While everyone and their brother continues to wait for the new series of “Top Gear” to begin, BBC America continues with Episode Two of “James May’s Cars for the People” this week. The three-episode series from the Top Gear presenter lays out the history of the supercar’s nemesis – the everyday automobile.
Episode Two began where Episode One left off – with only a token mention of American “cars of the people” at the beginning of the program and it wasn’t even a genuine “people’s car” being as it was a 1950s Cadillac – affordable to only about 17 people in the country during that decade. With his tiny presumed contractual obligation shout-out to the USA to garner more American viewers finished, Captain Slow then moved on to the European microcar revolution, beginning with the Messerschmitt Tiger [which looks like an airplane cockpit with wheels] before moving on to the Zunda Janus [featuring back-to-back facing seats], the well-loved BMW Isetta and finally, the three-wheeled Reliant Robin [while explaining why microcars had three wheels instead of four – stupid government rules].
After a brief dally across the channel and dissertation on what was wrong with French people that they would allow 14-year-olds to drive go-karts with wheels called KV-1’s, May then spends the majority of the episode focusing on the Citroen 2CV and the Renault 4 – both hugely popular in Europe but barely registering as blips in the good old US of A where we had the Corvair, Gremlin, Pacer and Pinto to keep us occupied. After declaring the Renault 4 as France’s “true” people’s car, May then proceeded to blow up military versions of both cars before briefly mentioning the Peel Trident space bubble microcar from the Isle of Man.
From there, May finished off the episode with a long treatise on the Ford Transit Van [not a car] and the also-not-a-car Honda Super Cub scooter which included a typical “top Gear”-styled fixed race between himself on a Honda Super Cub taking short cuts through Tokyo and a race car driver in a Daihatsu Copen not taking short cuts and making sure to lose so the show retains a sliver of relevancy to Americans on a channel called BBC America.
Episode Three of “James May’s Cars for the People” will air on BBC America on Monday, September 8, 2014.