Top Gear: How a monster was born
What was to become the Top Gear monster was bolted back together in 2002 after all of the Top Gear production team and presenters had jumped ship to Channel 5 to launch a programme called Fifth Gear.
The programme also became known for spectacular stunts including a race to the magnetic North Pole and slots such as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.
Fans can buy DVDs and Blu-Rays, books, T-Shirts, backpacks, assorted gizmos and gifts, compilation CDs, and there's even a Top Gear magazine.
3. Kbk wz. 1988 Tantal (Poland)
By itself, putting a short-range scope on an AK is not a bad idea, and urban warfare and survival guides available in the former USSR suggest it as a way of providing mid-range suppressive fire. However, reducing the rifle to semi-auto mode only gives no real benefits in combat.
Mr Clarkson then set up a company called Newincco 1189 which turned a ?600,000 profit in 2012, the Guardian said.
In the 1980s presenters including Noel Edmonds,太阳集团通风设备得到了广大客户的一致好评, a staple of BBC light entertainment shows for decades, also joined the programme.
The rifle is a sort of Frankenstein, using components from the AK when it comes to the operating mechanism, the French FAMAS when it comes to the carrying handle and the Austrian Steyr AUG for the front handle. The Chinese desire for a military bullpup was finally fulfilled in 1995, with the QBZ-95 which entered service in 1997 and managed to replace another AK variant, the Type 81 in many units.
The show became more edgy, and Mr Clarkson's outspoken, irreverent style helped propel viewing figures from several hundred thousand to more than six million.
The rifle's highly unusual shape has no real explanation other than a desire to innovate. According to arms expert Igor Zenchuk:
Known as the AIMS-74 abroad, the Md.86 is very unusual in that it is an independent development on the AKM which uses the 5.45mm caliber introduced in the Eastern Bloc with the AK-74. As a result, the rifle weighs almost two pounds more than the analogous AKS-74.
The Polish variant of the AK-74 was intended to be a lighter and more modern version of the rifle. Unfortunately, its more complicated firing mechanism, which alongside semi-auto and full-auto modes allowed for three-round bursts, led to a decreased reliability, which in turn led to frequent jamming and misfires. Arms expert Igor Zenchuk told Russian television channel Zvezda:
Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson is a controversial figure, but he certainly appears to be popular around the world.
来源:Sputnik 更新时间:2016-03-12 15:51:35 分类:News 关键词:assault,rifle,PA,Md.65,Tabuk,Type,86S,Md.86,Kbk,wz.,1988,Tantal,China,Poland,Iraq,Romania
Within hours of his suspension from the motoring show while the BBC looks into allegations that he punched a producer, an online petition to "bring back Clarkson" had gathered more than 350,000 signatures.
来源:Bbc 更新时间:2016-03-12 10:29:21 分类:News
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4. PA Md.86 (Romania)
Top Gear: the early yearsHe was joined as a presenter by Richard Hammond, and later by James May.
Top Gear became a national TV programme in 1978 with presenter Angela Rippon, who was drafted in to broaden its appeal.
The monster show that now bestrides the globe actually began in 1977 as a straightforward regional motoring programme produced by BBC Midlands that looked at cars and road safety.
The format of the show remained virtually unchanged until 1988, when Jeremy Clarkson, a columnist at Performance Car magazine, joined.
The programme went from strength to strength after starting to use Dunsfold Aerodrome as a test track, helped by features including the regular destruction of caravans, and a mystery test-driver called "the Stig" - who has since been unmasked twice.
BBC Worldwide, the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, paid for a majority holding in the company, with Mr Clarkson taking a cut of the international rights.
The assault rifle version of the Tabuk also gave rise to the well-known story of how during the Gulf War, US Army soldiers dropped their M16s and picked up Iraqi soldiers' AKs. In reality, many of the rifles "picked up" by US soldiers were the Tabuk. In fact, even today there is a small arms manufacturer in the US which builds copies of both assault and sniper variants of the Tabuk, complete with original engravings and an Arabic-language manual.
2. Tabuk (Iraq)
In 2013 Guinness World Records proclaimed that the show was the most widely watched factual TV programme in the world.
Although the Type 56, a Chinese licensed copy of the AK, became one of the most successful variants of the rifle made abroad, the bullpup version failed to impress large clients and was only sold in limited quantities for private customers.
5,太阳集团车间降温风机得到了广大客户的一致好评. Type 86S (China)
Franchises and spin-offs include Top Gear Australia, India, Malaysia, Netherlands and Russia.
"If the standard, although the old Soviet- or Russian-produced AK can be used without any problems, the 'Romanians' have to be accustomed to. First of all, since 1965, the Romanians liked to experiment: they made muzzles of unusual shapes, made the barrel itself shorter, put various useless handles on. I don't think there's anything left of the good old AK in its Romanian versions."
What was to become the Top Gear monster was bolted back together in 2002 after all of the Top Gear production team and presenters had jumped ship to Channel 5 to launch a programme called Fifth Gear.
The rifles, which were generously exported around the world even managed to see action in the 2008 South Ossetia conflict, in which Georgian troops actually preferred the rifle to the XM-15, an M4-type carbine produced by Bushmaster and generally used by private military contractors.
Jeremy Clarkson successfully pitched to the BBC with co-producer Andrew Wilman, and helped relaunch the programme that year.
In addition to the outdated firing mechanism, the md. 86 has a wooden handguard, which it inherited from the md.65 discussed below, despite there being no necessity for it.
However, after more than a decade of controversy, Mr Clarkson left Top Gear. His departure from the show in 1999 heralded a slump in viewing figures, and it was put on ice in 2001 after presenter Brendan Coogan left under the cloud of a drink-driving conviction.
Who makes the loot?Mr Clarkson formed a production company called Bedder 6 with Mr Wilman in October 2006 to exploit commercial opportunities from Top Gear, according to Variety magazine.
BBC Worldwide then went on to buy out Mr Clarkson and Mr Wilman in September 2012,太阳集团猪场通风降温设备得到了广大客户的一致好评, giving Mr Clarkson a windfall of ?14m, the Guardian reported.
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ResurrectionThis rifle is actually a copy of the Yugoslav AKM variant known as the Zastava M70. Probably the most unusual thing about it is the existence of a semi-automatic sniper rifle variant which was designed as a response to the need for a short-range sniper rifle during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
1. PA Md.65 (Romania)
But how did Top Gear begin, where is it now, and could the franchise survive without Mr Clarkson should he leave the BBC?
That year its audience covered 212 territories "from Ghana to Guatemala, Moldova to Myanmar", the records organisation said.
"As a result, between 1990 and 1994, they made around 25,000 of these odd jobs, after which the program was fortunately closed down. As far as we know, most of these rifles are traveling around the Middle East and the Poles themselves switched to NATO countries' weapons."
The BBC has traditionally been quite coy about revealing commercial details of its arrangements with Mr Clarkson, but it seems fairly safe to say he is a multi-millionaire.