A Really Bad 1982 Porsche 911 and Good Jokes, Here’s How You Land a Top Gear Job

It wasn’t his experience, his work ethic or his background that got him the job as presenter on the show back in 2002, he jokes in a new DriveTribe video. It was the fact that he drove a “completely crap” Porsche and his sense of humor that earned him the spot.

Of course, Hammond is joking. While his work on the show ended in 2015, it’s still interesting to revisit his audition for it – and particularly refreshing to hear that he, like the rest of us mortals, was plagued by insecurity and self-doubt, to the point where he assumed he had “blown it” and would not even be considered for the gig.

For the audition, which is where he met Jeremy Clarkson for the first time, but also script editor Richard Porter and exec producer Andy Wilman, Hammond had prepared a demo reel in which he talked about his company car, a Renault Laguna. Then, when he got to the audition, he was asked to a walkround of a Skoda Superb.

He recalls leaving for home really bummed out because he felt the audition hadn’t gone as smoothly as he wanted. Then, after a few months, he got the callback and was told he had joined the team, at which point he actually shed a few tears while popping a bottle of champagne.

As for what actually got him the job, Hammond says he was later informed it was the fact that he had shown up in this old, really bad 1982 Porsche 911 SC (“I adored that car!,” he says with regret) and that he’d cracked a joke about having to “get back to the Nam. Cheltenham.”

And this is how (automotive TV content) history was written.