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The Grand Tour

Just finished it. It felt scripted. I'd like to see more real challenges and cooperation. The Jeep in a box episode was more fun. Legit challenge, not just "We went into this unprepared so it was hard."

Is Clarkson really 63? Man, he seems older.
 
They referenced Gordon Lightfoot passing away, so with that as a date reference for filming, was the thing in Dakar legit? In looking it up there's been a lot of unrest there for a while and around that time, but I always wonder how scripted that stuff is and how much they have to adapt on the fly.

Of course there's a scouting crew months in advance to find things like that tunnel to the minefield, secure workshops to do the silly mods, get clearance to build stupid bridges and ferries, have heavy equipment in place, etc. That's a huge amount of moving parts to manage, and then surprise - civil unrest at the final destination?

Wondered the same thing about that Patagonia special from the Top Gear days when they got chased out of town. I'd love to know how the actual situation went down vs what we saw on the episode.
 
vetteboy79 said:
They referenced Gordon Lightfoot passing away, so with that as a date reference for filming, was the thing in Dakar legit? In looking it up there's been a lot of unrest there for a while and around that time, but I always wonder how scripted that stuff is and how much they have to adapt on the fly.

Of course there's a scouting crew months in advance to find things like that tunnel to the minefield, secure workshops to do the silly mods, get clearance to build stupid bridges and ferries, have heavy equipment in place, etc. That's a huge amount of moving parts to manage, and then surprise - civil unrest at the final destination?

Wondered the same thing about that Patagonia special from the Top Gear days when they got chased out of town. I'd love to know how the actual situation went down vs what we saw on the episode.
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best laid plaid and real world stuff kicks off regardless of plans.
 
Weasel said:
best laid plaid and real world stuff kicks off regardless of plans.
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For sure, and it's just mental masturbation on my part as I love travel logistics and why I've liked being crew chief for Ultra4 stuff.

Things like sending the Land Cruiser tumbling down the sand dunes in Bolivia, or when that log blasts out the rear window in the Africa special...I'm just curious how much is scripted vs 'oh crap, that happened, how do we pivot the story to incorporate that'?

The fact I'm even asking that question means they do it very well, and why they've been around forever. I'd just like to know the shit they never tell. Maybe Firstram can tell how some of those shots would've worked?
 
vetteboy79 said:
They referenced Gordon Lightfoot passing away, so with that as a date reference for filming, was the thing in Dakar legit? In looking it up there's been a lot of unrest there for a while and around that time, but I always wonder how scripted that stuff is and how much they have to adapt on the fly.

Of course there's a scouting crew months in advance to find things like that tunnel to the minefield, secure workshops to do the silly mods, get clearance to build stupid bridges and ferries, have heavy equipment in place, etc. That's a huge amount of moving parts to manage, and then surprise - civil unrest at the final destination?

Wondered the same thing about that Patagonia special from the Top Gear days when they got chased out of town. I'd love to know how the actual situation went down vs what we saw on the episode.
Click to expand...


Ben Collins (The Stig) is on Youtube talking about some of the old Top Gear. Getting kicked out of Argentina turned out to be pretty real.

Looks the unrest there kicked of late in May and went into at least July.

www.aljazeera.com

Senegal’s Sonko can be arrested ‘at any time’: Justice minister

Violence ongoing after Senegal court sentences opposition leader Ousmane Sonko for ‘corrupting youth’.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com



Gordon Lightfoot died May 1. The timeline seems to add up.
 
vetteboy79 said:
For sure, and it's just mental masturbation on my part as I love travel logistics and why I've liked being crew chief for Ultra4 stuff.

Things like sending the Land Cruiser tumbling down the sand dunes in Bolivia, or when that log blasts out the rear window in the Africa special...I'm just curious how much is scripted vs 'oh crap, that happened, how do we pivot the story to incorporate that'?

The fact I'm even asking that question means they do it very well, and why they've been around forever. I'd just like to know the shit they never tell. Maybe Firstram can tell how some of those shots would've worked?
Click to expand...

There's a channel on YouTube that gets into some of the stuff, called drive tribe iirc.

They guys have a hand in it and show up from time to time
 
vetteboy79 said:
For sure, and it's just mental masturbation on my part as I love travel logistics and why I've liked being crew chief for Ultra4 stuff.

Things like sending the Land Cruiser tumbling down the sand dunes in Bolivia, or when that log blasts out the rear window in the Africa special...I'm just curious how much is scripted vs 'oh crap, that happened, how do we pivot the story to incorporate that'?

The fact I'm even asking that question means they do it very well, and why they've been around forever. I'd just like to know the shit they never tell. Maybe Firstram can tell how some of those shots would've worked?
Click to expand...
Hate to say it but, I've never seen the show so, I cant really comment:homer:
What I can say is, without duplicate cars to rig and editing, it's difficult to safely create spontaneous effects. I have no doubt there's a team helping things along.
 
DFW Rusty said:
I highly suspect that the snowmobile didn't drive all the way across the desert just to hit the tanker..... I feel it might have been staged... :lmao:
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Compass has 360 degrees. Snowmobile took off in direction of travel, so within ~10 degrees of destination.

That dang ol snowmobile had a 1 in 10 chance and Bingo'd it. :flipoff2:
 
DFW Rusty said:
I highly suspect that the snowmobile didn't drive all the way across the desert just to hit the tanker..... I feel it might have been staged... :lmao:
Click to expand...
also possible that the raft malfunction that was unseen by any of the 50 cameras filming may have been contrived.
 
DFW Rusty said:
I highly suspect that the snowmobile didn't drive all the way across the desert just to hit the tanker..... I feel it might have been staged... :lmao:
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Before it came back to hit the tanker I was like.. Some fool is going to find that snowmobile in the middle of the Sahara desert in 1000 years and just be sitting there like, wtf?
 
Ummduh said:
Before it came back to hit the tanker I was like.. Some fool is going to find that snowmobile in the middle of the Sahara desert in 1000 years and just be sitting there like, wtf?
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I told the wife that we'd see it in the ending credits driving across the open desert.

I should have expected the explosion.
 
ditto on most. Decent watch, but the last couple episodes have lost the flair. For whatever reason, they feel more scripted than ever before. Running out of ideas? tired? idk

gotta go rewatch the Botswana one again. That or the Arctic may be the best they ever did
 
budget76 said:
ditto on most. Decent watch, but the last couple episodes have lost the flair. For whatever reason, they feel more scripted than ever before. Running out of ideas? tired? idk

gotta go rewatch the Botswana one again. That or the Arctic may be the best they ever did
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I think they are just using these trips as boondoggles of a lifetime on amazon's dime.

well played.
 
I really enjoyed the Mongolia special, the Bolivia special, and the Vietnam special. Pretty much any of the specials, but those are my favorites.
 
budget76 said:
ditto on most. Decent watch, but the last couple episodes have lost the flair. For whatever reason, they feel more scripted than ever before. Running out of ideas? tired? idk

gotta go rewatch the Botswana one again. That or the Arctic may be the best they ever did
Click to expand...
Mongolia is still my favorite. Probably due to the scenery
 
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