The Lads from Top Gear Take 10 Downing Street

Well, not exactly "take" 10 Downing Street....they used the residence of the British Prime Minister as a backdrop for filming a Top Gear Challenge. Jeremy Clarkson and British Prime Minister David Cameron are friends and it was all done to highlight British Goods via a road trip to India for the Top Gear Boffins.

The US version of Top Gear was dreadful and the presenters they had could not replicate the chemistry that goes on between Clarkson, Hammond and May.

Can't wait until this episode shows up on BBC America. They are Brilliant.

Don't mind us Prime Minister: Jeremy Clarkson and crew films Top Gear's Christmas special... outside Number 10
By Amy Oliver UK Mail
29th November 2011

Those worried that Jeremy Clarkson has designs on Number 10 and a new career in politics shouldn't panic.

The 51-year-old presenter was only outside the Prime Minister's residence today to shoot scenes for the Top Gear Christmas special.
He was joined by fellow presenters James May, 48, and Richard Hammond, 41.

All were tight-lipped about the reason for their visit and a BBC spokesman refused to confirm or deny whether David Cameron is likely to star in the 90-minute show. They had to stop filming when Mr Cameron emerged from Number 10 to go to hear George Osborne's Autumn Statement.

Clarkson is a friend of the Prime Minister and the pair exchanged a few words before Mr Cameron was driven away.

They had to stop a second time because of a news helicopter hoping to film Mr Cameron's journey, that was hovering overhead.

The Top Gear trio journey to India this year in yet another epic adventure that sees them try to fix Britain's economy through trade promotion.

The show's producer Andy Wilman, today explained on the Top Gear blog that the team were trying to assist Mr Cameron, who a few months ago, said Britain must become a favoured trading partner of India.

'Top Gear, we thought, could help solve this problem with a trade mission, flying the flag for UKPLC,' Wilman wrote.

'Our plan was to drive across India, drumming up interest in British goods, advertising the peerless standards of British skills, British nous, British Britishness.

'We would make the Indians think: “No, we shall not buy mayonnaise from Belgium, but Angel Delight and Kendal Mint Cake from the British."'The three men were given a rather handsome budget of £7,000 each to purchase a car that would not only get them from one end of India to the other, but also represent dear old Blighty.

Clarkson chose a 1995 Celebration edition Jaguar XJS 4.0 litre, while Hammond purchased a classic Mini Cooper.Meanwhile May decided he wanted a Rolls-Royce, but had to make do with a 1976 Rolls-Royce Shadow.

They started in Mumbai before driving North through Delhi and into the Himalayas.

Whether all three motors made it to 14,000 feet is unknown.
'You'll just have to tune in to find out,' the BBC spokesman said.

All three presenters say they are recognised in countries around the world, but Hammond insists they never set out to make such a popular show.

Speaking to the Huffington Post he said: 'All we set out to do ten years ago was make the best car show we possibly could. The minute we start trying to contrive it to be something else, I'm sure it will stop working.'

And of the unique chemistry between the threesome he added: 'It's never changed. From day one, if Jeremy crashes into something, I will laugh, and I expect him to in return. You couldn't fake it, people would soon suss us out.

Born to RUN...New Jersey's GOV looks like the man for the job...

Never say never......Looking at the GOP line-up, it is no wonder that Americans are looking closely at NJ Governor Chris Christie.... Born to Run is not just a line for Bruce Springsteen...

Slick Mitt and Gov. Perry look like fumbling idjits next to the straight talker from New Jersey.

We need to knock out the Fool who presently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, (to quote Top Gear), " How hard can it be ??"

We need the BEST person, not the one who has raised the most $$$.



Christie: Face 'difficult truths'
MAGGIE HABERMAN / Politico.com

Here's Juana Summers' story on Chris Christie's Reagan Library speech, with a theme of "real American exceptionalism" that rapped political leaders adrift and singled out President Obama for criticism:

American exceptionalism, as Christie defined it, is a “vision followed by a set of principled actions that made us the envy of the world,” not a political punch-line.

“Not a re-election strategy, but an American revitalization strategy,” he called it.

During his remarks – interrupted numerous times by applause – Christie delivered several characteristically tough lines, including saying America must not become “a country that places comfortable lies ahead of difficult truths,” that showed the kind of swagger that’s defined his persona and won the hearts of the people who are desperate to see him come off the sidelines of the campaign.

Obama, Christie said comparing his approach now to the then-Illinois state Senator’s address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, is willing to divide the country to win re-election.

“This is not a leadership style, this is a reelection strategy,” Christie said of Obama’s actions in the Oval Office. “Telling those who are scared and struggling that the only way their lives can get better is to diminish the success of others….That may turn out to be a good re-election strategy for President Obama, but is a demoralizing message for America. What happened to state Sen. Obama? When did he decide to become one of the ‘dividers’ he spoke of so eloquently in 2004?”

Christie decried a Washington that isn’t working, saying Congress is “at war with itself because they are unwilling to leave campaign-style politics at the Capitol’s door” and said the nation’s capitol drifts from “conflict to conflict with little resolution.”

And if domestic issues suffer, the world’s opinion of America is damaged, Christie said.

