Top Gear Polar Challenge

[thermidorthelobster]

Just caught this on Dave having not seen it before.

And I can't help but notice that the whole thing about "the first car to reach the North Pole" is just a tad misleading.

They didn't go to the Earth's North Pole.  They went to the North Magnetic Pole, which is about 830 miles away (about the distance from London to Stockholm), and far, far easier to get to.  And they didn't actually reach THAT;  they reached the point it had been 11 years before.  It's a bit like saying "I've climbed Everest" when you've actually reached the first base camp.

Personally I'd like to see Clarkson drive to the North Pole for real;  that'd make for a much better challenge, and hopefully injure the obnoxious git along the way.

Now I'm going to launch my own expedition to visit Stockholm by car.  But to save some effort I'm actually going to go to London instead.  I was ready to be impressed by this challenge, but they vastly over-hyped it.  Anybody here could do it with sufficient money to prepare a vehicle.

[Disco Matt]

I thought much the same thing when I saw it, although I didn't know there was such a big difference between the magnetic and "real" pole. A lot of their problems were due to Clarkson having an over-heavy right foot and apparently no idea about how to off road.

Anyone up for preparing a couple of Disco 1s and having a crack at it? Picking the Disco as I know Clarkson hates them. Two getting to the pole would make him go a very interesting shade!  :twisted:

[alaric]

As usual Clarkson came across as the class clown, ably assisted by James May - I was impressed with the Hamster though, this was not long after his recovery - I thought he put in an incredible performance!

[Disco Matt]

James May, the first man at the pole who didn't want to be there  :lol:

They should have let him drive. Can't see May wrecking a shock absorber or puncturing the fuel tank...

[McGuire]

 Lada Niva Marsh (like the one below). First vehicle to drive to the North Pole - January 2000.
 You're all welcome to follow the leader!! :D

[littlepow]

If you were going to drive to the north pole I would use one of these.



Just without the Americans, but the BFG could stay.

[lee celtic]

Did like the bumper dumper though...

And the bit with the G&T :lol: :lol: :lol:

[ne jones]

Anyone up for preparing a couple of Disco 1s and having a crack at it? Picking the Disco as I know Clarkson hates them. Two getting to the pole would make him go a very interesting shade!  :twisted:

Was down at Eastnor recently and we got chatting about the 'Top Gearpolar challenge'.
We were told that the BBC approached LR to use a LR vehicle for the challenge, the BBC and LR do apparently have a very good working relationship.
However LR refused because they thought about the message sebnt out to enviro's etc might not be good for the company.

Shame really I thought.

[Disco Matt]

LR do seem to have a bit of a problem there. For years they refused to run a manufacturer team in the Paris-Dakar or similar because they didn't think it was giving the right image. Thing is, while LR are bending over backwards to be green and encourage responsible off roading everyone else is still making adverts with their products blasting along dirt tracks or mudplugging.

As LR still seem to get flak (I really hate the term "greenwashing" as it mostly seems to be used by lazy journalists) they must wonder why they bother.