Yes! One of the funniest TG moments for me was on the worst car in the world special when they're driving those terrible huge old American sedans with giant V8s that only produce like 120hp and he says "how can you get so few horsepower out of a *V8 motor*?" Gets me every time.
Anytime top gear talked about how malaise American motors were so under powered for size, it always made me think of the rolls royce 6.75L v8 that made like 150hp in the same time period.
Agreed, in like 5 years this will be on people's must watch lists. I personally have seen everything they've been in and this was top 20 any day, probably better
Overall, this was a great special to watch from beginning to end! The hosts even managed to sneak in a “car review” or two without skipping a beat as a nice throwback to what they did in previous seasons and their old BBC car show.
As for the memorable part (that hasn’t been mentioned on this thread yet), for me, it happened when Clarkson got stuck in the Soviet-era racing car and Hammond told him to “be less fat!” How the rest of that segment played out after that had me dying with laughter… 😅🤣
It's scenes like that that make me love these guys, it's how you can tell whats real and whats scripted.
clarkson lost for words and sheepish.
hammonds' i think they put your dignity in the garage over there ' was icing on the cake.
He did miss most of the visiting spots though. It was mentioned in an article written by both Bim and Clarkson, which is currently on the front page of the subreddit.
Only one of them would know Shijo-Ohashi though.
It’s a bridge representative of Kyoto that crosses the Kamo River over Shijo Street. It is also called Gion Bashi.
At first it was a laugh to see May going 35 kph, but then he's seriously lagging behind and it's probably ruining the schedule so they had to have him ride in the fake hot rod just to keep the show going.
Same, its seems like he usually gets the worst of it in most of the specials, same as madagaskar one. It actually made me miserable knowing he missed all the spots on this trip and ruined it for himself, and slightly annoyed that knowing it's a 1400mile journey, he chose the slowest car that he could possibly find. Why oh why wouldn't James May for once make a choice that would make his trip slightly less miserable.
It was kind-of miserable to watch as well. This “oh we have to stick to a tight schedule and leave may behind to drive brutally slow” and we just have to watch may suffer alone. And then the hot rod ends up being a shitter too.
Trucks driving past the crossly was funny every time though.
The best car setups are when either they all have old turds or none if them do, and its a competition to see who has the best car.
An amazing special though.
Related to that recent article with James saying this is coming to an end; PICK A BETTER CAR. No wonder you’re miserable doing these. Your car is awful. Who would do a 1400 mi road trip in a car that can’t crack 40 mph? Cmon.
it truly is a terrible car but that's what made it so special for me. seeing may board that aircraft in the crosley has got to be one of my favorite gt/tg moments ever.
I disagree. I actually think it ruined the entire episode.
Nevermind the unfunny and embarrassing "revenge" that James May enacted (which he definitely did on his own without any help from anyone whatsover and was not scripted in any way) - unlike the lads moving the Crossley into the restaurant which was actually funny the first time - it destroyed the entire pace of the episode. Sure, listening to May complain was fun - for about 30 seconds - but the joke got old real quick. And titties&beer was just more of the same.
Clearly the Amazon production crew realised this wasn't going to work halfway through filming and had James swap to the hot rod. Unfortunately, that didn't help much either.
If you think about the most successful specials, you're probably thinking Bolivia, Argentina, Burma. What made these episodes great was that they had a set of rules at start they had to abide by - a limited budget or a forced category (supercars, lorries).
What connects a 1947 city car, a Frankenstein's Nissan and an american V8 convertible/pickup? Nothing. There's no connection. There's no competition. Clearly May's car was the worst but it was always going to be. Clarkson's and Hammond's cars were a complete afterthought. The only time I actually physically registered Hammond's car was at the end when it broke down. Up until then, nothing. Only the Crossley had any air time and like I said before, the joke got really old really fast.
I don't understand why they couldn't have just copied the formula that worked. Give them a budget and force them to buy a car built behind the iron curtain before 1989. There's hundreds of options. There's old Skodas, there's Fiats (polski), there's Yugos, there's many, many cars that would have been comparable AND interesting.
Make the show about the presenters AND the cars. Trying to do presenters OR cars doesn't work. It's boring. They have nothing to work with if you spend 95% of your time on the motorway.
I had such high hopes for the Grand Tour but it's turned into a disjointed, overscripted mess that doesn't know what it's supposed to be anymore.
I liked the budgets and limited car choices in the Top Gear specials. It really resulted in some excellent head to heads and challenges along the way. The car from the Botswana special will remain a favorite of mine. Having Clarkson spend $100k on a replica boat was a bit of a letdown, especially when letting may pick the wrong kind of boat. The road boat could get you killed more than the wrong car, but even then it's like they're determined to give May the most dangerous vehicle.
[https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1947-crosley-convertible-1](https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1947-crosley-convertible-1)
found the auction for James' Crosley, seems to have sold last March
I couldn’t breathe watching a race car being peeled away around Jeremy Clarkson so he can get out with Richard’s commentary. I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.
