If, like me, you loved Top equipment2015 will forever live in your memory as the day when Top equipment theme music died.
Luckily, it didn’t take long for Amazon to give us all hope that it wasn’t over yet when the infamous trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May signed a big-money long-term deal with the company synonymous with questionable products.
That deal led to the launch of Amazon Prime Video in Australia (and even many parts of the free world) and opened the door for Australian motoring dramas to see more of their favorite car presenters.
Say what you want The big round some love it, some hate it. The same can be said Top equipment. I bear no ill will towards those of you who don’t get a kick out of three idiots falling over and driving a car every now and then.
However, I will forever regard September 13, 2024 as my equivalent of American Pie.
Of course I don’t have a Chevy and I won’t be visiting any dikes, but it will be a long time before the credits roll on the very last car special of Clarkson, Hammond and May.
See, I wouldn’t be here, working at AutoExpertcreating car video content when there wasn’t one Top equipment. I’m 33, which means I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of watching anything for almost two-thirds of my life. Top equipment team expertly crafted and broadcast on television.
It was 2006 when I first discovered the holy trinity of automotive journalists (apologies to our resident AutoExpert journalists). It was a slightly older episode where they raced an Aston Martin DB9 against the Eurostar from England to Monte Carlo. Man caused a chain reaction that day.
I was obsessed. And as I got older and more into filmmaking, I started paying more attention to the production of the show. The way it was recorded, the editing techniques, the colors, the sound.
Yes, at first glance it was about a middle-aged man gliding around a disused air base in an exotic sports car, but when you dug a little deeper, it was a crew of masters perfecting their craft.
Top equipmentand later The Grand Tourpioneered many incredible car-based filmmaking techniques, and even influenced the way some films are shot today.
Take cameras in the car. While the idea of a car-mounted camera may have been around for decades, it generally required regular stops to replace film stock, reset lighting, or replace the battery.
The BBC production team, led by Andy Wilman, found new ways to mount small cameras on car windscreens, even creating mounts, suction cup mounts and long-lasting power/recording systems that allowed the boys to drive all day without constant worry having to worry about whether the camera was going to capture everything.
They pioneered in-car filming, initially strapping a guy and a camera into the back of a Range Rover and later working with outside companies to develop smaller exterior mounting systems that can be used for longer periods of time, rather than to rely on the “traditional Hollywood” approach of a Russian arm.
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Credit: Jacek Wyszynsk Photography
Then there was the editing. The ability of Wilman, Clarkson and the post-production team to take hundreds of hours of footage and turn it into a funny, charismatic and beautifully moving piece of art set a new industry standard – one that may never have been surpassed.
I, along with dozens of other people working in the automotive journalism industry, owe our existence to these guys. The techniques they developed and the styles they pioneered are used by us every day.
From the way we mount cameras in cars, the positioning and the lighting, we have learned from it all Top equipment. The way we film cars driving past the camera, doing stunts or even taking road trips are all affected by it.
While here at AutoExpert We’ve moved away from the heavy storytelling style of video content in an effort to help people buy new cars. Whenever we get the chance, we’ll put something in a video – especially something that isn’t a regular car review.
We all knew for a while that this day would come. When the trio all started doing their own intensive projects, it was clear that they wanted to put their road trips to bed. I can’t blame the guys, 22 years is a long time in any position, let alone the kind of workload this job entails.
Those adventures where they spend a week or two in the wilderness to give us 90 minutes of fun, entertaining television would be extremely intense. But they always present a beautiful, neat product, even if you don’t necessarily like the content.
As I slowly accept that I just saw their last performance, I will remember the good times.
The Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust (better known as Geoff), the TG V12 train, a Bugatti Veyron racing against a slow plane, a Veyron racing against a very fast plane, Hammond’s horrific rocket car crash, Michael Schumacher being “revealed” as The Stig, Senna’s great mini-documentary, in which Hammond crashes a million-dollar electric car.
There’s also the original Botswana Special, the India and Vietnam and North Pole specials, building John up and driving him through Mongolia and Jeremy Clarkson breaking down in tears in the Grand Tour tent when they announced that they will no longer host a public-facing TV show.
To see them perform Top gear live and the one-off Top Gear Festival in Sydney is still fresh in my memory.
The things these shows have done over the last twenty years, the spin-offs they’ve spawned, the recognition they have, is what any other TV show could only dream of. But in the end it was always just one “small car program on BBC 2”. And that little car show changed my world.
So as I sit in silent contemplation and relive the closing credits, the bridge from American Pie plays in my head; “and the three men I admired most, the father, the son and the holy spirit, took the last train to the coast, the day the music died”.
Of course, our trio had a much more successful career than Buddy Holly and his friends, and Jezza, Hamster and Mr Slowly most likely drove, but not to a coast (as Zimbabwe is a landlocked nation). But take a moment, fire up the music player of your choice and get started.”Jessica” by The Allman Brothers, for old time sake.
Like Top equipment before, while The Grand Tour No matter how a name lives on, it will never be the same without our three anti-heroes. I imagine Mr Wilman will also hand in his parking pass, as will large parts of the crew who followed them from the BBC to Amazon.
Not only is this the end of the road for Clarkson, Hammond and May, it’s likely the end of the road for the crew that has brought us so much joy all these years.
For me, September 13, 2024 will forever live as one of my saddest days…in the world.
