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.
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.
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.
Clarkson driving the Bentley into a pool was spot on.
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.
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..
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. ;)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
James' fish tank car in the 'Feed the World' GT episode never gets old...
My favorite bits revolved around the genuine car guy fandom they managed to capture on film.
The Detroit episode is a great example.
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 
Edit: I see I'm not the first to nominate this segment
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.
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.
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.
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
Watching the 'patient' shoot out of the back of Hammond's ambulance was pretty hilarious. 
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.
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 !
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 !
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.
ill admit, I still occasionally look for salvaged Bentleys after seeing clarksons offroad one.
How hard could it be?
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!
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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