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Forums » Off-topic discussion » Kinda startin' to hate the Mythbusters. (mild rant) 1 2

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  Oct. 4, 2009 1:44 a.m. FindlaySpeedMan New Reader

  Okay, love the show, but after watching a bunch of DVRed episodes together, I'm really getting sick of watching them destroy nice cars.

  Just watched an episode where they wanted to blow up 500 lighters inside a car to test a myth. Due to the nature of the myth, the car didn't even need to run, much less be pretty. Out rolls (I think) a nice Avanti with $2000 dollar wheels. An AVANTI? DIDN'T THEY MAKE LIKE 3 OF THOSE? WTF? Was the junkyard all out of 200 dollar Taurus carcasses? Do you really have to trash that neat car when any old heap would do? Screw it, put more expensive wheels on the heap, then, if it makes the producer happy.

  In an earlier episode, they made a rocket out of a 67 Impala. A really solid looking one, too. It ended up vaporized when the rockets malfunctioned and exploded on ignition. I don't even think they were testing any specific myth, just seeing how far and high they could launch a rocket-propelled car.

  C'mon, really? At least use some late 70's barge. It's not like they're kicking out classic Impalas in Mexico or something. Classic musclecars are getting kinda irreplacable.

  Every other episode they seem to blow up some sweet car that could have been replaced with any number of forgettable cars for scientific purposes.

  I swear, if I ever snap and go mad gunman, it won't be politicians I'll be scoping, it'll be TV producers. Every time I see one of these little travesties, I know there's some bulletheaded Hollywood idiot behind it who thinks I'm gonna instantly change the channel if the cars they blow up don't have enough "flash" for TV.

  Grrrr.

  Okay, done now. I'm not about to have any heart attacks over it. But the Mythbusters are lucky I'm such a sucker for Kari Byron.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 4:25 a.m. Luke Dork

  I remember they destroyed an X1/9, once. I told myself it was probably rusted right through.

  Bad form wrecking an Avanti, though. Those are rare.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 6:43 a.m. MrJoshua UltraDork

  last night they killed an E30 and two early 90's 5 series. One ran and drove because they had it going over 100mph for the myth.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 7:12 a.m. Toyman01 HalfDork

  Man, I was thinking the same thing when they destroyed that 67 Impala. Of all the POS cars they can find they do seem to pick on the nice ones I wouldn't mind having in the stable.

  Maybe they buy them from the PD seized vehicle lot. I can see the cop calling the perp and notifying him that his car is about to become a Mythbusters victim.

  Edited because I didn't proof read it in advance.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 7:30 a.m. rustyvw HalfDork

  I didn't watch last night, but I'm pretty sure they used an old Toyota for the lighter episode. I think it was the same one from the ejection seat episode. I don't know what model it was, but It looked really good before they got it.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 7:50 a.m. FindlaySpeedMan New Reader

  I could easily stand corrected on that one. I'm not an Avanti enthusiast, so it could have been some breed of Toyota I'm not familiar with. It did have that weird squarish front end, though.

  To cut the Mythbusters some slack, they don't destroy near as much nice metal as the movie people do. And the Impala did look cool with metal tubes poking out its butt.

  All I know is one day spoiled-rotten Californians are going to cry tears of blood when they finally burn up all the rust-free vintage steel in the state. They'll go looking for more only to find the rest of us have been taking out second mortgages just to restore rusty things that a California car crafter wouldn't have deigned to blow up.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 9:03 a.m. rmarkc Reader

  And don't forget about the Corvette with the dead pigs. There was also a late 60s early 70s Dodge used in the driveshaft polevault episode and a late 60s(?) Cadillac destroyed over several episodes.
  

  I can't remember if they succeeded in destroying a P71 by tying the rear axle to a telephone pole ala American Graffiti.

  I think the Toyota was a 1967 Corona and it was used for the ejector seat and the lighter episode. Too nice a car to go up in flames, IMHO.

  The X 1/9 was a rusted hulk, IIRC. It got smashed between 2 trucks to see if it could be pancaked and not immediately visible between the trucks.

  The blown up concrete truck was totally worth it though.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 9:12 a.m. 4cylndrfury Dork

  a rerun last night showed a beautiful E30 dropped from 400 feet - 50/50 weight distr to test if they could make a car fall perfectly horizontal. destroyed the car, but they were able to get it to fall flat...kinda cool except the fact that THEY DESTROYED A VERY CLEAN CALIFORNIA E30...whew. The only redeming trait of that episode was them fooling about on a wet skidpad with a 911. That was fun

  and yes, Kari makes that show watchable when all other value has been lost

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  Oct. 4, 2009 9:13 a.m. NYG95GA SuperDork

  rmarkc wrote:

  The blown up concrete truck was totally worth it though.

  That was way cool. We felt the shock wave in Georgia!

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  Oct. 4, 2009 9:27 a.m. Shaun Reader

  4cylndrfury wrote: . The only redeming trait of that episode was them fooling about on a wet skidpad with a 911. That was fun

  I thought high speed film of the 2 stage rocket sled accelerating to 600+ mph in what looked like 100 yards and stopping in 10 was truly awesome.
  

