In 2002 the car world changed forever. This was the year that the re-born Top Gear was launched. It was an entertainment show involving cars, a race-track, and three middle-aged blokes messing about. In actual fact though, Top Gear originally started in 1977 but the format was massively different. The 1977 Top Gear was just a car show only about cars. It was factual and it was very documentary-like. That lasted until 2001 and it was cut due to such demise in viewing figures.
Jeremy Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman convinced the BBC to revamp and recreate Top Gear but in a new modern format. It would no longer be factual at all and it will be so much more entertaining. The original presenters were Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and a chap called Jason Dawe. James May was not present in Top Gear until Series 2 after Dawe’s departure.
Quite quickly Clarkson, Hammond, and May got the nickname of the “trio” and they all became quite iconic. Each year the weekly viewers of Top Gear increased and increased in every series. The top episode for UK viewers was on 2 December 2007 whereby there were 8.35 million live viewers. The ninth series in 2007 seemed to be the peak of Top Gear viewing with the “trio” as numerous episodes received over or close to 8 million live UK viewers. In series ten the first proper Top Gear special whereby the “trio” takes three second-hand cars to do nearly impossible tasks. Their first of these were series ten-episode four whereby they went to Botswana with three cheap RWD cars stating that you didn’t need a 4×4 to go offroad.
Top Gear with the original “trio” went on until the 10th March 2015 whereby Jeremy Clarkson was sacked by the BBC for a number of issues including racism, assault, allegations, etc. He was sacked mid-way through series 22, which was then put on hold. This was major news as here is a TV show that brings in billions worldwide for the BBC and at the time was their most popular program and Jeremy Clarkson was one of the most influential people at the BBC. Both Hammond and May decided to leave the BBC after this as well as executive producer Andy Wilman. After this, a chain of presenters came along trying to revamp the show. The latest presenters are ex-cricketer Freddie Flintoff, comedian Paddy McGuiness, and car journalist Chris Harris.
The “trio” went on to Amazon with Andy Wilman. Their new contract included 3 series as well as the fourth one for specials only. Amazon would show their new show called “The Grand Tour” and rather than be in one set location every week like Top Gear, the trio would present their show in different areas around the world in the first series. However, due to Richard Hammond’s crash, it was best that series two would be presented in England only. Series three then followed on.
However, what’s better? Top Gear or The Grand Tour. Let’s weigh it all up.
Top Gear Is Better
Clearly, Top Gear was better. It was fun, unique, and fresh. No other TV show was like Top Gear at all. It lasted twenty-two series across thirteen years. There were eleven specials and 178 episodes involving the “trio.” Each episode was a laugh and because the budget wasn’t stupidly high the challenges involved were mainly involving cheap cars and cheap setups. For example, the supercars on a budget challenge whereby the “trio” purchased supercars for $10,000 and they drove around. It was well funny as these Italian supercars were so unreliable.
Top Gear was so simple, unlike The Grand Tour. The reason why is because The Grand Tour had a high budget and that high-budget meant that challenges etc were quite high-tech. They were set in worldwide locations and there were hardly any cheap cars or cheap challenges.
Top Gear started everything we see on The Grand Tour. What made Top Gear better was the fact that you did not need a subscription to watch it. In numerous countries, Top Gear was offered free on satellite TV and still is today. This is via the BBC and third party channels such as Dave in the UK. There is even a load free on YouTube.
What made things even better was Top Gear Live. This was essentially a live show done by Top Gear at national exhibition shows around the world. They did this a lot in the UK at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre and London’s Excel Arena. There was even Top Gear yearly annuals, video games, playsets, etc.
Top Gear even won awards. Eight of them in fact which is insane. Top Gear was sold in 214 countries worldwide which is phenomenal. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Top Gear was the most-watched factual show in the world. In the UK the spin-off DVD, the Top Gear Perfect Road trip was the best selling TV DVD in the UK.
Top Gear was a huge success. It was sold as a magazine (still is today but not as well), it had a brilliant website, plenty of DVDs, sold to Netflix to be shown on their platform, etc. Everyone loved Top Gear even if you hated cars. It was just so funny and it was just so ridiculous.
Top Gear had its issues though. Some scenes such as the Tesla review were quite scripted. After around 2011 to 2012, you can see the BBC becoming more and more Politically Correct. This was bad news for Top Gear as none of their presenters had any filters. They said things that were offensive and this caused gaps between them and the BBC. You could tell the peak was over around 2012 time as the creativity decreased and even Clarkson admitted that Top Gear and the BBC were becoming a lot more like hot water. Different opinions on what should be said. The BBC wanted something more representative of all cultures whilst Top Gear just offended everyone.
The latest Top Gear series was rubbish. The 24th, 25th and 26th series were not too bad. The 27th, 28th and 29th are just way too PC and its lost that Top Gear essence of the offence. The 23rd series won’t be talked about in this article as its a waste of time.
The Grand Tour Is Better
The Grand Tour started in 2016 and ended its Top Gear style format in 2019. It was an Amazon Prime TV only show so essentially it was like Breaking Bad on Netflix but with cars and fewer drugs. It was originally set that there would be no set studio-like there was in Top Gear. There would be a tent that was originally planned to be taken all over the world so each week and episode the show would be presented in a different part of the world. However, after Richard Hammond’s crash in series two, it was just easier to have the tent based in Yorkshire UK. This was also kept for series 3.
The Grand Tour featured cooler cars and a higher budget meant more interesting challenges set all over the world. It was great as you had roadsters like the Mazda MX-5 drive around in Morroco. Then you had the unscripted episode in Croatia with the Audi TT-RS and the Lada Niva.
It was a very interesting show and it was less about cars more on entertainment. It had a news sector like Top Gear did, however, it was less focused on cars. It was more so focused on joking about and real-life events or the location where the show was set.
The Grand Tour had to be very careful that they didn’t copyright the BBC with their Top Gear since BBC owned the rights to Top Gear. However, in order for The Grand Tour to succeed it had to be pretty much exactly the same as Top Gear. It was essentially the same though it had major differences like the celebrity brain crash whereby celebrities came and “died.” This, however, was changed for series 2 whereby it was changed to celebrity face-off which was two celebrities facing each other on a rally stage in a Jaguar F-Type. The celebrity part was ditched though in series three.
Some call the Grand Tour too scripted. It has too many stunts.