Richard Hammond reveals his ‘secret lair’ where he guards his beloved cars and bikes

Ex-Top Gear and Grand Tour star Richard Hammond owns a lot of cars and even more motorcycles.

He keeps some of those vehicles in his workshop, but he also has a secret lair where he ‘hides’ most of them.

The garage is full of gems.

But there’s one glaring absence.

This is what Richard Hammond keeps in his garage

Hammond is a serious car collector, but he’s even more serious when it comes to motorcycles.

He’s owned hundreds of them.

In a video uploaded to the DriveTribe YouTube channel, Hammond talked viewers through part of his collection.

He keeps a few classics in his garage, including a classic Land Rover Defender, a Mini Cooper, and a couple of rare Jaguars.

And about a dozen motorcycles, including some Harley-Davidsons, a Suzuki GSX-R, and a few Ducatis.

There’s only one thing missing: Oliver.

Top Gear and Grand Tour fans will be familiar with ‘Oliver’, a 1963 Opel Kadett that Hammond bought for a Top Gear Special in Botswana nearly 20 years ago.

Most of the cars used for these specials were mostly sold on.

Or, in rare cases, abandoned.

But the presenters were allowed to buy them back from the BBC if they wanted, which, on occasion, they did.

How much did the trio actually make from Top Gear and the Grand Tour?

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May were definitely not starving when they were on Top Gear, but their salaries skyrocketed once they joined Amazon.

Since the BBC is technically public and funded by taxpayers, everything about Top Gear had to be transparent, and the budget had to be limited.

This is why, despite their global success, they ‘only’ made around £1 million ($1.3 million) per year.

Obviously, they had other things on the side, but that was their base salary.

Later, when they joined Amazon, the budget went up, and everything changed.

Unlike the BBC, which was running the show and taking care of just about everything, Amazon simply gave them a lump of money and told them to come back with a show they could air.

In 2016, Amazon gave them $250 million for three series and 36 episodes, and that included everything from production to staff salaries and so on.

No one knows for sure, but in a video shared on his YouTube channel, James May once – indirectly – revealed that they had a budget of around $12 million for each episode.

This means that, with our math cap on, we could guesstimate an average yearly salary for about $13 million, and probably even more for seasons 4 and 5.

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