The Grand Tour

The boys are back! After their LOCHdown special, which aired back in July, this year’s next Grand Tour Special, which is also their Christmas Special dubbed Carnage A Trois, dwells a little deeper into French cars. Owing to the lockdowns which would have been in place when this film was made, the Grand Tour team really couldn’t venture far to some exotic locales like Brazil or Namibia. So instead, they had to stick within the confines of the U.K. Nevertheless, the trailer does look pretty darn exciting.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are most renowned for their time at BBC’s Top Gear, but they’ve been making their new series the Grand Tour, for Amazon Prime since 2016, and they’re back for this year’s special, The Grand Tour: Lochdown, which premieres on July 30.

Called Survival of the Fattest, the latest episode of The Grand Tour takes us to sparsely populated Mongolia where our heroes embark on a long journey over perilous mountains, mighty rivers, and endless Gobi dunes in a homemade car. The mission is to reach the town called the Moron. They had to do it in seven days, only with British army rations as a diet, and a car delivered disassembled to them by a Russian Mil Mi-8 helicopter.

It is one more The Grand Tour special - largely unscripted, emotional, funny, and just perfect.

The third season of The Grand Tour is scheduled to drop on January 18, but for those who can’t wait to get their annual fixes of Jeremy Clarkson and the gang, you can get an early fix courtesy of The Grand Tour Game. Yes, folks, the show has parlayed its popularity into the virtual world of video games. The Grand Tour Game arrives for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on January 15. That’s three days before the third season drops on Amazon Prime. That’s enough time to prep yourselves for what is expected to be another rollicking season of fun and mishaps from our always charismatic, if not controversial, hosts.

Earlier this year, there were rumors alleging that the third season was going to be the final run of The Grand Tour. However, Amazon has now confirmed that the show will have a fourth season with the same hosts, but many other key changes. Are these going to be good changes or bad changes?

Good news for fans of The Grand Tour: The show is returning for a fourth season. Bad news for fans of The Grand Tour: The show’s studio-dominated configuration is getting the heave-ho. That’s the word from Amazon, which announced the renewal of the hit motoring show for Season 4, albeit with big changes in the way for the upcoming season. There’s no timetable on when Season 4 comes out, but don’t expect it to air until 2020. Season 3 hasn’t even come out yet; that’s on schedule to première on January 18, 2019.

Despite changing networks — ok, Amazon isn’t a traditional network — and continents, the trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are still massively popular in the U.K. That much was proven by a report from British broadcasting regulator Ofcom, which revealed that the second season of The Grand Tour was the second-most streamed show in the U.K. The only show that beat it happens to be a 24-year old sitcom about buddies that ended its run 14 years ago. Outside of that, The Grand Tour’s popularity in the trio’s old stomping grounds is a good sign that their fans haven’t left their side.

Rumors are swirling that The Grand Tour may be in trouble and that Amazon may be thinking of axing the show entirely after its third season. The unexpected revelation comes by way of the Daily Mail, which is reporting that the show may not be renewed for a fourth season. No reason was given as to why that is, but a “source” close to the show said that “there is nothing to suggest they are going to do another season. No one has signed anything and employees are wondering where everyone will go once filming wraps.”

The Lancia 037 holds a special place in the hearts of a lot of people. It’s one of those models that wasn’t supposed to exist, but homologation requirements obligated Lancia to build a little over 200 road-going models of the 037. The one you see here with Jeremy Clarkson is one of the 207 production 037s that were built. 35 years after it was produced, the Lancia 037 still looks as incredible as it’s always been.

The video of Clarkson’s time behind the wheel of the 037 is short, but if you haven’t seen the full segment, it’s something that you need to watch. Rarely do we get to see the three hosts trade in their skits and crass humor for a compelling and insightful segment that tells a gripping story of a car’s history and impact in the industry. For whatever reason, The Grand Tour adopted this kind of approach in this segment. The result is arguably the best segment of the show’s second season, possibly even its entire run.

Brashness aside, Clarkson is regarded as an authority in the auto industry. Far too often, he doesn’t use that platform to really espouse the real stories behind some of the cars he reviews. This time, he did, and we appreciate him for it. The Lancia 037 has a great story to tell, and for once, we’re pleased that Jeremy Clarkson was the one to tell it.

We’re already two episodes in on the second season of The Grand Tour, and ahead of the third episode, Amazon is doing a bit of teasing on what we can expect on tonight’s show. The star of the trailer is easy to decipher. It’s the Bugatti Chiron, the car Jeremy Clarkson called “the fastest car in the world.”

Richard Hammond is an English automotive writer, journalist, and television presenter best known for his work alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May in Top Gear between 2002 and 2015, and as of 2016, The Grand Tour. Richard got his start in radio, working for a variety of BBC stations including Radio York, Radio Newcastle, Radio Cleveland, Radio Leeds, and Radio Lancashire. In 2002, Richard moved on to TV, and became part of the indivisible Top Gear trio with Clarkson and May. During his stint with the BBC, Richard worked on a variety of other shows, including Brainiac: Science Abuse, Crufts, Last Man Standing, and Total Wipeout, among others. In 2015, Hammond left Top Gear to work on The Grand Tour.

As you might imagine from his resume, Richard has enjoyed a rather impressive (not to mention eclectic) car collection over the years. Just a smattering of standouts include a 1927 Sunbeam, a 1931 Lagonda, a Bentley S1, a 1963 Opel Kadett, a 1976 Toyota Corolla liftback, a 1969 Jaguar E-Type, a 1982 Porsche 911 SC, a 1994 BMW 850Ci, a 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder, a 2009 Morgan Aeromax, a 2009 Aston Martin DBS Volante, a 2015 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, a Volkswagen Type 2 Campervan, a Land Rover Defender-110, a pair of Land Rover Range Rovers, and a Willys Jeep, not to mention dozens and dozens of motorcycles. Richard also has a thing for American muscle, and owns a classic 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390, finished in Bullitt Green, as well as a 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8. He also owns and regularly flies an R44 helicopter.

Happy Birthday, Richard!

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding The Grand Tour’s second season was the identity of the show’s new tame race car driver. We didn’t get an answer in the first episode of the new season, but the reveal finally came in the second episode. In a surprising move, the show’s new test driver is actually a she, and her name is Abbie Eaton.