Exactly what to expect from the first 3 episodes of Jeremy Clarkson's Amazon show 'The Grand Tour'
Marketing for the 12-part series from the former "Top Gear" team is in full swing. Amazon is "crashing" Toyota Prius cars around the world as part of a promotional stunt, while billboards are hard to miss in London and New York.
"The Grand Tour," which reunites Clarkson with Richard Hammond and James May, will be made available every Friday at an unspecified time.
But what can you expect from the show? Amazon has released information on the first three episodes in a media information pack, but details on the rest of the series remain under wraps. Here's your guide to the opening instalments.
Episode one (November 18): "The Holy Trinity."
"The Grand Tour" opens in LA. The production team pitched their giant studio tent, from which the show is presented every week, at Rabbit Dry Lake and filmed in front of hundreds of loud American fans.
Clarkson said keeping the programme on the road gives each instalment a unique feel. This is partly because of the backdrop, but also because of the audience.
"You've got whooping Americans in California and then you've got very tall Dutch people. A lot of it is a travel programme, much more so than a car programme," he said.
The centrepiece of the first episode, according to "The Grand Tour" press pack, is a shootout between the McLaren P1, Porsche 918, and LaFerrari. All filmed in ultra-high definition, executive producer Andy Wilman described it as a "belter" of a stunt.
"We're kicking the whole series off with it, which is contrary to all our plans. Logic says that when you've spent all those years building up a broad audience you don't kick off with a petrol head-ish film, but this one rocks. It is a statement. It is what you're getting," he said.
Clarkson added: "Everybody's tried to put those [super cars] together and failed. We managed to get them all together in the same place for a few days in Portugal."
Episode two (November 25): "Operation Desert Stumble."
"The Grand Tour" tent heads to Johannesburg in South Africa. Although the second episode in the series, it was actually the first studio shoot the production team completed.
The big pre-recorded element of the episode is Clarkson, Hammond and May's trip to Jordan, where they trained as special forces soldiers at a secret base in a disused Oman quarry. Clarkson said it was one of his favourite challenges.
"Slight problem - we forgot to put any cars in it. I admit that was a bit of a mistake, but it is very funny nevertheless," he said. "It's where all the world's Special Forces go every year to compete with one another, and we thought we'd give it a bash. It turns out we were no good at it."
Also in the second episode, Clarkson test drives the Aston Martin Vulcan. Intriguingly, the press pack says this will be done on a "Grand Tour" test track. The Sun said the track is in Swindon, Britain, while fan website Grand Tour Nation claimed to have pictures of the race course. Amazon's press pack confirms nothing.
Clarkson said the show also has a new test driver. They are not allowed to use The Stig from "Top Gear" because the BBC owns the copyright. Famously The Stig does not utter a word, but Clarkson said the new test driver "actually speaks" and is "very opinionated."
May explained: "We do have a man who, in cases where it is necessary, independently tries things out for us to settle disputes. It's not a mystery racing driver like The Stig, it is a test driver if you like."
Finally in the second episode, May investigates the latest motorsport: Spinning. The sport is growing in popularity in South Africa and involves putting a car into a continual spin while the driver climbs out of the window and hangs on. Spinning was featured in an article for Vice last year.
Episode three (December 2): "Opera, Arts, and Donuts."
The English coastal town of Whitby is the location for the third outing of "The Grand Tour." Clarkson said the audience was full of Yorkshire men thinking: "Come on you fat bastard, make us laugh."
Hammond added: "We wanted to make sure we had some shows from the UK and we always will. And we all happen to really like Whitby - for one reason because it's a lovely place. It worked really well actually."
The big film in episode three is a "traditional gentleman's tour of Italy." Clarkson is in an Aston Martin DB11 and May has a Rolls-Royce Dawn. Hammond, meanwhile, is a "noisy and unwelcome guest" in an American muscle car.
Clarkson said: "We did a lovely film across Italy, starting at Siena at the Palio, and then we went to Florence to the Uffizi and to Verona to the opera and to some of the museums in Bologna and then to Venice. That was a lovely film, apart from the fact Richard Hammond turned up with his bovine attitude toward culture."
The trio were mobbed by fans in the town of Vicenza, in northern Italy, while filming. Speaking about launching "The Grand Tour" for fans post-"Top Gear," May said: "The viewers are our paymasters and our critics and our guardians so there was an obligation to do it."