Top Gear Lies About GT500 HP Rating?

But recently things have taken a rather ugly turn. Clarkson, in his The Good The Bad The Ugly DVD, put what he claimed to be a V8-powered Ford Mustang GT against an actual horse around a quarter-mile oval track. The horse won handily, but then it would, as it was painfully obvious in the video that the Mustang Clarkson claimed to be powered by the 4.6L V8 was actually the 4.0L V6 base model, with a horsepower rating of 210 versus the 300 HP the V8 mill puts out. Yes, that’s a blatant lie, but it’s a Clarkson DVD, which as we’ve seen from past performances, have all the neutrality of an Ann Coulter speech on Democratic moral values, so seeing him go from stretching the truth to outright lies, while unfortunate, isn’t exactly unexpected.
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95826z - 3/8/2007 1:32:25 PM

+4 Boost

In Clarkson's review of a 350z (I'm biased I bought one) he hated it and said its engine was the same piece of shit that's in a Renault. Now the 350z isn't perfect and has its limitations, but the engine ain't one of them, so it could be that he uses poetic license to mistate the occasional fact when he doesn't like a vehcile

Rupert - 3/8/2007 5:16:15 PM

+2 Boost

the engine is from a renault.

kart1 - 3/8/2007 6:19:35 PM

+2 Boost

No the VQ engine is an Nissan engine that is used in Renault cars as well.

Sauceboy01 - 3/8/2007 12:41:02 PM

+2 Boost

I noticed this as well when i watched that clip... i was scratching my head the whole time.

no1listensanyway - 3/8/2007 2:17:30 PM

+2 Boost

They would lie about that. Its a funny show, I just don't take any of their reviews serious.

Alec - 3/8/2007 2:24:09 PM

+2 Boost

Yup, i noticed it too. I guess jeremy really want to give the mustang a bad review for people back in the UK.

Threepoint1415926 - 3/8/2007 3:17:19 PM

+2 Boost

I too noticed that and said out loud at the TV, "but 450 RWHP is 500 BHP..." They were right though about the live axle. They need multi-link suspension for the GT500.

d1sinfo - 3/8/2007 4:18:43 PM

+2 Boost

Clarkson didn't review the car? The Hamster did.

They dyno tested the car to kind of show what was up. They didn't come out and call ford liars, they simply said the truth, its not exactly 500hp at the wheels. It makes for interesting TV. I thought when they tested his classic stang being dyno'd to come up as less than stated it would have been clear the point, but I guess everyone is getting there underwear in a bunch.

Josh

nembogt - 3/8/2007 6:10:37 PM

+2 Boost

i like him, anti-anything but british or not

kart1 - 3/8/2007 6:15:57 PM

+2 Boost

I don't know whether you guys know this or not - but 500hp at the crank doesn't mean 500hp at the wheels. There are inefficiency issues in the drivetrain, etc. that causes power losses from the crank to the wheels. Now the dynoed the car and it came out as 440hp around there, that is perfectly acceptable for that amount. Obviously the Top Gear crew played that out as if they didn't know about power losses from crank to wheels.

Secondly the race between the Ford Mustang and the real mustang was definitely false. That car was a V-6 as one can tell by the absence of the second set of lights on the grill. Also if you look closely there is only a single exhaust in the Mustang, while all GT's have dual exhaust.

Now all of this is unnecessary garbage, because when you see Clarkson in action the viewer knows that he manipulates a lot of stuff so he can be right.

Carboy - 3/10/2007 9:41:23 AM

+1 Boost

Son't you mean 5.4 Liter V8?

Carboy - 3/10/2007 9:41:35 AM

+1 Boost

I mean Don't

d1sinfo - 3/12/2007 10:10:53 AM

+1 Boost

We complain about subjective american journalism as being to boring and not passionate, and then complain about passionate, interesting journalism.