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Richard Hammond on the 'disgusting' car habit French drivers hate

Renting a hire car at an airport is a fairly simple process for most of us motorists but spare a thought for Top Gear star and professional vehicle thrasher, Richard Hammond.

The 51-year-old Brit tells Yahoo Lifestyle that he usually gets a fairly worried look from the desk clerk when he hands over his license.

"I suspect they do sometimes think, 'Well, that car's probably not coming back now, is it?'" he jokes.

Richard Hammond wearing a black racing jumpsuit in The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois. Photo: Amazon Prime Video (supplied).
Richard Hammond proves that he's very good at driving badly in The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois. Photo: Amazon Prime Video (supplied).

It's one small drawback of being world-famous for, among other things, destroying no less than 27 cars in the first season of Top Gear's successor, The Grand Tour alone. Thankfully, Richard is able to see the funny side.

"It's also quite fun ringing for insurance because I love the question, 'Have you had any accidents in the last five years?'" he says.

"I'm just not very good at driving, I think that's the key thing that we can take from this," he adds with a laugh.

One could argue that Richard is actually very good at driving, or at least, very good at driving badly.

Watching Richard and his mates James May and Jeremy Clarkson running vehicles into the ground is what audiences have loved about The Grand Tour series since it began in 2016.

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A silver BMW explodes into a fireball on a race track in The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois. Photo: Amazon Prime Video (supplied).
Would it be a Grand Tour without an explosion? Photo: Amazon Prime Video (supplied).

'Disgusting' car habit

The threesome is back again for a fourth special, Carnage A Trois which sees them get behind the wheel of various iconic French cars to find out why French motorists are, to quote Clarkson, "a bit weird".

This bold opening statement is followed by a passionate argument as to how the British approach to cars and driving is vastly different from that of the French.

As Richard explains, it's seen as "absolutely disgusting" to clean one's car of a Sunday morning, for example.

"I would be out there cleaning and polishing and trying to keep my car nice because I'm a nerd but to the French, that would be absolutely appalling behaviour, they'd die of shame. It's just a different attitude."

In another scene, Richard demonstrates the 'French style' of parallel parking which relies rather heavily on touch and sound (and sheer force) as opposed to sight.

James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond pose next to three French cars in the countryside in The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois. Photo: Amazon Prime Video (supplied).
James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond create carnage with French cars in the countryside. Photo: Amazon Prime Video (supplied).

What French drivers get right

Despite this provocative analysis, Richard is confident the men will not be barred entry to the Gallic nation in future.

"It's quite an affectionate look at [French car owners] because it turns out a lot of what they do and think about cars is right," he explains.

He references the fact that France has never produced a large 4x4 vehicle, preferring to use their compact family cars for any off-road adventures.

"They don't care, dents and scrapes are just what happens to your car, which is tremendously liberating we found."

Of course, to come to that conclusion the trio had to test the theory themselves by flogging some Renault hatchbacks through the countryside.

Richard Hammond sits in a crashed Renault while James May and Jeremy Clarkson push it in The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois. Photo: Amazon Prime Video (supplied).
No 4WD? No worries for May, Hammond and Clarkson. Photo: Amazon Prime Video (supplied).

Unsurprisingly Richard finds himself sideways in a ditch, admittedly a "familiar enough sensation" considering his history of thrills and spills.

In fact, it's not uncommon for all three co-hosts to roll their cars right into large bodies of water, Richard reveals.

"I've sunk I don't know how many cars now in lakes and rivers as part of the shows we've made and that sense of sitting there... you see the water start to come up the windows on the outside and you think, 'Oh it's going to start coming through the dashboard. Yep, here it comes,' and then you've got to wait until that last breath then open the door and swim out.

"I've done that so many times, it genuinely doesn't even alarm me. It's like, 'Oh here we go, I know what's happening here'."

The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois premieres Friday, December 17 on Amazon Prime Video.

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