Grand Gears's video: harged Ford Transit Drag Racing Test Drive by Richard Hammond

With The Grand Tour, the famous trio Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond made an impressive comeback. The men are now preparing for the second season, which starts on 8 December. We talk about it with none other than Richard Hammond! When we speak to Hammond, he has just recovered from his accident with the Rimac Concept One. In June of this year he was transported to a Swiss hospital in a helicopter after the electric supercar had landed upside down and completely unrecognizably in the roadside. Hammond did not suffer any permanent damage, but was not allowed to drive a car for two months. Immediately with the door in the house: how is it after two months for the first time behind the wheel to crawl? "Great, I just drove my first lap in my 1967 mustang and immediately got a huge grin on my face." What kind of consequences does it have if a Grand Tour presenter is 'out of the running' for two months? "It is particularly annoying, because for the first time we were on schedule with our 'homework', which is different after this delay, but it's going to be okay." What is the best thing you have experienced during the filming of Season 2 of The Grand Tour? "My best experience is also my muddy and filthiest: on a terribly cheap motorcycle in Mozambique that was not good at all, I did not like it in advance, but in retrospect it's great. nice. " What is the biggest difference between the 'old' Top Gear and the current The Grand Tour? "The main difference is that we now want to carry people around the world even more emphatically." Traveling has really become an important part of the show, which is also what makes The Grand Tour, in my opinion, never boring. " Is it difficult to remain original after so many episodes of Top Gear and The Grand Tour? "Certainly not, because there are always more stories to tell, we do not just drive a car because it's a new model, there's got to be more." It's about the way cars come together with people. together with travel and why we are always somewhere else, and we are currently living in a very interesting time, in terms of cars, for example the increasing role of hybrid and electric cars is very interesting, it ensures that there is always something new to try . " Indeed, The Grand Tour takes place all over the world, with a corresponding audience. How important is the British character of the show yet? "We (the presenters, ed.) Are British and will always be, we can not and do not want to change that, we look at the world in our own way and do not miss an opportunity to emphasize that." The Grand Tour pays a lot of attention to supercars and hypercars, while at AutoWeek we like to pay a lot of attention to affordable, accessible models. Are those cars still interesting for you? "I am a pure car enthusiast, so I find everything interesting: new supercars, but also old barrels, I experience the most fun of episodes with old cars, such as our many roadtrips and cheap car challenges. also that it is good to realize that every new car is an expensive product for most people, not just supercars, but also the more everyday models, but as we have said, it's all about telling great stories, spectacular, expensive cars. " Finally, I have another question that concerns me personally. I recently bought a Lexus SC430, a car that has been named 'Worst car in the history of the world' in Top Gear. Do you still think that way? "Haha! Let me say the appearance of a car is important to me, if I have parked it and look back, I would like to enjoy it again, I do not really feel happy with an SC430." The crash that Richard Hammond experienced last summer in Switzerland can be seen in the first episode of the second season of The Grand Tour. The second season of the car program of the former Top Gear trio Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Hammond will be shown on Amazon Prime Video from Saturday. The recordings of the second season came into being with difficulty. Hammond broke his leg during the crash with an electric Rimac sports car. Clarkson had been out of pneumonia for a few weeks and May was in the hospital with unknown symptoms. It was unclear in advance whether the Hammond crash would be on show in the second season. The car barely missed a house during the crash and fell many meters down, overturned several times and burned upside down before it exploded. According to Wilman, things went very well. "If Richard had not been conscious, he could never have dragged himself out of the car before the explosion took place."