Car-Builder John Hennessy on Working with Top Gear and The Grand Tour

I used to think that when I would watch Top Gear, watch the Stig roll around the track. They have their own track. Well yeah so Top Gear tests on an old runway south west of London and it's called Dunsfold. So they ran it so they have their own but they did I've been there before I was actually I brought Steven Tyler over there like ten years ago to be interviewed by Jeremy Clarkson those guys. So he was a client we built a Venom GT for him and so we're hanging out and I got to see him go out and do his little celebrity lap around the truck. You know if you're ever over there and you want to do a celebrity the star and the reasonably priced car I connect you with those guys. Oh that's hilarious. Yeah it's fun and so I think they're but now you got Chris Harris and you got the you know Clarkson and Hammond and May they moved on to Amazon. Are they still doing it? Did they stop doing it? Yeah I was in London a couple weeks ago and I saw Richard Hammond and what's the Amazon show called again? The Grand Tour. The Grand Tour and so Clarkson started Clarkson is kind of a wild bombastic guy. He started a show about farming he's got a farm out in the country and I think that's really kind of taken off so I think that's his that's his new gig but I think they still I think they do still do it season of year and good entertainment good proper. Yeah they're fun. Proper car stuff. He's a fun dude. Yeah. What did he punch a producer? Well I know a little bit about that. I was so I was so we had a we had a Veloss Raptor Raptor truck that we were up in Canada with these guys so this has been back in 20 into 2014 and so like I'm working with the producers and they're like you know when you're around the talent you know don't talk to them don't spend time around them I'm like I'm around famous people more than these guys these guys a lot more famous I mean I don't care that they're a big deal so anyway so these producers kind of being a dick and so we show up with these guys and then we're like provide the vehicle and they're gonna go cross country through Canada and through the mountains and do all this crazy shit and and then they're gonna go up on the mountain they're gonna rescue Richard Hammond who's at the top of the mountain he's got one of these Breitling watches where you pull out the little cord and it tells the satellite that you're stranded so gives your coordinates to get rescued anyway so now the producers are saying well you know you can't go up on the mountain while they're filming I'm like okay but listen to this I'm gonna go watch football it's the playoffs I'm gonna go watch football and if something breaks you need us to help you we're not coming they're like oh then they change their tune like okay we'll come with this and finally it all it all turns out fine well that producer I won't say his name but that producer that was being a massive dick and maybe he was just doing his job like two weeks later they're somewhere else and they're in England and Jeremy may you know Jeremy's gets a little bit of a temper and these guys work long hours and maybe they hadn't eaten and the producer guy was fucking like Jeremy fucking whacked the guy and I'm like I wanted to fucking punch that guy a couple times too but I can't do that and I don't want to get arrested in Canada anyway yeah so they they canceled the show yeah and it didn't Jeremy and him make up but there's still you know I'm sure that's all you know water under the bridge but Jeremy so Jeremy Richard Hammond and James May were all very tired I've spent time around them and then the other guy that's behind the scenes but just so talented his name is Andy Woolman he was the producer when they were on BBC now he's the producer but when Stephen Tyler is being interviewed you like this from your comedy part of your brain when Stephen was being interviewed by Jeremy I noticed that the interview went on for like twice as long as it probably should have and I don't I get claustrophobic so I don't like being in tight crowds so I'm kind of hanging towards the back of the crowd that they're filming all this live and then they aired it later but they're filming in front of a live audience and here this this guy that looks like he's a homeless dude wearing a t-shirt look like he hadn't showered in about a week he's standing there making notes and I realized I was Andy Woolman the producer of the show and so what Jeremy's doing he's asked he's telling all these jokes and asking these questions and Andy is using the live audience as his focus group oh they laughed at this oh I don't I don't think this is as funny and that's how they edit it before that before it goes gets transmitted to the rest of the UK in the world interesting I thought that is so clever that is so smart you know smart and I don't know if that's you know comedians or entertainers kind of but you know you would think to some degree you want to improve your crap but he's got a quick turnaround time so like he's got another show he's got to do the following week so he's just like Jeremy is doing all this stuff and sometimes they laugh at sometimes it wouldn't but this guy was definitely paying attention that show top gear did Tesla dirty you know yeah they did oh they did all kinds of crooked shit but they did Tesla I mean they pretended the car ran out of batteries oh yeah no car didn't so they had like they're pushing the car and you know they I think they had a lawsuit about that correct they probably did but that goes back like we were talking earlier like it just seems like that was dirty it seems like everybody has an agenda so what was the agenda behind that was that just the well they wanted to create a entertaining