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Iusedtobefast
Iusedtobefast Reader
9/17/24 5:36 p.m.

I always loved the Caravan episode. Any time they pranked each other or rolled something off a cliff, I always laughed. My son and I have had a lot of father/son time watching these guys and we will miss them. 

Chris Tropea
Chris Tropea Associate Editor
9/17/24 9:55 p.m.

I think my favorite Top Gear special is either the motorcycle trip through Vietnam or the Africa trip with the wagons. But there are too many moments from the regular show to pick just one but some of the antics in the studio were really funny. The cool wall, holiday gifts, star in a reasonably priced car to name just a few. I had high hopes for the studio version of The Grand Tour but I don't think they were able to recreate that magic they had in the Top Gear Studio. 

mcloud
mcloud New Reader
9/17/24 10:30 p.m.

Clarkson driving the Bentley into a pool was spot on.

Boost_Crazy
Boost_Crazy SuperDork
9/17/24 11:59 p.m.

There are just too many. A couple that I really liked...

The Ambulance episode. I about died of laughter at Richard's patient deliver system. 

Home made limos. Much of it felt real and unstaged, they really were screwing up traffic. 

Man with a van. Richard- "Let's try a Scandi Flick."

Big rig trucks. Clarkson- "Change gear, change gear, change gear, murder a prostitute. 

Best car for a teenager. They looked like they were having a ton of fun in that one. 
 

Vietnam special. 

I really liked the ones were they were tasked with making advertisements. One episode for a VW, another for bicycle safety. Those were a riot. 

The America special. 
 

I could go on and on. 
 


 

newold_m (Forum Supporter)
newold_m (Forum Supporter) Reader
9/18/24 3:15 a.m.

In addition to the ones highlighted above a few others that stood out to me were:

James May driving Neil Armstrong's Corvette... He also had a special on Stratocaster guitars many years ago and linked to cars and driving as I recall

Clarkson's episode on Lancia winning the last WRC with a two wheel drive car

Driving on Stelvio pass.. 

kevlarcorolla
kevlarcorolla Dork
9/18/24 6:36 a.m.

Massive fan of the show and far too many highlights to think about listing.

 I have the Top Gear logo complete with gear tattoed on my calfs,great conversation starter with other fans.

 I don't have a Grand Tour tat so you can read into that what you will. ;)

Jerry
Jerry PowerDork
9/18/24 8:31 a.m.

I have to admit I never really got into GT like I did TG.  The first few seasons with Celebrity Brain Crash, the American, ...  just meh.  The specials it turned into felt more comfortable like my favorite blanket on the couch.

I am definitely forgetting a lot of TG shenanigans but probably one favorite would be the first episode I ever watched.  A coworker (who wasn't even a car person by any stretch) told me about this show he just watched, where they came to America and bought cheap cars to drive to New Orleans, and almost got killed by rednecks.

I ended up buying every TG DVD available, and can rewatch the fun whenever I want.  Like Clarkson and the Stig driving the Fiat 500 Abarth I had.

DirtyBird222
DirtyBird222 PowerDork
9/18/24 9:30 a.m.

RIP Finalgear. That was ultimately how I was able to watch every episode like most of us. 

I watched One for the Road last night. Def shed a tear, really cool that they concluded where they started all of the specials. 

Truly a sad day in the automotive world but, I think they laid some of the groundwork for a lot of the other great automotive content we get today. Of course, you can't manufacture the relationship those gents had. 

I enjoyed the first two seasons of James May "Our Man In...." the India season seemed very rushed or short despite the size of that country. 

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter)
Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
9/18/24 9:56 a.m.

Their camaraderie is what made them great. The budget challenges best showcased it as there would be ribbings about why their respective vehicles were E36 M3 that was a playful reflection of each of our personal flaws and friends shouldn't worship one another, they should remind us that we're far from perfect, yet we choose to spend our time with them because they're endearing, like a proper E36 M3box. 

Budget endurance racing and budget European rallycross were both pretty special, as they worked together or at least towards the same goal (I know in rallycross they weren't part of the same effort; but I know that they ended up in at least 2 different classes)

And of course the travel specials. Mates having a time doing things in vehicles that the engineers who designed the vehicles never envisioned them or designed them to be capable of doing, often long past the intended service life of said vehicle, will never not be fun. And much like endurance racing, when you're far off the beaten path, sometimes the remedy for an issue requires a bit of cocking about to address it to get it to be "good enough" to be serviceable, even if it's far from great. That plays and rings true even when certain aspects are staged. 

 

I'll miss viewing the three of them interacting. Truth be told, they could do a podcast talking about travel, food or whatever they've been up to the past week and never mention of bring up automobiles and I'd still give it a listen. The cars they reviewed and shared with us were special, but it wasn't the cars that made their programs special. 

