Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have revealed the first picture from the new Amazon Prime motoring show in the wake of their split from the BBC.
Ex-Top Gear presenter Clarkson tweeted a picture of himself, Hammond and May standing in front of the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918 Spyder with the following words: “With a skeleton crew, filming for Amazon Prime’s new motoring programme has begun.”
Keen-eyed motoring experts have named the track in the photo as the ‘Autodromo Internacional Algarve’ – also known as the Algarve International Circuit – located in Portimao of Portugal.
This fact was backed up by Portimao Council, which told the Portugal News it would be big news for tourism when the show airs.
Clarkson previously posted a picture of a sunrise on the same day as the Amazon Prime tweet, suggesting the ‘very special day’ mentioned was, in fact, referring to the first day of filming since his contract was never renewed by the BBC after a ‘fracas‘ (punch-up) with producer Oisin Tymon.
May and Hammond also tweeted the same picture. Hammond said: “The band is back together and it feels brilliant.” May said: “First day at work.”
The tweets represent the first real bit of promotion since the announcement Amazon had paid a lot of money for a three-season motoring show hosted by the world famous Brit trio. It is being produced by former Top Gear producer Andy Wilman.
Though details are scarce, the picture does seem like a subtle middle-finger at the BBC as Clarkson had wanted to get the three hybrid hypercars together for a showdown, but sadly the respective manufacturers made that impossible and then the show ended as we know it.
It seems, however, that the Amazon Prime show will get the privilege, presumably thanks to three hypercar owners deciding they would rather see the cars do battle than upgrade to the next model (Ferrari said it would take people off the list if they lent a car to Top Gear).
A number of reports suggest the show will be called Gear Knobs, but neither Amazon or Clarkson has confirmed this and is unlikely to do so until an official announcement. Sadly ‘House of Cars’ now seems unlikely.
Amazon Prime is said to be spending £160 million on 36 episodes split into three seasons over three years, a total of £4.5 million per show. Clarkson is set to earn £10 million a year.
Radio presenter and car enthusiast Chris Evans is heading up the new series of Top Gear. His co-hosts have yet to be announced. The BBC used a public audition anyone could enter to try and find the next Clarkson.
Got a bit of time on your hands? Jeremy Clarkson quiz: Who said what?
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