Richard Hammond is no stranger to speed. Over the past three decades, he’s piloted rocket-powered dragsters, wrangled V8 rally cars in Iceland, and pushed the limits of everything in between. Last week, the former TopGear and Grand Tour presenter once again demonstrated that big power can also come in silence, delivered by a near-production prototype of the upcoming all-electric Porsche Cayenne.
During a recent film shoot, Hammond drove the camouflaged SUV to tow a 100-year-old Lagonda weighing over two tons (about 4,400 pounds). With the trailer, the total haul approached 6,600 pounds. With the immense torque reserves and extensive thermal management of the batteries, the Cayenne Electric was able to pull the load from Hammond’s Hereford workshop to his garage. Porsche later confirmed that the upcoming Cayenne Electric will support a towing capacity of up to 7,716 pounds, identical to its combustion-powered sibling.
Leading up to last week’s appearance at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Cayenne electric also clinched the SUV record at the historic Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb, completing the 0.56-mile course in just 31.28 seconds, with Porsche Formula E development driver Gabriela Jílková behind the wheel. A point worth noting is that, this could be a Turbo variant, as it features Turbonite badges.
But for Hammond, the Cayenne’s evolution and connection with the Stuttgart-based brand is more than just technological, but an emotional one. In a recent interview with Porsche, he also took the opportunity to speak about the 911.
Across TopGear and The Grand Tour, he’s hailed the 911 as the ultimate all-rounder: “characterful, practical, fast.” Being a lifelong Porsche fan, Hammond has even said on DriveTribe that he’s in a very privileged position to own a 992 GTS Cabriolet, a 992 Turbo S Cabriolet, and several versions over the decades. For Hammond, this is a full circle. His best advice? “Take your time. All things shall pass.”
But his very first 911 was a humble red 1982 left-hand Drive SC. In a review of his Turbo S Cab, he highlighted how Porsche has stuck to the rear-engined formula and relentlessly refined it for the past eight decades. Hammond reiterated: “The point of a 911 is you can do everything with it.”
Besides Richard, even James May, his long-time co-host, shares that same love as his ecclectic car collection includes a 997.2 2010 911 Carrera S. More recently, Captain Slow and Hamster were seen in a Plane Vs EV (Porsche Taycan) race, just like the old days, concluding at the Dunsfold airfield, i.e the TopGear test track. As for Jeremy Clarkson, often one of Porsche’s harshest critics, even he came around, after he drove the 997.1 Turbo, praising it for its versatility as an everyday sports car, and die-hard TopGear fans amongst you might know why Jezza holds the 928 in such high regard.
Coming back to the significance of the Cayenne, ironically, it was the original and controversial Cayenne, along with the Boxster, that helped save Porsche from financial collapse back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Porsche SUV’s commercial success, having sold over a million units since 2003, helped bankroll the company’s performance icons. Without it, there would have been no Carrera GT. Now, the electric Cayenne is set to do much of the same, as the EV era of Porsche continues to take shape.
Images Source: Porsche
