Richard Hammond and James May Lap the Top Gear Test Track One Last Time in a Porsche Taycan

Dunsfold Aerodrome’s 1.75-mile test track sprawls under a moody Surrey sky, its asphalt a sacred scar on the landscape of car culture. This is the Top Gear test track, where the Stig’s 55.9-second McMurtry Spéirling lap still looms large, where supercars howled, and where James May and Richard Hammond, two-thirds of the show’s holy trinity, staged a final, electrifying goodbye. Captured for DriveTribe, this wasn’t just a lap—it was a high-voltage love letter to a show that rewired how the world saw cars, with May at the wheel and Hammond riding shotgun, their banter crackling like static.

May piloted a Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, a 1,108-horsepower electric monster that looks like it could outrun a thunderstorm. Its purple paint gleams with menace, and with a 0-62 mph sprint of 2.3 seconds, it’s the kind of car that makes your spine tingle before you even touch the pedal. Hammond, strapped into the passenger seat, is less co-driver than co-conspirator, his grin wide enough to light up the cloudy afternoon. The Taycan’s no classic Capri—it’s a future-proof beast, its electric whine a stark contrast to the V8 roars of Top Gear’s past. But in May’s hands, it’s the perfect tool for this last dance around a track that’s seen everything from Ferrari heroics to a Fiat Panda’s plucky chaos.



The circuit is a gauntlet of memories: the long Chicago straight begs for speed, Hammerhead demands precision, and Follow-Through dares you to hold your nerve. May floors the Taycan, and it surges forward with the relentless shove of a rocket sled, its electric torque making the world blur past the panoramic roof. He’s all focus, a professor at the wheel, steering with the calm of someone who’s debated clutch techniques over pints.