storyline they do they'll throw you guys they'll throw your ass into the bus and a heartbeat that was what it is yeah oh Tesla attempted to sue the BBC for libel March of 2011 the courts ruled in favor of the BBC saying that no viewer of the show would be likely to reasonably compare the roaster's performance on the show with its performance in the real world that doesn't make any sense yeah I know they could they get well they got real real British court sides with British corporation that's owned by the British government against American company oops yeah they got railroaded yeah because the idea that watching this thing break down wouldn't influence you to not get one yeah these people are testing it and it breaks down that look those guys good or bad we should just say what happened yeah what we're saying it yeah because their car didn't really break down right faked it no they faked it and they did it just to sort of make a point about what could happen with electric cars but it's a fake it was manufactured deal let to your point but like you know that they just want eyeballs you know so the more definitely more controversial you know the when you know one time with Jeremy was driving this truck and they were like what would happen if we ran into a brick wall you know going to the hospital and getting you know broken ribs and whatever else just shoot the video this guy so they'll do anything they were they were into a brick wall Jeremy Clarkson he did yeah that's right it's on YouTube and you got it went yeah they got a they got a video camera got a GoPro inside and he it does I mean he went to the hospital yeah he went to the hospital from that and then they did you that they did and they because if he died tension dude they are they these guys were the masters of jumping the shark season after season after season you heard about the deal when they went to Argentina what did let me see the let's go one step at a time okay see the truck slamming into the wall yeah before we get to Argentina yeah cuz I just can't believe they were just driving Clarkson top gear full acceleration truck crash no they each each guy had to do it and they're all wearing their safety equipment it might have been 20 miles an hour I mean just do just run as fast as you can into that wood wall over there and yeah I fucking hurt you know so yeah I think you could legitimately you could die oh yeah oh it's one of those trucks yeah oh boy yeah look at this he's going pretty good bro he's going very fast that is so so do you think these guys give a fuck about hurting Elon and his company is to check is so they want views oh shit he's lucky he has teeth he's lucky he's a neck yeah I guess next got to be fucked up from that yeah we did a thing with them at Grand Tour in Detroit about five years ago and he you know maybe he's got a good chiropractor he looks like he's he healed up but man that that's pretty gnarly that seems like it could cause permanent damage and so they would do stuff like that well not even happen recently yes subjects with injury he suffered on the show another one another one of their guys and they're in the current crew I forget his name maybe Pat O'Rourke but anyway he he had a bad car crash they canceled the whole season really the rest of season yeah and again nobody really knows the details they're not showing anything but I hear it was pretty painful yeah so will you watch that image he's reaches for his neck like immediately and you see how his head violently snaps yeah I don't know how this doesn't break break your neck so just like stuff like that like when we were in Canada with these with the crew were hanging out with the crew and like the so they went down to Canada we're in our nut canada they went Argentina excuse me the gummy bears kicking in I suppose they're in Argentina and so one of the cars they made they rode on the car they're doing this cross-country thing they're kind of poking fun at the Argentinians when they lost the Falcon war back in the 80s to the Brits and in the story was that these guys were getting chased out of the country like people were gonna like looking for them if they found him they were gonna frick and you know beat their ass pretty hard or worse and so I'm talking to the crew and you know the the presenters were able to get to Buenos Aires and were able to get out of the country but the crew is still there and people are like they're calling the embassy they're like hey you know what can we do the fucking locals are trying to get us and so I guess the present this is again this is from hearing from the crew when we were in Canada with our velociraptor is that you know the presenters got out the crew were stuck fearing for their lives like hiding out in places trying to make it to the airport to get home and then so when the whole shit hit the fan the the presenters in England felt bad for them so they bought them all first-class tickets or business class from from Argentina back to the UK but then the question becomes kind of given the pattern of wanting to further jump the shark and look I'm a I'm a if I climb a mountain I want to I want to climb the next mountain so I get that to some degree but did these guys actually like try to stir up the locals by putting shit on their car to fuck with them well yeah just for notoriety and so I mean I mean yeah yeah I would think so I mean 100% why else would you do it yeah trying to be nice yeah I don't know if they knew it was gonna go as far but man they but it's kind of a shitty deal where they they skated out there and their crew is literally afraid they were gonna get fucking beat to death imagine if they did yeah yeah so and I'm hearing this from the crew and this going down like 30 days before yeah yeah it's kind of