Back in the tent, the 12th episode of the third season of “The Grand Tour” was entitled “Legends and Luggage” and included a pair of Lancia legendary knockoffs, the real deal from Porsche, another installment of Conversation Street and ended with an airport travel segment.
The episode began with Jeremy Clarkson featuring re-purposed, updated versions of two legendary Lancia cars from the past – the Delta Integrale and the Stratos – since the only car Lancia makes today causes Jeremy some concern [“I would rather have a maggot-infested wound than have that.”] The Delta Integrale-inspired car has been named the Futurista while the updated Stratos is really a former Ferrari 430 that has been made to be as close to a former Stratos as possible [albeit with an $850,000 price tag]. Predictably, both cars perform in much the same manner as their more-storied predecessors and this means that Jeremy spins out frequently in the new Ferrari-Stratos.
A new “Conversation Street” segment touches on may topics beginning with – much to Richard Hammond’s dismay – Jeremy and James May discussing the speed of certain fish [with a video of salmon spawning across a road], the notation that Argentina is a cesspit, a speed trap in a certain small Italian town, the realization that speed cameras are a distraction, Peugeot’s electric concept car and the ramming of moped thieves.
James narrates a segment on the legendary LeMans racer, Porsche 917 – which he deems to be “the world’s fastest canoe” – and eventually pits a modern 911 GT2 RS against it in a race. Not surprisingly, the 911 GT2 RS defeats the 917 despite being weighed down by two humans [James and a race car driver].
The episode ends with perhaps one of the best segments of the season so far – a focus on airport travel that begins with a long diatribe from Jeremy and ends with a race through London’s Stansted airport with Jeremy sitting atop his Suitcasemobile and Richard riding around on a laptop skateboard powered by a cordless drill motor and some batteries.
Overall, this episode is one of the better episodes of the season – it had the tent, it had a decent Conversation Street segment and all three non-tent segments were interesting while the scripted elements were only clearly noticeable in two primary areas [the Porsche 917 race against the GT2 RS and the airport race between the Suitcasemobile and laptop skateboard]. ASN is pleased to award a 93 out of 100 for this episode.
