Three vehicles compete in contests… and after the third one, the one in last place is “destroyed” in their “incinerator” while the other two compete in one final challenge.
The incinerator is the stupidest thing since triangular wheels. It’s a huge chimney (the whole show is set at an abandonned power plant in England) and they have a smoke machine inside and red lights. From the outside you could believe it was fire except that the hosts of the show walk out of the thing to announce it.
Then the vehicle is brought over and put in drive, and progresses slowly toward the opening… and it passes over a really obvious black cylinder embedded in the ground, which then fires a pyrotechnic charge that makes a boom and a fireball. This happens a good 50 feet back, long before they actually get inside the “incinerator”. Then they all cheer and walk away.
It’s such a fucking farce. It’s so obviously bullshit that it isn’t even good entertainment. The rest of the show is real, why that stupid bit? Why not ACTUALLY destroy the vehicle? Ok maybe blowing it up or melting it is too dangerous… how about dropping it with a crane or smashing it? You’ve got Henry Rollins frothing at the mouth about how much he likes to see them destroyed… and looking like an utter fool when their little sparkler goes off as the thing lumbers off into the floodlights and smoke.
Nah, they need to let Rollins take each vehicle through the various courses on a drunken bender and keep driving until he totally destroys 'em! Put a mike on him so that we can hear his uncensored tirades as he drives around the courses!
Apparantly they want to keep them. The production company kept all the cars after the show, not just the losers. Don’t know what they did with them - private toys for the producer’s relatives?
Yeah, the chimney is really really stupid and obviously fake. Ooh, flikering lights and a fog machine - looks just like a real fire! Not.
Microbug and I record all the shows on our UltimateTV system… but we don’t watch it until it’s recorded. You see, we want to be able to fast-forward over the commercials and that damned stupid “Chimney o’ Death” bit. Damn, that’s really lame.
Rollins also annoys us. Just join the WWF and be done with it, pal.
Opal, I too was upset by that whole deal. Personally I would prefer that the cars were not destroyed. I am the son of an old mechanic and firmly believe that most hand-constructed automobiles have souls and it would be tantamount to murder to destroy such a car. So I would prefer to know they were donating them to some homeless people in Atlanta or something.
Especially when they can transform into a humanoid robot with a cute name like “Gears” or “Cliffjumper.” I could never bring myself to kill poor Cliffjumper.
[nitpick mode ON]
If anyone struck a heavy object with a hard swing of a cricket bat, the willow would break clean off of the handle (cricket bats weren’t designed for demolition purposes). Mr. Rollins I assume would look a bit silly standing there with the broken-off handle.
[nitpick mode OFF]
Put a mike on him so that we can hear his uncensored tirades as he drives around the courses!