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The Grand Tour

After 9 months of searching high and low for a ‘tame racing driver’ to replace the unpopular ‘American’ on Amazon’s The Grand Tour, the team have found a winner in Abbie Eaton. The former trio of BBC’s Top Gear, Clarkson, Hammond and May have broken convention by introducing a female to take the role of the show’s racing driver.

The news was announces on The Grand Tour’s twitter page with a caption “Ladies and gentlemen, our new driver”. Just stopping short of mentioning her name, The Grand Tour hopes that 25-year-old Eaton provides a breathe of fresh air to a segment that hasn’t been particularly entertaining in the first season. Mike Skinner, a former Nascar racer played the role of the American.

His character had an abrasive nature, seeming irritated and obnoxious about having to drive non-american cars around the show’s test track. Meant to portray the character traits of true rednecks, Skinner wasn’t particularly liked by fans and viewers alike. Even his professional racing credentials weren’t enough to convince viewers to overlook his less than funny rants.

Eaton, who has taken part in numerous professional racing competitions, is a British born racing driver who has 28 wins and 38 podium finishes to her name. She was the 2010 Production Touring Class B champion and 2014 Mazda MX-5 supercup champion. A seasoned racer with several big title finishes, Eaton should be more entertaining to watch than The American.

Since the departure of the American, the trio of Clarkson, Hammond and May from The Grand Tour have had to scout around for a replacement. A series of short clips have been released on the show’s Youtube channel, depicting the ‘rigorous vetting’ process that drivers are put through to determine what they are made of.

Meant to be taken as a jovial introduction to the second season, which will air in early December, Clarkson and Hammond, each are given a say in the process. They decide to allow their respective candidate to demonstrate his/her capabilities. Surprisingly enough, Clarkson’s pick is none other than former F1 driver, Mark Webber.

Webber is given the opportunity to take a Porsche and Mercedes-Benz around The Grand Tour test track. Things go as planned in the Porsche but the clip takes a bizzare twist once the Australian-born F1 driver gets his hands on the Merc. We won’t ruin it for you, check out the video for the fully story.

Hammond’s pick is an actual stunt driver, and an experienced one for that matter. The youngest of the trio is adamant that moving forward, someone with a background in stunt driving would be better suited for the role on the show rather than a regular racing driver.

Check out all three videos and let us know your thoughts on the subject and who you suspect could be The American’s replacement in the upcoming season.

According to a recent post on twitter, The Grand Tour’s Season 2 will proceed without the presence of The American. Representing Amazon’s version of The Stig, The American character was played by Mike Skinner, a former NASCAR Driver.

Skinner admitted on Twitter that the second season will go on without him, stating that ‘his character wasn’t developed as he was told’. Unlike the universal likability of the Stig, Amazon’s character received a lukewarm welcome.

The Stig was known for his cool and calm demeanor, which were virtues that The American lacked completely. His repulsive nature and complete lack of etiquette became a bit tiresome after the first few episodes. And despite his impressive car control skills around the test track, it wasn’t enough to win over the show’s audience.

Now that this news is official, one can’t help but wonder who will take over from The American as The Grand Tour’s tame racing driver. The Stig is considered part of the BBC and as such, Clarkson, Hammond and May aren’t legally allowed to have a similar figure in their current show.

There’s a possibility that the hot lap segment might be scuttled entirely mirroring the decision to put to pasture the travelling studio tent. Whatever the case maybe, we hope that Season 2 brings us the same thrills and spills we have come to expect from the Amazon exclusive show.

The second season of the ever popular entertainment show involving cars, the Grand Tour will premier on December 8th 2017. This puts to rest rumors that suggested that due to several health related setbacks involving two of the show’s presenters, the show would have to be postponed.

According to an announcement on the Grand Tour’s Youtube page, the premiere date has been set in stone. And we can expect to see Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May take centre stage in their make-shift tent to provide us with all the foolhardy automotive related adventures before Christmas.

This is welcoming news considering that not too long ago, Jeremy Clarkson had to battle a severe bout of pneumonia, one that his doctor said almost killed him. He was admitted at a hospital in Spain where he was supposedly enjoying his vacation.

When this news broke, it cast further doubt on the 2017 release date of the second season, which already seemed shaky after Richard Hammond’s shunt. Clarkson’s co-host, lost control of a Rimac Concept car while filming, causing it to slide off the elevated track and barrel roll further down hill where it eventually caught on fire.

