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Dear Fifth Gear team,

I’m a lover of motor vehicles and a motor sport fan; I do several track days a year in my own (daily driver) car and enjoy watching fifth gear.

Well that is, until this series. Let’s be honest, fifth gear has always been a peg or two under another car show on a rival channel, and despite trying to copy many of the idea’s of having a track, timed laps, sitting down talking about the news and other idea’s it never really worked.

All that said, fifth gear was; a good program. However, this series of fifth gear has changed that.

I do wonder if you’ve handed the control over to Vicky, or something. The show has gone from being about fast cars and cool action shots, to G-whiz’s and egg and spoon races. What is going on?

Bring back the classic Tiff vs Plato grudge matches! Carry on the idea set by the lotus esprit, and have a project car (perhaps a track day car / race car), that gets developed / tweaked / modifications added throughout a season of racing. This would make entertaining viewing, but also educational, for example if the car got new suspension it could explain the technicalities over why it was better, or if the car was being remapped show the process etc, at the same time linking in with what you could get for your own car.

I do not want to tune in and watch egg and spoon races, nor does it really interest me watching cars getting crushed and finally that love joy bloke can’t present for toffee. Does he even know anything about cars?

I’m sick of seeing ‘celebrities’ being put on the show, who know nothing about cars, but have such a large bank balance that they can afford to have nice ones. I understand that not every show can be test driving the latest exotic, but I just feel there are so many ‘pointless’ features in the show now and the show is becoming a joke (people laughing at it, not with it).

Don’t get me wrong, Vicky is great – any woman that can drive like she does gets my respect. Tiff is also a legend (but I’m guessing the lack of him in the program is probably due to his lack of time, same with Plato). However, in general the whole program seems more teletubbies, than testosterone.

I think a possible feature could be placed on making cheap cars go fast, modifying cars is now seen as a terribly bad thing due to the amount of body kitted monstrosities there currently are. However, I feel there is (and it’s the new trend) a growing number of people who are solely modifying their cars for performance reasons.

This includes myself, who modified my car so that I could compete in track days and have since done over 15 track sessions in it. My car’s not got a massive body kit, it’s not got 19” spinners, infact the exterior looks pretty much standard, however it suprises a lot of people.

The car is only a mesely 106 Gti. A girl’s car some may say, but with a range of mods from full decat exhaust, 4-2-1 manifold, mild pt51 cams, remapped ecu and a range of suspension goodies the car shows up a lot of bigger cars. Rolling roaded at 160 bhp @ fly, the car was timed at 0-60 in 6.36 seconds and ¼ mile of 14.7 (at santa pod). Compare this to most of these modern day ‘Hot hatches’ that have over 200 bhp and cost £18k + and it’s not far behind.

Difference is, a 106 gti can be bought (these days) for £2000, the total engine mods are probably just over £1000, and suspension parts around £400. So for £3400 you can have a fairly rapid hot hatch, that can still be used as a every day daily driver (with leather seats and a stereo). Next year I will be attempting the famous Nurburgring.

If you attend shows such as Euro fest or many of the track action days at castle combe, you will notice a surprisingly large number of these ‘car enthusiasts’ – that have turned many of their every day cars into fun track cars. (With the focus on having fun, rather than getting competitive)

As you may find, most people who have just spent £20,000 on a car, do not want to risk taking it onto track and having a accident (though they are fairly rare, and you usually have to be driving stupidly), so what better than to build yourself a 2nd track car for cheap - that can be driven to and from the track and used for good fun.

Most cars can be improved apon from standard, whether it is uprating the suspension, the brakes, or engine's performance. There are also varying degree's of this modification, from quick cheap bolt on mods, to more serious expensive ones. Most people probably don't realise their VAG 1.8 T's (found in so many cars, VW's, Seat's, Audi's, etc) can gain 20-40 bhp from a simple revo remap!

Yes, a lot of chavs drive modified cars. However, there are also a lot of normal, intelligent people, formed around online community sites such as PGAC / Corsasport / Pistonheads, etc. That have a true love of cars and performance, and really don't care about stupidly big wheels, hideous body kits, or flashing neons.

A saying I have just before I'm contemplating a purchase is "Does it make it go any quicker?" If the answer is no, I don't buy it.

If you look in magazine's such as Track & Race cars magazine, they focus on this new trend, doing engine guides allowing the readers to find out what can be done to their model of cars. Looking at amateur motorsport and advertising track days.

At the end of the day, do whatever you have to - but please for next series, get back to your old ways and not cheapen the show any more.

Thanks,

Paul Joslin

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Originally posted by a_j_mair
summarize

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Originally posted by Marc
PMSL endorsing http://www.VAGweb.co.uk every other minute

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Originally posted by Steve

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Originally posted by Marc
PMSL endorsing http://www.VAGweb.co.uk every other minute

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how did i know before i even opened this thread when seeing a reply from you that that link was going to feature

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Originally posted by CorsAsh
How many members have joined that aren't from CS?

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