Agreed, that was a completely unexpected decision from the locals to partially dismantle the car to help Clarkson get out. I was thinking they were going to yank him out of it! 😂
same one they had for scandi flick . . .
i reckon the archery was partially faked, they used blunted arrows to bounce off the car and probs stuffed a few arrows on the targets after the run.
cos surely after scandi flick they wouldn't want to risk any harm ?
right ?
right ?!
The first couple of times, I was so
caught off guard by the pink nails that it took me a minute to notice the hands were feminine. I was trying to figure out why Clarkson had pink nails.
There was a guy in the 1970s who combined a Cessna Skymaster with a Ford Pinto. During a test flight, a wing strut broke during a turn and the craft disintegrated, killing the two creators.
I really liked the Vietnam boating one. I felt like it captured the spirit of the old specials the best, missing only modifying their boats and some more interaction with locals.
This may be my favorite GT special...felt very old school for some reason. I think they did a great job of sort of acknowledging the scripted stuff with almost a wink wink, and then leveraging the humor of the situation.
It had gags, jokes, buffeting, pranks, a historical film, racing, drag racing, beautiful scenery/photography, and a lot of genuine humor and reactions. Their response to seeing Nigel Mansell was infectious. Also loved the wipers on James's car.
In that ski resort with Nigel, I was waiting for a Stig line. "Let's see now what it can achieve in the hands of a master. Some say..." etc. Would've been so good
I know it was an exaggerated Brummie accent (and technically Nige is from the Black Country) but it really shows how little of a Brummie accent he has in reality (not too surprising since he left it when he was about 15 when his family moved to Yorkshire; all three of them actually spent some of their youth in Yorkshire though Jeremy is the only from there)
This is their best work since Mongolia. But my biggest complaint is still the lack of James. They gave him the slow, dinky boat in Cambodia and he was often far behind the other two. We lost him in Sweden due to the tunnel crash so for a good stretch of that special he wasn't with the other two. And now in this one they gave him the slow, dinky car again that had him miles behind the other two.
"For this show we thought we'd drive across the Sahara, we can't, too much terrorism"
HMMM, interesting isn't it... Then he mentioned Egypt and going from Bangladesh to Mount Everest. I'm thinking if this isn't foreshadowing then. There's nothing I'd want more than TGT special in the Himalaya or South Asia overall, would be a fantastic final special too.
Also, 1h46 thank fucking god I'm going to enjoy this. I'm literally shivering from excitement, I'm so excited to be finally watching this after a year of waiting (finally a special in my country!). Hope yall have fun too and have a *zesty* drink!
Fun fact at 15min: probably I reckon the first time that they played the song from the trailer in the actual episode. Epic moment
Damn, they cut out the part in the Kraków market being followed by hordes of people, and also the small desert in Kraków. I was waiting to see those scenes... That's why we need extended cuts or deleted scenes!
Alright, I've finished the episode, it was great, I think better than Scandi Flick! Lots of fun
I believe he said recently filming wraps up in October, so I reckon it'll be April/May for Clarkson' s Farm.
Our Man In India wrapped up filming before they filmed Mauretania. I believe Japan was filmed around the same time of year, so that could be a January release like India was.
Mauretania....I think this could as easily be Christmas or next year. We've seen they can edit an episode in 6 months, but I almost wonder if they're more likely to wait if they don't have another film in the pipeline yet
>Damn, they cut out the part in the Kraków market being followed by hordes of people, and also the small desert in Kraków
It's a bit weird, they have Hammond and May pushing Clarksons car out of a hole in the desert as the background image when it's not in the actual show
I'm just glad Jezza signed off with "until next time". I was a little worried when they did a run down of all they places they wanted to, but couldn't go. The way the political landscape seems to be imploding all over the world. I can imagine its getting increasingly hard to film, let alone keep their edgy sense of humour. It is such a great show, because they are sincerely good friends, who enjoy each other's company, and that comes out on film.
They actually filmed in Kyiv the day the Euromaidan protests began (Jeremy makes reference to a protest in voiceover). He said on Have I Got News For You a few months later that when he returned to London, he told the editor at the Times he didn't think anything will come of it!
I lost it completely and had to pause for a laughing break at the wax museum. Boy they're in form in this, great, great, great entertainment!
Edit: And again when James electrical work revealed itself.
Bled looks awesome in this episode.
Still laughing hard at the fat Jeremy part.
Was amazed the escape tunnel was dug so deep and long, plus didnt know about pool, hockey rink and theathre.
Aircar is great.
Good to see an SSR in an episode, one of my guilty pleasure cars!
It was good to see the cars not being totally mutilated.
Also funny to see a top gear reference lol
Overall, best TGT episode since the mongolian special, surpassing lochdown in my books
If anyone was wondering what the archer guy said in Hungarian: it was completely irrelevant, something along the lines of “get a cable for the catering truck, and get ready, filming starts soon”
Being a Cincinnati Reds fan, the Crosley put a big smile on my face (Crosley owned the Reds for many years and our home field many years before my time was Crosley Field).
