The presenters from YouTube channel Throttle House and a viral trainspotter could be the new trio.
A new trio is set to take over The Grand Tour from Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, according to a report from The Sun.
Thomas Holland and James Engelsman, who run the Throttle House YouTube channel, will reportedly be taking over hosting duties alongside Francis Bourgeois, a viral social media trainspotter. The folks from Throttle House are a natural choice, as they’ve been reviewing cars for years, and amassing quite the audience doing so; their channel currently sits at 3.26 million subscribers. Meanwhile, Bourgeois has accumulated 3.3 million followers on TikTok for his enthusiastic trainspotting ventures.
Take all of the above with a grain of salt, however, because this “announcement” is not official. The Sun cites “insiders” as its source.
“Thomas and James are as knowledgeable about motors as Jeremy, Richard and James — the only difference is they’re younger, cooler and a lot more social media savvy,” says the source cited by The Sun. “Francis became famous for his love of trainspotting and will be bringing his humor to the show.”
Clarkson, Hammond, and May officially wrapped up their Grand Tour careers last year with the episode “One for the Road,” in which they traveled through Zimbabwe in three cars they’ve always pined after and reflected on their careers and the adventures both Top Gear and The Grand Tour took them on.
If this new trio of Holland, Engelsman, and Bourgeois is final, it’s likely to be an unorthodox one. While the Throttle House duo has been working together to review cars for years, Bourgeois brings a perspective opposite that of most traditional auto journalists in that he’s first and foremost a train enthusiast. He’s also a mechanical engineer, however, and his videos are certainly funny.
But what’s the car connection? Bourgeois has posted about his Honda Jazz on his social media channels, which he says is his girlfriend’s dream car. He even collaborated with Chris Harris on a video with the Jazz, in which Harris takes him for a lap around Anglesey to show him the ropes of track driving. Harris also stars in one of Bourgeois’s videos driving the extremely rare Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG Cabriolet; Bourgeois sits in the backseat as Harris chases a train down for him in the CLK, and remarks that being in the car is a dream.
Now that this report is out, it might not be long before Amazon makes an official announcement, so stay tuned.
