The Grand Tour (2016–2024) Series Review: Cars, Chaos, and the End of an Era

The Grand Tour is more than a car show.

At its best, it is a travel series, a comedy show, a collection of ridiculous challenges, and a showcase for some of the world's most interesting cars—all held together by the chemistry of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.

After their time on Top Gear, the trio returned with The Grand Tour in 2016, bringing their familiar style to a new home. The formula was recognizable, but Amazon gave them the freedom to travel further, drive stranger cars, and create bigger adventures.

Over the years, the series went from a traditional studio-and-road format to large-scale specials filmed across some of the most challenging locations on Earth.

And in 2024, the journey finally came to an end.

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead.

The Story

At its core, The Grand Tour follows three friends with completely different personalities who share one major obsession: cars.

Jeremy Clarkson is loud, competitive, and usually convinced that his opinion is the correct one.

Richard Hammond is enthusiastic, adventurous, and often willing to take things much further than necessary.

James May is calmer, more thoughtful, and usually the one trying to bring some logic to the chaos.

That combination is what makes the series work.

Give the three of them an ordinary car challenge, and they will almost certainly turn it into something unnecessarily complicated.

Give them a destination, and there is a good chance they will arrive in completely inappropriate vehicles.

Give them a simple task, and somehow it becomes an enormous production.

From Studio Show to Travel Adventures

The early seasons of The Grand Tour followed a format that was fairly close to the trio's previous work.

There were studio segments, celebrity appearances, car reviews, races, challenges, and road trips.

The show also had a large traveling tent that moved between different locations.

While this format gave the series a familiar identity, the most memorable episodes were often the big adventures.

As the series progressed, the format changed.

The studio portions became less important, while the longer specials became the centerpiece.

This allowed the trio to spend more time on the road and gave the show room to tell larger stories.

The Three Hosts Are the Real Show

Cars may be the subject, but Clarkson, Hammond, and May are the real reason people watch.

Their personalities are almost perfectly designed to clash.

Clarkson often wants the biggest, fastest, and most powerful option.

May usually prefers something more sensible and technically interesting.

Hammond is somewhere in between, although his enthusiasm frequently gets him into trouble.

The comedy comes naturally from those differences.

They argue over cars.

They compete against each other.

They make fun of each other's choices.

And they frequently create problems that could have been avoided if they had simply listened to one another.

But underneath all of it is genuine friendship.

That becomes increasingly obvious as the series progresses.

The Car Reviews

The traditional car segments remain an important part of The Grand Tour.

The trio test everything from supercars and hypercars to ordinary family vehicles and bizarre machines.

But their reviews rarely feel like conventional automotive journalism.

A serious car review might focus on performance figures, fuel economy, handling, and practicality.

The Grand Tour can certainly discuss those things, but it is more interested in turning the car into part of a story.

A vehicle becomes the subject of a race.

A challenge is created around it.

The hosts modify it.

Or they simply try to discover whether three completely different people can agree that it is good.

Sometimes the cars are almost secondary to what the hosts do with them.

The Challenges

The challenges are some of the most entertaining parts of the series.

The basic concept is usually simple.

Give each host a vehicle and a task.

Then make the task unnecessarily difficult.

The trio might be asked to travel across a country, build their own vehicles, race against another form of transportation, or prove that an absurd idea can actually work.

Usually, it doesn't.

The challenges also reveal the hosts' personalities.

Clarkson tends to choose the most powerful option.

Hammond frequently chooses something that looks exciting.

May often chooses something that makes sense—at least until the challenge becomes ridiculous.

The inevitable arguments and failures become part of the entertainment.

The Grand Tour Specials

The specials are where the series truly evolved.

Instead of squeezing an adventure into a normal episode, the show began creating feature-length journeys.

These specials took the trio to places including Namibia, Mongolia, Colombia, Madagascar, Scotland, and other challenging environments.

The cars became tools for exploration.

