The Best Episodes Directed By Gavin Whitehead

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are in China to sell the virtues of second-hand Western luxury cars to local business people while getting sweaty, lost and almost burnt. Also in this show, Hammond is at the track to test the NIO EP9 electric supercar.

Jeremy Clarkson is in Sweden driving the new Lamborghini Urus SUV, James May is at the Eboladrome trying the Alpine A110 sports car, and Richard Hammond profiles Scottish racing driver Jim Clark, arguably the greatest racer of any generation.

Jeremy Clarkson tests two modernised versions of classic Lancias. James May looks back at the incredible story of the Porsche 917 and Richard Hammond joins Clarkson at Stansted airport as the pair attempt to speed up the journey from check-in to security to the actual aeroplane by devising two radical takes on the idea of motorised hand luggage.

In the first episode of a brand new season, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May make a pilgrimage to Detroit to drive three highly tuned muscle cars on the deserted streets of this once-great motor city. Also in this show, Jeremy drives the super-lightweight, super-hardcore, 789 horsepower McLaren Senna.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May celebrate the affordable, practical and fun wonder that is the hot hatchback. With Clarkson in the VW Polo GTI, Hammond in the Ford Fiesta ST and May in the unpronounceable Toyota Yaris GRMN.

In this episode, Richard Hammond and James May work out that the average motorist loses 36 days of their lives filling up with fuel. The pair vow to do something about it using their skill and ingenuity to invent a system for filling up on the move.…

We can look forward to seeing Hammond testing the new Aston Martin V8 Vantage. He compares it to his favourite car the Porsche 911. James May gives us a history lesson as he takes a look at the cars driven by the astronauts of the Apollo moon missions. Clarkson is testing the Citroen C3 Aircross as he attempts to convince the others that it’s spacious, versatile and better than an elephant.

For the opening episode, we are in Switzerland where the presenters compare a Lamborghini Aventador S, a Honda NSX and an all-electric Croatian supercar called the Rimac Concept One in a battle of past, present and future. Richard's hillclimb takes an unexpected turn. And Ricky Wilson of The Voice UK and David Hasselhoff from America's Got Talent go head-to-head in the all-new Celebrity Face Off.

Jeremy, Richard and James reluctantly agree to test three SUVs in the rugged landscapes of Canada – Jeremy in the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, Richard in the Porsche Macan Turbo Performance Pack and James in the Range Rover Velar. The boys will test their cars' sporting side at a race track and their utilitarian side with some enormous dogs, before ending in an epic race across the snowy mountains. Jeremy embarks on a legally perilous test of the Tesla Model X. This will mark the first time he's driven a Tesla on-screen since the controversial Roadster review in 2008. Celebrity Face Off finds the world's fastest golf enthusiast as Rory McIlroy takes on Paris Hilton.

The Grand Tour tent is in Kakslauttanen, Finland, deep within the Arctic Circle with a show in which Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson compare the Ford Mustang V8 and the Ford Focus RS, James May recounts the bitter 1960s battle for endurance racing supremacy between Ferrari and Ford, and the presenters run through some ideal Christmas gifts for car fans.

Jeremy Clarkson and James May introduce a battle between their own, personal cars. Jeremy champions the past with his Volkswagen Golf GTI while James makes a case for the future with his electrically powered BMW i3. Meanwhile, Richard Hammond is in France learning how to drift a car like a pro, and James is sent to a damp part of England to take part, against his will, in a strange sport called winching. Plus, the recently deceased Bugatti Veyron takes part in a drag race against the current hypercar speed champion, the Porsche 918 Spyder.

This week, The Grand Tour arrives in Stuttgart, the home of Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. In this show, James May takes the new Honda NSX supercar to the Eboladrome to push its cutting-edge hybrid technology to the limit and Richard Hammond immerses himself in the world of doomsday preppers as he constructs a ‘bugout’ vehicle that will allow him to survive a bleak future of nuclear winters, alien invasions and massed herds of zombies. Meanwhile, in a less realistic attempt at engineering, Jeremy Clarkson invents a new kind of fashionable SUV. Also in this show, the hosts attempt to meet the future demands of electric cars by harnessing power from the currently untapped actions of everyday life.