The Grand Tour has made it to its fifth – and what we are calling its best – episode so far this series. The episode, titled “Moroccan Roll”, was based in Rotterdam, where the boys began the show by making a slew of inside jokes aimed at the Dutch before killing off the Dutch-bred band Golden Earring just as they were about to perform their signature tune, “Radar Love”.
After that, a short trip down Conversation Street [this time depicting James May with an owl in the silhouette introduction of the segment] moved directly into the centerpiece of the episode – a road trip to Morocco where May and Richard Hammond could argue extensively about which one had the better car – Hammond with a Mazda Miata or May with a Zenos E10 – until they were interrupted by the arrival of Jeremy Clarkson with an Alfa Romeo 4C.
The segment was perhaps one of the best of its ilk – even taking into account similar segments the trio did when working on the former “Top Gear” – and, depending on your personal tastes, was highlighted by the animal scale weighing portion of the segment which featured cows [one of them quite amorous], camels, goats, donkeys and turkeys before Hammond injured his Miata trying to get it off Clarkson’s makeshift scale.
This was followed by a rally-style race course constructed through the sets of “Game of Thrones” and other shows which use Morocco locations as a filming site but perhaps the best part of the entire show was the lack of the test track driver dubbed “The American” aka Mike Skinner – which, we can only hope means the imminent arrival of Formula One world champion and newly-retired-guy-with-a-lot-of-time-on-his-hands, Nico Rosberg, as the new test driver.
Another winner was life-size reconstruction of the Battleship “board” game between Hammond and May using an array of 20 Gee Whiz vehicles as “missiles” dropping on a grid of vehicles such as limos, RV’s and PT Cruisers posing as aircraft carriers and battleships
The episode, though still scripted, was unquestionably the best of the series so far, surpassing the first episode – which garnered its high score mostly on high levels of anticipation – due to the return of the lively banter between the trio that was the hallmark of “Top Gear” and what made it so popular in the first place.
AutoSportsNation awards the fifth episode of “The Grand Tour” with a score of 93 out of 100 – making it the highest scoring episode of the series so far. More like this one, please – and get Rosberg in there in place of The American – that’s a perfect 100 score waiting to happen.