James May joined Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond in the second season Top Gear in 2003. With their mutual love of internal combustion and humor, the characters have become the leaders of global car culture.
We talked to May about the series finale The Grand Touron Friday, September 13th on Amazon. Titled One for The Roadthe two-hour special brings May and Hammond to a country they've never been to before, Zimbabwe, before returning to the Botswana salt flats to conclude the series, where they finished their first travel special. Top Gear in 2007.
We caught up with May to chat about the highs and lows of the shoot The Grand Tour is over 46 episodes in six series.
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Speaking about the scariest thing that happened on set, May said: “I think that brief window where I thought Richard Hammond had killed himself on the way up the hill when he was driving the Rimac, but then he realized that all the flags had been waved and they dragged him. He was alive and they knew he was going to catch fire.”
Filmed in Switzerland. In the fourth and final race, Hammond approached a corner too fast on the climbing course in St. Gallen, causing his tires to lose grip and slide off the track.”
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“It makes me cold,” he said Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman told Times Radio. “[Hammond] he was alone at the bottom of that hill, upside down. He broke his knee and had to get out of the car. And the window of the supercar is like a letterbox. If he had been unconscious, he wouldn't be here.”