Richard Hammond will be hosting a Top Gear special on November 2nd October 29th that will look back on the past 50 years of James Bond. It won’t be a proper Top Gear special as it will only be Richard hosting but it should still be quite good. We’ll do our best to supply you all with a rip after it airs.

The Guardian is reporting that Clarkson, Hammond, and May have signed deals that ensures Top Gear will at least be on the air for three more years. Woo hoo!

UPDATE: Or not?

I like the Guardian. It’s a good paper. But the story it’s running about Top Gear on line is seriously wrong.

— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) 27 septembre 2012

UPDATE #2: The contracts seem to be correct — Clarkson may have been referring to something else in the article being wrong.

I hope everyone noticed that Hammond, May and I negotiated new contracts without looking fucking miserable. Lewis.

— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) 28 septembre 2012

I ran across this great video from back in April where James and Richard talk about Top Gear USA. Remember folks, the shows aren’t mutually exclusive.

[h/t MrMagicpants]

If you haven’t heard, Richard Hammond is hosting a new show on BBC America called Crash Course. It’ll premiere Monday, April 16th at 10/9c immediately following the US premiere of Top Gear season 18.

The trailer for the show was released today and it looks quite good, despite their choice of cars to crush:

BBC America is working on creating original programming (rather than rebroadcasted UK content) and one of their first shows will one hosted by Richard Hammond. Tentatively called “Hard Drive with Richard Hammond”, the show will feature Hammond driving “some of America’s toughest and most extraordinary vehicles”.

Also in the works is an American version of James May’s Man Lab, a show that has aired a few times in the UK.

[via BBC America press release]

Top Gear’s latest DVD, “Apocalypse”, was released on the 22nd of this month in the UK on both DVD and Blu-ray. Here’s the discussion thread on our forums.

On Saturday, Richard Hammond crashed his £110,000 Morgan AeroMax. Luckily he walked away with no injuries.

Not to be outdone, Top Gear Australia host Steve Pizzati rolled his race car two and a half times in a race on Sunday. Luckily he was fine as well though.

Drive more carefully, guys. lol

I’ll just get right to the point — everyone’s okay and it wasn’t a serious incident. Nothing to worry about. However it’s still worth a little news post here.

On Friday, Jeremy and Richard were in a helicopter flying over Auckland Harbour in New Zealand when a seagull hit the helicopter’s rotor blade. They made an emergency landing nearby and luckily everyone is okay.

[Source: Daily Mail]

TopGear.com has posted three videos of stuff that didn’t make it into last Sunday’s episode:

• Richard giving his thoughts about the buses during the first lap
• Richard and James debate which method of transport is best for getting around the Rivera
• James talks about how much he would have rather been in the Ferrari

Thanks to all who sent in tips!

Jeremy, Richard, and James were interviewed for Australia’s 60 Minutes show recently and here’s the video. It’s a surprisingly interesting look at behind the scenes of the show.