The fifth episode of the second season of “The Grand Tour” got underway today, entitled “Up, Down and Around the Farm”, and consisted of Richard Hammond road-testing a Ripsaw tank, James May road-testing a Volkswagen Up! GTi and Jeremy Clarkson making a film parody of Ken Block-like Gymkhana called “Farmkhana”.
First up was Hammond’s test of the Ripsaw in Dubai which began with some basic sand rail flailing about in the desert with statement that, in the USA where the sand rails were invented, they usually are only found in 300-400 horsepower versions but in Dubai, they are amped up to 1500 horsepower. Unfortunately, a notation was not added that should have pointed out the discrepancy was likely due to the fact that the country of Dubai is composed almost entirely of sand, making such a horsepower vault more feasible.
The short sand rail prelude done, it was time for the “high-end luxury supertank” to appear with Hammond driving it through a mall reminiscent of the classic “Blues Brothers” movie scene, before moving on to the desert where the rubber-tracked 700-horsepower tank was allowed to show off all its jumps and speed with nary a pesky campsite, road or town in the way.
Conversation Street followed and the segment was the weakest of the series so far, concentrating on mostly upcoming concept cars, a probable ill-fated Renault pickup truck [Alaskan] and the fact that the Bentley Continental GT never changes.
It was May’s turn next as he made a triple comparison of the legendary hot hatchback – the 1976 Volkswagen Golf GTi – with the current 2018 version of the Golf GTi and a new upstart Up! GTi, which is half the price of the current Golf GTi despite having a “sound actuator” pumping in fake engine noise to the cabin instead of real engine noise.
The Celebrity Face-Off segment was improved from last week and may – depending on your personal preferences – be considered as the best of the lot so far. It was an all-British affair again with comedian Bill Bailey facing off against actor Dominic Cooper. Cooper wins the actual driving competition but Bailey wins the segment with all his funny stories and witty remarks.
Finally, we get Clarkson’s Skidding-About Film which is entitled “Farmkhana” and is intent on making light of the variety of YouTube videos and series devoted to drifting a car in hundreds of locations and/or scenarios. The actual segment of Clarkson supposedly going through a farm and field was humorous but arguably the best part for the segment came when Hammond and May dissect and expose his film afterward – it was obviously scripted from start-to-finish but presented in a creative manner.
After dropping to a season-low last week, Episode Five rises up to the more expected, loftier levels associated with “The Grand Tour” and ASN awards an 86 out of 100.