Clarkson, Hammond and May: What were your favorite moments?

Chris
By Chris Tropea
Sep 17, 2024 | Top Gear, Column, Blog, the grand tour | Posted in Columns | Never miss an article

Photograph Courtesy Amazon MGM Studios

For most of my life, I watched the many adventures of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. I expect that goes for many of you as well. From the days of Top Gear to The Grand Tour, they have given us so many memories.

One moment from their time together that stands out for me was when they tried to revolutionize train travel by using sports cars for the locomotives and caravans–campers for us Americans–as the cars.


It seems like we have viewed their final chapter in automotive entertainment with the conclusion of The Grand Tour. The finale was a touching tribute–I swear someone was cutting onions or something at the end.

You could be sad for the end of an era, but I don’t think you should be–well, at least I’m not.

While I’ll continue rewatching Top Gear and The Grand Tour, there are so many other great automotive content creators they have inspired, including many of us here.


There are countless YouTube channels dedicated to building cars, going on automotive adventures, showing us things we never expected to see and having fun along the way. I’m excited to see what the future brings.

However, when I’m feeling nostalgic for the shows that inspired me as a child to want to work as an automotive journalist, I’ll watch one of my favorite Top Gear episodes. What were your favorite moments from the two-decade-plus era of Clarkson, Hammond and May? We’d love to hear yours.

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Comments
DirtyBird222
DirtyBird222 PowerDork
9/17/24 1:02 p.m.

They definitely inspired multiple generations. I knew their time was coming to an end when we only got 1-2 specials a year from them. Their legacy will live on for a long time. 

There are far too many great moments from their years on air together. I feel like they nailed almost every episode. I enjoyed their narration and story telling more than anything. Their banter was always comedic too. 

I'll have to say the Reliant Robin episode had me laughing pretty hard the first time I watched it. 

I also loved when Forza had the Top Gear Test track in it so you could be your own STIG. 

Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
9/17/24 1:04 p.m.

I'd say that Top Gear was a big driver for where I am today–and I'm certain it inspired many of the other automotive media outlets you see today.

Although I hesitate to call myself an "automotive journalist," it's pretty rad that I live in a world where I get paid to do what I do–which is mostly yap on the internet about cars I think are cool.

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
9/17/24 1:13 p.m.

I always enjoyed them the most when they were trying to get some sad, tired cars to accomplish a fairly insignificant task. The budget supercar episode is an excellent one, as were a number of their cheap car challenges. The boys seemed to genuinely enjoy the challenge and the banter was just so much fun. They love language, they love cars and they were clever.

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter)
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand UltimaDork
9/17/24 1:17 p.m.

My all time favorite is the Indestructible Hilux. 
 

iansane
iansane GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
9/17/24 1:54 p.m.

Anytime they rolled out the a-team theme I knew I was going to see some weird, amazing E36 M3.

j_tso
j_tso Dork
9/17/24 2:05 p.m.

I like their roadtrips. The supercar roadtrip (Ford GT, F430, Zonda) is one of my favorites, the focus was how unpractical yet magical they are.

2005-2008 was peak TG for me.

Tom1200
Tom1200 PowerDork
9/17/24 2:20 p.m.

There are so many things that made us laugh..........it's hard to pick one.

I particularly liked when they "blew up" James May with a tank.

 

camopaint0707
camopaint0707 HalfDork
9/17/24 2:25 p.m.

The alfa challenge episode, when jeremy breaks down the girls are there and james just shows up and says "hello" and it immediately cuts.  I absolutely died laughing/

Rodan
Rodan UberDork
9/17/24 2:42 p.m.

My wife and I have long been fans of the original series.  Over the summer, though we've seen them all before, we went back and watched Top Gear from the beginning (at least all that we could find streaming), and then transitioned to Grand Tour.  We're not quite through S3 of Grand Tour at this point, but watched the finale on Friday.  It was a very fitting farewell to a format that has provided so much entertainment over the past couple of decades.

Though the schtick could get a little strained at times, you could always count on fun cars, beautiful scenery and cinematography, and some great laughs.  My favorite episodes were mostly those with tribute films where they showed us beautiful examples of a marque's most iconic cars, but Sabine Schmitz driving the Transit Van on the Nurburgring was a definite standout.

FWIW, you can still drive both the original Top Gear track and the Eboladrome in Assetto Corsa... 

FWIW2, all three of the Presenters have unrelated ongoing efforts that are absolutely worth watching.

Chris Tropea
Chris Tropea Associate Editor
9/17/24 2:47 p.m.

In reply to Rodan :

I have not watched any of Hammonds new content but I am a big fan of Clarkson's Farm and the James May Our Man In series. 

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