The Grand Tour

Jeremy Clarkson Outlines How Lucky James May Was In Grand Tour Crash: “Massive Accident!”

The Grand Tour: A Scandi Flick is planned to come to Prime Video later this month, but fans of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May will already be expecting a lot of what’s to come. No, not because the trailer’s been released or the interviews the trio has done, but because we’ve all seen the headlines of James May crashing his Mitsubishi into a wall at a ridiculous speed.

A Scandi Flick will follow the presenters as they drive three rally-bred cars around the wilderness of Norway. But James’ travels came to a temporary but abrupt stop as he crashed his Evo 8 into a wall during a tunnel race. Failing to brake in time, the presenter slides the car sideways before it hit the wall at the end of the tunnel.

The Our Man in Italy presenter broke a rib and was taken to hospital where he received brain scans after hitting his head on car’s interior. Fortunately, he was able to continued filming the next day and, if Clarkson is to be believed, he was very lucky to get out of this one.

Comparing the crash to Hammond’s accident in the Rimac Concept One, Jeremy told Grand Tour Nation and other press the following:

“It was a massive accident. You know when Hammond has an accident, he keeps going after the accident has begun.

“And this is what people need to remember with accidents: you can roll down a road upside down and on fire for as long as you like, and it’s very unlikely you’ll get hurt.

“What hurts you is coming to a sudden stop. And that’s what happened to James.”

Jeremy then jokingly belittled his co-presenters crash in the all-electric hypercar:

“Richard, when he went upside down, didn’t come to a sudden stop. That’s why he’s still here today.

“I’m not entirely certain how fast James hit that rock face, but I’m going to say 40 miles an hour. And from 40 miles an hour to a dead stop is more dangerous than rolling down a hill.

“I was standing right next to him when he crashed. I mean, 10 feet away. And I couldn’t believe how fast he was going.”

James, as always, was very nonchalant about his accident, telling us:

“It was a strange lapse of ­character on my part. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was trying to win, but I don’t normally care about that either. Maybe it was too much reindeer meat. Or air pressure.

“But it’s still going to be mainly Richard Hammond. When I have a crash, I destroy a car that’s worth £15,000.

“When Hammond has a crash he writes off a £1million ­prototype. That’s the difference — I know not to overdo it.”

He continued, outlining the reason behind the crash:

“I must have left ­braking a fraction too late. As soon as I knew I needed to stop, I realised I wasn’t going to do it.

“I think you can see from the footage that I should try to hit (the wall) sideways and not hit any ­people or cameras on tripods. I knew I’d f***ed it up.”

The Grand Tour presents: A Scandi Flick launches on Prime Video on 16th September 2022

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

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