The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois – all you need to know about the lockdown special

The Grand Tour trio are back, and this time they’re casting an eye across the English Channel to delve into the bizarre world of French motoring.

After their first ‘Lochdown’ special took Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May to the highlands of Scotland, their latest episode sees them stay in the UK to examine how French attitudes towards life are reflected in their cars, driving habits and rules of the road.

In the hour-long special, The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois, the three seek to answer several burning questions: Why are French cars so weird? Why don’t French drivers look after their motors? And why is French pop music so rubbish?

On the way they uncover fascinating French laws, race the hottest hatchbacks the country has to offer and imagine how a Renault Megane ad might have looked in the hands of an avant-garde director.

 Where was Carnage A Trois filmed?

Travel restrictions due to the Coronavirus pandemic prevented the Grand Tour crew from filming outside the UK, and so Carnage A Trois was filmed in England and Wales, from the Black Mountains of the Welsh border to the White Cliffs of Dover. 

Is there a trailer?

Oh yes. Get a taste of Carnage A Trois by watching the trailer below.

What cars do the hosts drive?

Clarkson, Hammond and May take a whole hypermarché car park's worth of French cars on the road, up mountains and around the racetrack. Jeremy drops croissant crumbs over the interior of a Citroen CX Safari, Richard ponders the logic behind the Matra Murena’s three front seats while James wrestles with the doors of the Renault Avantime.

Six hot hatches are taken for a spin around a Kent racetrack, while the trio go off-roading à la francaise by driving three family cars over terrain normally reserved for 4x4s.

The team also get the measure of a Renault 4’s wonky wheelbase, submit that gallic icon, a Citroen 2CV, to the ultimate stress test and - in a stunning finale - attempt to send the “horrid” Citroen Pluriel back to the land of its maker in typical Grand Tour style.

Richard Hammond even takes one of the oddest vehicles ever produced in France (or anywhere, for that matter) for a spin – a propeller-driven car.

“It had an internal combustion engine on it, but it powered a propeller rather than driving the wheels through a prop shaft and drive shafts,” Hammond explains.

“Some French person thought, ‘Yep, a propeller-powered car, don’t see any problems with that’. More incredibly, hundreds of French people then said, ‘Yes, I’ll buy one’.

“I got to drive it, and it was utterly terrifying. It was really quite alarming with this big blender proceeding down the road ahead of me.”

Will there be more lockdown specials?

After filming the two UK-based specials, Grand Tour producer Andy Wilman hopes that the team will get back on the road – and out of the country – very soon.

“The immediate future is that we’re now hoping that, as much as we’ve enjoyed doing these lockdown ones, we’re getting our passports out of the drawers again, and we’re off to foreign climes. That’s what our focus is on now,” he says.

When can I watch Carnage A Trois?

The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois launches on Prime Video on Friday December 17.