Finally! The first episode of the new season of “The Grand Tour” has arrived after what seemed like an excruciatingly long wait. The third season opener was entitled “Motown Funk” and it was the other definition of funk that was used – the one indicating a state of depression.
The opening montage depicted a dilapidated Detroit followed by a typical Jeremy Clarkson spiel before the trio – Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond hopped into three Detroit-produced muscle cars: Jeremy in the Ford Mustang RTR [Ready to Rock], James in the Hennessey-tuned Chevrolet Camaro and Hammond in the Dodge Challenger Demon.
With Jeremy proclaiming “Nobody intelligent admits that they like muscle cars,” the trio proceeded to the inevitable drag race – although Hammond had to bow out due to Dodge telling him he couldn’t drag race his Demon on streets. With Hammond out, James repeatedly defeated Clarkson.
The next test was the Loudest Noise Test – won by James again. After some mocking of HGTV show segments and Jeremy running over James’ garden, they moved on to the Conversation Street segment where they continued to debate Detroit’s downfall and Hammond landed a zinger at Clarkson’s expense.
Jeremy then moved on to testing the McLaren Senna [Result: it is fast and can out-brake a Jaguar F-type – big deal]. The trio then returned to Detroit where they competed on a course created by Hammond and won – again – by James [with a little help from some palm oil].
The final segment was a Good [James] vs. Evil [Hammond] drag race between the Camaro and the Demon, won by Hammond after he had properly converted his Demon into a drag racer.
Overall, ASN awards the first episode a 91 out of a 100 – losing points for going overboard on Clarkson’s Trump-like persona sticking a bit too much to the obvious script.
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