The Triumph Stag saw a huge resurgence in popularity after the final episode of The Grand Tour (Screenshot: The Grand Tour / YouTube)
The curtain may be closing on the television careers of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, but their immense influence on the car world is still clear even after the trio’s last-ever episode.
Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour drew to a close when the two-hour special ‘One For The Road’ released on September 13. In it, the former Top Gear hosts took three classic cars on an emotional journey through Zimbabwe and Botswana. Clarkson used a Lancia Montecarlo, Hammond a Mk1 Ford Capri GXL, and May went with a surprisingly reliable 1974 Triumph Stag.
In the week following the episode’s release, Auto Trader UK indicated a massive spike in searches for the latter two vehicles, particularly May’s Triumph Stag.
Richard Hammond chose a Mk1 Capri for the adventure, of which 1.2 million examples were made (Screenshot: The Grand Tour / YouTube)
As reported by Motor1, search traffic for the Stag in particular shot up by 793 percent. Although not quite as astronomic an increase, Ford Capri searches rose by 185 percent.
Hammond isn’t the only globally recognised figure with a recent attachment to the Mk1 Capri, either, as celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is sending his to auction later this month.
The Lancia Montecarlo chosen by Jeremy Clarkson was the one exception to the increase in online attention (Screenshot: The Grand Tour / YouTube)
However, despite the popularity of the Ford and the Triumph, the Lancia Montecarlo which Clarkson opted for was not accounted for among the numbers shared by Auto Trader, indicating it didn’t see quite the same resurgence in popularity.
Of course, despite it’s pretty looks, the Pininfarina-designed Montecarlo never reached quite the same level of interest as the Capri or Stag in the first place, with only 7798 examples built between 1975 and 1981.
By comparison, 25,939 Stags were produced, while the Mk1 Capri was a household name with 1.2 million built.
