Did anyone watch James Martin's attempt at the Mille Miglia race on BBC this evening?

Had to feel sorry for the poor bloke...

didn't see it. i thought sky said it was james may, i put it on, it wasn't so i switched it off in disgust. even though it never claimed to be james may... its just the way i am...

what happened?

[Edited on 28/12/08 by blakep82]

Hi,

yes, watched most of it. Some seriously nice
cars on there. Shame about not finishing.

GeorgeM

Yeah - not a bad programme apart from all the Italian Job tenuous links!

Really sad for him but that's motorsport - expensive though!

Nothing like the original race / rally though!

i really enjoyed it - but when i heard what was wrong with the engine i knew it was over. Poor bloke, i can imagine doing the same (although with a budget about 1% what he had).

I'd have been almost tempted to run it on one less cylinder (just blank off the inlet port so you don't get bore wash - although if you're taking the head off might be worth taking the piston and con rod out as well).

Has got me thinking about doing something similar and wondering how much a classic lotus 7 would cost to do the real thing.

Was anyone else astonished by the price of pistons - £3k each?

yea, I'm pretty sure Omega or Accralite would make a set of six specials for less then £18,000

I imagine the engine builder was in rather a lot of trouble...

How did the "racing driver" copilot not rule out "Radiator" ? It took the mechanic to arrive to actually figure out it was engine related!

James

quote:

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Originally posted by cloudy
How did the "racing driver" copilot not rule out "Radiator"

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Yeah i saw it, was very interesting.... But felt sad for the guy losing out on that money. I too hope he goes back next year to get his money back

BBC did say James May on the introduction because i noticed that too.. Obviously he misread or had just been watching top gear! :p

I thought it was quite a good program - but I would have shot that mechanic for even thinking about starting an engine with a broken valve .
Since the Maserati place was just down the road , how come they didnt just whip the head off and take it to them ?
And as for £18000 for a set of pistons

interesting people feel sorry for the guy, i couldn't help but think he was a nob head. just didn't like his attitude to cars (or women for that matter!) just sees them as things to look at, doesn't appear to have any knowledge and proved that by managing to break his brand new engine after only a few miles.

And as for the co-driver being the mechanic - radiator trouble!?!?! C'mon! The crew offered him another car to finish the race but shame he didn't take it.
Would have been a much better program if it had of been james may (thats how i first read it too!) I don't think it did james martin's profile any good.

As a Chelsea fan i always say that money can't buy you trophies - and james martin proved that by not finishing the race no matter how much money he had - The narrator even said that his money wouldn't save him now.

Glad i was playing monopoly while i watched the program so my time wasn't completely wasted! plus the yorkshire men did good - they had they right attitude i feel - appreciate being there and what it stands for, not trying to show off and revving the nuts off it all the time.
night night

[Edited on 29/12/08 by iscmatt]

i was a bit disappointed,he could have gone for the simple approach like the MGA for a fraction of the price,only redeeming features were the rear end shots of the two hotties

I'm sure it will not have cost him a penny. Tv programmes are always well insured (Top Gear, etc), they just put it in for effect.

It's actually cheaper to do such a programme than to make a decent drama. Therefore the muiltitude of 'reality' programmes.

Yes - he did come across as a plonker with more money than sense - but I think that was the producer's efforts rather than his. As for his attitude to women... well, he is a yorkshireman! (ducks down behind the parapet and puts on tin helmet... )

I had to grin when the Isetta bubble-car crossed the finish line right in front of him, and he said "I've got one of those! I should have brought that!"

[Edited on 29/12/08 by David Jenkins]

I thought he came across as a cock too.

Pity, used to like him.

I though it was a decent enough programme, felt sorry for him not finishing the race although if he'd have gone steady he would have done better. Don't feel sorry for him losing the money though, yeah it was a lot to lose but he must be able to afford it.

I thought it was quite funny that he never even finished the first day. It was just full of middle class and upper class twerps and a slightly podgy "Pilsbury Doughboy" chef!
Don't really like him anyhow. He's a podgy chef who likes to cook cakes for Ainsley Harriets telly programme and look, he's got a top bird. Why can't people like this see that it's the size of their wallets that got them the woman and nowt else.
Nice car just out of James Martins league though, just like his woman.

I did notice how gorgeous & inteligent the women where. I also noticed how the racing driver looked a little like his misses - left me wondering if he'd try it on.

