{"id":641028,"date":"2026-06-16T04:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641028\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T04:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:30:11","slug":"richard-hammond-finally-reveals-what-happened-behind-the-scenes-of-the-controversial-top-gear-license-plate-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641028\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Hammond finally reveals what happened behind the scenes of the controversial Top Gear license plate incident"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-infamous-Top-Gear-Argentina-Special-moment-the-license-plate-thing-has-been-talked-about-a-milli.webp\" id=\"main-image\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" class=\"rounded-lg post-featured-image\" alt=\"Richard Hammond finally reveals what happened behind the scenes of the controversial Top Gear license plate incident\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The infamous <a href=\"https:\/\/supercarblondie.com\/cars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\" style=\"color: #0074ff;\">Top Gear<\/a> Argentina Special moment \u2013 the license plate incident \u2013 has been talked about a million times but Richard Hammond recently added a new detail.<\/p>\n<p>But what\u2019s interesting is that while Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and ex-Top Gear producer Andy Wilman have indeed talked about it on several occasions, Hammond has been a bit quieter about it.<\/p>\n<p>Until now.<\/p>\n<p>Hammond finally addressed what happened, and he added a detail no one had ever mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>A summary of what happened<\/p>\n<p>This is a well-known incident, but it\u2019s been a while and so a quick summary will probably help.<\/p>\n<p>Around 12 years ago, the Top Gear trio traveled to Argentina for a Special.<\/p>\n<p>The idea was to drive across Argentina in three V8 cars and then finish the show with an England vs Argentina soccer match.<\/p>\n<p>But they never got to that part.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781584209_292_The-infamous-Top-Gear-Argentina-Special-moment-the-license-plate-thing-has-been-talked-about-a-milli.webp\" style=\"color: #0074ff;\" data-lightbox=\"196540\" data-title=\"BBC\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-id=\"196551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781584209_292_The-infamous-Top-Gear-Argentina-Special-moment-the-license-plate-thing-has-been-talked-about-a-milli.webp\" alt=\"The infamous Top Gear Argentina Special moment - the license plate 'thing' - has been talked about a million times\" class=\"wp-image-196551\"   style=\"border-radius: 10px;\"\/><\/a>BBC<\/p>\n<p>At some point, local residents began complaining about the license plate on Jeremy\u2019s Porsche.<\/p>\n<p>Because of the unique combination of numbers and letters, a lot of people thought this was a reference to the 1982 war for the Falklands\/Malvinas.<\/p>\n<p>Through the years, several attempts to prove the reference was deliberate were made, while an equally sizable number of people tried proving the exact opposite.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781584209_371_The-infamous-Top-Gear-Argentina-Special-moment-the-license-plate-thing-has-been-talked-about-a-milli.webp\" style=\"color: #0074ff;\" data-lightbox=\"196540\" data-title=\"BBC\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-id=\"196547\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781584209_371_The-infamous-Top-Gear-Argentina-Special-moment-the-license-plate-thing-has-been-talked-about-a-milli.webp\" alt=\"The infamous Top Gear Argentina Special moment - the license plate 'thing' - has been talked about a million times\" class=\"wp-image-196547\"   style=\"border-radius: 10px;\"\/><\/a>BBC<\/p>\n<p>Public record shows that license plate had indeed been tied to the car from the start and, to this day, everyone from the Top Gear team has always maintained that this was completely accidental.<\/p>\n<p>However, <a href=\"https:\/\/supercarblondie.com\/producer-revealed-truth-about-license-plate-jeremy-clarksons-porsche-928\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\" style=\"color: #0074ff;\">there\u2019s one element no one had ever mentioned<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781584210_485_The-infamous-Top-Gear-Argentina-Special-moment-the-license-plate-thing-has-been-talked-about-a-milli.webp\" style=\"color: #0074ff;\" data-lightbox=\"196540\" data-title=\"BBC\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-id=\"196550\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781584210_485_The-infamous-Top-Gear-Argentina-Special-moment-the-license-plate-thing-has-been-talked-about-a-milli.webp\" alt=\"The infamous Top Gear Argentina Special moment - the license plate 'thing' - has been talked about a million times\" class=\"wp-image-196550\"   style=\"border-radius: 10px;\"\/><\/a>BBC<\/p>\n<p>Richard Hammond said something about the license plate incident no one ever pointed out<\/p>\n<p>Richard Hammond took to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Drivetribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"\" style=\"color: #0074ff;\">DriveTribe<\/a> YouTube channel to add a little detail about the license plate incident in the Argentina Special that no one ever mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was deemed to be a reference to the Falkland Islands war \u2013 it wasn\u2019t,\u201d Hammond explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all wanted V8s. <a href=\"https:\/\/supercarblondie.com\/what-happened-to-the-porsche-928-used-by-jeremy-clarkson-in-argentina-special-on-top-gear\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\" style=\"color: #0074ff;\">Jeremy wanted that Porsche because the car meant a lot to him<\/a>. He used one to dash to see his father while he was dying.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Then Hammond explained what else was happening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem was it was an election year and bashing the Brits [in Argentina] is good for votes. [They] mobilized the trucker union, which is a really powerful union. So it was very real,\u201d Hammond said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/supercarblondie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/The-infamous-Top-Gear-Argentina-Special-moment-the-license-plate-thing-has-been-talked-about-a-million-times-main.webp\" style=\"color: #0074ff;\" data-lightbox=\"196540\" data-title=\"DriveTribe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\" data-id=\"196549\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781584211_401_The-infamous-Top-Gear-Argentina-Special-moment-the-license-plate-thing-has-been-talked-about-a-milli.webp\" alt=\"Everyone knows about the infamous license plate incident in the Top Gear Argentina Special, but Richard Hammond added an extra detail no one ever mentioned\" class=\"wp-image-196549\"   style=\"border-radius: 10px;\"\/><\/a>DriveTribe<\/p>\n<p>It all went south from there and the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n<p>Even though this didn\u2019t directly lead to the end of Top Gear, <a href=\"https:\/\/supercarblondie.com\/richard-hammond-ran-out-of-fuel-after-leaving-top-gear-studio-for-the-last-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\" style=\"color: #0074ff;\">it was certainly the turning point and the beginning of the end<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After this, Clarkson hit the headlines for a \u2018fracas\u2019 with a BBC producer.<\/p>\n<p>Technically, no one was ever fired.<\/p>\n<p>Clarkson\u2019s contract wasn\u2019t renewed, and both May and Hammond decided to leave to keep the trio together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The infamous Top Gear Argentina Special moment \u2013 the license plate incident \u2013 has been talked about a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-641028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}