Take a look at the Tiff Needell review of the Crossfire.

He takes a 6MT Limited Coupe for a spin on some twisty backroads.

That footage shows some extremely fast driving through some very tight corners. The dude is really pushing it and the car is flat as a board through every turn and looks like it's about to tear the blacktop off the gravel the way it's flying.

By the way, I don't understand what the problem is with the steering. Honestly, it's like those people don't know what "good steering" is. In my opinion, the Crossfire has great steering feel. It gets "heavy" when understeering and "light" when in neutral or in oversteer. It tells me exactly what the car is doing. The car has the turning radius of a shopping cart and I can swing it around a parking lot at 5mph without feeling like I got a workout. At 60mph, I can twitch the steering wheel and I can instantly feel the nose of the car go exactly where I want it to (for example, to avoid potholes.)

Whose standards are they using? I've never driven a Porsche, a Lambo, or anything like those cars before, but I have driven the new BMW 3 series, and the steering feels similar. I've driven the S2000 and the steering on that car is MUCH lighter than the XF or the Bimmer. But with the S2000, I can't tell anything through the steering wheel. Everything feels light on the steering, whether under or oversteering. The older Audi TT felt like the steering was way too quick at highway speeds. It felt kind of unstable. Don't know about the new one.

Anyways, as stogey says, my two "centaurs" worth

 

he's just upset because it never had enough hp for him, you should see him review the old slk550 tuner carfrom germany, never heard him ***** then. Hell, the crossfire is much better looking than the old r170 slk I don't get it.

 

I'm not a Top Gear fan either. The guy can drive, but his opinion on cars seems fairly worthless. If its an expensive European sports car, he loves it, if it isn't then he just rips on it the entire time, accentuating the negatives while paying no mind to the positives. I used to like the show when I first started watching but stopped when I realized this pattern...then the show became straight-up boring to me so I stopped watching.

 

I came to the Crossfire from a '99 Miata. The Miata is generally considered to be one of the best handling "pure" sports cars on the market today. The feel of the shifter of the first two generations of the Miata was universally praised, the steering feel highly applauded. The car is supremely tossable and crazy quick through the twisties. Look at the recent comparison between a $50,000, 175HP MX-5 Cup prepped Miata, a $100,000, 600HP Viper ACR and the $192,000 Porsche 911 GT2. That little Miata not only equalled the two big boys in braking G-force, but also in cornering G-force and actual corner speed in MPH. Sure, it couldn't keep up on the straights but in some corners it actually carried more speed than the other two - that's pretty damn impressive. How does this relate to the Crossfire?

Well, in my experience the shifter on the Miata is crisper than that of the Crossfire. The Crossfire is well known for a bit of a balk on the 1-2 upshift. Yep, I feel it, and it was a bit odd at first but now......so what. A hard launch and a quick slam from 1 to 2 and it may not feel exactly like butter, but it's pretty darn positive and never gives me any grief. In the Miata, when driven really hard, I would often blow the 2-3 upshift and hit 5th instead. Bummer that. Never have made such an error in the Crossfire.

Steering feel in the Miata was definitely a bit sharper too, but then again the Miata was several hundred pounds lighter than the Crossfire and was shod with 12lb wheels. If I ran over a coin could I tell if was heads or tails? No, but it offered great feedback. Better than the Crossfire? I'd say yes, but not like the Crossfire is so rubbery as to make me feel detached from the car. It responds crisply and points it where I want it to go. The Crossfire has less understeer initially than the Miata, which I'll take over a bit better steering feel any day. And the overall grip level in the Crossfire blows away that of my old Miata. No comparison. Braking in the Crossfire compared to the Miata? Not even close, even with the featherweight of the Miata.

Finally, during the driver's meetings at California Speedway last March we were all being told to watch out for the pair of fully race prepped Spec Miatas running around on R-Compound tires. "Those boys are quick" we were told. "They'll crawl all over you guys in the Corvettes when you get to the tighter infield section" the instructors said. And my Crossfire held it's own, staying close enough on the tight infield section (with my factory equipped Conti street tires) that I could come off the final corner right behind them and blow by on the long straight leading onto the banking. I was gone and he never caught me again.

You have to remember too that Tiff has spent a lot of time in real race cars, including at the 24 Hours of LeMans and a little bit of Formula 1. The man knows his stuff. But when you talk the finer points of steering feel between a Ferrari F430 and a Lamborghini Gallardo, for example, or a Crossfire and a Miata (or a 350Z or Audi TT) you're talking some pretty damn fine points.

But none of this even begins to address driver ability or driver preferences. That variable is often seen even in a Formula 1 team when a new driver comes in and the car setup isn't to his liking and until he figures it out his team mate is much, much quicker. Doesn't mean the car is no good or the driver sucks, just that some adjustments need to be made.

We don't all like the same movies, the same food, the same women (or men) or the same cars. Big freakin' deal.

 

Tommy Kendell tested the SRT-6 Roadster on Speed's Test Drive. They did a special 1 hour show on entire SRT Lineup at the time. Of course, it was in late 2005, early 2006 so the Neon wasn't there, and the Charger wasn't either. It was the Jeep, Ram, Viper, 300 and Crossfire Roadster. I have it on DVD, is there anyway to host a video on this sight? I can't figure out how to rip it to Youtube...

