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.
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.
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.
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.
UPDATE: Seems TopGear.com has taken down the post. Dunno why.
Richard Hammond’s Dodge Challenger from yesterday’s episode is currently up for sale by Top Gear. If you’re in the US and want to own a piece of Top Gear history, then make sure to check out that link.
But what, you might be wondering, has happened to the Dodge Challenger that Hammond bought for the American road trip? Well, after its adventures on the salt flats it was taken to a garage for a reassuringly expensive health check and very thorough clean up, after which it was advertised for sale.
Unfortunately, it turns out that during a credit crunch people in America have suddenly realised that a bright orange two door muscle car isn’t top of their priority list and, whilst Richard paid a premium for it just a few months ago, Challenger values are now becoming distinctly mushy. Net result is no one has made an offer. Yet.
So, if you’re reading this in the US and you fancy a well specced, low mileage Challenger with TV stardom and (sort of) competition pedigree, you know where to look.
A bunch of what are essentially gossip magazines in the UK have been reporting that Richard and James are threatening to leave the show if they don’t get a pay raise to match Jeremy’s pay. Unsurprisingly this is all a load of BS.
Andy does a good job of explaining the whole situation in his latest blog post:
Just for the record, Richard and James’s contracts are up soon – no big deal, contracts do end – and their agents are negotiating new ones.
They want an amount, the BBC wants to pay a different amount – again, no surprises there, that’s how business works every minute of every day – and there’ll be horse trading until a number is reached.
But let me also say Richard and James have never ever ever asked to be on equal pay to Jeremy. They are the first to admit that he came up with the new show, and that he does nothing but this show and is the engine room of it, whereas they, quite understandably, like to do other projects as well as Top Gear, and therefore the pay should reflect that.
He talks more about it as well as Sunday’s show, but I’ll let you read the rest of his post yourself.
Apparently one of the reasons Oliver is being restored is that he will be appearing in a new TV series.
Practical Classics features editor, Matthew Jones, who has been working closely with Mr Hammond to restore the car, said that once it had been repainted and “tweaked” it would once again find television fame in a new series.
He said: “We’ve had to do the job very quickly because it’s going to be involved in a new television production with Richard Hammond.
“I’m not sure of all the finer details but apparently the show centres around the car and we have to have it ready for filming on July 14.
Richard was having stomach pains earlier this week and it was discovered that he had appendicitis and needed surgery. However, rather than skip a prior commitment to meet some fans who had won a lunch with him, he pushed back the surgery by two hours.
The surgery went smoothly thankfully, but surgeons discovered Richard also had kidney stones and a hernia. He’ll be having the stones removed sometime next week.
He’s now at home recovering meanwhile with his wife and kids. He should be fully recovered soon.
Many thanks to everyone who's ripped the episodes on this site as well as Quiky and PacketCollision for being awesome sysops.
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