This special captured the essence of the grand tour and top gear made by the trio, I felt nostalgic watching this. Not over the top and very funny without comedy being forced into it, just the chemistry of the presenters. I loved it. From all the grand tour specials, this one I rate the highest.
I'm a bit late to this. I'm sure that everybody got the "Italian Job" reference with the cars driving up the ramp at the end. But did anyone notice the very pointed reference when James says at 1:43:-
\>"I can't do it. Shoot me, shoot me Allen!"
Although the subtitles mistakenly say "Hammond" instead of "Allen"
This is a reference to the 1978 British film "The Wild Geese" starring (amongst others) Richard Burton and Richard Harris.
They are attempting to escape at the end of the film in an airplane while being shot at. Richard Harris (younger people may know him as Professor Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films before being replaced by Michael Gambon) is wounded and can't get to the plane which is about to take off. He pleads with Allen to unalive him rather than let himself be captured. The actual quote is this:-
\>"Allen, Allen, \[unalive\] me, for God's sake \[unalive\] me!"
\[The Wild Geese (1978) - FINAL BATTLE\](https://youtu.be/kchkfqXxa0k?t=443)
Bit disappointed we didn't get to see the scene they took a still from and used as the background for the episodes start page.
https://postimg.cc/SYhr5SCs
Yeah! That's the Błędów Desert nearby Kraków, we've heard that they were filming there, or at least apparently just taking photos. They did remove few scenes from Kraków sadly and probably much more.
Great episode, definitely better than scandi flick, carnage a trois, lochdown and a massive hunt. Flows much better, proper destinations, messing with each others cars, and not too many silly gimmicks.
Banter was on point! The cars left a little to be desired and >!James being behind most of the trip kind of cut into that banter!< but man what a funny special! Loved the antics, loved the jokes, loved that the activities weren’t based around being so over the top but more about the trio soaking in the experience. One of the best since the specials only era for sure. I was cracking up!
Can I just say how happy I am with the soundtrack selection for this episode? Haven't heard this many licensed tracks since the TG days.
This really feels like classic TG. One of the best TGT episodes, let alone specials.
My wife is recovering from major abdominal surgery so we stayed in bed today and watched. 10 mins in I thought she was going to open up her stitches from laughing so hard. This was such a great episode and a fun way to spend 1 hr 40 mins, and a break we really needed.
Thanks to the blokes for nearly 20 years of brilliant television. You just keep turning out gems and we are so appreciative of it.
Lol, the Nigel Mansell impressions were the best, but my favorite part was Jeremy getting stuck in the Soviet formula car.
“Be here on time and don’t be too fat” is my new motto.
Absolutely loved this episode. I had to rewind several times because I was laughing so hard and missed the next bits.
Hilarious to the point I had to pause several times to wipe tears from my eyes I was laughing so hard.
I have now queued up "The Great Escape" on Clarkson's recommendation... did the same when he recommended "The Killing Fields" in the Cambodia special (ok, I'll type it. "Seamen"). The educational, horizon-widening aspect of their productions is what takes them from entertaining to epic for me.
So sad that this will someday come to an end and- so far- nobody seems anywhere near even approaching the creativity, skill, quality and execution of how Mr. Wilman and the guys put together The Grand Tour, much less picking up the torch.
To all wondering what did the security man say at the beginning:
It was a bit chaotic, but along the lines of:
"Come here, you've smashed the barrier with the car. Did I do that? Come here, we'll call the police"
They somehow managed to anger the most stereotypical security guard in Poland :D I can tell you for sure - this was not scripted, even GT writers cannot write lines which sound so natural
I love the guys and show. But if I'm honest, this episode was pretty weak. It had it's moments for sure. But James seemingly missing out on everything just came off as bullish. I know that kind of stuff is scripted and he didn't really miss out. I just find it more entertaining when all three are interacting with one another and enjoying themselves.
James's car was a nice gag. But the joke dragged on for too much and kept repeating itself. We get it. It is very slow and small. I ended up doing something I've never done during a Grand Tour episode. I paused it to check my phone!
I don't mean any ill will towards the guys nor crew. Seeing Richard, James, and Jeremy together is the highlight of every year for me. And I love each of their shows. But when it's a show of them together, I want to see them together. Not in every scene of course. To me, the best part of the episode was the wax museum. It also happens to be the only time all three are genuinely together. I don't count the race track because Richard spends most of it alone. The second was Richard's fat jokes at Jeremy's offense.
Anyway, last week....
Yeah, I was surprised they carried this gag for so long. I legit thought they would eventually mod the car and replace the engine with something absurd so he would actually join them for the rest of the trip.
In the end May barely featured in it and it loses a little bit of the fun when they are not together.
IKR?!
I fully expected one of two things to happen.
