Topgear Vs. Pimp my ride

Having a blog affords me the opportunity to interact with a lot of people on car matters. There’s a question I detest most among all the frequent questions I ever get asked. What can I do to Pimp my Ride?
People often say Nigerians Love cars, that Nigerians drive some of the choicest cars in the world. If I’m sitting whenever I hear that comment I always fall back into my seat( I get weak from hearing that sort of biased, mis-guided and un-informed comment). Now let me ask how many times have you ever seen a Ferrari in this country, any Ferrari at all? Ok, how about a Lamborghini? an Aston Martin? an SLR McLaren? In all my many years crisscrossing Nigeria, I have only come across 1 ferrari and it was 360 Modena. (That means old) it’s since been replaced by the 430 and even that’s been replaced by the 458 Italia.


Topgear or Pimp my ride, who takes it?

Now how do we arrive at the “we drive the baddest cars in Africa” notion come from? I’ll tell you where. It’s from that Lame program called Pimp my ride. Yep you heard me right. The only thing good on that show is the Host. Xhibit hosts the show and is one of my greatest rappers of all time and its no suprise he was recruited to make a lame program cool. The show focuses on restoring beat down, low end scraps to much more "fly" condition. But what do they succeed in doing, they add more gadgets in the form of all manner of LCD screens, sub woofers that weigh more than the moon and rims that are bigger than Mars on these cars and then do little to offset the additional weight burden with more power.
Now a real Car show should focus on the CARS. Cars by their very nature are meant to be driven. So any enhancement to these cars on any show should aid their drivability. Mercedes spends a million pounds a day on research and development!!!!!!!!!!!!! So how on earth do you think a 2 bit part builder from some obscure part of the earth will make a part that could replace one developed with that kind of budget?????
That’s why I love Topgear. It’s hosted by a bunch of Middle aged English men who clown around all day with all sorts of toilet humour and Judge a car based on its performance, its connection with the driver and how much soul it has. Any episode on Topgear that involves restoring a car, the 1st thing that is done is to up the power, reduce the weight and fit bigger brake discs that help with slowing the car down, Pimp my ride would add winged doors(more weight), LCD+mega speakers+sub woofers+huge rims; fitting huge rims on cars are cool but have you asked what it does to the driving dynamics of the car? Well 1st up is this, bigger rims no matter what they’re made from means more weight. Now because you’re just tweaking the rims alone, you have to still fit that rim into the same wheel well as the former one, it means you have to use low profile tyres (remember fities line “low pro’s so it looks like I’m riding on blades”), that then means your tyres have a smaller side wall. The side walls help in absorbing some of the harsh surfaces on our roads. What you’ve simply done is take that part of the dampening effect out making your car more noisy, 1000times more uncomfortable and finally because we have such bad roads, you’ve sunk a well in your pocket because our bad roads will tear up your “low pros” like Jigga tears up a Biggie( remember that the next time you watch Pimp my ride). Ask MTN big boy Gboyega why he took out his 22” rims from his Murano
Before you ever consider "Pimping your ride", please put it in a road worthy condition deserving of a 100% and then if the thought of it crosses your mind be sure not to call me.................
With that point made, I award the car show award to Topgear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!