The Grand Tour Season 2 Review

The boys are back!

The Grand Tour is back for a new season on Amazon. I watched the last season and thought it was really good, one of the episodes was pretty poor and dragged on a bit, but overall it’s a very enjoyable show.

If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what it is, it’s Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond doing what they love, cars. It came after their Top Gear show, if you don’t know what happened there then Google it 😉

Anyway like I have said it’s finally back after around a year, I’ve watched the first episode and it was pretty good. Most shows on Amazon and the other on demand services do the all you can eat, boxset style of throwing up the whole series for you to binge watch, but as with the last series, The Grand Tour is old school and the shows are put up weekly.

The first one was all about past, present and future, with Clarkson, May and Hammond having cars using petrol, hybrid and electric and going off to Switzerland driving them around in their usual style. The cars in the show were the Lamborghini Aventador and the Rimac Concept One from Croatia, famous for their super cars 😛

You may remember in the news that Richard Hammond crashed a super car, and it was the Rimac in this, the very first episode. They don’t have very good footage of it, the crash happened in a race after the finish line, with Clarkson saying that the footage came from YouTube.

There’s a new feature too. Instead of “The American” driving a car around a track and setting a time, they have 2 celebrities from the same field racing against each other on a track. This week it was David Hasselhoff vs Ricky Wilson, in the former talent show judges showdown (I won’t tell you who won just incase you haven’t seen it). The track is odd because it kind of resembles the track that Chris Evans tried and failed to introduce to the then new Top Gear, as it has a gravel section; Almost like copying? 😉

Anyway, I prefer this to the “Celebrity brain crash” or The American, both of which I didn’t really like.

Is it worth watching? If you liked their Top Gear or the first season, you will like this. If you despite and loathe Clarkson, May or Hammond, then you won’t. I am looking forward to watching episode 2, maybe I’ll keep this post updated with the whole series.

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**I will try to keep this post updated, and try NOT post any spoilers.**

The Grand Tour Episode 2 – The Falls Guys

Episode 2 has just aired on Amazon, and it was pretty good. The main feature of this week’s episode see’s a classic race which Clarkson, May and Hammond have done so many times. Once again it’s Clarkson in a car, vs James May and Richard Hammond. Jeremy is in the new Ford GT, and the challenge is to get from Central Park in New York City to the observatory tower overlooking Niagara Falls.

Hammond & May are using public transport, in particular trains, busses and a JetBlue plane. Hammond is on crutches following his injury in the last episode, and James May has to put up with him.

The two celebrity guests are Kevin Pieterson the cricketer, and Brian Wilson who plays baseball (apparently), who go against each other in the Jaugar F-Type. A car review in the shape of a Mercedes GT R also features, along with the test track which is actually the same track featured in the previous series which wasn’t shown on episode 1, The Eboladrome as it’s called.

The American is officially sacked, Abbie Eaton is the new test driver taking the cars for their timed laps.

Episode 3 – Bah Humbug-atti

Episode 3 was different from the previous two, in that it didn’t have a big feature challenge, and instead featured two smaller challenges. This was James May driving a Kia Stinger GT in Mallorca against two skaetboarders with a race going up and down hill. The second challenge was Clarkson driving the Bugatti Chiron trying to have a jet set life without the jet, driving from St. Tropez to the Alps then to a piazza in Turin.

The best part of the show was “Lunch time office car park racing” which saw workers from rival businesses race around a track Hammond and May constructed from the business park where some local offices lived.

The two celebrity guests for Celebrity Face Off were Hugh Bonneville and Casey Anderson, which were the “two celebrities who live with bears” to see who was the fastest.

Episode 4 – Unscripted

Episode 4 was lads being lads in a hilarious style! I think it was probably the funniest episode of the series so far. We’ve had the more serious car review type of things (as serious as The Grand Tour usually gets anyway) and this one was all about the fun. They gave out awards which they call the Nigels, in their usual fashion.

The big part of the show was centred around complaints that it was too scripted, so the feature of this episode was a “completely unscripted” film. Clarkson, Hammond and May turned up to a random meeting place which was in Croatia, in completely different cars, and parodied themselves and the show, each doing familiar things but were unrelated to each other.

Clarkson had an Audi TT RS, Hammond had an Ariel Nomad and May turned up in a Lada Riva.

James May decided that he would invent a challenge where they had money to spend on turning their cars into fire engines, but as this was unscripted the other two didn’t. Since it was unscripted he could not find any fires to put out, so had to start one himself to put out.

He got Clarkson and Hammond to start a fire, which he could not put out. May also came up with a scoreboard similar to the ones you’ve seen before, while Clarkson and Hammond had to find somewhere to have a drag race, and found a local girl called Silvija Jurinto be the finish line.

There was a proper car review, this week it was the McLaren 720S, and for Celebrity Face Off it was Michael Ball vs Alfie Boe.

