After getting rid of The American earlier this month, The Grand Tour‘s search for a new benchmark driver marches on. With F1 legend Mark Webber and Hammond’s stuntman unlikely to get a callback, James May has brought in a third candidate: a former car thief.
Aside from the obvious risk of letting a convicted felon behind the wheel of the show’s often-high-dollar machinery, having a reformed car thief serve as The Grand Tour‘s test driver isn’t the worst idea we’ve ever heard. As James points out, car thieves know how to drive fast and flamboyantly. And since he’s ever only going to be racing against himself, the fact that a thief may not be as fast as a classically-trained racer like Webber or ex-Stig Ben Collins isn’t really an issue. Plus, given that time was served and lessons were learned, everybody deserves a second chance… right?
Okay, so maybe letting somebody with grand theft auto on his rap sheet loose in a $125,000, limited-run Bimmer wasn’t the greatest idea they’ve ever had.
The Grand Tour Season 2 begins Dec. 8. In the meantime, residents in and around Swindon, UK are advised to be on the lookout for a blue BMW M4 CS with license plate YL17 FPU.