interesting but you knowthe Jerogan experience. I used to think that when I would watch Top Gear, watch the Stig roll around the track. They have their own track. Well yeah so Top Gear tests on an old runway south west of London and it's called Dunsfold. So they ran it so they have their own but they did I've been there before I was actually I brought Steven Tyler over there like ten years ago to be interviewed by Jeremy Clarkson those guys. So he was a client we built a Venom GT for him and so we're hanging out and I got to see him go out and do his little celebrity lap around the truck. You know if you're ever over there and you want to do a celebrity the star and the reasonably priced car I connect you with those guys. Oh that's hilarious. Yeah it's fun and so I think they're but now you got Chris Harris and you got the you know Clarkson and Hammond and May they moved on to Amazon. Are they still doing it? Did they stop doing it? Yeah I was in London a couple weeks ago and I saw Richard Hammond and what's the Amazon show called again? The Grand Tour. The Grand Tour and so Clarkson started Clarkson is kind of a wild bombastic guy. He started a show about farming he's got a farm out in the country and I think that's really kind of taken off so I think that's his that's his new gig but I think they still I think they do still do it season of year and good entertainment good proper. Yeah they're fun. Proper car stuff. He's a fun dude. Yeah. What did he punch a producer? Well I know a little bit about that. I was so I was so we had a we had a Veloss Raptor Raptor truck that we were up in Canada with these guys so this has been back in 20 into 2014 and so like I'm working with the producers and they're like you know when you're around the talent you know don't talk to them don't spend time around them I'm like I'm around famous people more than these guys these guys a lot more famous I mean I don't care that they're a big deal so anyway so these producers kind of being a dick and so we show up with these guys and then we're like provide the vehicle and they're gonna go cross country through Canada and through the mountains and do all this crazy shit and and then they're gonna go up on the mountain they're gonna rescue Richard Hammond who's at the top of the mountain he's got one of these Breitling watches where you pull out the little cord and it tells the satellite that you're stranded so gives your coordinates to get rescued anyway so now the producers are saying well you know you can't go up on the mountain while they're filming I'm like okay but listen to this I'm gonna go watch football it's the playoffs I'm gonna go watch football and if something breaks you need us to help you we're not coming they're like oh then they change their tune like okay we'll come with this and finally it all it all turns out fine well that producer I won't say his name but that producer that was being a massive dick and maybe he was just doing his job like two weeks later they're somewhere else and they're in England and Jeremy may you know Jeremy's gets a little bit of a temper and these guys work long hours and maybe they hadn't eaten and the producer guy was fucking like Jeremy fucking whacked the guy and I'm like I wanted to fucking punch that guy a couple times too but I can't do that and I don't want to get arrested in Canada anyway yeah so they they canceled the show yeah and it didn't Jeremy and him make up but there's still you know I'm sure that's all you know water under the bridge but Jeremy so Jeremy Richard Hammond and James May were all very tired I've spent time around them and then the other guy that's behind the scenes but just so talented his name is Andy Woolman he was the producer when they were on BBC now he's the producer but when Stephen Tyler is being interviewed you like this from your comedy part of your brain when Stephen was being interviewed by Jeremy I noticed that the interview went on for like twice as long as it probably should have and I don't I get claustrophobic so I don't like being in tight crowds so I'm kind of hanging towards the back of the crowd that they're filming all this live and then they aired it later but they're filming in front of a live audience and here this this guy that looks like he's a homeless dude wearing a t-shirt look like he hadn't showered in about a week he's standing there making notes and I realized I was Andy Woolman the producer of the show and so what Jeremy's doing he's asked he's telling all these jokes and asking these questions and Andy is using the live audience as his focus group oh they laughed at this oh I don't I don't think this is as funny and that's how they edit it before that before it goes gets transmitted to the rest of the UK in the world interesting I thought that is so clever that is so smart you know smart and I don't know if that's you know comedians or entertainers kind of but you know you would think to some degree you want to improve your crap but he's got a quick turnaround time so like he's got another show he's got to do the following week so he's just like Jeremy is doing all this stuff and sometimes they laugh at sometimes it wouldn't but this guy was definitely paying attention that show top gear did Tesla dirty you know yeah they did oh they did all kinds of crooked shit but they did Tesla I mean they pretended the car ran out of batteries oh yeah no car didn't so they had like they're pushing the car and you know they I think they had a lawsuit about that correct they probably did but that goes back like we were talking earlier like it just seems like that was dirty it seems like everybody has an agenda so what was the agenda behind that was that just the well they wanted to create a entertaining storyline they do they'll