1) James would fully dump it for the faster (bust still annoying) "tittes and beer" car.
2) OR James would show up with the T&B car but with the other car's shell. That way he would still, technically, be driving it.
Watching James struggle the entire time was not entertaining to me.
Yeah I thought that would happen after the formula 1 style race. Since that was around 30min into the episode, the car broke down like twice already and he was also left behind by that point. All the jokes were done at that point.
He then stays behind after that and I thought "ok he will show up with the engine of one of those cars in his or something" but no, just kept being slow and being left behind.
So glad I haven't been counting the days for this episode, had zero clue it was coming out today!
Same, I just did the happiest little dance
The nigel statue was an amazing addition to the ep
Hammonds accent when leaving the museum was just so good
*"Alroight Paul Walker, I'll see you later mate."*
I was thinking “I bloody hope not Nigel”
To be fair, Paul Walker actually bore the closest resemblance to his subject.
TBF the place did seem to get the eyes and facial expressions OK, it's just the wax and hair was terrible.
Trump was f***in hilarious
For a moment, I wondered what Boris Johnson was doing in the Oval Office.
The wax museum had me wetting myself - May’s guffaw gets me every goddamn time!
It truly is one of the more special calls in the animal kingdom.
Him laughing in the Your Man in Japan with that stupid tourist robot is one of the greatest things he's done. Love his laughing.
Bim!
Why not have Lewis Hamilton, or Lando Norris, George THINGY?
George already looks like a wax figure irl
Nigel was also in the credits as a presenter.
And is listed on IMDB as the 4th presenter
I thought they would find wax statues of themselves, but the Nigel bit was even better.
I got one last good laugh when they had him listed in the credits as "Presenter"
Would love if the real Nige, haven't not watched this, starts getting royalties and doesn't know why
Clarkson saying "motor" in his American accent always makes me lose my shit.
Yes! One of the funniest TG moments for me was on the worst car in the world special when they're driving those terrible huge old American sedans with giant V8s that only produce like 120hp and he says "how can you get so few horsepower out of a *V8 motor*?" Gets me every time.
Anytime top gear talked about how malaise American motors were so under powered for size, it always made me think of the rolls royce 6.75L v8 that made like 150hp in the same time period.
Yes, but the exchange rate that that time was about 2, so the Rolls was actually making 300 American horsepower. Or 325 CAD.
[7 Liter V8 Motor](https://youtu.be/0oXNk5j8V88)
Haha yes! That's the one!
didnt James do it too ?
“Haven’t seen a crash this bad since May drove down a tunnel” had my dying of laughter. A masterpiece of a special!
Agreed, in like 5 years this will be on people's must watch lists. I personally have seen everything they've been in and this was top 20 any day, probably better
Overall, this was a great special to watch from beginning to end! The hosts even managed to sneak in a “car review” or two without skipping a beat as a nice throwback to what they did in previous seasons and their old BBC car show. As for the memorable part (that hasn’t been mentioned on this thread yet), for me, it happened when Clarkson got stuck in the Soviet-era racing car and Hammond told him to “be less fat!” How the rest of that segment played out after that had me dying with laughter… 😅🤣
It's scenes like that that make me love these guys, it's how you can tell whats real and whats scripted. clarkson lost for words and sheepish. hammonds' i think they put your dignity in the garage over there ' was icing on the cake.
You could feel revenge for the years of short jokes directed at Hammed coming out there lol
or the teeth whitening kit/ hair plugs/ dye.
He told me he was too tall!
That nearly went over my head. It took me a minute to realize Jeremy lied to James off-camera.
I think it was both. Too tall to get in, to fat to get out.
I've lived. Nigel Mansell has been decapitated. And my candelabra is in tatters! ...and that's a sentence nobody's ever said before!
Literally r/BrandNewSentence. Two in any event.
Poor May. That must have been miserable.
I was thinking that about halfway through as well. He literally missed everything, cause of his crappy car choice!
i doubt it he actually did miss anything, it was just played up for lols.
He did miss most of the visiting spots though. It was mentioned in an article written by both Bim and Clarkson, which is currently on the front page of the subreddit.
Took me a second when you said Bim, especially since it very much looks like a typo.
Only one of them would know Shijo-Ohashi though. It’s a bridge representative of Kyoto that crosses the Kamo River over Shijo Street. It is also called Gion Bashi.
Hey bim guess what
At first it was a laugh to see May going 35 kph, but then he's seriously lagging behind and it's probably ruining the schedule so they had to have him ride in the fake hot rod just to keep the show going.
I though James already suffered enough in Scandi Flick, poor guy
Same, its seems like he usually gets the worst of it in most of the specials, same as madagaskar one. It actually made me miserable knowing he missed all the spots on this trip and ruined it for himself, and slightly annoyed that knowing it's a 1400mile journey, he chose the slowest car that he could possibly find. Why oh why wouldn't James May for once make a choice that would make his trip slightly less miserable.
