The Grand Tour

Richard Hammond: The Grand Tour Presenter Buys Small Block V8 For His Opel Kadett

In a recent DriveTribe video, Richard Hammond catches us up on his restomod plans for his beloved Open Kadett, Oliver, which he brought home after filming the Top Gear Botswana Special. Previously, he’s planned on doing something quite different with the special car, hinting at turning it into a drag car, engine swapping a V8 into it, and even hinting at a possible series covering the work he’s doing.

Since then, we’ve heard very little of these plans, but now he’s admitted that he has something rather special waiting for the little Opel.

On talking to Mike Fernie of DriveTribe, he discusses asking the audience what they think should be done to the Top Gear special vehicle.

“What has the audience decided?” The Grand Tour presenter asks.

Mike explains that almost all of the audience has asked for a basic restoration, with none, or limited modifications to the standard car.

“No modifying at all?” Hammond asks. “Right, I’ve got a crated small block V8 I probably should see if I can return… that’ll be doable, won’t it?

“No modifying at all?” he reiterates.

So, unless this is a joke, Hammond has a rather potent V8 engine to drop into the Kadett. I for one would be interested to see how Hammond goes about building such a machine, and would be even more interested to see the resulting content from it. Could we see Hammond at a drag strip with DriveTribe? Maybe even a bit of track driving when the lockdown has come to an end?

Hammond has an obvious passion for American V8s, and while he doesn’t give us any extra information as to what engine he may or may not have bought for the Kadett, it’s more than likely of an American origin.

Want to see him whack a small block into something that really shouldn’t have it? Make some noise, and Hammond might listen.

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One Comment

  1. Please, please don’t mess up Oliver! It is such a nice little car wiith such a pedigree, history and personality. It is Oliver for God sake!! Please do not do this V8 messup!

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