richard-hammond
*As *Top Gear*'s secret American prepares his own British invasion, he shares with us the 10 autos that do the colonies proud*
*By Dennis Tang/GQ.com*
If you haven't seen the BBC's *Top Gear*, chances are you've heard of it. The show is estimated to have more than 350 million viewers every week in over 170 countries, yet most people in the U.S. are unfortunately unaware. And that's a shame, because once you've seen the over-the-top, comically destructive "car" show, featuring reviews, challenges, and epic, globe-trekking road trips, it's not hard to decipher its popularity.
It might have to do with how the British show infamously ridicules Americans and their cars – especially head honcho Jeremy Clarkson, who, between calling the Mustang V8 "rubbish" and claiming that "Americans have the aesthetic ability of giraffes" – isn't doing Anglo-American relations any favors.
But of the program's trio of presenters, it's Richard Hammond – aka "Hamster," or "the little one," as he was once termed by London mayor Boris Johnson – who has a soft spot for us Yankees and our big daft cars. So soft, in fact, that he just filmed his first series for the U.S., Richard Hammond's Crash Course, in which he takes an array of America's (and thus the world's) largest and most powerful vehicles for a whirl. We managed to snag him while he was still basking in the California sun, for a more optimistic outlook on American motoring.
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__GQ:__ For those who don't know, you have a serious "hardest-working man in show business" reputation going. Latest on your docket is this new show, *Crash Course*.
__Richard Hammond:__ It's a new thing for me entirely. It's the first show I've done for the States, in the States, with an American crew, made for BBC America by BBC America. Which has been a real revelation, I've loved it.
__GQ:__ And you're currently in California, shooting yet another show for the BBC.
__Hammond:__ Yeah, for the BBC in the U.K., but it's brought me out here. \[Laughs\] A lot of work at the moment seems to be bringing me to the States, which doesn't bother me, because Americans are great to make TV with. They just get it. One day we needed to use an optometrist's place. So we just rang, there we are, and one welcomed us in, made us coffee. Sure, use it!
It was the same when I was making *Crash Course*. These were guys welcoming me into their workplace, doing their job every day, and here's this stupid irritating little Brit, wandering in and saying, "Hi, my name is Richard, will you teach me how to drive this tank?" and they were just totally welcoming, talked to me about what they do, and let me loose on their terrifying machines. Which wouldn't happen anywhere else in the world, really.
__GQ:__ Americans do love being on TV.
__Hammond:__ Yes, but I think Americans are also just natural-born communicators. They do it all the time. If you put Americans together, they just want to talk, and that doesn't happen in many other places. And that's great for someone like me, whose job is talking. So asking guys to talk me through their jobs – they were just so happy to do that, and as a result they're so good at communicating, and it makes it easy to make TV with them.
__GQ:__ So on *Top Gear*, you are known as the show's "secret American"...
__Hammond:__ \[Laughs\] I'm glad you picked up on that! It's something Jeremy and James \[May\] came up with, it just makes me laugh!
__GQ:__ The show spends a good deal of time making fun of Americans and their cars. What are your personal feelings on us?
__Hammond:__ I think it's fashionable in the U.K. to knock on America. It's a sort of caricature inversion. But I think people get it wrong. America as a whole is huge, there's an awful lot of it. But look at Americans, work and talk with them. But if you take away the size of the place, and think of it as just a country – we think they're the kookiest, funniest, sometimes conservative with a small C, sometimes craziest, most communicative, chatty, talkative, creative, occasionally mad and stupid nation on earth! We absolutely love and treasure them. But because of the size of the place, we naturally become overawed, we're made nervous by the size of that.
Now for a small guy, a small Brit, I'm used to that. I'm not easily bullied as a result. Big guys, particularly James and Jeremy, who are both well over six foot, they're used to being the big guys in the playground, they get intimidated by it and they lash out. Everybody's bigger than me, so I'm not scared.
*Next: Richard Hammond's 10 Best American Cars*
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