But the episode’s genius lies not in the cars, but in the guest. To guide them through the frozen hellscape, they enlist rally legend Petter Solberg—a man whose manic grin and complete disregard for personal safety terrify the trio more than any cliff edge in Mozambique. Solberg isn’t a guest; he’s a force of nature. He teaches them the “Scandi Flick,” the rally technique of throwing a car sideways into a corner before the apex. Watching May’s clinical, careful brain short-circuit as Solberg screams “FOOT DOWN! FOOT DOWN!” is comedic gold.
The premise is deceptively simple. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May reunite in the frozen fjords of Norway to celebrate the internal combustion engine before the electric apocalypse. Their weapons? Three all-wheel-drive heroes from the golden age of petrol: Clarkson in a brutally fast Audi RS4 Avant, Hammond in a rally-bred Subaru WRX STI, and May in a clinical Honda Civic Type R. best episode of the grand tour
While fans will argue for the bombastic desert chaos of “Mongolia – The Survival of the Fittest” or the poignant finality of “One for the Road,” “A Scandi Flick” (originally released as part of the 2022 winter series) is the Grand Tour thesis statement. It is the episode where the show finally stopped trying to outrun its own shadow—the shadow of Top Gear —and simply became the best version of itself. But the episode’s genius lies not in the
The trio attempts to cross a frozen sea. Not a lake, but a sea—with tides, pressure ridges, and ice that groans like a dying whale. There is a moment, mid-episode, where Hammond’s Subaru breaks through a layer of slush. The camera holds on his face. It’s not the exaggerated terror of the Top Gear days. It’s a real, quiet calculation: Am I about to sink into the Arctic Ocean? He teaches them the “Scandi Flick,” the rally