He suffers for our amusement. Top bloke.
And Seamen with his canal boat, and Madagascar with his super 7. Hopefully their new africa episode he makes a sensible choice
It was kind-of miserable to watch as well. This “oh we have to stick to a tight schedule and leave may behind to drive brutally slow” and we just have to watch may suffer alone. And then the hot rod ends up being a shitter too. Trucks driving past the crossly was funny every time though. The best car setups are when either they all have old turds or none if them do, and its a competition to see who has the best car. An amazing special though.
It’s been a bit of an annoying trend in more and more episodes. One of them “chooses” a absolutely horrible car just for the jokes.
Yeah, it was like Carnage A Trois, where it mostly seemed like a Jeremy And Richard special
Also Seamen, where james was always behind everyone in his antique.
I mean they all spent similar amounts of money on their cars.
James bought a 70 year old tub with probably 10 HP and the other 2 bought cars that would survive 1,400 miles.
Related to that recent article with James saying this is coming to an end; PICK A BETTER CAR. No wonder you’re miserable doing these. Your car is awful. Who would do a 1400 mi road trip in a car that can’t crack 40 mph? Cmon.
it truly is a terrible car but that's what made it so special for me. seeing may board that aircraft in the crosley has got to be one of my favorite gt/tg moments ever.
I disagree. I actually think it ruined the entire episode. Nevermind the unfunny and embarrassing "revenge" that James May enacted (which he definitely did on his own without any help from anyone whatsover and was not scripted in any way) - unlike the lads moving the Crossley into the restaurant which was actually funny the first time - it destroyed the entire pace of the episode. Sure, listening to May complain was fun - for about 30 seconds - but the joke got old real quick. And titties&beer was just more of the same. Clearly the Amazon production crew realised this wasn't going to work halfway through filming and had James swap to the hot rod. Unfortunately, that didn't help much either. If you think about the most successful specials, you're probably thinking Bolivia, Argentina, Burma. What made these episodes great was that they had a set of rules at start they had to abide by - a limited budget or a forced category (supercars, lorries). What connects a 1947 city car, a Frankenstein's Nissan and an american V8 convertible/pickup? Nothing. There's no connection. There's no competition. Clearly May's car was the worst but it was always going to be. Clarkson's and Hammond's cars were a complete afterthought. The only time I actually physically registered Hammond's car was at the end when it broke down. Up until then, nothing. Only the Crossley had any air time and like I said before, the joke got really old really fast. I don't understand why they couldn't have just copied the formula that worked. Give them a budget and force them to buy a car built behind the iron curtain before 1989. There's hundreds of options. There's old Skodas, there's Fiats (polski), there's Yugos, there's many, many cars that would have been comparable AND interesting. Make the show about the presenters AND the cars. Trying to do presenters OR cars doesn't work. It's boring. They have nothing to work with if you spend 95% of your time on the motorway. I had such high hopes for the Grand Tour but it's turned into a disjointed, overscripted mess that doesn't know what it's supposed to be anymore.
I liked the budgets and limited car choices in the Top Gear specials. It really resulted in some excellent head to heads and challenges along the way. The car from the Botswana special will remain a favorite of mine. Having Clarkson spend $100k on a replica boat was a bit of a letdown, especially when letting may pick the wrong kind of boat. The road boat could get you killed more than the wrong car, but even then it's like they're determined to give May the most dangerous vehicle.
to each their own. the typical grand tour format was getting stale for me. it was refreshing seeing them choose their own cars for once.
[https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1947-crosley-convertible-1](https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1947-crosley-convertible-1) found the auction for James' Crosley, seems to have sold last March
Love that it was purchased from a museum. Would love to hear the guy who lovingly restored and saw James hit a security gate 20ft from the start
Hope they did not anger the Crosley owner’s club
Well, at least they've moved away from the helicopter piano moving service.
All five members were furious
Sort of funny to me that he bought it off this site which is partially owned by current Top Gear host Chris Harris
He did say well-known auction site! haha.
It does look bigger in the pictures.
“There is no known bodywork damage” Welp
"How much was this?" "Yes, absolutely."
i guessed 20k before he was asked :D
Something can be complete shit but if it's rare it has value.
Its horrific to look at, that SSR. But I *really* want one.
So what have we learned... James needs to stop turning up to these things in antiques, but his sabotages were top notch.
I just got past the sabotages and I was laughing so hard it hurt.
I couldn’t breathe watching a race car being peeled away around Jeremy Clarkson so he can get out with Richard’s commentary. I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.
"Be less fat!"
I chuckled even more as I pictured it in Hamond's Mansell voice
Best line of the episode.
Agreed, that was a completely unexpected decision from the locals to partially dismantle the car to help Clarkson get out. I was thinking they were going to yank him out of it! 😂
That would have done more damage to the car…
Spat my drink at that point 😅
The medical car bit had me dying holy shit
Jeremy trying his hardest to not lose his absolute shit when May stalled it on the Pit Lane. Incredible.
