A new era of the world’s biggest car TV show is almost here. Amazon’s “The Grand Tour” is officially relaunching next month with new challenges, new features, and yes, new hosts. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks absolutely epic, and here’s your chance to ask two of them anything.
In some ways, succeeding the trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May seems like a challenging proposition. The BBC didn’t quite land it with the 2016 reboot of “Top Gear” but Amazon certainly seems to have hired the right people for the “Grand Tour” job. We’ve got Trainspotter, mechanical engineer, and Civic Type R-swapped Honda Jazz (that’s the Honda Fit in America) owner Francis Bourgeois; car reviewer, E46 3 Series endurance racing driver, and Alfa Romeo aficionado Thomas Holland; and car reviewer, Toyota Century owner, and MX-5 enthusiast James Engelsman on deck.
You likely know Thomas and James from the immensely successful car YouTube channel Throttle House, where they’ve been road-testing, track-testing and road-tripping cars together since 2018. From breaking down in heavily depreciated V12 luxobarges to showing why wearing a helmet’s a good idea when getting into a BMW i8 to demonstrating just why the Lexus IS 500 gets under your skin, they’ve already done a cinematic job of showing what it means to love—and occasionally loathe—cars. A rather good CV, then. Likewise, you probably know Francis Bourgeois from TikTok, but there’s so much more to him than viral train videos. He’s in the midst of an OM606 turbodiesel-swapped R129 Mercedes-Benz SL project, his work with Chris Harris has been seriously entertaining, and he’s tailwhipped a scooter on stage at a Sam Fender concert.
From what we can see in the latest trailer, it looks like the reboot of “The Grand Tour” is going to be an epic season. Ford Mustang GTD vs. Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 vs. Hennessy Venom F5 Revolution Evo vs. a jet. A Jaguar XKR, Nissan 350Z, and Mercedes-Benz CLK doing skids. A Tesla Model 3 being launched off one of those giant inflatable blobs. Volvo 240 vs. Lexus LS 400 vs. Ford Crown Victoria. E46 M3 vs 996 Porsche 911 vs Nissan Pulsar GTi-R on dirt. Kei cars dressed up as a pantomime school bus, Jenson Button, an incident with a tollbooth, the Pagani Utopia, falling off a bicycle, exactly the sort of shenanigans we want to see.
It all launches on Sept. 4 on Amazon Prime Video, but before that, here’s a bit of a surprise: Thomas Holland and James Engelsman [Update: And Francis!] will briefly be joining us at 11:00 a.m. EDT today, and we want to metaphorically turn the mic over to you. Warm up your keyboards and pull up the comments section, your question just might get a response. Oh, and massive shoutout to James and Thomas for their willingness to play ball. They really are some of the nicest people in automotive media, so let’s show them love.
UPDATE: Huge thanks to Thomas, James, and Francis for joining us! The whole trio, all lovely, lovely people. They have to run along now, but it genuinely was such a pleasure seeing them and having them answer your questions.
Top graphic image: The Grand Tour
What’s your level of wrenching experience? Do you like the idea of working on cars, or is that less fun to you than the storytelling?
Hey David! I’ve done my fair share of knuckle bashing. I THINK I love working on cars, forget that it’s pure pain when Im doing it, then promptly forget shortly after I’m done. Rinse repeat. I once did a head gasket on my E46 M3 and actually cried when trying to re-time the Vanos.
RESPECT. That’s not an easy job; the crying is totally warranted.
Congratulations on your success, and I can’t wait to watch you three crush it!
Can you really call yourself a BMW owner if it hasn’t made you cry? (Replacing a window mechanism in an E36 for me.)
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Did the production team provide advice to the talent so as to not have them living under the shadow of the former presenters? If so, what was the advice?
We didn’t need any help trying to achieve that goal. It was the main thing we worked towards. Whether or not we achieved it is up to you guys! The only thing we could do is just be ourselves, and not try to be them.
I’m guessing there will be no live audience portion at the beginning of the show like they had in the earlier episodes?
I participated in the filming of the first episode of The Grand Tour out on a dry lake in CA. That was a fun day.