Hammond was immediately taken to hospital where he has had extensive surgery done correct the injury to his left leg. his recovery took awhile, but the youngest member of the trio managed to bounce back from his injury but thankfully, it occurred sooner rather than later.

We hope that the second season is just as enjoyable as the first. But judging from the trailer video however, it could be more action packed and enjoyable compared to the first. That said, we won’t know for sure until the 8th of December, so stay tuned.

In a previous article we reported that Jeremy Clarkson had to be admitted in hospital while on a vacation due to a bout of Pneumonia. What we, and many others were unaware of however, was the severity of his illness.

According to a recent news piece by Car Throttle, Clarkson stated that he was in pretty bad shape before being admitted in hospital. Three days prior to his admission, the former Top Gear host was experiencing spasms in bed.

After a series of tests were conducted, his doctor informed him that things were far worse and that if he didn’t do exactly as instructed, there was a very real chance that Clarkson would succumb to his illness.

His right lung was more than half full of mucus and to make matters worse, he was running a very high fever too. This made it difficult for him to breath and function normally. Fortunately, he sought treatment just in time but will require 2 months of rest.

Still in recovery, Clarkson joins his Grand Tour co-host Richard Hammond, who has a fractured leg, on the sidelines leaving James May as the only member of the team, to soldier on. The Grand Tour is currently filming the second season this year, however, these recent setbacks should push the release date of this second season even further.

Clarkson covered his health scare extensively in his column of the Sunday Times. He goes on to talk about the irony of what this illness did to him considering that, prior to this, despite his militant attitude to life and utter disregard for healthy living, has never fallen ill or needed to take a sick day.

That said, we wish Clarkson a speedy recovery and hope that the trio get back to work as soon as medically possible.

Source: Car Throttle, Sunday Times

Jeremy Clarkson may not be in the best of health according to his latest post on Instagram. The former Top Gear presenter recently posted a picture of his right arm with hospital tags clearly visible along with the a drip needle in his forearm.

Apparently, Clarkson was admitted to a hospital while on vacation in Mallorca, Spain due to Pneumonia. In his Instagram post, Clarkson said, ” Not the sort of bangles I usually choose on holiday”.

He later added that it would be awhile before he sees any further action, hinting at the possibility that a great deal of rest and recuperation was needed for him to make a full recovery.

Clarkson is the second casualty of the trio that is responsible for the world renowned automotive show, The Grand Tour. Several months prior, Richard Hammond lost control of a Rimac Concept car that led to a horrific crash. Hammond was taken to hospital where extensive surgery was required to correct the injury to his left leg.

It seems for the moment, that both presenters will need considerable amount of time off while they recuperate. Though Hammond is considerably younger than Clarkson, the injury that he suffered, isn’t an easy fix.

As such, both incidents have caused a major blow to the current filming and should set back the release date of the new season even further. Only one of the infamous trio has managed to stay clear of any problems, and that’s James May.

After checking into a hospital, Clarkson, in good humour, posted a picture of May on his Instagram page with a quip, “The only functioning member of the Grand Tour team right now. God help us”

Jokes aside, we wish both Hammond and Clarkson a speedy recovery and hope they are able to get back on the saddle in no time. We also hope that they continue to produce even more over-the-top episodes of The Grand Tour.

Rirchard Hammond, the much loved The Grand Tour and former Top Gear host was recently involved in a serious accident while filming for the show’s second season in Switzerland. According to the show’s Facebook page, the crash took place after Hammond completed the Hemburg Hill Climb in a Rimac Concept One.

There are pictures circulating on social media showing a mangled wreck that appears to be the remains of some sort of supercar. Thankfully, Hammond sustained only minor injuries in the crash as reported by The Grand Tour. He came out of this hair-raising crash with only a fractured knee, which was quite lucky considering the circumstances.

After the crash, he was able to climb out the vehicle on his own before it burst into flames. Hammond was conscious and talking after the crash took place. He was flown by Air Ambulance to a Hospital in St. Gallen for examination where it was revealed that he had fractured his knee.
Hammond was alone in the car and thankfully, no one else was injured in this incident. The cause of the crash is still unknown and investigations are still under way to figure out what led to the horrific crash.

This isn’t the first time that the former Top Gear presenter was involved in such an incident. Over the years, he has been involved in a number of them with the most serious of the lot being in 2006. He was piloting an insanely fast dragster at the Top Gear track where he had a tyre blow out, which led to the car careening out of control off track, flipped over a few times and coming to rest on a patch of dirt.

We wish Richard a swift recovery and hope he will back in no time to continue filming the second season of The Grand Tour.

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