Drivesouth motoring reporter Catherine Pattison recently took a trip to Sydney to see Amazon’s premiere of The Grand Tour Season 2. For the uninitiated, it’s pretty much Top Gear reinvented, with the same trio of frustrating-yet-funny presenters but minus the BBC.
The scene was certainly set for motoring appreciation aficionados in Australia. Glamourous supercars were dotted throughout the venue. Think Rolls Rolls Wraith, Bentley Super Sport and Lamborghini Aventador. Among the throngs of Grand Tour fans, there were several, 20-something social influencers in attendance, harnessing their professional coolness to tweet, post and blog up a promotional storm. A former Miss Australia, turned BMW ambassador, was looking gorgeous by the gorgeous cars. There were gin cocktails.
Armed with a bags of popcorn and lolly mixes, the crowd took to the tiered seating, eager to see the advanced screening of the The Grand Tour Season 2, which returned on December 8 for its second series, starring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, on Amazon Prime Video.
The opening sequence introducing the series’ episodes does a sterling job of reeling in any viewers cynical that The Grand Tour 2 is some kind of lame, low-budget spin-off. The world’s most well-known threesome of middle-aged, motoring show men are attempting to drive older model Jaguars down a ridiculously steep ski slope. Cue a fast-paced montage of alluring clips featuring the latest and greatest cars, dirt-spraying off-roaders, explosives, amphibious vehicles, spectacular crashes and always, always, the endless bickering between the three co-hosts that has cemented them as hugely popular ‘frenemies’ on a global scale.
So yes, The Grand Tour 2 is all about Clarkson, Hammond and May rampaging around the world having unusual adventures, driving amazing cars, and engaging in constant arguments about which of them is the biggest idiot/has the best car/chose the worst accommodation.
For the first episode, they head to Switzerland to compare a Lamborghini Aventador S, a hybrid Honda NSX and an all-electric Croatian supercar called the Rimac Concept One in a battle of past, present and future.
The scenery is beautiful. The cars are beautiful. The hosts are well, middle-aged men but they are as witty as ever. Many of the audience members at the screening were laughing out loud – long and hard – myself included.
For those familiar with the first season, little bits and bobs have changed.
“Certain elements of the last series that we didn’t think worked quite as well as they should’ve done have been altered, and then certain things that did work have been pumped up. But don’t worry. It still works,” Clarkson assures the viewers.
Celebrity brain crash was scrapped because the feedback was that it was rubbish and it has been replaced with celebrity face-off. Bearing striking similarities to the star in a reasonably-priced car segment from their Top Gear days – before Clarkson’s fallout with the BBC in 2015 - this new concept pits two famous people from similar backgrounds against each other in a Jaguar F Type.
Representing the ‘former talent show judge’ category, on the first episode are a rather plastic-looking David Hasselhoff, of America’s Got Talent fame and Ricky Wilson from The Voice. They undertake timed runs on a tricky new track that is bound to catch plenty of celebs out as The Grand Tour 2 continues.
From home fields (the set is conveniently and according to Clarkson “completely coincidentally, right at the bottom of [his] garden) The Grand Tour 2 covers some international ground. As Clarkson asserts: “the globe is still our playground” and over the next 11 weekly episodes they certainly attempt to cover a large proportion of it. The trio clock up vast air points - visiting America twice, Germany, Croatia, Mozambique, Dubai, Spain and Switzerland to name but a few locations.
Clarkson attempts to sum up the new series. “It’s got all the elements we need: great pictures, great scenery, great cars and us three bickering. That’s it.”
May, naturally, needs to contradict him. “That’s not really ‘it,’ is it? Hammond’s been to Majorca but that’s just by himself so doesn’t really count.”
Hammond continues blathering. “We’ve been to Mozambique, Croatia, various bits of England. I’ve fallen off a motorcycle, James kept nearly drowning and Jeremy did his best to get a hosepipe shoved up his arse.”
Predictably, Clarkson gets the final word in. “But mostly it’s still just us rambling. We’ve been doing it for 12 years so we’re quite good at it now.”
Prime Video members can watch via the Prime Video app on Android and iOS phones and tablets, popular LG and Samsung Smart TVs, Android TV by Sony, Sony Play Station 4, Xbox One or online at PrimeVideo.com.
