason). The general purpose of a compact car is to be accessible (read: inexpensive), and often they utilize a small fuel efficient engine. Increasing the weight of this car by about 40% is not doing any favors to the already under powered car, and the fuel economy is going to suffer. Realistically, speed and acceleration are meaningless (of course the car will exceed the 3 mile per hour average human walking speed).

Improvements:
*Start with a different type of vehicle. Perhaps something that was designed to be large.
*Ignore the mad max spikes.


research tools:
http://www.hyundaiusa.com/elantra/specifications.aspx
http://www.hyundai-forums.com/197-i30-elantra-touring-forum/140546-load-capacity-2012-touring.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humvee
http://www.fisherplows.com/fe/showroom/homesteader
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/gauge-sheet-d_915.html
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/sheetmetal.html

Top Gear didn't show it done....they showed the tire re-seat on the rim and that is all. The same thing Mythbusters showed was possible. Of all the videos I have seen (so far) of this stunt I have yet to see one that shows the tire to re-seat and then support the weight of the vehicle as if it was fully inflated.

>> ^woozy-uk:

my thoughts exactly
have seen this done before too, top gear showed it done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeCrqNIpiMM
that girl put the fluid on differently than it should be
silly presenters

That was the example I was thinking about too. So we know it works, maybe the difference is that they used it to reseat the tire then pumped it up with air.

>> ^woozy-uk:

my thoughts exactly
have seen this done before too, top gear showed it done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeCrqNIpiMM
that girl put the fluid on differently than it should be
silly presenters

my thoughts exactly

have seen this done before too, top gear showed it done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeCrqNIpiMM

that girl put the fluid on differently than it should be

silly presenters

>> ^Ariane:

>> ^Yogi:
>> ^EMPIRE:
now that house is over, I would love to see Hugh Laurie back in comedy for a bit.... (of fry and laurie)...

I was hoping first for a Travel Documentary in the vein of Fry in America. Just have them traveling about for a bit and chatting about their lives and meeting new people. Wouldn't it be funny watching to giant Englishman stomp around East Asia or somewhere cool? I think so, and it would be a nice little trip for Laurie after House, which had a decent enough ending in my view.
After that I demand some comedy though.

I don't know, it seems Michael Palin has already pretty much covered the world already.


He does a good job, but I honestly like travel programs that have a gimmick like motorcycles (Long Way Round) or Cars (Top Gear specials) and have more than one person. I get bored with one person, how people interact with eachother while on the road is much better and I can imagine Fry and Laurie would be amazing at it.

That hurts.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love the Gallardo. It's one of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen. And it's a crappy Lambo that's been redesigned by German engineers, so like they put it on Top Gear: "It's like a Lamborghini, but the air-conditioning works."

However, I love the fact that it's properly pronounced: "gay-ardo." I just picture all these macho dicks, driving around in their yellow sports car, showing off, yet trying desperately to ignore the fact that when they were at the dealership, everyone kept saying how great they would look, "In your new 'Gay-ardo!' That 'Gay-ardo' looks great on you! It's like the 'Gay-ardo' was made for you!"

In fact, I'd bet that at dealerships here in America, they're probably forbidden from using the proper pronunciation. Can't you just picture it? "I know guys, but if we pronounce it that way, we're never going to attract the macho-dickhead customers that keep us in business..."

Some guys will argue to the death about the proper pronunciation of "Jaguar", but there seems to be an unspoken agreement among most Lambo fans that a Gallardo is a "Gall-ardo".

I would've given anything if they drove by the accident in the video and said: "Man, that's a shame, it's such a beautiful 'Gay-ardo'." Of course, for all I know, the guy is comfortable in his sexuality, but I doubt it.

You have been awarded 1 Power Point for fixing the embed code for Dead Pool video Top Gear - The Interceptors. Thank you for helping maintain VideoSift's reliability.

I have so much envy for James May now...he was able to legitimately tell Gordon, "you disappoint me, Ramsey". Love watching Gordon Ramsey and the Top Gear crew.

>> ^Mammaltron:

Apparently Top Gear South Korea - it wasn't Richard Hammond flying.


You deserve soo many points for that.

Apparently Top Gear South Korea - it wasn't Richard Hammond flying.

Is this UK Top Gear, or one of the other flavours?