  It was the 3-4 th episode I have seen. The first couple were when they started out and I thought it was fun. They WERE actually figuring stuff out- now it seems like they just blow E36 M3 up. Which can be fun mind you, but it is not really very clever.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 10:30 a.m. Keith PowerDork

  I know the guy who donated the old Cadillac to the show. Let's just say that it was a deserving end.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 11:01 a.m. 4cylndrfury Dork

  Shaun wrote:

  4cylndrfury wrote: . The only redeming trait of that episode was them fooling about on a wet skidpad with a 911. That was fun

  I thought high speed film of the 2 stage rocket sled accelerating to 600+ mph in what looked like 100 yards and stopping in 10 was truly awesome.
  

  It was the 3-4 th episode I have seen. The first couple were when they started out and I thought it was fun. They WERE actually figuring stuff out- now it seems like they just blow E36 M3 up. Which can be fun mind you, but it is not really very clever.

  well that is true...for those who missed it, there was a sled on a 500' long rail - it was strapped down with some form of ZOMGbaddassrocketstuff that propelled the rocket to 675 mph. at the other end of the rail was an old ford aspire. The idea was that the 1" thick steel plate on the front of the sled,would contact the car and flatten it...literally pancake the car. As it turns out, the sled didnt so much pancake the car as it consumed it. There werent any really big pieces of car left, and the plate ended up a scrunched folded hunk. The raw power was unbelievable. The destruction and the shattered metal reminded me of the WTC on 9/11. just shards of metal and some wire and dust. that was all.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 11:49 a.m. DirtyBird222 Dork

  They had an LT1 trans am on there for a myth. They were doing burnouts and such forgot what they were trying to prove but I was surprised to opti lasted through all of the nonsense they were putting it through. At least the car didn't get destroyed tho!

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  Oct. 4, 2009 11:56 a.m. nderwater Reader

  They're just cars. Destroying one for the sake of a good tv show is less offensive to me than destroying one on the street because you were texting / eating / not paying attention.

  Anyway, the 'Studebaker' was an Avanti II - essentially a replicar based on a GM chassis, not an original car.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 11:58 a.m. RossD HalfDork

  I was upset when they tried using a crown vic with an electronic controlled automatic transmission to try and use reverse to stop the car. They could have at least gotten an older car without the electronic bits, because it probably would have worked.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 2:58 p.m. neon4891 UltraDork

  Kari, hmmmm. I like redheads.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 5:24 p.m. MarkZ28 New Reader

  The Impala was used to bust the myth of the guy in Arizona that put B52 accessory jets on the roof of his car to try and break the speed record or something, supposedly it took off and hit a mountain after going 400 MPH. They busted that one. The Corona they destroyed was bad, even Adam said it was too nice to use but they did it anyway. The cement truck was the best explosion yet on the show and also loved the desintegrated Assfire.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 6:04 p.m. confuZion3 SuperDork

  A lot of the cars are donated to the show by Mythbuster enthusiasts.... who want to see their cars get blown to hell.
  

  I think that if I'm a car, I'd rather die the death that involves rockets, a helicopter, and 200 pounds of solid fuel instead of the one that involves rusting out and then getting crushed.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 6:23 p.m. rmarkc Reader

  RossD wrote:

  I was upset when they tried using a crown vic with an electronic controlled automatic transmission to try and use reverse to stop the car. They could have at least gotten an older car without the electronic bits, because it probably would have worked.

  I remember thinking the same thing during that episode. Didn't Grant say something about it near the end of the episode?

  confuZion3 wrote:

  I think that if I'm a car, I'd rather die the death that involves rockets, a helicopter, and 200 pounds of solid fuel instead of the one that involves rusting out and then getting crushed.

  We all know cars have moods but, if they have feelings, I've got a couple in the yard that would probably like the blaze of glory about now.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 6:52 p.m. stuart in mn SuperDork

  I'm pretty sure the BMW they dropped from the sky was an e34 5 series, but I'd have to watch it again to be sure. It was pretty impressive how it stayed upright the whole way down, talk about even weight distribution.

  MarkZ28 wrote:

  The Impala was used to bust the myth of the guy in Arizona that put B52 accessory jets on the roof of his car to try and break the speed record or something, supposedly it took off and hit a mountain after going 400 MPH. They busted that one. The Corona they destroyed was bad, even Adam said it was too nice to use but they did it anyway. The cement truck was the best explosion yet on the show and also loved the desintegrated Assfire.

  The JATO rocket-on-a-car story has been around for a long time, I first heard from a friend's dad who was in the Korean war. According to him it was some GI with a Jeep on a road somewhere outside Seoul. The cement mixer explosion was pretty awesome.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 8:10 p.m. Woody SuperDork

  nderwater wrote:

  Anyway, the 'Studebaker' was an Avanti II - essentially a replicar based on a GM chassis, not an original car.

  I fully support the destruction of Avanti II's.

  Now, if it had round headlights, that would have been a crime.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 8:26 p.m. mad_machine UberDork

  sorry I missed the disintergrating aspire

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  Oct. 4, 2009 8:39 p.m. Xceler8x Dork

  You didn't miss a thing!

  You tubeness of an Aspire being destroyed.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 10:09 p.m. ReverendDexter HalfDork

  I really, really want to like Mythbusters. But I just can't. That show is 5% content, 5% Kari, and 90% put-you-to-sleep filler.

  They should really change the format. No more 30 minute episodes, but 5-minute fillers; explain myth, show best footage that proves/disproves myth, cut to credits. Straight to the point.

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  Oct. 4, 2009 10:12 p.m. Keith PowerDork

  Reverend, you'd never make it in television.

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