Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax The first Aero 8 on TV

Richard Hammond's new series of the Smallest Cog has them repairing the splitter, boot lid and then a full repaint of the first Aero 8 which was displayed at the Yr2000 Geneva Show and is kept at the Factory

He employs an ex MMC lad as his workshop manager too, looks like he was from the paint shop dept

It's series 5, episode 3 (I found it on Quest channel)

Interesting episode Jon. Seen it twice now. Thought it odd that they couldn't find the time/space to tidy it up themselves, but knowing an ex employee was at the helm of the third party may have had a bearing.

Made me giggle when MMC sent him the wrong front end splitter and I was surprised the boot lid was GRP too

Enjoy the programme but can’t help feeling he’s taking the mickey when he keeps pleading poverty all the time.

Divorce will have dented him but not into penury.

Richard Hammond's net worth is estimated to be approximately £37 million ($46.2 million) as of 2025.
His wealth stems from a highly successful career as a television presenter, journalist, and entrepreneur, with significant contributions from his time on Top Gear and The Grand Tour.

Financial Breakdown
Television Earnings: His annual income reportedly surged from around £500,000 to roughly £7.2 million after transitioning from the BBC to Amazon Prime Video.
Business Ventures: He has served as a director for five different businesses. His primary production company, Chimp Productions, reported approximately £1.45 million in cash assets as of March 2024.
Digital Assets: His YouTube channel, DriveTribe, which has over 2.75 million subscribers, generates estimated monthly earnings of up to £17,500.
Key Assets
Real Estate: He owns the Bolitree Castle estate in Herefordshire, valued at approximately £7 million. His property portfolio also includes a villa in Saint Tropez and a flat in London.

I suppose everything is relative when it comes to assessing your own wealth.........I would think his earnings are falling and his overheads are rising, add in the divorce and all the 'hangers on' and he might be feeling the relative pinch, compared to where he was a few years ago. It becomes harder to have the same level of fun as they achieve in the Top Gear and Grand Tour overseas adventures, when you have to increasingly have to fund it from your own resources. He has a gained taste for a life style, which he may now be struggling to support as easily.

I can't imagine he's hard up........🤷🏻‍♂️😁
I'm not sure he's a natural businessman though, perhaps he's hamming it up for the cameras a bit.......
I presume that the programme is produced by his company, it will have been bought by or commissioned by someone so, it being TV, there won't be shortage of funding....

It is entertaining, I've seen it from the first episode. It's telling that Neil Greenhouse, the guy who really seemed to know what he was doing, left....... and burned his overalls....😂

🇬🇧🇬🇧

The Smallest Cog programme leaves me wondering why he is employing a so called Media Manager who looks as if he’s in another world and out of his depth, and the chap called Zog? who does what?

I note that most of the recent Top Gear repeats feature the original trio, not the far less successful follow ons, for which they will likely receive additional royalties to keep them in beer money.

Smallest cog I think the wheels come off, watched a few......................boring allegedly the business is 700k in the red.

Looking at the filings on Companies House, the debt is around £600K to Hamster Productions (owned by Hammond), £1K to DT DIgitial (owned by Hammond) and £45K to Chimp Productions (owned by Hammond) so probably all designed to avoid as much tax as possible

I don't mind the programme as such - it's up there with Shed and Buried (et al), Car SOS, Classic Car Kings, Flipping Bangers and others that I'll watch if I get control of the handset. Harmless TV.

The only ones I can't bring myself to watch are Bangers and Twats, and the one where Ant Anstead whines about house renovations while losing money on classic cars.