When the trailer for the upcoming new season of Top Gear was released, we were cautiously optimistic. Cunningly released just after the final episode of The Grand Tour, the reunion of hosts Matt Le Blanc, Rory Reid and Chris Harris looked very promising indeed - the short clips shown so far already look more entertaining than last year's disastrous season. Turns out we don't have too long to wait until the show's triumphant return. It's been confirmed that the new season will air on March 5th in the UK, so you don't have long to wait.

Having said that, North America will have to wait an extra week or so, as the show will premiere on BBC America on March 13th. That's still sooner than we expected, considering that the last season only wrapped up in July last year.

So, what can you expect from the new season? Copious amounts of cars, obviously. A full season preview hasn't been released yet, but we know we'll get to see Chris Harris drift the wild 1,036-hp Ferrari FXX K, Rory Reid racing a London taxi across the Kazakhstan wilderness, and Matt LeBlanc tame the twin-turbo V12-engined Aston Martin DB11. Judging by previous seasons, six new episodes will air, but we're hoping for either a longer season, or another season later in the year – especially after The Grand Tour spoiled us with 13 episodes in its debut run. There's no word yet if the after-show Extra Gear will be returning, which provided a behind the scenes look at some of the show's films last year.

With Chris Evans no longer in creative control, we reckon this could be the revitalized Top Gear we were promised last year. Dare we say it, we also think it could be a better, more focused car show for gearheads than The Grand Tour, which didn't always get the balance between comedy and car content right. Still, Clarkson, Hammond and May recently admitted that they never wanted the new Top Gear to fail – there's room for two car shows, after all. Hopefully the new season will be as fun to watch as it looks like it was to film.