The Grand Tour will use ending from Russia special that was axed 'because of Putin'

The Grand Tour's new special, Eurocrash, will use an ending stunt that the team had originally planned to use in Russia but can no longer do so, Jeremy Clarkson has revealed.

Clarkson will reunite with James May and Richard Hammond for the Prime Video series special, which sees them travel through Central Europe and focusing on countries that were previously behind the Iron Curtain.

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They will start in Gdańsk, in Poland, before travelling through the country and then heading to Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia.

The Grand Tour will use ending from axed Russia special

The presenter has shared how the programme's ending will feature a stunt they had planned to use in a special in Russia, the trio were meant to visit the country pre-COVID for a special and though they intended to try and film there after lockdown the special was ultimately scrapped in 2021 because of the pandemic.

Reflecting on the stunt, he said: "It involves a plane and it’s the ending we'd planned originally in Russia, that we couldn’t do because of Putin.

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"We moved the ending into Scandinavia [for their 2022 special, A Scandi Flick], but we couldn't do it then either because the crew of the plane caught Covid.

"We've had this ending up our sleeves for about five years and we’ve finally pulled it off. We actually had a Ukrainian crew on that plane which was rather nice."

Hammond also spoke of the special's final stunt, sharing: "There’s a sequence with a plane which is epic. It does look awesome. It's the kind of thing you wanted to do as a kid: drive a big V-engine car onto the back of a transport plane. It’s got all of that in it. It’s not dialled down, it’s dialled up."

Without revealing too much, executive producer Andy Willman said of the stunt:"We have a stunt with a big plane that we’ve tried to do about three times and couldn’t because of Covid, so we finally got to blow our money on a great expensive plane."

James May bought his car whilst drunk and regretted it immediately

The Euro Crash special sees Clarkson, Hammond and May drive cars that nobody would use for a 1400-mile journey, but May took it one step further by buying his car after a drunken night out.

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While Clarkson chose a Mitsuoka Le-Seyde and Hammond used a Chevrolet, May went with a Crosley that he found was so slow he actually chose to use the back-up car, something that has never happened on the show before.

He explained: "Nobody has ever had to resort to the back-up car before. And to be honest, I didn't have to, I chose to, but the Crosley was so slow and uncomfortable and frankly a bit dangerous."

May said of the back-up car: "It was a Hot Rod that said ‘Beer and T***ies’ on the side. It’s the most embarrassing decision I've ever had to take in my life, but I had to balance my desire for survival in the Crosley against my desperate need not to come across as in any way insulting in the Hot Rod because it's not really a very appropriate thing."

Unfortunately for May, the back-up car also broke down which meant he missed a lot of the things that were planned for the trip, like racing in Poznań.

The Grand Tour: Eurocrash launches on Prime Video on Friday, 16 June, 2023.