Lancia on topgear tonight

[Lancia-hf]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p4z1y

Topgear on BBC2 tonight at 21.00 will feature lancia as one of the great margues

[gamma a.i.]

utube

[ekranoplan]

You might be able to view out-takes here:

http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/tg-ser ... y=OutTakes

[lancialulu]

see the post in General by Koen who has linked youtube!

Excellent stuff for fulvisti

Tim

[Bart Verbeek]

Wanna see the full episode:

http://www.casttv.com/shows/top-gear/se ... e-3/quvy17

[gamma a.i.]

I feel sorry for them; they seem to be overly-boyish-clowns, willing to do anything to get a laff. Nothing against being boyishclownish in the right situation, place, time, but can't they be serious about anything / can't they say something nice about anything Lancia ? The had such a lovely lineup of Lancia & they ignored saying much of anything about most of them. How dumb.

They had a lovely line-up of r,p&b gems & they said zero about the Z, the F, the G* Excepting for having something to say about the Gamma, *" they blew up every time they were started". Well, OK, to be fair...they lambasted the Mc as well. The "no-brakes" wonder ! ha ha...why do their owners love them (so much) if they have no brakes ?
& why is it not permissible to remove the power-booster if it improved the braking ? In my S2 the brakes were fine & I didn't ever think "gee, I wish I had power brakes. I did not know that the S1 had power brakes, so how could I miss them.

Speaking of Gamma: Now that I have 2, I have 2x as many opportunity to blow them up; fortunately this has not yet happened. On my last very long (by Continental-Euro measurement anyway) mileage Gamma trip; the only thing that was a problem was the "joking" at the borders...which I took in the same humor as it was given - even at Borders where stopping is not a requirement. I didn't know this at some borders, so I stopped. Someone came out of little buildings to inform me that I was free to go on; so I did. & no one shot out my back window.
It was different a few years back (no, they didn't shoot - even 15 or 20 years ago). Sometimes I & everyone else traveling in or out of certain countries, had to wait for an hour or 2 for someone to even come out of some little or big border-buildings & then wait longer while they were checking whatever they were checking; after they had taken every document that could be presented to them. Passport, Visa, Insurance (personal & vehicle); cash in hand (please exchange, right now & right here or you can not enter this country*), gifts being imported, with original receipt...even for a salami (you think I am kidding).

They required "unloading of everything; unpacking of everything & they searched everything; with mirrrors, sniffer-dogs etc"; which was alright; since it was expected & planned for....still, it was no fun; especially in winter. Thank hvns that is History. Now a days, salami can be imported / exported freely. ha ha ha

At one border, on this trip the guards comment was.... "OK; you will not pay a fine, because you have bought a Vignette. Still; what are you smuggling ? Anyone who is driving a "hey, what car is this anyway ? Please pull over to the parking lot & show us what kind of car it is ? (which is not a question, it is an order). Hey....where is the motor? Wow...that is a big trunk"
I didn't mind "after all, they have to have some fun too".
No, they didn't search anywhere in the car for anything.
NO, there was no contraband to search for !
Gifts with (real) prices exceeding the "legal-import-value" ; yes...but no asked for receipts; which I had prepared (at prices lower than the "legal-import-value" , "just in case").

*speaking about the distant past: funny thing; when credit-cards were 'in-hand' there was no requirement to exchange cash at the border. Of course, no one in many countries had a credit-card machine (not even the major hotels) , so cash was required anyway.........& the major Hotels gave a far better rate than at the Banks or at the Border
You figure it out.

[racing]

I love salami, too. -D

Particulary the salami from a barnyard in fiorano.
I am very often pick them up from there ( without receipts and without problems )

moreover a nice and funny story.( but sometimes it is difficult to read for me what you wrote )

regards Andreas

[Ralph deMasi]

We should be happy they nominated Lancia the best car company but you can almost toss everything else that was said after that pronoucement. Let's remember that if they kept it strictly technical they would lose about 75% of their audience so they get to kid, drive expensive cars and everyone gets to laugh.

That said I was a bit confused as to their justification or raison d'etre anyway. Lancia, the prettiest cars !?!?, look I own a Fulvia and I don't think it's very pretty, tightly designed yes but pretty, no. The Gamma was a revolutionary design compared to its contemporaries and the Flaminia coupe they had is very nice to look at. But I don't think I'd get much arguement that Lancia's forte was technical design and not looks. In that regard I thought they missed out by not having a Lambda and an Aurelia.

Heck, they should have had a D50 and shown that Lancia even showed Ferrari the way around when they were having trouble in F1.

There, I'm done ranting. The British have a good word for this affliction - anorak.

[gamma a.i.]

Dear Salami-Lover,

I have difficulty understanding it myself, after I write it; so I have go back to it & change it until no one can understand it (:P)(:P). Sorry, I do use too many 'slang-terms' & too many bad abbreviations.

I will do my best to write proper. clear English in the future; but it will not be as much fun (multo divertemento) writing in the future as I have (often) written in the past.

Try reading the lanciagammaforum.com; sometimes I think it is written by lunatics !

Well of course ! They drive Gamma, don't they. ha ha ha...me too !!

Signed John a.i. Lunatic

[Bart Verbeek]

I think you MUST see this in its content - it's an infotainment show - it's no science.
TopGear always wants to be controversial.

When they were searching for the manufacturer with the largest number of meaningfull cars....
they didn't want to end up with VW-Ferrari-Lambo-Maser-Ford-...-other silly car brands
-----they wanted to end up with LANCIA, how controversial can you be-------

like we do! B)- We like them to be controversial.
We don't want to have a Golf-everyones-friend....
We want them to be over-engineered-with lots of caracter/charisma/crappy details

So, I enjoyed it the TopGear-way! (:P)

If our favourite brand was mainstream, this forum with its registred patients wouldn't have existed.

Maybe, maybe, we all dream of a beautifull VW Golf 1, but I'm sorry, there is no www.viva-VW.com!

And please, can someone send in a letter to the BBC (as the MorrisMarina club did), then we can have every single week: BURNINGBETAS!>:D<
(I hope they only burn up the hopeless moneypits);)


Ciao

Bart and the wicked fulvias