Also, how did his misses get her hands on that camera / lens. She had thousands of pounds worth of kit around her neck (yeah i'm a camera geek as well).

Not really a race nowadays more a parade of pre 1957 cars (James and the producers were really overselling the dangers - he did bruise his knee though).

Stirling's average speed of nearly a ton for 10 hours in 1955 was very impressive.

Very pleasant pastime and if I had the money I would love to have a go myself. Anyone have a pre '57 300SL they would like me to drive for them.

- Jim

Ah those Italian back roads
All the money does not make you finish, I cant wait for the next rusty rally.
The roads make up for the expensive campsites in Italy. SP1 is a classic

Bet you if he had a locostbuilder with him or a banger rally man he would have finnished The car would have to be demolished to not run

[Edited on 29-12-08 by mangogrooveworkshop]

The plonker was a victim of his own arrogance and inexperience. He should have developed the car and built his own experience on lesser events before going anywhere near the Mille. Perhaps he'll do that before the next one, and maybe also get the valves redesigned as it was clear from the book he bought on the program that valve failure is a common fault with that model.

I'm sure he knows what he should have done now!

In his position, with his money, I'd have bought a classic British car early on for around £100K (I'm sure that there are a few to choose from), spent a deal of money fettling it, then used the rest of the year driving a few hundred miles around Yorkshire at a good pace.

I was rather dissapointed, it could have been a really good programme about the history of the race/rally but instead it was just an opportunity for him to look flash. It backfired on him and in my opinion he came out looking like an idiot.
He was more intent on showing off than taking it easy, running the engine in and soaking up the atmosphere of such a historic rally......and not allowing his other half to co-drive!?! I'm sure many of us would love our SWMBO's to want to be that involved (Must add at this point, mine is )

The narrator summed it up for me: 'Is James just a boy racer taking part in a gentlemans rally?'

The other thing that surprised me was at the very end of the programme when the narrator said that he would now be unable to sell the car and make a profit on the car, instead having to wait till next year after it has completed the race. Some people can't seem to just enjoy such an event without trying to earn from it!

I wonder why they didn't ask the Maserati factory if they could supply parts - surely it would have been great advertising?

I have always been a bit of James Martin fan as he was born and lived not too far from me and went to the same college as me. He picked up a different leaflet as he did catering and is now a squillionaire and I did engineering and I'm skint.....

My other half was shouting rude words at him for not talking his missus in the car and to be fair, she would have had as much of an idea about fixing the car as the other bird!! Obviously, the pretty female co-driver was for TV purposes as I'm sure there are many more folks who can drive, navigate and fix cars, far better than she managed!
The car was bought as a business venture to enable him to fulfill his dreams. The programme made a big thing about how he was asking his accountant for the funds. This will obviously have tax implications and as such, does detract any sympathy some may have!!
As far as I'm concerned, it was a good programme thatt didn't glamorise things too much. It showed him as a grumpy Yorkshireman and his co-driver as a female trying to make a point. And failing....

And if I was in that situation, I would have had the head off and hawking it around to find a valve or someone to make me one!!

Its all showbiz, I am sure his own money wasn't at risk, did you notice that his mrs was said to be taking pictures for 'the' book.

There was more than one massa at his home, perhaps there was some corporate sponsorship going on. I would have thought that a phonecall to massa HQ would have got the car back running overnight, just for the publicity of it all.

Superb car, the show was a bit plastic

PS 3k for a piston as total boll@cks

was gonna post about this but a search reveals this has been discussed. for thosethat don;t know, here is a bit about it:


BUT what a plonker? For what I could tell, the first time he drove it was at the event - couldn't believe he did not run the engine and drive it to iron out any teething problems like the oil leak.

How much for a piston? Unless he was after a factory original, I am sure they could have been made up for a fraction of that - do I remember correctly that the engine rebuild cost £ 30 K?

What I found frustrating was that the program did not confim if it was a broken valve - weird diagnosis of it being the radiator - how could a radiator cause such nasty noises?

and I did also wonder how much cheaper it wall would have been if you have bought on original seven.

quote:

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Originally posted by 02GF74
For what I could tell, the first time he drove it was at the event.

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quote:

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Originally posted by 02GF74
do I remember correctly that the engine rebuild cost £ 30 K?

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