Richard Hammond Unveils His New Ride: An American V8 ‘With A Sense Of Humour’
Richard Hammond has been on a roll when it comes to collecting cars. In a new video on Drivetribe, the Grand Tour presenter takes the cover off his new car (not exactly new) which could be a bit of a surprise to many. He also goes on to explain why he bought such a car which, to be honest, many of us wouldn’t prefer in any way. But hey, it’s got a 6.0 litre V8 motor (read motor in Clarkson style) in it, if that works for you.
The video starts off with how they had kept the new addition a secret when Hammond’s Subaru Impreza from the Scandi Flick was picked up from the storage barn. Now though, Hammond has unveiled it. The new addition is the Chevrolet SSR that he drove during The Grand Tour Euro Crash.
The 2-seater hard top convertible ‘sports pickup truck’ from Chevy is something he decided to keep because of the engine and also because it had the word ‘pickup truck’ in its name, I guess. What other reason can there be because power-wise, Hammond says it produces just around 390 bhp, hitting 60 mph in precisely 5.29 seconds, in an engine that was particularly known for overheating.
Hammond goes on to the Chevy badge being held in place with one screw and several arrow hits on it that came from the Hungarian archers who were on horseback in the show. He then explains a complicated process of opening the lid on the pickup bed because it can be operated electrically only. For that, Hammond had to reconnect the battery that kept the engine fan on all the time and power it on, to open the lid, just to show how small and impractical the entire boot was. He said:
I’ve isolated the battery because it goes flat sitting for long periods of time so. This, this is not a practical working feature, is it?
Hammond then comes to the point of why he bought it. He revealed that he liked the ‘sports pickup truck’ for its sense of humour. And that’s why he bought it for the road trip that no one has ever done, in a car that no one has ever thought of driving. He says there’s something in the car he likes, mostly to do with its sense of humour, a car you can’t take seriously. As he smiled like a five-year-old, going on about why he liked it, he added:
“Look at it! It’s a massive over wheeled six-liter V8-powered convertible hard top heavily compromised sports pickup! That’s a bit of me.”
What’s he going to do next? Of course, it’s Hammond so he’ll customize it. He asked viewers for their idea. His idea is to make it a bit flamboyant and bring the funny side of the truck out. And I wonder, how much more humour can you add by watching Hammond in that? I guess, a lot of it!