 

If you catch Season 12, Episode 2, Top Gear gave POSITIVELY GLOWING reviews of three American cars!

I was shocked! (And the episode was wildly entertaining!)

 

Is that the one where they all tried to find a cheap car and go cross country?
and almost got shot in alabama?

 

I think Tomy Kendell also tested a couple of 04 or 05 NA Crossfires too.

 

I truly enjoy Top Gear but I watch purely it to be entertained.

And...they did love my all-time dream car - the Koenigsegg.

So their opinion - again let me stress that word, OPINION - of the Crossfire wasn't stellar. Big deal. It only matters if WE love our car, not if they do.

And yeah, they don't think too highly of Americans. Oh well. There's quite a few Americans that I don't think too highly of either, lol. And, I have to admit, the episode where they buy the beater cars, cover them with "guaranteed to **** off rednecks" slogans and drive through American hick towns was one of the funniest (and scariest !) things I've ever watched.

 

If anyone finds that link when they tested the SRT cars, please pass it on! I have to watch it!

 

The problem they mentioned with the steering is the initial turn-in. It is very vaige, the recirculating ball type provides less feedback than a rack & pinion steering. This is a little disconcerting when taking an aggressive turn at higher speeds.

 

No, he's talking about an episode from just a few weeks ago where they drove a Challenger SRT8, Cadillac CTS-V and Corvette ZR1. Very positive comments about all three vehicles.

 

There is, and probably never was, a car show on tv like Top Gear. With some of the most exotic and expensive cars on hand they produce a show that is basically for amusement. Sure they rip cars apart for so called faults, but in a funny manner, just for yuks. They have wild races with cheap and expensive cars, vans, tractors etc. but it is for fun. If any of them likes or hates a car, they are basically taking that stand because the others disagree. The show is filmed wonderfully, far better than many shows you see. It would appear that the camera crew have a large budget just to get that extra shot.

This week I saw the repeat episode where the train hits a mini van broadside, that should save lives, a real eye opener. The side struck by the train appears to hit the other side by the time the van moves. In slo-mo it is amazing to see.

Clarkson did own a Ford GT, and they did like some other US cars, not many, some. When they took three high end cars to Paris it was the Ford GT that got all the looks.

The trip through three Southern states in three beaters was hilarious and done for all the laughs they could get. Looked a bit hairy at times though.
My opinion is that it is a great tv show.

What a job those guys have got.

 

Let me get this straight. Clarkson liked the American Ford GT enough to actually go out and buy one?
The same Ford GT that's a modern day "Replica" of the original "BRITISH BUILT" GT 40?
Who would of thunk it?
http://www.qv500.com/fordgt40p1.php

 

Would love to see it. Anybody know how we can get this posted somewhere?

 

This should take you to the clip about some of Clarksons grief with his Ford GT.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f66_1197922429

I was at Watkins Glen in 1964 for the US Grand Prix and Ford had the GT 40 on a trailer in the forecourt of a gas station. Touch, if you wanted, they would have it behind ropes with guards these days, big changes have made things less personal.
We thought it was a bit strange that it had a British license plate, RH drive, Lucas (Prince of Darkness) instruments etc. Then we realized its history. Ford had failed to make a deal for Ferrari so they went out and decided to develop a Lola prototype. It went on, after a lot of development, to great success. It took a couple of laps around the circuit on race day as did the new Honda, Graham Hill won after Jim Clark had two cars fail under him.

(edited after some checking of facts)

 

Clarkson had nothing but problems with his GT and had Ford take it back. My boss (yes, Barry Meguiar) has one and has had some ongoing trans problems with it. But then, what car model has ever been 100% problem free for every vehicle produced.

And Clarkson et al aren't into just high powered exotics - they love the VW GTI and hot hatches in general, and Clarkson has even ripped on some high powered MBs for being overkill. In a lot of case though, they comment about a cars behavior when pushing it to the limit. 99.9999% of people will never drive a car that way so in reality it doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference. Most people don't have the talent to drive a car at its limits either. Plus there's sort of a law of dimishing returns with a lot of this "feel" as well. While a Porsche 911 GT3 most likely does have sharper steering than a Crossfire, how much of a difference does that make in real world driving? Probably right around zip, zero, nada. Sure the difference is huge compared to, say, a Hyunda Elantra, but nobody cross shops the Elantra with a GT3.

It's entertainment, pure and simple. But it's entertainment with cars in beautiful settings, filmed with an artistic flair and delivered with great humor. Still the best hour on television.

I don't care what kind of car you drive, if a self appointed critic of any kind says something negative about it and you're personally offended then perhaps you need to stop taking yourself so seriously. Leave that attitude to Corvette owners (my god, what a bizarre group they tend to be!!).

 

Hey Mike is Barry Meguiar really that happy all the time? That man gushes happiness, he's gotta be great to work for?
Pat

 

Basically, yes. The guy you see on "Car Crazy" is the guy we work with - that's just his prevailing attitude.