Dec 21, 2006 12:21:41 AM
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nberry said:
Clarkson is very entertaining. I could watch all day.
Regarding American cars, the US comsumer priorities are vastly different than Europe. If Americans wanted to build a car without concern for their customer base they could build one that would trash most European cars.
American engineering is second to none. We build planes, fly to the moon, computers, software and products that the ROW covets. We must mass produce most Europeans don't.
Dec 21, 2006 10:09:38 AM
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993Targa said:
They like to provocate, that what makes it funny. They also give Porsche a hard time in the show, but the Hamster and I think the other guy drive one privately. Think Clarkson drives an AMG SLK now
Dec 21, 2006 10:22:45 AM
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nberry said:
Clarkson is very entertaining. I could watch all day.
Regarding American cars, the US comsumer priorities are vastly different than Europe. If Americans wanted to build a car without concern for their customer base they could build one that would trash most European cars.
American engineering is second to none. We build planes, fly to the moon, computers, software and products that the ROW covets. We must mass produce most Europeans don't.
Dec 21, 2006 10:30:55 AM
Dec 21, 2006 10:55:49 AM
Dec 21, 2006 11:37:57 AM
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easy_rider911 said:
"Clarkson's rant is nothing more than a typical self serving anti-American nationalistic vomit of left wing socialist crap."
carreraman, FYI JC is right-wing. He is not a left-wing socialist.
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amazon said:
Yes a vette doesn't cost the price of a ferrari, but it wasn't his point. He tested the best of what america has to foffer but he didn't find a US car to match a 360CS, a carrera GT or jaguar XK. It's like US car manafacturers dont even bother to try. Why cadillac or chevy don't try to make an expensive sports car like a ferrari is quite an interesting question. It's not a question of can or can't they built a sportscar as good as a F599. The question is more why they don't?
Americans could built car that they would sell for the price of a 911 turbo, but they don't. All they built is the FORD GT, wich is based on such a design that it will never be practical, no matter how effort you put in building it.
Americans should com up with a car from scratch, a car that will be as well built as a Audi, as reliable as a golf diesel, as comfortable as a 911 carrera, ... and as fast as the corvette Z06. Such a car would obviously cost 150K to 200K to buy. But the question still remains: why on earth don't they built one. At least one.
It was the same argument with the ferrari symphony against the vette's engine noise. You've had the best of america against the best of europe, even though prices are not comparable. But there are no american cars of such price. There are no 200k chevy or ford GT.
He concluded that the ferrari sounds ten times better. And he's right. The question should be: why on earth ford or gm don't built a car that sounds as good as a ferrari? I'm sure they could, but the question is why they don't?
Dec 21, 2006 2:55:06 PM
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Crash said:Quote:
easy_rider911 said:
"Clarkson's rant is nothing more than a typical self serving anti-American nationalistic vomit of left wing socialist crap."
carreraman, FYI JC is right-wing. He is not a left-wing socialist.
That's always the accusation the more militant Americans make: "Left-wing, socialist propagandist crap" .
Also to add, the only reason the Americans managed to even get anything off the ground were the German scientsts.
And breaking the sound barrier was entirely due to the British abandoning their supersonic program and giving all the data to the Americans.
What Americans are good at is innovation, IMO.
Dec 21, 2006 3:02:26 PM
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easy_rider911 said:
No, the http internet was created by Sir Tim Berners Lee as a way for scientists to send messages and documents to each other quickly and cheaply.
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racerx said:Quote:
Crash said:Quote:
easy_rider911 said:
"Clarkson's rant is nothing more than a typical self serving anti-American nationalistic vomit of left wing socialist crap."
carreraman, FYI JC is right-wing. He is not a left-wing socialist.
That's always the accusation the more militant Americans make: "Left-wing, socialist propagandist crap" .
Also to add, the only reason the Americans managed to even get anything off the ground were the German scientsts.
And breaking the sound barrier was entirely due to the British abandoning their supersonic program and giving all the data to the Americans.
What Americans are good at is innovation, IMO.
Von Braun was the driving force of nasa in the 1960's and a great visionary but hardly doing the nitty gritty. As to the first;
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/goddard.htm
Being factually correct helps arguments.
Guys let me know when a european will step on the moon for the first time. Thank God Bush has done something right with his decision to go back to the moon and then to Mars. That is a major step in ensuring engineering proficiency.
BTW Maglev train technology was invented at MIT, but our govt. spends too much on defense and therefore Germany and china run with it.
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racerx said:
Fair comparisons would be Gm to Renault or fiat.
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racerx said:
As to american engineering, it is as good or better than exists anywhere, but you have to realize our economy is heavily weighted to the military industrial complex. That is where the engineers and national wealth is spent. Unfortunately that leaves us short on some infrastructure and luxuxry goods to some extent.
Dec 21, 2006 4:51:39 PM