The scenery became part of the story.

And the journey itself became the main event.

The best specials don't feel like simple car reviews.

They feel like road-trip movies.

The hosts have a destination, a collection of vehicles, and a problem that gradually becomes more difficult.

By the end, the cars are often damaged, the hosts are exhausted, and the original plan has completely fallen apart.

The Comedy

The humor of The Grand Tour is heavily dependent on the chemistry between the three hosts.

Clarkson's exaggerated confidence clashes with May's patience and Hammond's enthusiasm.

The trio constantly insult each other, but the jokes work because their relationships feel genuine.

The show also uses physical comedy.

Cars crash.

Vehicles break down.

Plans fail.

Something catches fire.

And somehow the three hosts continue.

The humor can be childish and deliberately stupid, but that's part of the appeal.

The show never pretends to be overly serious.

The Locations

One of the biggest improvements over the years was the scale of the locations.

The trio weren't restricted to traditional race tracks or roads.

They traveled through deserts, mountains, jungles, rivers, and remote landscapes.

This gave the series a sense of adventure that went far beyond automotive television.

The locations also created genuine challenges.

A car that works perfectly on a normal road may become almost useless in a desert.

A beautiful vehicle can become a terrible choice when the road disappears.

The environment constantly tests both the cars and the hosts.

What Works Best

The biggest strength of The Grand Tour is its chemistry.

Without Clarkson, Hammond, and May, the show would be completely different.

Their friendship makes even simple conversations entertaining.

The specials are another major strength.

They allow the show to slow down and create a proper narrative instead of jumping from one segment to another.

The production quality is also impressive.

The cinematography makes the cars look spectacular, while the landscapes give the series a cinematic quality.

What Doesn't Work as Well

The show can sometimes feel repetitive.

The basic formula of three hosts choosing different cars, arguing about them, and eventually destroying something can only be repeated so many times.

Some of the jokes also rely heavily on the hosts' established personalities.

If you don't enjoy their style of humor, the series may not be as entertaining.

The early seasons can also feel somewhat overproduced compared with the more focused later specials.

But as the series found its identity, the longer adventures became its biggest strength.

The Final Chapter

After years of adventures, the trio's journey eventually came to an end.

The final special, One for the Road, brought Clarkson, Hammond, and May together for one last major adventure.

Rather than simply ending the series with a normal episode, the final special works as a farewell to the partnership that had entertained audiences for decades.

The cars are still important.

The jokes are still there.

The arguments continue.

But there is an obvious feeling that this time is different.

The three hosts know they are making their final journey together.

That gives the episode an emotional weight that the series normally avoids.

Why The Grand Tour Is Still Memorable

The appeal of The Grand Tour was never really about horsepower numbers.

It was about three friends doing ridiculous things with cars.

The series managed to turn automotive television into entertainment that could appeal even to people who weren't passionate about cars.

You could watch for the vehicles.

You could watch for the travel.

You could watch for the comedy.

Or you could simply watch three completely different personalities argue about almost everything.

That combination is difficult to reproduce.

Final Thoughts

The Grand Tour began as a new chapter for three familiar television personalities and eventually became something larger than a replacement for their previous show.

It evolved.

The studio format gradually became less important.

The road trips became bigger.

The challenges became more ambitious.

And eventually, the specials became the heart of the series.

Through all of those changes, one thing remained consistent: Clarkson, Hammond, and May.

Their arguments, mistakes, rivalries, and genuine friendship created the personality of the show.

The final special makes the ending feel surprisingly emotional because viewers aren't simply saying goodbye to a television series.

They are saying goodbye to a trio that spent years turning cars into an excuse for adventure.

Final Verdict – The Grand Tour is a hugely entertaining combination of cars, travel, comedy, and friendship. It isn't always perfect, but when Clarkson, Hammond, and May are given a destination, three questionable vehicles, and a completely unnecessary challenge, the result is almost always worth watching.

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