Top Gear S17E01 Review

RichardsF1    Season 17     James May, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, The Stig, Top Gear

The seventeenth series of Top Gear hit the airwaves overnight on the BBC, and we at Richard’s F1 had the great pleasure of watching the latest offering from that madcap trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

Fans of the show certainly won’t be disappointed, particularly if this episode is anything to go by…

With the death of the oversized, overpriced and over-thirsty Hummer, it looked as though the world was finally turning away from big, silly vehicles. Or perhaps, as Richard Hammond attempts to argue, perhaps the car wasn’t big or silly enough?

Enter the South African designed Marauder, an enormous armoured vehicle that’s also “a perfect town car” according to Hammond, or indeed anyone in crime-ridden Johannesburg with a spare half-million dollars floating around. The diminutive presenter sets about proving its practicality in a range of situations to great effect, and the bewilderment of many of the citizens of the coastal city of Durban.

Next up, Jeremy has a look at the new BMW 1M – the hotted up version of the 1-series – and puts it through its paces in a beautifully produced sequence which includes a drag race against a Porsche Cayman and a Lotus Evora.

Having lost out in the spectacular Lancer vs bobsled race in the ‘Winter Olympics Special’ from a few years ago, May has another crack at the Lillehammer race, this time pitting Mini’s newest World Rally Championship contender against Olympic champion skeleton racer Amy Williams.

Rock star and car aficionado Alice Cooper is this episode’s ‘Star In A Reasonably-Priced Car’, and Jeremy closes the episode with a fitting tribute to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the iconic Jaguar E-Type.

Like we said at the top, it’s a very good episode.