The Grand Tour’s ‘Moroccan Roll’ Timed Lap Is A Lie

In the “Moroccan Roll” episode of The Grand Tour we got to see Jeremy Clarkson and his Alfa Romeo 4C, Richard Hammond with his Mazda MX-5 Miata, and James May in his Zenos E10S, driving through a movie studio in Morocco. In it we got to see the Game of Thrones set and sets from other movies like Jewel Of The Nile. In the episode the Boys decided to turn the film studio into a track, featuring straights and turns that wound through various movie sets, effectively blending both motorsports and film history into a single concept.

This ended up being a terrific piece of film as we saw Clarkson narrowly squeezing through tight corridors, storming Khaleesi’s castle, and blasting through the set of Jesus Of Nazareth. However we were never presented with official lap times at the end of the episode. This ambiguity, as well as the curious editing between the Game of Thrones portions of the race, got us thinking that the “Moroccan Roll” timed lap was one gigantic Grand Tour lie. We did what every investigative journalist would do, we headed to Google, Google Maps.

As you can see from the map above the Atlas Film Studios, which is the bulk of the timed lap track, is located ridiculously far from the Game of Thrones set (located roughly a half a mile north). This would have made for a very boring hot lap where the Zenos E10S could have easily destroyed the other cars because of its sheer horsepower advantage. Instead the Zenos finished last in the film (Granted it was driven by James May, aka Captain Slow, so this theory might as well be complete and utter crap.)

We were ready to stop our speculation there until The Grand Tour released a 360 degree clip of Jeremy Clarkson driving his Alfa Romeo 4C. The clip alone is FANTASTIC as we got to see Clarkson bust out his driving skills with zero editing. After having driven supercars for multiple decades he definitely has the skills to handle the mid-engined Alfa around the loose track. However, as evidenced in the clip he’s not seen entering the Game of Thrones castle at all:

So there you have it folks, THE TIMED LAP IS A LIE! And it was all cleverly stitched together for our entertainment. We suggest you go back to this episode and check out the clever transitions between the two distinct sets. Something was clearly afoot.

So what does this all mean? It ultimately means that we at Shifting Lanes have too much time on our hands to be scrutinizing a small portion of The Grand Tour episode, and we’d like to thank you for letting us entertain you with this conspiracy theory. And since you’ve made it this far, let us reward you with a cringeworthy performance by Danny DeVito in the Jewel Of The Nile trailer from 1985… Let’s see if you can spot the same places seen in “Moroccan Roll”.