Jeremy Clarkson has shed light on the decision-making process that led him to opt for a 1982 Lancia Montecarlo for his final episode of The Grand Tour.
The premise for the finale, titled One for the Road, sees Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May ignore producer Andy Wilman’s advice to drive EVs down to Zimbabwe for their own choice of classic car.
As well as Clarkson’s Lancia, Hammond opted for a 1974 Ford Capri 3-litre while May decided he drive across the African terrain in a 1974 Triumph Stag.
Despite being able to pick their own cars, One for the Road was never going to be a smooth sailing affair, with the synopsis teasing “brutally rough terrain, mechanically misbehaving cars, moments of map reading incompetence and the terrifying prospect of crashing, drowning or breaking a nail on the complicated retractable roof of Jeremy’s Lancia.”
Frustrations with the makeup of the cars were evident in the promo for the final episode featuring the trio as May joked about “deleting” his co-stars’ phone numbers while they tried to fix one of their broken-down vehicles.
Ahead of One for the Road’s premiere on September 13, Clarkson explained his thinking in picking the “unreliable” Lancia, saying: “The premise of the original Botswana film was: why, when you leave London and move to Surrey, do you always buy yourself a 4×4? You don’t need one.
“To prove this, we decided to drive three perfectly ordinary cars across Botswana.
“I’ve always liked the premise that cars are much tougher than you think they are. They can take so much punishment; people don’t believe how much their car can take before it expires.
“So, we did a similar thing this time: the three that we took to Zimbabwe were, on the face of it, ridiculous, but as you can see in the film, they survive. The concept was just driving cars we liked.
“The car I drove was a Lancia which I found amusing because everybody knows Lancia’s are the most unreliable cars ever made. So, I really wanted to do the Lancia again for the last film, an even more stupid Lancia.”
Clarkson delved further: “I think we wanted to strip away all the contrived stuff out and go back to basics.
“Not that the contrived moments were wrong, but I wanted to go back to camping, go back to the absolute basics. It was Layla Unplugged.
“We wanted to do a simple, ‘This is just us driving across Africa,’ which is a happy place,” Clarkson added.
While their African road trip may have been their “happy place”, needless to say wrapping up filming on their final special proved to be an emotional affair.
In fact, Hammond admitted he broke down in tears once “cut” was called on their time, and executive producer Wilman claimed Clarkson was left the “saddest” he’s ever seen him after seeing the final edit.
However, Clarkson also opened up on May’s polar opposite reaction, admitting he stayed rather straight-faced.
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“I’m not saying this in a derogatory way by any means, but James has the emotions of a stone,” Clarkson explained.
“He just doesn’t do emotions, so there were no tears from him.”
The final episode featuring the three former Top Gear stars will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from September 13.
