The Grand Tour

  • Thread starter Thread starter LiE
  • Start date Start date
JonRGV250 said:
Hopefully you felt some pride in your work, without paying someone else to do it?
Click to expand...

I mean if I'm being brutally honest, I'm just a massive jewell*, and if I can spend £160, instead of probably £600 I will.

I also do everything properly, I make sure everything is properly cleaned, the regressed etc. but I very much do have limits.

So I dunno, enjoy is a push, achievement yes I suppose so.

*See what I did there.
 
BUDFORCE said:
I mean if I'm being brutally honest, I'm just a massive jewell*, and if I can spend £160, instead of probably £600 I will.

I also do everything properly, I make sure everything is properly cleaned, the regressed etc. but I very much do have limits.

So I dunno, enjoy is a push, achievement yes I suppose so.

*See what I did there.
Click to expand...
I'm the same, but when the cars just work and nothing needs doing, I do sometimes get bored over some weekends. But when things do go wrong and I can't figure out what's wrong because there's 0 info online about that particular issue and the car throws a list of errors at you, it does get frustrating... The last 2 Error Codes I had in the BMW, there were few threads started by people with 0 replies. :o

I do think in general putting on new shiny upgrades on your toy is more enjoyable, especially when you see how it transforms the car compared to just fixing an old car that gets you from A to B.
 
I've just watched the final episode and I enjoyed it. I agree with everybody else when they say it wasn't their worst or best episode, but it was mostly good with some sombre moments which were fitting.

Every so often I'll watch all the specials in one go and I'll keep doing so because I enjoy them. It's just sad that there won't be any further episodes with the classic trio any more and anybody else just feels wrong.
 
JonRGV250 said:
I do kinda feel for future generations who'll never know the pleasure of rebuilding an engine or properly maintaining their own vehicle, or in fact getting the pleasure of repairing it when it's failed to work without paying someone a small fortune to do it for them.

That's another skill set that's about to be resigned to history :(
Click to expand...

It's something we're starting to see heavily impact engineering roles amongst 18-21yo where I work. When I was a kid I learnt how to spanner by helping my dad work on his car (serving, maintenance, repairs etc) which helped me when I joined the military as an aircraft engineer, with lots of other new recruits at the time all learning in a similar way. However nowadays, whilst the spannering side of aircraft work hasn't changed a great deal, the new recruits are arriving with little to no prior experience of using hand tools (screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, spanners etc) and so our training schools are now failing students over these "basic" (to me) skills rather than on the more difficult subjects like avionic system theory etc which was usually where folks failed previously.

If that sort of issue is hitting the military then I'd suggest its probably also hitting civilian jobs too, so in 20-30+ years who/what will a "car mechanic, house builder, general engineers" even be like if the kids then have virtually no real hands on experience?
 
ianh said:
It's something we're starting to see heavily impact engineering roles amongst 18-21yo where I work. When I was a kid I learnt how to spanner by helping my dad work on his car (serving, maintenance, repairs etc) which helped me when I joined the military as an aircraft engineer, with lots of other new recruits at the time all learning in a similar way. However nowadays, whilst the spannering side of aircraft work hasn't changed a great deal, the new recruits are arriving with little to no prior experience of using hand tools (screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, spanners etc) and so our training schools are now failing students over these "basic" (to me) skills rather than on the more difficult subjects like avionic system theory etc which was usually where folks failed previously.

If that sort of issue is hitting the military then I'd suggest its probably also hitting civilian jobs too, so in 20-30+ years who/what will a "car mechanic, house builder, general engineers" even be like if the kids then have virtually no real hands on experience?
Click to expand...

My 5 year old son plays with Mechano and Lego instead of being sat infront of a tablet like the vast majority of parents do so it is not dead. I also bought a project car for my 16 year old daughter and she is learning from me.

I do 100% agree with Clarkson though. Electric cars are absolute rubbish for a car enthusiast. Zero enjoyment.
 
