Richard Hammond Reveals His Favourite Top Gear Special As Grand Tour Ramps Up
Richard Hammond has reflected on his 13 years hosting Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May and has spoken about his favourite episode that they filmed. Although the trio still work together on The Grand Tour, they only do the specials now which is about two a year.
Speaking to the press, Hammond was asked which trips stood out to him, to which he responded:
“Probably we would all say the best trip we did was Botswana, which is where I found Oliver actually”
Oliver is the 1963 Opel Kadett that Hammond found in Botswana for the show and ended up buying from the BBC because he loved it so much. Hammond had to sell a lot of his cars to fund his latest venture, The Smallest Cog which is featured on Richard Hammond’s Workshop. However, he couldn’t let go of Oliver. He has already restored it (badly) and has revealed he will be further restoring it and modifying it. Hammond told Grand Tour Nation exclusively that he is considering putting a V8 in it.
Hammond continued to reflect on the Botswana episode:
“Because it was one of the first specials we did and it was just wonderful and magical and exciting that we were doing something new.
“But you know, I’m lucky to have travelled a lot and have seen some incredible places and sometimes you’re left thinking the world’s getting smaller because it’s digitally connected, but it’s still big and there’s still little bits of wilderness in magical places.”
Hammond has recently released the second series of Richard Hammond’s Workshop to Discovery+ where viewers see him restoring classic cars. Hammond spoke about how candid the show is and that it has been a massive learning experience for him. He said:
“We’re getting there. I’m loving it. It is an adventure – it does have downs as well as ups.
“But that’s okay. It’s a real experience and I’m learning a lot about myself and about the industry.”
We are looking forward to another Grand Tour special, hopefully being released to Prime Video closer to Christmas, after they were seen filming in Europe earlier this year.