Jealous you were there! That was an epic segment. As for whether or not the studio is present, you’ll find out in the first episode!
How did you manage expectations? Obviously there are big shoes to fill and a lot of noise from the internet, what was the internal conversation like? Ignore it, tackle it head on, change the structure or team dynamic?
It was very much, “respect the past.”
As long as that past doesn’t involve “Celebrity Brain Crash”!
Are you planning to start up a Gin distillery any time soon?
I’ve already purchased a Farm, a classic car restoration workshop, have three different lines of gin and beer coming out.
Ah, this man thinks he’s ahead of the curve, but how many hypercars have you crashed and almost died in?
Will one of you do a show where you slowly put back together mundane household items?
Seriously, though, best of luck. I hope the humor and sophistication (and lack thereof) of the original carries through with your own personal flairs and the show is successful!
I know that the last crew, Clarkson especially, were prone to keeping the vehicles they “bought” for the challenges. Have any of you guys fallen into that trap yet now that the season is done filming?
That’s a good one.
I’m a bit disappointed Thomas Holland is neither the guy from The Rest is History nor the one from Spider-Man. Maybe next season they can invite the other two.
Francis — Having an unfortunate habit of growing too attached to cars, there are two cars driven in the show that are already trying to shoulder their way into my garage. Unfortunately limited by London parking constraints!
Sounds like you need to buy a farm…
James – I reallllly want to buy my Angola car but the shipping is almost 3 times the cost of the actual car and I’m having trouble justifying it. Thomas really wanted to buy his Colorado car but it wasn’t to be. So yes. Trap fallen into for sure.
Here’s a question:
Will you please try and take on some other roles than the those old guys, the loud one, the stupid one and the wise one?
Think of Tiff Nedell or Quentin Wilson: They were just themselves, without dumbing anything down, to suit ratings or general stupidity. Great automotive host anyway!
Super late on this but definitely hoping I still get to gleefully yell “…and I’m James!” with the TV whenever James appears
I am excited, yet skeptical at the same time. I really want it to work, stand on its own and be its own thing. I like the format, but I feel like we need some fresh ideas or scripts for it to work, I know at the end of Grand Tour clarkston said they had no ideas left, I disagree… always ideas out there..
Question, what might be different, just one thing?
I missed the conversation, but my $0.02 would be this:
Firstly, I’m pleased as punch they are using an established group that already have rapport and an audience with he lads from Throttle House. The forced overfamiliarity they had on the rebooted TG was gratingly irritating. You can hear in their voices on the trailer that there is a genuine level of emotion familiarity at play.
Suggestion/request box (which I admit is moot since the season has already been filmed and edited), so I guess it’s more of a “hope” list:
Have a mix of cars, old and new, and across the price spectrum (which already looks to be the case, yay). Just the latest hypercar of the week can get a bit boring.
Don’t force any fakery (rebooted TG was big on this, as were the American versions to an extent);
Don’t be like Chris Harris (as useless drifting serves little purpose, and he already has that market);
Don’t be insufferable like Chris Evans (I had to look him up as I’d purged him from my memory), nor grating and over-opinionated like Adam Corolla and Rutledge Wood;
Don’t try to play the buffoon like Clarkson;
Don’t crash for fun unless the cars are already messed up (like the retired caravan, transit bus, and airport equipment “races” with touring car drivers) or it’s the point (like Aygo soccer and hockey). If the cars are in good enough condition to be road-legal, there’s some value in them for future owner(s), especially as tight as times are for folks. Having a multi-million dollar/pound/euro production make light of a vehicle that might be better than what a good chunk of the audience drives is a bit insulting and tone-deaf. Wanton destruction might be neat and spectacular for the highlight reel and trailers, but it can be repulsive, too.
Wait, so the original trio left top gear and one of the replacements was not-Captain America, and now one of their replacements on Grand Tour is not-spiderman?
Reviews of new, expensive/rare vehicles is great. But do you guys plan on also doing cheap/used car challenges and/or reviewing affordable cars in entertaining ways?
Since I’m not familiar with you guys from previous work:
1. What are you guys dailying right now?
B. do you crack jokes about your own or each other’s said dailies on or off camera?
III. What else is in the garage?