The Grand Tour Won’t Be Anything Like Top Gear, Due To Legal Reasons [w/Video]

Due to legal issues, you won’t see anything remotely reminiscent of Top Gear in Clarkson, Hammond and May’s new show on Amazon.

That means TG’s format that we have grown accustomed to won’t be used outside the BBC, with Clarkson & Co. staying clear of everything associated with Top Gear. That includes the Stig, The News segment, or even a test track.

In a recent interview for the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Andy Wilman (The Grand Tour producer and Clarkson’s lifelong friend) stated that legal discussions became “hilarious”, with lawyers wondering if the Beeb will sue if James May will use his “oh cock” catchphrase.

But here’s where it gets interesting (and silly), as Wilman explained how these discussions got “funnier and funnier:

“We went to Namibia to make a big film. The lawyers got out a film we had done [for Top Gear] in Botswana. The lawyers go through everything and they said, ‘There’s a scene in [Top Gear] where you’re in the middle of the Okavango and you go, “This scenery is beautiful”, so watch that you don’t do that.”

The show will still have a vehicle leaderboard showing various performance stats, but the handwritten lap-times will be a touchy (and banned) subject.

Scheduled to be released on a weekly basis, The Grand Tour will debut in the latter half of 2016.