Remember When A Top Gear Presenter Destroyed A Car On Ft Bliss?

When you think of car television shows, one of the biggest that has ever existed is the BBC's Top Gear. Since 1977, it has given viewers around the world plenty of advice on cars & has given many years of entertainment. I loved watching the show & I still do. The top 3 presenters people usually remember are these 3 blokes: Jeremy Clarkson, James May & Richard Hammond. One of them would come to Ft Bliss near El Paso, Texas to destroy a beautiful sports car.

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Who were Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond & James May?

They would host Top Gear between 2002-2016 & would start another show called The Grand Tour. If you've never seen either show before, here's a little sample at what these 3 have done together:

When did Richard Hammond film in El Paso?

But let's take a trip back 10 years ago to 2012: where Richard in particular would come to El Paso to film for the BBC America show called "Richard Hammond's Crash Course". I remember watching when the show premiered on tv a decade ago & the premise was simple: Richard would have 3 days to learn & master a piece of heavy machinery. The very first episode was shot right here at Ft Bliss.

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So what did Hammond learn how to drive in El Paso? A semi truck, an excavator? An army transport vehicle? Nope. It was something a little more... destructive.

Yup. An Abrams M1A2... TANK. And yes we really did just see Richard run over that Porsche. He was taught by the hard working men & women here at Ft Bliss how to drive & load the cannon on one of those bad boys.

Now you can only find clips on YouTube so if you're wondering if you can watch the whole episode, you still can find the show's 2 seasons on Amazon Prime & Apple TV.

If you're wondering if his 2 fellow presenters have been to El Paso before:

Jeremy Clarkson DID film for a show in Texas years ago called Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld but he did not come to El Paso
& James May hasn't been here...yet.

So far Richard Hammond hasn't come back to El Paso to...see if his tank driving skills are up to par. But IF Richard does come back to town, he's more than welcome to say hello & I'm sure Ft Bliss can let him take the Abrams tank out for a spin again.