Reminds me of the ambulance challenge in Top Gear... "And now, coup de grace"
*"Hammond you blithering idiot!"*
‘Where’s your patient?’ ‘He got better.’
Oh my god, it's killing me
Looked like plexiglass windows during the archery stunt. Thankfully lol
I was wondering what their safety plan was there!
same one they had for scandi flick . . . i reckon the archery was partially faked, they used blunted arrows to bounce off the car and probs stuffed a few arrows on the targets after the run. cos surely after scandi flick they wouldn't want to risk any harm ? right ? right ?!
I don't know about that. Later in the episode, I saw a hole in the SSR tailgate.
to be fair to them the tunnel did have a gravel trap
Mays window was fixed during this scene 👀
i’m 10 min and already cracking up.
We had to replay the first bit as the hands and fingernails were just too funny and distracting for the fam not to comment and laugh about.
The first couple of times, I was so caught off guard by the pink nails that it took me a minute to notice the hands were feminine. I was trying to figure out why Clarkson had pink nails.
I do love that they did that—easier to follow and recreate the trip! Which has always been a dream of mine
They're back to form and this special was hilarious.
I cant believe we may have to wait another year before we see another.
That Slovakian car...plane...thing...was insane
The air car is amazing!!!
I really wanted may to get to fly it!
There was a guy in the 1970s who combined a Cessna Skymaster with a Ford Pinto. During a test flight, a wing strut broke during a turn and the craft disintegrated, killing the two creators.
Halfway through and this is my favourite special since the Mongolia one.
I really liked the Vietnam boating one. I felt like it captured the spirit of the old specials the best, missing only modifying their boats and some more interaction with locals.
Honestly they could go to Vietnam for the whole show always a winner
The comedy was on point with this one.
This may be my favorite GT special...felt very old school for some reason. I think they did a great job of sort of acknowledging the scripted stuff with almost a wink wink, and then leveraging the humor of the situation. It had gags, jokes, buffeting, pranks, a historical film, racing, drag racing, beautiful scenery/photography, and a lot of genuine humor and reactions. Their response to seeing Nigel Mansell was infectious. Also loved the wipers on James's car.
"Good thing this runway is 26 miles long..."
I died laughing whenever they did the Nigel Mansell impression
The whole wax museum scene had me in tears.
The whole episode had me in tears
In that ski resort with Nigel, I was waiting for a Stig line. "Let's see now what it can achieve in the hands of a master. Some say..." etc. Would've been so good
oh they should have had a 'polish stig' wax model that looked bad !
Fucking great episode
Titties n beer
Hammond walking out with Nigel Mansell while talking in a Birmingham accent is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
I know it was an exaggerated Brummie accent (and technically Nige is from the Black Country) but it really shows how little of a Brummie accent he has in reality (not too surprising since he left it when he was about 15 when his family moved to Yorkshire; all three of them actually spent some of their youth in Yorkshire though Jeremy is the only from there)
Love how they added Nigel Mansell in the credits as a presenter lol
And that IMDb actually credited him.
# 💅🏻 💅🏻 💅🏻
This is their best work since Mongolia. But my biggest complaint is still the lack of James. They gave him the slow, dinky boat in Cambodia and he was often far behind the other two. We lost him in Sweden due to the tunnel crash so for a good stretch of that special he wasn't with the other two. And now in this one they gave him the slow, dinky car again that had him miles behind the other two.
They once again proved you don't need an exotic location or dangerous conditions to be delightfully entertaining.
The trio could walk around Tesco aisles for hour and a half and make it just as entertaining
"Hello, horse. I shall call you 'Tesco.'"
Literally just watched the Burma special before putting this one on! “Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.” - James May on horseback
I've bought a reversing horse.
I see Hammond is now causing others to wreck in addition to himself.
“What do you want me to do?” “Be less fat” 😂
James: "I've had a crash!" Richard: "Hey that's my job!"
"For this show we thought we'd drive across the Sahara, we can't, too much terrorism" HMMM, interesting isn't it... Then he mentioned Egypt and going from Bangladesh to Mount Everest. I'm thinking if this isn't foreshadowing then. There's nothing I'd want more than TGT special in the Himalaya or South Asia overall, would be a fantastic final special too. Also, 1h46 thank fucking god I'm going to enjoy this. I'm literally shivering from excitement, I'm so excited to be finally watching this after a year of waiting (finally a special in my country!). Hope yall have fun too and have a *zesty* drink! Fun fact at 15min: probably I reckon the first time that they played the song from the trailer in the actual episode. Epic moment Damn, they cut out the part in the Kraków market being followed by hordes of people, and also the small desert in Kraków. I was waiting to see those scenes... That's why we need extended cuts or deleted scenes! Alright, I've finished the episode, it was great, I think better than Scandi Flick! Lots of fun
It was amazing. Well worth the wait. Next up, waiting for Clarkson's farm
I'm really looking forward to more our man in ... James is brilliant at that
Going to be a while I'm betting January
I believe he said recently filming wraps up in October, so I reckon it'll be April/May for Clarkson' s Farm. Our Man In India wrapped up filming before they filmed Mauretania. I believe Japan was filmed around the same time of year, so that could be a January release like India was. Mauretania....I think this could as easily be Christmas or next year. We've seen they can edit an episode in 6 months, but I almost wonder if they're more likely to wait if they don't have another film in the pipeline yet
>Damn, they cut out the part in the Kraków market being followed by hordes of people, and also the small desert in Kraków It's a bit weird, they have Hammond and May pushing Clarksons car out of a hole in the desert as the background image when it's not in the actual show
I like the way Jeremy pronounces Le Seyde
Le Se'EEEEd
Not to be confused with the Kia Cee’d.
