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Jeremy Clarkson's Amazon Show To Be Called The Grand Tour (theguardian.com)
Jasper Jackson and Dugald Baird, writing for The Guardian: Amazon's new motoring show starring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May will be called The Grand Tour. In a statement, the former Top Gear trio thanked fans for taking the time to send in their suggestions for the name, which they said were "much appreciated". "Thing is," said Clarkson, "we'll be travelling the world hosting each episode in a different country, from a giant tent. It's a sort of 'grand tour', if you like. So we've decided to call it The Grand Tour." May said he was underwhelmed by the name. "I wanted to call it 'Nigel', or 'Roger'," he said. "We needed a name, and they're names." Hammond was more positive. "I already love camping," he said. "But this is something else. We are like our pioneering and prospecting forebears, sallying forth into a new frontier of broadcasting, and making our home where."
All we want to know is when it will hit Prime. What it's named is as uninteresting as watching Top Gear now that these three aren't on it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Considering Clarkson's record on international diplomacy and pissing off the natives, is a world tour really a good idea? Sounds like they are just trying to cause trouble so people watch it.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Not to get in the way of your anti-US rant, but ... as *if* Top Gear was ever about the cars ... *that's funny*
Bashing the yanks like this just isn't on, old boy. There's so many other things you can legitimately bash them for because, well, they're human (like everyone else). The thing is, they really do know their shit about cars, they just have a different style over here - witness the Top Gear episode where all three of "the boys" enjoyed the road trip across the US in their muscle cars.
Source: Am Brit.
Physicists get Hadrons!
Considering Clarkson's record on international diplomacy and pissing off the natives, is a world tour really a good idea?
He only pisses off the natives that were already pissed off before he got there. Particularly those who lack any sort of sense of humor, perspective or ability to laugh at themselves.
"Idiot Abroad" was already taken.
Punchy Jezza's Driving Circus
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
It was May and Hammond who carried it, and maybe the other new presenters will carry Evans.
Jeremy was undeniably the star of the show but not in the usual sense. What really made the show work was the chemistry between all three of them. Jeremy was kind of a first among equals but take away May and Hammond and it just didn't work as well. That's a hard thing to replicate. Take the US version of Top Gear. All three of the hosts aren't Ferrera, Foust and Wood are all fine individually but they simply don't have the same chemistry as Clarkson, May and Hammond and the show simply isn't as good as a result.
The other thing that made Top Gear work and I think Clarkson was the driving force behind is because they didn't pull a lot of punches. Whether you agreed with their take on something or not, they definitely HAD a take and didn't seem to hold back much. Clarkson seems to be the driving force behind that. If they thought some million dollar supercar was crap, they said so. They didn't pretend to be fair, or objective or even competent but they did seem to say what they thought. Frankly their negative reviews were usually more interesting than their positive ones. Other shows like the US Top Gear version seem to be more hesitant to give a bad review, presumably for fear of pissing off advertisers or incurring lawsuits. But without those strong takes the show just isn't as good.
Grand Tour (GT). Its an obvious comeback against Top Gear (TG).
Bah! They should've gone with Gear Knobs, it's motoring related, self mocking and kinda close but no too close to the old name
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The best suggestion for a name that I saw was "The Whacky Racists". Top marks to the person that came up with that.
As an actual automotive aficionado, with a fair collection of automobiles, I will say that I was quite fond of the show but only binge watched it. I'd do the entire season at once (once that became an option). I enjoyed the presenters. I also enjoyed the older version - I seem to recall it was from the 70s or 80s. That was a bit more technical and I preferred that information density but I admit that I enjoyed the antics of the newer show more.
Which is saying something - I'm not a television watcher. I've never really been big on it so I never got into the shows very much. I'm sure I missed many seasons. I did notice that they put the presenters under a great deal of stress. I'm not surprised that one lashed out and hit someone - I do not condone it, but I understand.
I have seen bits and pieces of an American version and it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. I understand there's a German version. And, for the record, as near as I know - I did not beat Jeremy's time when I went and played at the Nurburgring. Well, I certainly beat his van time. But, IIRC, he had an excellent (near record for the vehicle) Jag time. Even though I rented a few exotics, I'm reasonably sure that I did not beat his time.
As an aside, going and taking in-class and then in-seat lessons before renting and driving the ring was excellent. It's really not a tough track - it's just hard to memorize and there's a bit of variation depending on your line. Well, to be fair, there's more than one track. None are terribly difficult and I imagine just getting in there to practice for a few weeks would get someone up to speed - even if they'd never driven on-track in their lives. The crazy ones are the ones on motorcycles.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."