This a bit of a dated analogy but it works. Back in the 80s, Coca-Cola changed the formula of their iconic drink, called it “New Coke” and most people hated it. After three months, Coca-Cola discontinued “New Coke,” brought back the original formula named “Coke Classic” and experienced more sales and popularity than ever, even though it was just the regular drink people were already drinking for years.
That is what Amazon’s The Grand Tour is. It is essentially “Coke Classic” and the current iteration of BBC’s Top Gear is “New Coke.” While many fans were jaded about the last few seasons of the Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May version of Top Gear, not seeing the three of them on TV for 17 months while having to watch the Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc version caused people to crave anything involving Clarkson, Hammond and May. The three of them could have done a show about knitting and it would be brilliant.
Anyway, that wait is over with the long-awaited debut of The Grand Tour. Before the series premiere, not much was revealed of this new show except that the studio would be a tent and they would be in a different part of the world every week. That and the BBC wouldn’t let them use some of the things that they owned the rights to, like “The Stig” and the “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” segment.
The show begins in rainy London and a glum Clarkson steps out of what’s assumed to be the offices of the BBC. The BBC decided not to renew Clarkson’s contract and he’s now out of a job. In case you didn’t know what happened, the BBC didn’t renew Clarkson’s contract because he physically and verbally abused a producer during filming. Hammond and May left with Clarkson and the three of them signed with Amazon.
After Clarkson gets in a cab, he heads to Heathrow Airport and flies to sunny Los Angeles. Finding his rental, a beautiful blue Ford Mustang, Clarkson drives away as a version of “I Can See Clearly Now” begins to play. The lyrics are pretty notable with Clarkson’s departure from the BBC and arrival at Amazon, and is going to be the series theme song. I’m going to miss hearing “Jessica” before the show, but the new theme is very fitting to the new show.
As Clarkson is driving, his mates, Hammond and May show up with red and white Mustangs and the three of them drive into the California desert, with a convoy of various cars and motorcycles. Dubbed “Burning Van,” the studio setup is almost like an oasis in the desert for any car fan.
The first thing I noticed was that the cinematic quality was incredible. In 4K UHD and at 24 frames per second, The Grand Tour is pretty much what it would be if you put Top Gear in a movie theater. The show is also a bit slower-paced than Top Gear which sometimes felt rushed. Some of that isn’t the BBC’s fault, since they are stuck to a 60-minute time slot and even less if you watch reruns on BBC America due to commercials. But because The Grand Tour is online, the guys can go at their own pace. The first episode is 71 minutes long and really not a second was filler nor was anything rushed. It went at its own comfortable pace.
For their first competition, the guys traveled to Portugal to determine which was the best high-speed hybrid hypercar. Clarkson went for the McLaren P1, Hammond the Porsche 918 and May came in later with the Ferrari LaFerrari. While Top Gear was more about the entertainment factor and the actual test results were rather secondary, The Grand Tour is more focused on actually figuring out which car was the best and trying to figure that out in as fair manner as possible, while being entertaining.
In terms of what challenges the guys would face, they seemed to do away with the concept of the “producer in a lab coat,” giving one of the hosts a golden envelope to read. Instead, they just come up with the idea of switching cars or having a drag race themselves.
Back in the tent, the hosts introduced some of their new segments. Instead of doing “The News,” the guys have a segment called “Conversation Street” that talks about current news. They didn’t quite do that this week as they just discussed the fact that the notoriously slow May received a speeding ticket.
The Grand Tour has their own track, nicknamed “The Eboladrome” because the track is shaped like the Ebola virus. With fast and slow turns, a lack of runoff area and incredibly narrow sections of road, it looks like a very difficult track to drive on. Oh, and there’s sheep grazing right off the track and an unexploded bomb from World War II that forced them to redesign the track. Clarkson tested the BMW M2 on the new track. There is no “Stig” and according to Clarkson, Amazon wanted them to have an American driver doing the tests. Simply named “The American,” the driver is actually former NASCAR driver and inaugural Truck Series champion Mike Skinner.
Despite not having a “Celebrity in a Reasonably Priced Car” segment, The Grand Tour does have a celebrity aspect. Called “Celebrity Brain Crash,” celebrities will have to undergo some sort of simulator. We never got to see anyone actually use the simulator because… well let’s just the say the celebrities weren’t able to do it because they all “died.”
We then went back to Portugal for day two of the hybrid hypercar test. Because the cars were “probably communist,” Skinner didn’t test the cars so they got former F1 and Formula E driver Jerome d’Ambrosio to do a lap in the cars to see who had the quickest time.
All in all, The Grand Tour is going to be great for anyone who has been a fan of classic Top Gear. It also shows why the Chris Evans/Matt LeBlanc version of Top Gear didn’t work. You cannot recreate the kind of chemistry that come from three friends who have known each other for over 20 years. The BBC tried to force chemistry from their new hosts and it was rather terrible to watch. The Grand Tour gets back to why Top Gear was so beloved around the world. It was a car show involving three friends and anyone who watched would do just about anything to have Jeremy Clarkson’s, Richard Hammond’s or James May’s job. That is what The Grand Tour brought back and I’m so looking forward to the next 35 episodes over the next three years.
