Richard Hammond’s 2008 Morgan Aeromax Will Serve as Coffin for Eccentric Millionaire

Last year, word got out that Philip Allen, who bought Hammond’s Aeromax in 2014 from Chris Vermeulen, who had, in turn, bought it from Hammond, had decided to be buried in it. Allen is a famous collector of classics and rare vehicles, and the limited-edition Aeromax hardtop was his favorite of all. It was a piece of art and, as such, he had decided to do whatever he could to ensure it lived on forever, he said.

Though the practice is hardly uncommon, the story went viral. Here was an eccentric millionaire who was making plans to be buried in his 1-of-100 car, a gorgeous retro-inspired automobile that had been made specifically for Richard Hammond. Perhaps the most awesome part about the story, even one year later, is that it’s all true. Hammond’s Aeromax is destined to become a coffin.

Hammond answered a few frequently asked questions in the latest DriveTribe video (see below), and his Aeromax comes up. He says it was one of the many cars he regretted selling (his wife made him, more or less), and that he’d hoped to get it back one day. That’s why he kept in touch with Allen, Hammond explains. However, his hopes were dashed when he learned of Allen’s plans for an Aeromax-shaped coffin.

“He’s going to be buried in what I still view as my Morgan Aeromax,” Hammond says. “Obviously, I won’t want to buy it back because it’ll have his corpse in it. One of the nicer things about the car was the interior but a moldering Australian is not going to render it any nicer, is it? So, sadly that is one car that is very, very much and forever out of my life.”

Hammond also says he regrets selling most, if not all the cars he bought and owned. He also regrets not buying a Pagani Zonda, but he had to choose between that and “keep[ing] the rain off and the wolves away from” his family. He chose the latter. “Sadly.”

As for the Aeromax, hopefully, it won’t be used as a coffin for a long time to come. When Allen does pass away, he’s made arrangements to be mummified and dressed in his finest outfit and placed behind the wheel, with one hand on it, so he can drive it to heaven like a bat out of hell (his exact words). The car will be in an air- and water-tight container, on jacks so that it doesn’t get a flat, covered by a slab of concrete to prevent thieves from digging it up.

Allen paid £143,000 in 2014 (approximately $185,000) for the limited-edition Aeromax, more than Hammond did originally. That’s one expensive – but gorgeous – coffin, to be sure.