Tiff vs Monkey

This will cheer you up: the top dogs of the moment driven by two of the top showman in the business.

458 Speciale vs 911 GT3,  Needell vs Harris for Fifth Gear.

Pass the popcorn!

A dab o'Tiff-o...

and he gets paid for it!
.

Mclaren MP4-12C vs Ferrari 458: Strike Three!

Holy smokes, this one is devastating. One of the reason we like 5th Gear shoot outs with Jason Plato and Tiff Needell best is because, they are fun of course but mainly because they are racing drivers, old fashioned ones at that, they like their cars with a good analog feel and soul.

Have a look at what happens to Tiff when he tries a long drift, that is just horrible! And Plato's verdict is even more devastating: "This car is programmed to be driven the way McLaren wants you to drive and I'm not programmed that way". Ouch. Downshifts? "It does not downshift when you want it"...Ouch.

I guess cars truly are the personification of the companies who build them, Ferrari might have had some combustion problems but the 458 is clearly the car of the moment, the one all other makes need to measure up to. The Mclaren MP4-12C reflects Mclaren's corporate image, it's impeccably built and with clever engineering, the best money can buy and all... but apparently, soul is not for sale.
(Thanks Ruben!)
.

Jason Plato drives the Ferrari 599 GTO

Proper video review Plato! Axis approved!


(Fifth Gear online)
end of post

Tiff turns Jason Plato into Patrese's wife

She's still way better looking though.


end of post

Tiff has some fun with Jenson Button

In case you did not know 5th gear is not dead, it just moved to the web. Check out this fun segment with Tiff "Noodles" Needell, Vicky Butler-Henderson and a fairly relaxed Jenson Button. OK, he did get a little dark when Tiff, asked who was going to win the 2010 championship says, without hesitation: Lewis Hamilton!





end of post

Tiff Jumps the Vantage

V12 Vantage that is. And with that his supply if tortellini will be radically reduced!


(Fifth Gear)



home

Three Blondes and a Scud.

Nice work if you can get it.  Jason Plato cannot but be smug, wouldn't you be?

Best part is really the first half of the clip when Plato slides the Ferrari F430 Scuderia around a wet track.  Of course it's wet,  it's Great Britain, it's always wet.

Go ahead...use the fullscreen button on the lower right of the player....







Home

Tiff does the Renault R26.R

...I guessing even a hotter Caterham would not have done much better in those conditions. In any case Mr.Needell likes the Renault track day special!

As it turns out, our friends at RSR Nürburg just announced they have added a Renault R26.R to their rental fleet starting March 1st.    The ultimate hot hatch on the ultimate track,  perfect!

Home

A girl's car.

Well,  maybe not every girl... 

Quote of the day:  "...it's got the backside of J-Lo after a visit to the pie shop"

Home

Proper Hooligans

With Top Gear getting all the attention it's easy to forget about the lower budget competition. Fifth Gear may have copycat opening credits and you may get annoyed at host Tom Ford wearing oversized Bart Simpson shorts all the time but they do have Vicky Butler-Henderson, that sideways driving, squealing, motorhead's fantasy poster girl and they do provide actual useful consumer information. You saw the show investigating what it takes to change a Renault Megane headlight bulb? Over $500 for a trip to the dealer apparently. Or that it takes 28000 miles of driving to realize a savings on a set of low rolling resistance "eco" tires.

But what we wait for is when Fifth Gear unleash Tiff Needell and Jason Plato to do their hooligan act on the track.  While Clarkson may just dismiss cars he decides  not to like, the Porsche GT2 for example, Jason Plato and Tiff might tell you the same car is just more of a challenge, more like a race car and proceed to tear up a track with it. 

Then again they are both actual professional racers and their comments on car handling are more interesting if less colorfully described than their BBC counterparts. For example when to sum total of the motoring press was reviewing the Nissan GT-R and finding absolutely no fault whatsoever in its handling characteristics, Jason Plato was the first to say it actually felt a bit heavy and tended to plow mid-corner. After that, laws of physics started timidly showing up in subsequent reviews of the Gorilla from Ginza. 

But I digress, I think this clip will illustrate my point well.



A proper track test




back.

Baby M vs Baby Snapper

Tiff Needell and Jason Plato are back in top form for this segment of Fifth Gear pitting a BMW 135i vs a Cayman. Lots of screwing around and having fun, the final in car segment with the two of them sniping at each other is fantastic. Imagine getting paid to do that? Someone should tell Tiff the 135 does not really have a limited slip differential though.

The 135 looked a little hard to slide and I'm surprised, it sure was easy to swing when we drove it last year.

Tiff does NASCAR Part 2

Tiff "Needle" testing the limits of credibility...

Tiff does NASCAR

Tiff's NASCAR love? Well, maybe it has to do with UK's channel Five carrying the races on Tuesday nights, but the Fifth Gear crew certainly looks amused, at least by Montoya's now standard answer as to why he left Formula 1 ("...you pass more cars in one race than in a whole F1 career..."  right, more passing and more burgers,  gotcha Juan!).      

In the end though, this is the best piece on NASCAR I have ever seen,  it almost makes you want to watch.  It certainly points out precisely what NASCAR has and Formula 1 seems to be trying it's best to completely lose: contact with the public.   

Say what you will about the Viagra pushing left turners but they don't apologize and they most certainly have no guilt feelings, no biofuel hybrid requirements there.... and for all their lardy low tech race barges they have high tech services for fans,  on demand internet feeds,  rental close circuit multichannel personal screens at the track...  huge access.   

F1 could certainly learn a thing or two there don't you think?

Tiff does NASCAR from Axis of Oversteer * on Vimeo.

Even Tiff can't hold it on the road!

I always liked the Fifth Gear tests better than Clarkson and the Top Gear crew. Sure TG has the Stig and some of the best snarkyiness on TV but you get the impression that the hosts are better, well,....hosts than drivers and that the money shots in they fantastically photographed segments, you always suspect there is someone else behind the wheel.

Tiff and Jason Plato on the other hand are both racers and you know it is those two tracktards doing the work.

Anyway, poor Mercedes.



The Merc blows the most smoke! from Axis of Oversteer on Vimeo.