Yeah, I for one think that Musk was being entirely unreasonable when he got upset with Top Gear (I mean come on, this is a show that gave a good review to a car because they were able to drive it upside-down in a tunnel...).
His issues with the Times seem far more reasonable.
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.
Honestly, as a European, that sums up pretty much the preconceptions we have about Americans: throat jumpy. If it accurately reflects American culture is another story, but I gotta say American media is not really helping the case - as isn't Mr. Musk here.
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.
As an American, my perspective is that Americans seem to be more "throat jumpy" when it comes to corporate responses and lawsuits, though Europeans (well, the British) seem to be more throat jumpy with social outrage.
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.
Defamation? Really? I think Clarkson was actually pretty fair, considering his usual style. What they showed at least seems believable to me.