Episode 5 – Up, Down and Round the Farm

Episode 5 was another which had some mini features, rather than a full on big challenge feature. Richard Hammond showcased a tank, the Ripsaw EV2 in Dubai, driving it around town, in a shopping centre and in the desert. James May featured the new WV Up! GTI, and Jeremy Clarkson made a “how hard can it be” type of video featuring stunt driving where he performed some stunts in a Subaru Impreza, and then the lads exposed how fake the video was. Celebrity Face Off was between Bill Bailey and Dominic Cooper.

Episode 6 – Jaaaaaaaags

Episode 6 was back to the classics and the thing I love about The Grand Tour, one big long challenge which takes up most of the show. This week it was all about Jaguars, or Jaaaaags if you’re saying it properly 😉 It was set in Colorado and was about the reliability (or lack of) for Jaguar cars, because Jags are brilliant but only sell 200,000 a year, far, far less than Audi, BMW or Mercedes. Clarkson had an XJR, May had an XK8 convertible and Hammond had a Mark X, with May and Hammond having to swap out their cars because of extensive damaged caused in the challenge (with an XJS and XJ6 respectively).

Celebrity Face Off was between ‘the fastest actor with George as their middle name’ with Kiefer Sutherland vs Luke Evans.

Episode 7 – It’s Gas, Gas, Gas

In episode 7 Richard Hammond featured the Lamborghini Huracán Performante which also did a lap of the eboladrome and went up against James May in a Ferrari 458 in a drag race.

One of the features was May and Hammond coming up with a new idea, on the road refuelling rather than stopping at a petrol station, similar to aircrafts which can refuel in mid flight – This was pretty funny.

Another feature was a look at Lancia and Audi in the days of rallying and the rivalry between the two.

Celebrity Face Off was between “The fastest man who makes a living out of punching or strangling someone” which was boxer Anthony Joshua and wrestler Bill Goldberg.

Episode 8 – Blast From The Past

In episode 8 the boys went to Pau in France, with Clarkson and Hammond using old cars which were modern builds of cars from the 1950’s. Clarkson drove an Aston Martin DB4 GT, Hammond in a Jaguar XK SS, with James May arriving later in a modern car, the new Honda Civic Type R.

They drove around the area in France, down through the Pyrenees and through to Spain, near Barcelona to Sitges which is the home to a race track with banking. May issued a challenge to the other two, the fastest through the speed trap at the end of the banking wins.

The Ford GT features in the show with a fast lap around the eboladrome, and Celebrity Face Off was “the fastest drummer for a band beginning with the letter p” – Which was Stewart Copeland from The Police against Nick Mason from Pink Floyd.

Episode 9 – Breaking Badly

Episode 9 starts with a couple of car features, Jeremy Clarkson talks about how super cars today aren’t as fast as they were 25 years ago, then realises after putting them round the eboladrome that they’re aren’t as fast as today’s cars. The cars featured were the Jaguar XJ 220 and Bugatti EB 110 Super Sport.

The main feature was about amphibious cars, something which the lads have done numerous times on Top Gear.

This time round they were going to attempt at beating the UK speed record for an amphibious car. Initially they selected a Suzuki Jimmy with a jet engine, and later chose a Bond Bug which Hammond and May modified, with Clarkson having to do the driving.

Celebrity Face Off was “The fastest magicians in the world” and was between Penn and Teller from the USA up against Dynamo from the UK.

Episode 10 – Oh Canada

Episode 10 of the Grand Tour sees the lads go to Canada to test out SUV’s, with Clarkson using the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, May using a Range Rover Velar and Hammond using a Porsche Macan Turbo Performance Pack.

They do three challenges, testing each of the SUV’s selling points which are Sports, Utility and Vehicle in the form of a timed lap against a BMW M3, seeing how many dogs they can get in the back, and finally a barrel course against a horse.
The final challenge is to tow a boat up a mountain to the Canadian flag finish point, where Jeremy has to change his Alfa for a Ford F150 Raptor, as the Alfa has no tow bar.

Another car is tested, the Tesla Model X, even though Clarkson has been sued unsuccessfully by Telsa before, which is part of the joke at the end when there’s 6 lawyers in the car with him telling him what he can’t say.

Celebrity Face Off was the “World’s fastest golf enthusiast” between Rory McIlroy against Paris Hilton.

Episode 11 – Feed The World

Episode 11 was called Feed The World, and was perhaps the funniest episode of them all, I can’t remember laughing so much at the other shows. It was a feature length episode, which saw only one long film in the show, where the boys decided to go to Mozambique to conquer hunger.

Part of Mozambique is fed largely by the ocean and seafood, but there’s a village 200 miles away, called Bingo which doesn’t receive the supply of fresh fresh. Clarkson decides that they’d solve this, by transporting fresh fish from the capital, Maputo to Bingo.

Clarkson chose a Nissan Hard Body pickup, with James May having a Mercedes and Richard Hammond using a motorbike he bought from a Supermarket for £800. It doesn’t seem like very much happens within the journey, but it’s banter at it’s best, and really, really funny.