Amazon’s Rebooted ‘The Grand Tour’ Might Be Even Better Than The Original [SPOILERS]

When Amazon first announced it was rebooting The Grand Tour, car enthusiasts had good reason to approach the idea with trepidation when details were scarce. The presenting team of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May changed car television forever and kept it up for more than two decades. Replacing such an iconic roster of presenters isn’t easy, but promise emerged when it was announced that the hosts of the Throttle House YouTube channel and train enthusiast Francis Bourgeois would be the new torchbearers. Flash forward to Sept 4, 2026, and the first rebooted season of The Grand Tour is out. Guess what? It’s even better than much of Clarkson, Hammond, and May’s later work.

I have a confession to make. Even though Clarkson, Hammond and May were part of my formative car media diet, I don’t go back to many of their post-studio-show Grand Tour specials often. ‘Seamen’ was quite good and ‘Carnage a Trois’ was fabulous, but towards the end, I got the impression that the people who changed automotive video forever were getting a bit bored of it. As the schedule dwindled down to about one episode per year, it largely seemed that the hosts just weren’t having that much fun anymore. James May’s seemingly abject trip in ‘Eurocrash’ made that special feel a lot like a two-man show, and ‘Sand Job’ wasn’t particularly memorable beyond the bizarre bit about a runaway snowmobile in the desert. The finale with the original hosts was different. They were clearly enjoying themselves in Zimbabwe, even if some of the gags were heavy-handed. From sending a Volkswagen New Beetle off a cliff to silver smuggling-related japery, the influence of the writing room was laid on thick, but the trio we’re familiar with seemed to be in on it again.

I’m going to defer to LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy here, with his iconic line “If you’re not having fun, you suck.” Sure, the phrasing’s rather brusque, but if you’ve grown visibly tired of a creative pursuit, bringing it to a landing on your own terms is the best possible way to end things. The end of an era isn’t necessarily the end of a title, though. Especially when the culture needs good high-budget car shows more than ever.

The trick here is more than just fresh eyes to this scale and sort of production: it’s making sure those fresh eyes absolutely adore cars with every fiber of their being. Anything that looks like mere celebrity moonlighting is usually rather obnoxious, with a few notable exceptions. This is part of the reason why I was so pleased to learn that Thomas Holland and James Engelsman from Throttle House, plus trainspotter and engine swap madman Francis Bourgeois, were chosen to succeed one of the most iconic casts in factual entertainment television. They’re not the sort of people you’d normally see on talk shows; two of them are bona fide car journalists; and we all know shows are better when the hosts really care about the subject matter. If you want to get a better sense of how deep the love runs, check out the AMA they did with us in August.

Make no mistake, these are some enormous shoes to fill, although it’s worth noting that the Clarkson, Hammond, and May era didn’t get The Grand Tour perfect right off the rip. Celebrity Brain Crash wore out its welcome quickly, Episode 2 with the military training was rather weird, and the trope of the stereotypically American racing driver would’ve likely landed better pre-2016. With that in mind, the new trio deserves some time to find their wings. Turns out, they didn’t need much.

SPOILERS BEGIN BELOW

The first episode of the new series features one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen: a relay race between some of the quickest gasoline-powered American cars on sale today and actual jets. There’s also hilariously awkward fangirling over an F1 driver, proper banter, and Francis Bourgeois immediately bursting on the scene and demonstrating that the producers have absolutely made the right choice. Amazon showed me this one under embargo, and it was one of the best episodes of car TV I’ve seen in a long time. Awe and belly laughs in equal measure. At the same time, it also feels a bit like a pilot. The road trip in ridiculously powerful American performance cars felt like a loose series of awesome challenges without an enormous deal of narrative or purpose tying them together, and it seemed like Holland, Bourgeois, and Engelsman were progressively finding their feet as a team throughout the episode. Now, I’m not privy to the order in which this series was shot and/or edited, but as the runtime went on, pacing got tighter, voiceover improved, ease of camaraderie seemed to grow, and the early jitters melted away. Starting off with a passing-of-the-torch from Jeremy Clarkson himself certainly helped too.

As such, I wanted to wait until the full series was released to give my verdict, and am I ever glad I did. All six episodes dropped at once, and they pretty much just keep getting better. The second episode immediately transported me back to the magic of my favorite era of Top Gear, only with more likeable hosts and better cinematography. If the first episode is the warm-up, the second episode is where the chemistry of the new trio starts to absolutely shine. No man’s left behind due to a breakdown, there’s real sympathy for machinery, and the pranks are lighthearted, non-destructive, and yet still giggle-inducing. Oh, and Francis continues to be an absolute ringer behind the wheel.

That interplay of hugely likeable, car-crazy personalities continues throughout the rest of the series. It’s obvious that the new hosts are very much their own people, but they play off each other beautifully and are all tremendously talented presenters. From historical pieces to challenges to road tests to a proper race over distance, the hosts shine just as bright as the cars. You cannot fake enthusiasm in this business, and with how easy it is to be cynical about some of the ultra-luxury stuff out there, the zeal and expertise of Holland, Bourgeois, and Engelsman are absolutely contagious. They’re also all properly funny, and they won’t absolutely smash up anything for a laugh.

Okay, so episode three is likely to be the most controversial episode because taking an Autozam AZ-1 down fire trails is rather cringeworthy, but the school bus pantomime horse as a plot device for getting through town seems like a stroke of genius. It appears that the sections of school bus are effectively mounted as outriggers in a non-destructive bolt-on manner, meaning attachment was reversible and bits of decrepit school bus seemed to make contact with each other before the bodies of the actual cars would touch. The result is all of the accidentally-crashing-into-each-other slapstick with none of the severe, uneconomical-to-repair automotive destruction. Likewise, in the challenge to find the most durable passenger car of all time, none of the three cars involved are especially nice examples. We’re talking quickly exposed hidden rot, signs of previous abuse, and major cosmetic defects. In short, the sorts of cars you’d probably skip over on Facebook Marketplace because they look too rough. If you want more evidence, the Singapore and Malaysia special shows in a somber way that in Singapore, it’s often more economical to cut up a reasonably modern car for scrap than to fix it. Everyone on screen looks genuinely broken up about it, so expect more general mechanical sympathy than you’d often see from the previous trio.

With this new Grand Tour series, the new hosts and the team behind them have done something magical: Make brand new high-grade car television that’s passionate, authentic, and enormous fun to watch. Something that carries the ethos that beyond commuting, cars should be a laugh, and other forms of transportation have huge entertainment value too. Questionably cheap used performance cars, restomods, microcars, hypercars, cop cars, locomotives, electrically assisted bicycles, planes … they’re all things that should spark infectious joy, especially among friends. Please, Amazon. Renew this for another season because I need more of this in my life. Oh, and if you find yourself feeling slightly unsure after viewing the first episode, do stick around. The future of The Grand Tour feels megawatt-bright.

Top graphic image: Amazon/The Grand Tour