Defamation? Really? I think Clarkson was actually pretty fair, considering his usual style. What they showed at least seems believable to me.
His issues with the Times seem far more reasonable.
Musk aside, is there a youtube link for that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TbpgZ2Dt0A
I think they also mentioned when reviewing one of those crazy open-wheelers that it was supposed to be able to drive upside-down simply due to downforce, but I don't think they demo'd that.
F1 teams also commonly claim their cars could drive upsidedown, but the logistics of actually trying that would be absurd. You'd probably need a robotic driver at least...
Which, sadly, brings us back to what they say about why Top Gear US can't be like Top Gear UK. Try that style in the US, and everybody is jumping down your throat.
That being said, I - and most of my acquaintances - still love American culture - the kind of 'just do it'(TM) attitude, shown as well by Elon here - the stunts he's pulling with three high risk industrial companies at the same time is pretty much unthinkable in 'the old world'. And I'm not sure, but maybe his aggressive stance, the ability to sort of indoctrinate himself with his vision, might actually be needed to push through these grand projects. It's not unlike what we've known from Steve Jobs, really. Most people would agree that he was quite an ass - but by god he was an influential one.
In other words: while getting sued for a bad revue strikes me as distinctly American, I can't picture Clarkson getting flak in America for saying many of the more "offensive" things he seems to get flak for in the UK. I think Americans would be more understanding of the fact that Clarkson's public persona is basically a satire of itself and that comments like "I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families" clearly should not be taken seriously.
Then again Gilbert Gottfried did get fired from his duck commercial gig over some silly joke... Maybe I'm giving Americans too much credit.
In the end, he is the CEO of a public company, he should hire a professional to deal with this. The bottom line is that Tesla batteries do drain on the cold and Musk keeps reminding people.
It's one thing to attack a show like Top Gear. It's a whole other to attack the New York Times. People around the world have a lot of respect for the paper and whilst nobody claims that they are always right there is the assumption that they wouldn't intentionally be dishonest or biased.
So by continually picking a fight with them people will tune out and just take the "truth lies in the middle" position which is not good at all for Tesla.