RUMCars Forum
General Category => Unusual Microcar Discussion => Topic started by: Jon Hunt on September 08, 2010, 03:03:20 PM
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Her's a link to the Isetta on Top Gear. http://www.finalgear.com/
Jon.
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I know all the information he spews out is wrong but he does it so well and it is still rather funny.
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the information he spews out is wrong
Probably why this episode didn't make it into the latest season!
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Just watched the clip. Wouldnt it be great if Clarkson real did get stuck in a garage for ever never to be seen again!
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The link does not work for me, it keeps leading to lots of other links and tags which don't work.
JC can be very entertaining and interesting at times, usually when he is not talking about cars. Top Gear's endless reviews of BMW, MB, Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Matin and a few other fast cars, and their obsession with speed and accelration has become very boring.
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Nice Isetta , what a shame that Clarkson had to drive it !!
Like lots of Bubble owners/ enthusiasts , if I had a penny for each time I've heard the one about not having a reverse gear ,
then like Clarkson , I could have a Ferrari too.However I think these modern flashy sports cars are just a pile of poo.
Or is it just the driver that are. ? Jackie
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Has anybody noticed how modern cars have become wider and garages and parking spaces have stayed the same size or become smaller, resulting in people with Ferrari's and Lamborghini Zonda thingies getting stuck in their cars because they could not open the doors once that had driven into the single garage or parking space. In that situation a door at the front or the back or even sliding side doors would be a much better solution.
Perhaps somebody needs to do a UTUBE video piss take on the clarkson road test style, blowing a few myths.
Exaggeration of the truth is the basis of most comedy and often the truth hurts as well.
Chris Thomas
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300cc in a European 3 wheeler, no reverse, 1950- how about a litlte reality in reality tv. Oh, that's right there is no reality in reality tv. Seems we have to put up with some stupidity on both side of the pond.
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300cc in a European 3 wheeler, no reverse, 1950- how about a litlte reality in reality tv. Oh, that's right there is no reality in reality tv. Seems we have to put up with some stupidity on both side of the pond.
To be fair to Top Gear, the UK Isetta was 300cc, built in the 1950s, (what a difference an "s" makes) and many I have owned did not have reverse gear. It was a government requirement that reverse to be blocked off for a 16 year old to drive a tricycle. (Don't ask me why).
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what an idiot ! it reminds me why i never watch top gear . i didnt get sick of it like so many others week after week , trotting out those sad old cliches , no i just never got it at all !
R.I.P. :(
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It was a requirement that to drive a three wheeler with an L plate unaccompanied in the 50's and early 60's that the reverse gear was blanked off, although it had a reverse, once you passed you test you could take the plate off ( once you were away from the garage most owners used to take the plate off!!! ) until you saw a policeman !! this was because motor bikes and scooters did not have reverse - Mr Marples - Minister of transport took away this stupid rule in 1963 - hence the story originally told by Jasper Carrot that all bubble cars did not have reverse.
Mike
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to all those luckily enough not to have heard of jasper carrot he was not a transport minister but a comedian, quite funny actually and known for possibly the naffest song ever FUNKY MOPED where he wanted ,in his very strong brummie accent , to royd ,royd , royd his fonky mowpid ;D
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Has anybody noticed how modern cars have become wider and garages and parking spaces have stayed the same size or become smaller,
Absolutely, but not just Super Cars, lots of executive barges like Benz, BMW and Lexus are so wide that they straddle parking bay lines. Also in London when they are parked either side of a road it produces a major clog when 2 buses or trucks are trying to pass, sometimes even other car struggle to pass these space hogs, which usually only ever contain one man and his brief case.
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In 1995 I needed an Issetta engine for one of the actual "Urkle" cars that I bought at an auction from "Hollywood Picture Cars" that had been leased to the set of "Family Matters". I needed the engine because the original had become separated and subsequently lost prior to being used on the TV show.
I do remember at one time being very close to buying a 250cc motor from a chap in the UK . At that time he told me that all European Issettas came only with the 250cc motor. Hence my mistaken assumption.
Which cars did come with the 250cc engines?
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Which cars did come with the 250cc engines?
Ones that were intended primarily for the European (read: German) market or any market that gave favor to vehicles with 250cc or less engines.
pretty sure most every British built Isetta had a 300 engine as well as those intended for export outside Europe (which would include the USA)
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sorry steve but i will have another rant - on this site we should really be able to spell Isetta :-[ indeed the tax concession in england was for it being a tricycle rather than its cc which didnt matter.
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My apologies if my finger dangling on the s tab on my keyboard allowed the phonetically more proper spelling of the archetypal micro car to show itself despite my using the spellcheck feature on this site.
Spell check of [brace your self] "Issetta" yields the top suggestion of "Assert"- not its phonetic relative ("Ass hurt").
Spell check of the properly spelled "Isetta" yields the top suggestion of "Lisetta"- a lady I have not yet had the fortune of meeting.
Besides whom so ever came up with the spelling in the first place either pronounced it differently or spelled it wrong as an "I" with just one "s" after it is normally pronounced as it is in the word "is" Sorry about all the "is's- sounds like a Clinton era speech.
I guess the name "Isetta" never made it into the English dictionary that this spellcheck uses as reference.
When will the English learn to speak? Sorry- the musical "My Fair Lady" just took over the text.
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hi steve
wikipedia has it as always - the manufacturing company was founded ,manufacturing refrigeration units, pre wwII as Isotherma . after being taken over in 1942 by industrialist Renzo Rivolta the company became Iso Rivolta. By 1953 becoming Iso Autoveicoli S.p.a. thus the car becoming when launched the Isetta , i believe the term for little Iso. so endeth todays lesson.
spell check also makes endeth not a word !! but does suggest Edith !! i think i would rather meet your Lisetta ;)
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See what I mean. Iso is pronounced eeso. So Isetta should be pronounced Eesetta. So has it been misspelled or mispronounced for the last 55 years?
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In Italy it is pronounced eeezETTa (accent on ETT). For English speakers it is natural to say it like eyes etter, (but without the gap). As many Isettas were made in UK, and many sold here and to other Anglophone countries, I think that there is no need for us to say it the Italian way. Even though it does sound nice!
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and i was only talking about the speeling :D
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Correct speling is SO impotant.
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I'll presume that you are pronouncing that "eyes otter"- impudent impotent linguists be damned.
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I have an American brochure for the Isetta 300 and it says in brackets ( pronounced I-SETTA )
Mike
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I am not surprised the Isetta/Esetta/Red Eyed Setter, whatever it is, bit of film was chopped. Even Top Gear cannot really create such a wrong bit of information for general release surely. They ask for a lampoon called Top Git with Marcus playing a long dollop slagging off borrowed Supercars for being the wrong size, not working etc etc just as they do with anything deemed 'uncool' and hyping clearly niche market machines for the masses, like JCBs on the M25 as you have something to do when your in a traffic jam. I guess I get to be the Fat Hamster and Root can be May as he knows many in depth facts on odd subjects and is not keen on driving. Stick it on You Tube and get a following so we can make these prongs look as stupid as they try and make us look for having a hobby.
Isetta owners are lucky. It could have been called a Rivoltetta.
'What have you done with the car, Rochester?'
'I'z et 'er, Boss'
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Mike-I do not doubt the accepted spelling or pronunciation. I just find it amusing that in this case the English were able to butcher the Italian pronunciation and there own rules of phonic spelling thus enabling the Americans (whom usually do not require any enabling) to follow suit.