The ninth episode of the third season – entitled “Astons, Astronauts and Angelina’s Children” – of “The Grand Tour” was revealed today, featuring a single Aston Martin, some astronauts [and their cars – mostly Corvettes] and none of Angelina Jolie’s actual children, but rather some children hired to play them.
The episode began in the tent where Richard Hammond was immediately tasked with reviewing the 2019 Aston Martin Vantage since Jeremy Clarkson was too likely to effuse over the $160,000 car that was given the curious color of hazard vest yellow.
The much-missed – from the last episode, anyway – Conversation Street segment returned this week with the boys talking about Volkswagen’s Pike’s Peak race car and it’s “fake” G forces, how ugly the Rolls-Royce Cullinan is and that possibly being a reason why Rolls-Royce was reluctant to provide one to TGT for review, James May determining that a flying car is actually an airplane and how Scots are the world’s safest drivers.
James then embarked on a lengthy segment detailing the NASA space program of the late 1960’s and their ultimate trip to the moon with the Apollo mission. This dovetailed with a smaller segment featuring the cars the astronauts drove – mostly Corvettes with the exception of a VW Beetle and the NSU Prinz driven by John Glenn – and resulting in James getting to drive Neil Armstrong’s actual 1967 Corvette Sting Ray which has been kept in the shape Armstrong left it in when he owned it.
Jeremy got his day in the sun with another lengthy featurette showcasing the Citroen Aircross SUV [which Jeremy claims Citroen did not want to give to them, at first] as Jeremy answers several pressing questions facing any normal Citroen Aircross owner – can it tow a gigantic ship, fit a miniature horse in the boot or carry around all of Angelina Jolie’s adopted children? But most importantly – can it be used by the French police – and can it chase down a DeTomaso Pantera?
Overall, this episode rebounded from last week’s usage of The American – so no automatic 10-point deduction – and there were slightly fewer usages of tired clichés [although the French may disagree], so ASN awards a solid 88 out of 100.