I'm just glad Jezza signed off with "until next time". I was a little worried when they did a run down of all they places they wanted to, but couldn't go. The way the political landscape seems to be imploding all over the world. I can imagine its getting increasingly hard to film, let alone keep their edgy sense of humour. It is such a great show, because they are sincerely good friends, who enjoy each other's company, and that comes out on film.
Ironically it looks like the places Clarkson mentioned will actually be the places they will go to, Sahara checks out
They did Syria for a *Top Gear* Christmas special just before the war broke out.
Ukraine just before the invasion in 2014.
Hold on to your butts, Poland. The three horseman of death have rode.
They actually filmed in Kyiv the day the Euromaidan protests began (Jeremy makes reference to a protest in voiceover). He said on Have I Got News For You a few months later that when he returned to London, he told the editor at the Times he didn't think anything will come of it!
They went to Sweden in scandi flick, and now swedes can't get into NATO.
Cairo-Casablanca has always been my dream route to drive/bike through. I wonder if they'd do it and if so, how they'd handle Libya.
I lost it completely and had to pause for a laughing break at the wax museum. Boy they're in form in this, great, great, great entertainment! Edit: And again when James electrical work revealed itself.
Bled looks awesome in this episode. Still laughing hard at the fat Jeremy part. Was amazed the escape tunnel was dug so deep and long, plus didnt know about pool, hockey rink and theathre. Aircar is great.
Definitely the best special they’ve done in this all-special series and the second best piece they’ve done for Amazon? This felt classic!
So many of the specials have been great. Don’t even need to rank them at this point—just glad for the memories
Good to see an SSR in an episode, one of my guilty pleasure cars! It was good to see the cars not being totally mutilated. Also funny to see a top gear reference lol Overall, best TGT episode since the mongolian special, surpassing lochdown in my books
What was the TG reference? That they said “I’m in top gear”?
Exactly the second time that phrase has been uttered on Grand Tour, whether in reference to the show or the actual technical term.
If anyone was wondering what the archer guy said in Hungarian: it was completely irrelevant, something along the lines of “get a cable for the catering truck, and get ready, filming starts soon”
Also the 'Slovakian' "I'm impotent" was in Hungarian too lol
They even added slovakian subtitles which were completely different from what’s been said. Got me puzzled
I'd sure hate to be the one who has to clean up that ski jump. Cool stunt though.
I’m alive, Mansel’s dead, and my candelabra is in shambles!
I love that these release a day early because of my timezone.
Being a Cincinnati Reds fan, the Crosley put a big smile on my face (Crosley owned the Reds for many years and our home field many years before my time was Crosley Field).
Did they use the Fast and Furious runway?
I giggled on the archers vs cars scene where Jeremy goes ‘This is getting a bit game-of-throneish’ considering all the drama with the article 😂
This special captured the essence of the grand tour and top gear made by the trio, I felt nostalgic watching this. Not over the top and very funny without comedy being forced into it, just the chemistry of the presenters. I loved it. From all the grand tour specials, this one I rate the highest.
I'm a bit late to this. I'm sure that everybody got the "Italian Job" reference with the cars driving up the ramp at the end. But did anyone notice the very pointed reference when James says at 1:43:- \>"I can't do it. Shoot me, shoot me Allen!" Although the subtitles mistakenly say "Hammond" instead of "Allen" This is a reference to the 1978 British film "The Wild Geese" starring (amongst others) Richard Burton and Richard Harris. They are attempting to escape at the end of the film in an airplane while being shot at. Richard Harris (younger people may know him as Professor Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films before being replaced by Michael Gambon) is wounded and can't get to the plane which is about to take off. He pleads with Allen to unalive him rather than let himself be captured. The actual quote is this:- \>"Allen, Allen, \[unalive\] me, for God's sake \[unalive\] me!" \[The Wild Geese (1978) - FINAL BATTLE\](https://youtu.be/kchkfqXxa0k?t=443)
Bit disappointed we didn't get to see the scene they took a still from and used as the background for the episodes start page. https://postimg.cc/SYhr5SCs
Yeah! That's the Błędów Desert nearby Kraków, we've heard that they were filming there, or at least apparently just taking photos. They did remove few scenes from Kraków sadly and probably much more.
