The Grand Tour The Grand Tour Series 1

The Grand Tour: Series 1, Episode 4 – Enviro-mental

  • The travelling tent lands again on the quayside in Whitby, England.
  • Jeremy Clarkson power tests the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and BMW M4 GTS.
  • The boys attempt to make cars from sustainable materials.
  • Comedian Jimmy Carr is the celebrity guest.

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Episode Guide

Clarkson reviews the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and compares it to the BMW M4 GTS at the Eboladrome; despite criticising the M4 GTS for sacrificing creature comforts for no overall gain in performance, he declares it the winner simply because Hammond owns a GT3 RS.

The presenters travel to South Wales and set out to make the most environmentally friendly car bodies using the platform of a Land Rover Discovery. They take an 11 mile road trip to a dirt track, where they race against three normal cars. The idea of environmentally friendly car bodies is abandoned after Clarkson’s meat car is infested with maggots, Hammond’s garden car catches fire, and May’s mud and hay car falls apart.

Jimmy Carr is the guest of “Celebrity Brain Crash”, but his jet ski collides with a boat on his way to the tent. To fill in the time, the presenters introduce an Audi TT Mk1 Quattro with Hammond hidden behind the rear bumper to show a new smuggling technique used by illegal immigrants, as well as using Hammond as an improvised parking sensor.

Trivia

0:01:09 – When he says hello at the start of this show, Jeremy seems to have turned into a certain Team American character. Mmm, movie references.

0:03:41 – Chav – A British word, sort of like the American expression ‘white trash’. But also sort of not like that. It’s not a very nice word and you probably shouldn’t use it in polite company. Eg “Hello! Are you a chav?” You’ll get punched in the nose.

0:06:46 – The vents over the front wheels on the Porsche 911 GT3 RS double the amount of downforce over the front axle, balancing the mighty rear downforce of that massive rear wing.

0:08:37 – The badges on the Porsche 911 GT3 RS are actually stickers to save weight. Because, as we know, normal badges weigh a ton.

0:10:01 – BMW M4 GTS. 3-litre, twin turbo straight six, 500 horsepower, 0-62 in 3.8 seconds, top speed; 190mph.

0:11:56 – Nerd alert: The water injection system on the BMW M4 GTS works by injecting water into the engine intake where it vapourises, cooling down the internal combusion process so you can run a higher compression ratio and more boost without risk of the engine exploding.

0:12:17 – Ron Jeremy – An ‘adult’ film actor famous for his very big steering wheel.

0:16:14 – The American: Not allowed back into that Arby’s.

0:19:39 – In 2005 Jeremy Clarkson bought one of 27 Ford GTs officially imported to the UK. He sold it shortly afterwards.

0:23:31 – Nerd alert: The 1989-2004 Land Rover Discovery has a separate chassis so you can remove the body and it still works without risk of the engine and all the suspension falling out.

0:31:13 – Jeremy and Richard are quoting lyrics from Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin. Mmm, music references.

0:33:52 – The dog in the sustainable cars film is a border collie. They’re a breed much seen in Welsh villages and used for rounding up sheep. This one was called Pepper.

0:39:15 – Jeremy’s amazing concealment plan was inspired by a news story about a man who really did smuggle himself inside the bumper of a small Renault.

0:43:37 – Jeremy doesn’t just suffer from hay fever. He also says cats give him asthma. Useful info, if you ever need to get him out of your house.

0:47:10 – Richard owns several old Land Rovers and this makes him very keen on off-roading. Other things he is keen on includes mopping up puddles of oil and shouting, ‘Start you bastard’.

0:50:19 – Richard stopped eating red meet shortly after the sustainable cars film was made.

0:53:30 – Sometimes during the filming of The Grand Tour, the amount of riotous, spontaneous laughter has to be cut down in the edit. Otherwise the programme would be five hours long.

0:54:25 – Jeremy’s sustainable car smelt so bad that no one on the team would go near it unless absolutely necessary.

0:55:32 – Yobbos – a quaint English word for noisy morons.

1:00:57 – At the end of the sustainable cars film, the cameras just missed the fire hose hitting James square in the face.

Eboladrome Lap Times

Porsche 911 GT3 RS
1:20.4

BMW M4 GTS
1:22.4

Screenshots

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2 comments

Nicolas Molli February 7, 2018 at 1:41 am

The worst episode I saw. Why did they do that?

Reply
Restalot December 10, 2016 at 2:39 am

Well, this was the first of the new episodes that seemed to ‘settle’ into the new format… and it was ‘ok’ as a ‘regular’ episode. Overall, the enviro-car film was silly-car-fun (although felt a little more scripted than some of the past… I miss the challenges).

Four episode in and I’m not loving the studio segments so much. The celebrity bit is already tired. Car news it ok. The ‘chat’ part at the beginning is at least starting to become more current as the gap between filming and broadcast is closing but it is still much about nothing.

The ‘American’ is tired too. Jeremy always said in TG that the opinions of racing drivers were useless, hence the stig. At least he is remaining consistent by providing scripting for the driver that is ‘useless’… but the delivery is not funny and it takes away from the car performance itself which would be more interesting than the script.

All the same, go back to season 1 of TG (or 2, or 3…) and this is still better than those were and with time look where they got. The boys need to optimize this new format and I am confident they will get better and funnier so I’ll hang on their every episode.

Reply

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