Richard Hammond Emotionally Recalls Horror Top Gear Crash: “Strange Feeling”
The Grand Tour presenter, Richard Hammond, has reflected on his 2006 horror crash while filming Top Gear.
Hammond had to be put into a medically induced coma after becoming severely injured whilst crashing a high-speed dragster on the show. Hammond was going 320 mph in the jet-powered dragster, Vampire, when the crash happened at the former RAF Elvington airbase close to York. Now, over 15 years later, Hammond has revealed during an interview on Good Morning Britain, that he is finally able to watch the footage back.
The former Top Gear host has also been seen on the DriveTribe YouTube channel getting back into the car for a reconstruction special.
Richard Hammond
‘Good Morning Britain’ TV show, London, UK – 18 Nov 2016
In a Daytime exclusive, Richard discusses the new series, bigger budgets and leaving the BBC behind., it’s the much anticipated return of Clarkson, Hammond and May in The Grand Tour!
During the interview, Hammond was asked if he found it difficult to watch the crash footage back. He revealed:
“I think I did for a while but not so much now,”
“Not really. I have now – but not a lot, no. It was quite bumpy.”
Hammond went on to explain that actually getting back into the car was a very weird experience. He explained:
“It came about (because) I had the guys from DriveTribe over at my place and we were trying to plan a look ahead to the year,”
“And one of them said, ‘You do know that car has now been restored and rebuilt just down the road from where you live?’
“And it seemed too good an opportunity, so we rang them.”
Hammond continued to say that he jumped at the chance to go and see the Vampire dragster again although reality hit when he got there.
“It was all a bit of fun until the moment came.
“And you can see it on the little video on the platform – and I got in and I did go a bit quiet. It was, ‘Oh, hang on’.”
He recalled being in the car the first time around where he could remember getting in but as the crash left him unconscious, he couldn’t remember getting out of it. He continued:
“It’s weird. I remember the last time I got into this, but I don’t remember the last time I got out of it.
“So technically I must still be in it. It was a strange feeling.”
The latest Grand Tour special, The Grand Tour: A Scandi Flick is available on Prime Video and Hammond’s second series of Richard Hammond’s Workshop is due to be released on Discovery + on Monday 17th October.
