Taking the high road

The Grand Tour boys head for Scotland behind the wheels of 1970s American cars

- IAN MACEWAN

NEW MOTORING

The Grand Tour presents… Lochdown From Friday 30 July, Amazon Prime Video

The Grand Tour stars Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond were all set for some four-wheeled fun in Russia before COVID put the proverbial spanner in the works.

So instead, their latest Amazon Prime Video special finds the boys closer to home as they take three 1970s American cars north of the border, for a road trip featuring deep-fried food, caravan abuse, bridge-building, boat sinking and lots of the usual banter between the three amigos.

We caught up with the trio to find out more about their ‘lochdown’ adventure…

Did this feel like a more ‘back-to-basics’ outing?

Clarkson Normally we would be trying to drive across a volcano, or on the bottom of the sea, or something. This time we didn’t have any of those props, so we had to really work our socks off to make the show as entertaining as possible. It’s like The Grand Tour’s ‘unplugged’ album.

Why did you decide to take three American cars from the 1970s?

Hammond Growing up, we’d watched them in movies and in TV series, and then we’d look out the window at the Austin Allegro on our drive and think: ‘Why have we got that, while they get all those big, exciting, glamorous things?’

What did you each think of the cars you chose?