Grand Tour Ford - Raptor Episode

The final insult came on a flat, dusty plain. Here, the Raptor was finally in its element. Hammond was bouncing around in the Jeep, feeling every pebble. May in the Chevy was complaining about the ride quality. Jeremy, meanwhile, was floating on a cloud of Fox Racing suspension, hitting washboard roads at 70 mph as if he were on a magic carpet.

“Look at it,” Jeremy beamed, patting its bulging fender like a prized bull. “It’s got ‘Baja’ written on the side. It’s got a skid plate the size of a cricket pitch. It has foxes . Live foxes, I think, bouncing around inside the suspension. This isn’t a car. It’s a small, angry planet.”

The real baptism, however, came at the “river of sorrows,” a rushing, boulder-strewn death trap that the production team had laughably described as a “ford.” Hammond in the Jeep went first, bouncing and sliding but ultimately surviving. May in the Chevy went next, with all the grace of a librarian waltzing—cautious, effective, but utterly boring. grand tour ford raptor episode

But physics, and The Grand Tour , always have the last laugh. The Raptor’s sheer size, which was its superpower on the open desert, became its kryptonite on the final “bridge”—two rotten logs laid over a swamp. The Jeep danced across. The Chevy tip-toed. The Raptor’s front tires went on the logs, and the back tires… went on either side. The result was a 6,000-pound pickup performing an unplanned, slow-motion split, its belly resting on the mud while its wheels spun helplessly.

“It doesn’t fit ,” Hammond cackled from his narrow, nimble Jeep, which was threading through the gaps like a sewing machine needle. The final insult came on a flat, dusty plain

The trio had been given a simple task: cross 800 miles of the most brutal, beautiful, and utterly ridiculous terrain on the planet, from the Caribbean coast to the Pacific. Their weapons? Three American off-road titans. Hammond, with the manic gleam of a terrier, had chosen the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. May, predictably, had chosen the sensible, if slightly clinical, Chevrolet Silverado ZR2. And Clarkson? Clarkson had chosen a hammer. A 450-horsepower, 510 lb-ft torque, desert-racing, dune-jumping, tree-swallowing hammer: the .

The trouble began five minutes into the first jungle trail. The Raptor, you see, is six inches wider than the Silverado and four inches wider than the Jeep. On a normal road, that’s “presence.” On a Colombian mountain pass carved by donkeys, where the road was a single muddy groove between a rock face and a 2,000-foot drop, it was a problem . May in the Chevy was complaining about the ride quality

Here’s a fun, detailed story based on The Grand Tour Season 3, Episode 2 (titled “The Colombia Special”), which famously featured the Ford F-150 Raptor alongside a Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 and a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. The Amazonian sun hadn’t even risen over the Colombian mountains, but Jeremy Clarkson was already yelling. Not at Richard Hammond or James May—yet—but at a recalcitrant can of coffee. “It’s frozen,” he grumbled, shaking the tin. “It’s the equator . How is it frozen?”

The final insult came on a flat, dusty plain. Here, the Raptor was finally in its element. Hammond was bouncing around in the Jeep, feeling every pebble. May in the Chevy was complaining about the ride quality. Jeremy, meanwhile, was floating on a cloud of Fox Racing suspension, hitting washboard roads at 70 mph as if he were on a magic carpet.

“Look at it,” Jeremy beamed, patting its bulging fender like a prized bull. “It’s got ‘Baja’ written on the side. It’s got a skid plate the size of a cricket pitch. It has foxes . Live foxes, I think, bouncing around inside the suspension. This isn’t a car. It’s a small, angry planet.”

The real baptism, however, came at the “river of sorrows,” a rushing, boulder-strewn death trap that the production team had laughably described as a “ford.” Hammond in the Jeep went first, bouncing and sliding but ultimately surviving. May in the Chevy went next, with all the grace of a librarian waltzing—cautious, effective, but utterly boring.

But physics, and The Grand Tour , always have the last laugh. The Raptor’s sheer size, which was its superpower on the open desert, became its kryptonite on the final “bridge”—two rotten logs laid over a swamp. The Jeep danced across. The Chevy tip-toed. The Raptor’s front tires went on the logs, and the back tires… went on either side. The result was a 6,000-pound pickup performing an unplanned, slow-motion split, its belly resting on the mud while its wheels spun helplessly.

“It doesn’t fit ,” Hammond cackled from his narrow, nimble Jeep, which was threading through the gaps like a sewing machine needle.

The trio had been given a simple task: cross 800 miles of the most brutal, beautiful, and utterly ridiculous terrain on the planet, from the Caribbean coast to the Pacific. Their weapons? Three American off-road titans. Hammond, with the manic gleam of a terrier, had chosen the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. May, predictably, had chosen the sensible, if slightly clinical, Chevrolet Silverado ZR2. And Clarkson? Clarkson had chosen a hammer. A 450-horsepower, 510 lb-ft torque, desert-racing, dune-jumping, tree-swallowing hammer: the .

The trouble began five minutes into the first jungle trail. The Raptor, you see, is six inches wider than the Silverado and four inches wider than the Jeep. On a normal road, that’s “presence.” On a Colombian mountain pass carved by donkeys, where the road was a single muddy groove between a rock face and a 2,000-foot drop, it was a problem .

Here’s a fun, detailed story based on The Grand Tour Season 3, Episode 2 (titled “The Colombia Special”), which famously featured the Ford F-150 Raptor alongside a Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 and a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. The Amazonian sun hadn’t even risen over the Colombian mountains, but Jeremy Clarkson was already yelling. Not at Richard Hammond or James May—yet—but at a recalcitrant can of coffee. “It’s frozen,” he grumbled, shaking the tin. “It’s the equator . How is it frozen?”