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The video is (Classic Car Challenge: Grosser Mercedes Vs Rolls-Royce Corniche | Top Gear) here, 6:30

Narrator (Clarkson): Mercifully the next test did involve our engines. Which car could achieve the highest top speed?
Clarkson: He's reached five.
May: Buffeting. I've got 80.
Clarkson: The radar trap was set.
May: 90. Good God, the trim's coming off.
Narrator (May): But with a six and three-quarter litre V8, the final result should be impressive. It wasn't.
Clarkson: Children come out of the womb faster than that!
Narrator (Clarkson): Before James had stopped I fired up the 6.3 litre big.

In this example "firing up" is before "stopping." -> I fired up the engine first, and he stopped after that.
Shouldn't the past perfect be used to refer to an action that happens before another action in the past?
Why is it "had stopped"?

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  • The firing up does occur before the stopping. Commented Jul 21 at 14:23
  • Using your posts to complain about downvotes is misusing the site which has provided you the opportunity to ask questions and receive expert answers. Please do not deface your posts. There are other ways to argue your point more efficiently such as posting a question on meta. Commented Jul 22 at 3:48

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The "past" is the past time of the story that the narrator is telling (you see the story on the screen, but it all happened in the past) This is why in the first sentence you have the past tense "The next test did involve our engines."

Now the past event that the narrator is talking about is "I fired up the 6.3 litre big". That happened while James was driving, that is, James hadn't stopped his car when Jeremy fired up the 6.3 litre. It happened "Before James had stopped"

As with much use of the past perfect, it's not necessary. But there is no error here.

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Relative sequence of past events is only one of the uses of the past perfect.

You will find many cases where atelic verbs are presented using the past perfect in a description of past events, and the past perfect verb is connected with the later action:

I managed to get off with all my baggage before the train had picked up speed.

That is, "while the train was still going slow enough that it was possible to step out the door onto the platform".

The past perfect can express the aspect of state-attained. At some point along the continuum of acceleration, it becomes no longer safe to step out of the train. The past perfect establishes a point on that continuum for use together with before.

Here in your example, "Before James had come to a full stop".

Aspect is an advanced topic that you don't normally encounter in texts geared to non-native speakers who are trying to acquire a practical working knowledge of English. It is the subject of many an article in academic journals devoted to the study of language.

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The sentence you are referring to is grammatically correct. It is a function of the past perfect (with before) to show that an action was not completed or was unfinished when another past action occurred.
If you notice the sentence, the narrator said: – before James had stopped the engine, meaning the action of stopping the engine hadn't happened yet.
So, “Before James had stopped, I fired up...” means that I fired up the engine while James was still in the process of stopping.

This grammar is explained in the British Council link

Past perfect after before..
We can also use before + past perfect to show that an action was not done or was incomplete when the past simple action happened.
They left before I'd spoken to them..
Sadly, the author died before he'd finished the series.

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