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner MegaDork
9/18/24 10:04 a.m.

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

You might enjoy this. A 20 minute video that is 90 minutes long of James and Richard building Lego cars whilst drinking what is (for legal reasons) not vodka.

 

j_tso
j_tso Dork
9/18/24 12:11 p.m.
newold_m (Forum Supporter) said:

Driving on Stelvio pass.. 

Another classic. James May driving a real race Aston is an example of why turning your fun car into a race car is a bad idea if it's still going to be street driven.

What James May does when he doesn't have any air conditioning : r/TopGear

Rodan
Rodan UberDork
9/18/24 12:24 p.m.

James' fish tank car in the 'Feed the World' GT episode never gets old...

 

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos)
Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) MegaDork
9/18/24 1:25 p.m.

My favorite bits revolved around the genuine car guy fandom they managed to capture on film.

The Detroit episode is a great example.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH MegaDork
9/18/24 2:07 p.m.

I feel like I've only seen half the Clarkson/Hammond/May stuff that exists now, but the most hilarious segment of theirs that I've seen, although clearly heavily scripted, was when they tried to make their own ambulances laugh
 


Edit: I see I'm not the first to nominate this segment laugh

The0retical
The0retical UberDork
9/18/24 2:56 p.m.

The Burma special was on the Top Gear Roku channel a couple of days ago. I really enjoyed that one.

I also liked the Scandi Flick Grand Tour episode, despite James absolutely sending that Evo into the wall.

trigun7469
trigun7469 UltraDork
9/18/24 3:48 p.m.

 I never got into Grand Touring,  but was a huge fan of Top gear Campervan Challenge | Top Gear | BBC made me laugh on the ground it was so funny. 

Rodan
Rodan UberDork
9/18/24 3:55 p.m.

If anyone didn't like the first season of Grand Tour, and stopped watching it, you should definitely try watching the subsequent seasons.  'Celebrity Brain Crash' and 'The American' were both dumped after the first season, and the show got better as they got comfortable with the new format.

stuart in mn
stuart in mn MegaDork
9/18/24 4:03 p.m.
GameboyRMH said:

I feel like I've only seen half the Clarkson/Hammond/May stuff that exists now, but the most hilarious segment of theirs that I've seen, although clearly heavily scripted, was when they tried to make their own ambulances laugh

Watching the 'patient' shoot out of the back of Hammond's ambulance was pretty hilarious.  smiley

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner MegaDork
9/18/24 4:21 p.m.
Rodan said:

If anyone didn't like the first season of Grand Tour, and stopped watching it, you should definitely try watching the subsequent seasons.  'Celebrity Brain Crash' and 'The American' were both dumped after the first season, and the show got better as they got comfortable with the new format.

Definitely. They found their footing again, and that footing was mostly specials.

californiamilleghia
californiamilleghia UberDork
9/18/24 4:34 p.m.

Hopefully  some day they will have a DVD etc of all the stunts they tried but did not work good enough to make the final cut ,

And maybe behind the screen DVD showing what all the crew did , they have a very large crew ,

I am sure they have lots of footage  that can keep us going for years !

californiamilleghia
californiamilleghia UberDork
9/18/24 4:34 p.m.

Hopefully  some day they will have a DVD etc of all the stunts they tried but did not work good enough to make the final cut ,

And maybe behind the screen DVD showing what all the crew did , they have a very large crew ,

I am sure they have lots of footage  that can keep us going for years !

ShawnG
ShawnG MegaDork
9/18/24 7:07 p.m.

Mekong episode.

They're sitting there, eating a meal and Hamster is clearly disgusted. 

Hammond: What is that?

Clarkson: Dragonflies.

Hammond: What's it taste like?

Clarkson: Dragonflies.

Mndsm
Mndsm MegaDork
9/18/24 7:53 p.m.

ill admit, I still occasionally look for salvaged Bentleys after seeing clarksons offroad one. 

 

How hard could it be?

Rodan
Rodan UberDork
9/18/24 8:20 p.m.
californiamilleghia said:

Hopefully  some day they will have a DVD etc of all the stunts they tried but did not work good enough to make the final cut ,

And maybe behind the screen DVD showing what all the crew did , they have a very large crew ,

I am sure they have lots of footage  that can keep us going for years !

Most of that probably belongs to the BBC and we know how they feel about these guys, so it will probably never see the light of day.

Would love to see it though!

triumph7
triumph7 Dork
9/18/24 11:21 p.m.

There are so many to choose from but the Toyota HiLux and the bike/car/boat/public transit race across London are two that stand out for me.

Watching One For The Road was a little like saying goodbye to three old friends.

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