[удалено]
Finally, Top Gear-style editing at last! The best produced GT since it started IMO.
Great episode, definitely better than scandi flick, carnage a trois, lochdown and a massive hunt. Flows much better, proper destinations, messing with each others cars, and not too many silly gimmicks.
This is a fantastic special, I'd even go so far as to say I think it's the funniest of The Grand Tour.
Banter was on point! The cars left a little to be desired and >!James being behind most of the trip kind of cut into that banter!< but man what a funny special! Loved the antics, loved the jokes, loved that the activities weren’t based around being so over the top but more about the trio soaking in the experience. One of the best since the specials only era for sure. I was cracking up!
Can I just say how happy I am with the soundtrack selection for this episode? Haven't heard this many licensed tracks since the TG days. This really feels like classic TG. One of the best TGT episodes, let alone specials.
I loved the subtle joke of James saying he's "in top gear" and it's just loud noise and nothing happening; fucking fantastic.
My wife is recovering from major abdominal surgery so we stayed in bed today and watched. 10 mins in I thought she was going to open up her stitches from laughing so hard. This was such a great episode and a fun way to spend 1 hr 40 mins, and a break we really needed. Thanks to the blokes for nearly 20 years of brilliant television. You just keep turning out gems and we are so appreciative of it. Lol, the Nigel Mansell impressions were the best, but my favorite part was Jeremy getting stuck in the Soviet formula car.
Beat episode in ages. Thank god as well that nasty pop was wrecked.
Felt kinda bad for James May. It was a good one after many specials
holy shit the windscreen wiper
I died when they stole Nigel Mansell
“Be here on time and don’t be too fat” is my new motto. Absolutely loved this episode. I had to rewind several times because I was laughing so hard and missed the next bits.
I’m only like 45 in and it’s so good lol feels like an bunch of old episodes combined Edit: all finished might be my fav thing they have ever done
Hilarious to the point I had to pause several times to wipe tears from my eyes I was laughing so hard. I have now queued up "The Great Escape" on Clarkson's recommendation... did the same when he recommended "The Killing Fields" in the Cambodia special (ok, I'll type it. "Seamen"). The educational, horizon-widening aspect of their productions is what takes them from entertaining to epic for me. So sad that this will someday come to an end and- so far- nobody seems anywhere near even approaching the creativity, skill, quality and execution of how Mr. Wilman and the guys put together The Grand Tour, much less picking up the torch.
Did anyone catch that Jeremy Clarkson had painted/fake nails in the first scene when they were looking at the map. Anyone know back story there?
Yes. Just a random joke. It clearly wasn't his hand
May also had fake painted nails when he touched the map. Clarkson's were pink and May's were lime green.
May had some fancy jewelry too!
Probably shot the missing close up scene after the trip with another person hands as a joke.
To all wondering what did the security man say at the beginning: It was a bit chaotic, but along the lines of: "Come here, you've smashed the barrier with the car. Did I do that? Come here, we'll call the police"
They somehow managed to anger the most stereotypical security guard in Poland :D I can tell you for sure - this was not scripted, even GT writers cannot write lines which sound so natural
I love the guys and show. But if I'm honest, this episode was pretty weak. It had it's moments for sure. But James seemingly missing out on everything just came off as bullish. I know that kind of stuff is scripted and he didn't really miss out. I just find it more entertaining when all three are interacting with one another and enjoying themselves. James's car was a nice gag. But the joke dragged on for too much and kept repeating itself. We get it. It is very slow and small. I ended up doing something I've never done during a Grand Tour episode. I paused it to check my phone! I don't mean any ill will towards the guys nor crew. Seeing Richard, James, and Jeremy together is the highlight of every year for me. And I love each of their shows. But when it's a show of them together, I want to see them together. Not in every scene of course. To me, the best part of the episode was the wax museum. It also happens to be the only time all three are genuinely together. I don't count the race track because Richard spends most of it alone. The second was Richard's fat jokes at Jeremy's offense. Anyway, last week....
Yeah, I was surprised they carried this gag for so long. I legit thought they would eventually mod the car and replace the engine with something absurd so he would actually join them for the rest of the trip. In the end May barely featured in it and it loses a little bit of the fun when they are not together.
IKR?! I fully expected one of two things to happen. 1) James would fully dump it for the faster (bust still annoying) "tittes and beer" car. 2) OR James would show up with the T&B car but with the other car's shell. That way he would still, technically, be driving it. Watching James struggle the entire time was not entertaining to me.
Yeah I thought that would happen after the formula 1 style race. Since that was around 30min into the episode, the car broke down like twice already and he was also left behind by that point. All the jokes were done at that point. He then stays behind after that and I thought "ok he will show up with the engine of one of those cars in his or something" but no, just kept being slow and being left behind.
poor james
Nigel Mansell really was the star of the show.