Jeremy Clarkson, the ex-host of Top Gear and the current one on Amazon Prime’s ‘The Grand Tour’ selects a Tesla Model X Performance for review. He even takes it to the dragstrip against a V10 mid-engine 600 hp Audi R8, the race looks fair this time at least.
Although it does not look like a fair competition between a family SUV and a supercar, however, the result of the drag race is not what Audi R8 fans would’ve expected.
Jeremy starts the review with positive vibes for the Tesla Model X but in between the lines his mischief can be felt as he drops nonsense and false pieces of information.
For the ones who are not familiar with the rivalry between Tesla/Elon Musk vs. Top Gear/Jeremy Clarkson, a bit of a history lesson is needed to understand his covert malice behind this review. The ones who know this all can skip the review and drag race video below.
A bit of Tesla vs. Top Gear/Jeremy history
Jeremy Clarkson a review of the original Tesla Roadster on Top Gear’s Season 12 episode 7, during which he claimed that the car only ran 88 km (~55 miles) and the batteries died and needed a 16-hour recharge, additionally the brakes of the car had failed, he added.
As a result in 2011, Tesla filed a defamation lawsuit against BBC which the courts eventually dismissed in favor of BBC in 2013, citing that the show had not tarnished Tesla’s reputation whatsoever (full story on Fandom).
In 2011 Tesla was not actually a mainstream car manufacturing company, it was still like a startup and the Model S had still not launched.
It’s amazing how far Tesla has come in just 8 years, from the unveiling of the Model S in 2012 to becoming an S&P 500 company in 2020. If the lawsuit had been filed as of today, the probability of BBC taking a hit must have been obvious.
Even with the new Top Gear hosts, last year, Elon Musk had to call the show ‘Low Gear’ due to the Porsche Taycan vs. Tesla Model S drag race controversy.
Back to Jeremy’s Model X Review
While showing the center touchscreen features, Jeremy was able to skip through many useful features this vehicle command center provides, he instead focused on Tesla Easter Eggs. Even then, he did not show that one can play a good amount of video games in this car, while parked of course.
While using Tesla Autopilot on the highway as the car drove by itself, he said “This means that I can drive along while writing important messages on my sketchpad”. That’s a totally irresponsible statement and does not align with Tesla’s guidelines of being attentive and staying alert to take over at any time. Not to mention that he was driving the car in the UK, where regulations are far tougher than in the United States.
While using Tesla Summon on a straight path, he said that “It can’t extricate itself from a parking space. It’s only a gimmick” — looks like he’s still in need of looking at hundreds of Smart Summon videos showing this function’s capabilities. So, Sir Jeremy, it’s “Not a Gimmick”.
My teenage car enthusiast idol Mr. Jeremy also mentioned the wrong price of a Tesla Model X Performance at the end of the video, £156,000 GBP, he said.
Using the Tesla online car configurator for the UK, I tried to calculate the price of a new Tesla Model X Performance with premium wheels, premium black & white interior, Autopilot Full Self-Driving, and what not but with the included white paint same as in the video, it only maxed out to £120,030. That’s £36,000 more than the real price, from where did Jeremy get this price is still a mystery or is it hidden in the history.
Even if this clip is from an old episode which is never mentioned in the video description, what’s the purpose of publishing it on YouTube without context? The Grand Tour has some explanations to make.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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