throw you guys they'll throw your ass into the bus and a heartbeat that was what it is yeah oh Tesla attempted to sue the BBC for libel March of 2011 the courts ruled in favor of the BBC saying that no viewer of the show would be likely to reasonably compare the roaster's performance on the show with its performance in the real world that doesn't make any sense yeah I know they could they get well they got real real British court sides with British corporation that's owned by the British government against American company oops yeah they got railroaded yeah because the idea that watching this thing break down wouldn't influence you to not get one yeah these people are testing it and it breaks down that look those guys good or bad we should just say what happened yeah what we're saying it yeah because their car didn't really break down right faked it no they faked it and they did it just to sort of make a point about what could happen with electric cars but it's a fake it was manufactured deal let to your point but like you know that they just want eyeballs you know so the more definitely more controversial you know the when you know one time with Jeremy was driving this truck and they were like what would happen if we ran into a brick wall you know going to the hospital and getting you know broken ribs and whatever else just shoot the video this guy so they'll do anything they were they were into a brick wall Jeremy Clarkson he did yeah that's right it's on YouTube and you got it went yeah they got a they got a video camera got a GoPro inside and he it does I mean he went to the hospital yeah he went to the hospital from that and then they did you that they did and they because if he died tension dude they are they these guys were the masters of jumping the shark season after season after season you heard about the deal when they went to Argentina what did let me see the let's go one step at a time okay see the truck slamming into the wall yeah before we get to Argentina yeah cuz I just can't believe they were just driving Clarkson top gear full acceleration truck crash no they each each guy had to do it and they're all wearing their safety equipment it might have been 20 miles an hour I mean just do just run as fast as you can into that wood wall over there and yeah I fucking hurt you know so yeah I think you could legitimately you could die oh yeah oh it's one of those trucks yeah oh boy yeah look at this he's going pretty good bro he's going very fast that is so so do you think these guys give a fuck about hurting Elon and his company is to check is so they want views oh shit he's lucky he has teeth he's lucky he's a neck yeah I guess next got to be fucked up from that yeah we did a thing with them at Grand Tour in Detroit about five years ago and he you know maybe he's got a good chiropractor he looks like he's he healed up but man that that's pretty gnarly that seems like it could cause permanent damage and so they would do stuff like that well not even happen recently yes subjects with injury he suffered on the show another one another one of their guys and they're in the current crew I forget his name maybe Pat O'Rourke but anyway he he had a bad car crash they canceled the whole season really the rest of season yeah and again nobody really knows the details they're not showing anything but I hear it was pretty painful yeah so will you watch that image he's reaches for his neck like immediately and you see how his head violently snaps yeah I don't know how this doesn't break break your neck so just like stuff like that like when we were in Canada with these with the crew were hanging out with the crew and like the so they went down to Canada we're in our nut canada they went Argentina excuse me the gummy bears kicking in I suppose they're in Argentina and so one of the cars they made they rode on the car they're doing this cross-country thing they're kind of poking fun at the Argentinians when they lost the Falcon war back in the 80s to the Brits and in the story was that these guys were getting chased out of the country like people were gonna like looking for them if they found him they were gonna frick and you know beat their ass pretty hard or worse and so I'm talking to the crew and you know the the presenters were able to get to Buenos Aires and were able to get out of the country but the crew is still there and people are like they're calling the embassy they're like hey you know what can we do the fucking locals are trying to get us and so I guess the present this is again this is from hearing from the crew when we were in Canada with our velociraptor is that you know the presenters got out the crew were stuck fearing for their lives like hiding out in places trying to make it to the airport to get home and then so when the whole shit hit the fan the the presenters in England felt bad for them so they bought them all first-class tickets or business class from from Argentina back to the UK but then the question becomes kind of given the pattern of wanting to further jump the shark and look I'm a I'm a if I climb a mountain I want to I want to climb the next mountain so I get that to some degree but did these guys actually like try to stir up the locals by putting shit on their car to fuck with them well yeah just for notoriety and so I mean I mean yeah yeah I would think so I mean 100% why else would you do it yeah trying to be nice yeah I don't know if they knew it was gonna go as far but man they but it's kind of a shitty deal where they they skated out there and their crew is literally afraid they were gonna get fucking beat to death imagine if they did yeah yeah so and I'm hearing this from the crew and this going down like 30 days before yeah yeah it's kind of interesting but you know