“Without strong leadership at home, without our domestic house in order, we are taking ourselves out of the equation,” he said. “Over and over, we are allowing the rest of the world to set the tone without American influence because of our failings.”

To some extent, it was a version his American Enterprise Institute speech from March writ global. But it was also not ideologically specific.

He seemed to laud Bowles-Simpson, for instance, in terms of fiscal issues. But in the portion of his speech that dealt with foreign policy, he moved away from the neocon hawkish position and sounded closer to the one espoused most loudly in the GOP field by Jon Huntsman, in terms of not fighting the world's fights.

It highlights why Christie appeals to conservative elites and some major donors. But it is also a reminder that he would face some of the same challenges as any other candidate in this hard-right moment in the Republican party in a national race.

At the same time, it underscores what those who want Christie to run find appealing - a straight message, and one that's not ideologically based.

ROGER THAT !

Top Gear's James May, a.k.a. "Captain Slow", takes the Bugatti Veyron SS to the edge

Top Gear fans know James May as the straight man in the trio of Brit Petrol Heads. He plays the foil for Jeremy Clarkson's bombast and Richard Hammond plays May's usual partner in crime.

Usually, they set out for a challenge and May & Hammond square off against Clarkson on a race across some part of the world where the lads find misadventure along the highways & byways of the world. Automotive based insanity ensues as expected.

It is brilliant to say the least...

Well " Captain Slow " got a chance to take it to the edge by piloting a Bugatti Veyron SS, the world's fastest production car on a test track in Germany. What is it like to take the world's fastest car to the edge of 260 miles per hour ? Take a look.....Bloody Brilliant.

TOP GEAR Lads try to make a Space Shuttle from a Reliant Robin....with expected results...Brilliant!

This is just too funny.....I love it when the lads at Top Gear try something like this, and it turns out as expected.....

Ultra-rare 1939 Auto Union D-Type comes up for auction. Got spare £5.5 million ???

WOW....Talk about some serious kit....This is the "Maltese Falcon" of race cars. From the Lads at TOP GEAR...

Bid on Hitler’s favourite
Ultra-rare 1939 Auto Union D-Type comes up for auction. Got spare £5.5 million knocking around?

Liked the look of that Ferrari 250 Testarossa sold at auction last month, but couldn't quite stretch to the £8 million asking price?

Then how about this bargainous Auto Union D-Type racer, up for auction in August and expected to sell for a mere £5.5 million?

Raced by Hans Stuck and Rudolf Hasse in the 1939 Grand Prix season, it's one of only three D-Types known to exist, and was lost behind the Iron Curtain for half a century before being recovered by an American enthusiast just a few years ago.

The D-Type was one of the German ‘Silver Arrows' - named for the national colour of the Mercedes and Auto Union racers - that dominated Grand Prix racing in the 1930s.

This car, chassis 191, is powered by a 3.0-litre, supercharged V12 which puts out around 485bhp - a simply staggering amount for an inter-war racer. Aluminium bodied, it weighs in at just under one tonne, and will top over 200mph.

Bonhams - for it is they who are auctioning the car - confidently assert that the engine puts out so much torque that you can easily light up the rear wheels at 100mph: a buttock-clenching experience, we'd wager, in a car with no harness. Or belts. Or, er, anything.

If all that wasn't enough to have you readying the chequebook, here's the deal-breaker: the D-Type has been described as Hitler's favourite car. The Fuhrer was obsessed with motor racing, and Hans Stuck was his driver of choice.

Could make a lovely pair alongside that tasteful Fiat 2800, if you're into that sort of thing. I really, really hope you're not

TOP GEAR...BLOODY BRILLIANT

The casual reader will no doubt figure out that I am a huge Anglophile....been a fan of the Brits since I was a lad....

Well, the best thing to come out of the UK in some time has to be TOP GEAR...the trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are over the top funny and as British as they come.....when they are not squabbling amongst themselves about the most inane points of car issues, they are always busy making fun of themselves and all things automotive. It's like hanging out at the local car show (if you are located in the UK)and running into your drinking buddies.....they have a great chemistry and Clarkson is the ringleader.

Take a peek at this video.....very cool.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/video.jsp?bclid=31431151001&bctid=30084702001

The brilliant take on all things automotive, mix in some great British humor and a bit of in your face attitude and you get a brilliant hour of funny SHITE...I highly recommend you take in an episode on BBC America, Mondays at 21:00 hours...

Here's a sample of the kind of humor you'll hear from Jeremy Clarkson, as he pontificates about all things automotive:

" We start tonight with the highlight of my childhood. It's the Ladybird Book of Motorcars from 1963, and as you would imagine it's full of rubbish really. Just endless boring grey shapes, until you get to page 40, where you find the Maserati 3500 GT. Now this for me, when I was little, was like kind of Jordan and Cameron Diaz. In a bath together. With a Lightning jet fighter. And lots of jelly.."

Where else would you see three blithering idiots take vehicles like a Toyota truck and try to make it into a boat to go across the English Channel??? or try to see how fast they can have celebrities drive a basic car around a test track (and embarrass them when they fail miserably at it?)...the stuff they do to all things automotive is Brilliant.....just bloody Brilliant.....take a look, you won't be sorry......