Last edited:
Silly Goose On The Loose said:
Best special they've done on Amazon. Still not anything close to Vietnam or Botswana but decent.

I just feel like the whole Amazon era was a disappointment overall, sadly.
Click to expand...
I felt it was quite good, not their best for me. I really like the Mongolia one. Their TG Vietnam or Botswana (where it all started) were brilliant.

Completely agree on the verdict of the Amazon era. I was expecting so much more when the three of them signed up. Bigger budget, less intereference from the management. I liked the tent studio and don't really know why they had to stop doing that. I would have been happy to see them carry on in the tent for a few episodes a 'series' and then do a big special away from the tent. I hoped they would grow up a bit from their TG days so the silly time wasted on celebs coming on but then die in a hilarious manner felt like keeping in touch with their old ways and wasting a couple of minutes that could have given us a longer review of a car.
Dangerous Dave said:
It was a good end, sound track was great especially Brothers In Arms in the closing scenes.
Click to expand...
Yeah that was very poignant. Really signalled the end to an era lasting what? 20 years?
 
Last edited:
MarcLister said:
I felt it was quite good, not their best for me. I really like the Mongolia one. Their TG Vietnam or Botswana (where it all started) were brilliant.

Completely agree on the verdict of the Amazon era. I was expecting so much more when the three of them signed up. Bigger budget, less intereference from the management. I liked the tent studio and don't really know why they had to stop doing that. I would have been happy to see them carry on in the tent for a few episodes a 'series' and then do a big special away from the tent. I hoped they would grow up a bit from their TG days so the silly time wasted on celebs coming on but then die in a hilarious manner felt like keeping in touch with their old ways and wasting a couple of minutes that could have given us a longer review of a car.

Yeah that was very poignant. Really signalled the end to an era lasting what? 20 years?
Click to expand...

If you go back and watch them they are no better or worse. It was just then they were so original and fresh. In the end there is only so many ways you can skin a cat with the specials with 3 presenters and 3 cars.

There is a massive void left to fill now however.
 
Even with them getting on abit and saying won't work together again still think we will see them do something together again in the future
 
Last edited:
adam cool dude said:
If you go back and watch them they are no better or worse. It was just then they were so original and fresh. In the end there is only so many ways you can skin a cat with the specials with 3 presenters and 3 cars.
Click to expand...
That's one of the reasons I like the Mongolia special; they didn't buy a car each and we see which one was best. They build a car and had to work together. Really the only new way with 3 presenters to make the challenge a bit different from what came before.
adam cool dude said:
There is a massive void left to fill now however.
Click to expand...
Yep. Even if its just for the banter between the three of them. I was wondering ahead of watching this last episode why it was the last, age, freshness and diversification into other shows but Clarkson's statement about electric cars does make sense. I wondered if the fact that all three chose older cars was meant to be a subtle statement. Not one of them went for a modern rally car or Land Rover? Nah, old fashioned cars with no chance of electric versions existing.

Dangerous Dave said:
Yes 22 years, the ending scenes from the first speical in Botswana episode was from 2007.
Click to expand...
So the rebooted Top Gear with Clarkson and Hammond initially, then May, started in 2002? With the first non-studio episode special being Botswana 2007?
 
Last edited:
Flibster said:
The Polar special is one of my favourites. It's just an astonishing thing to do.
Click to expand...
One thing I thought would’ve modernised the Grand Tour was inviting the viewer to see the grander scale of the challenges. For example seeing glimpses of the crew behind the scenes, seeing more of the hardship they went through. I’m sure the Polar Special was much harsher and epic than we saw.

Instead, we’ve always seen TG/TGT through the very narrow lens of the 3 stars which loses magic over time because it’s not real life, it’s too scripted and you know for a fact they aren’t building the stuff. I liked the 24 hour race challenge for exactly this reason, you seen more realistic involvement from others.

The reason the majority of us watch Youtube is because it’s interesting to see ‘real life’, behind the scenes, we want to see the cast and crew off guard, interacting, having a laugh and overcoming the hardships.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom