As blasphemous as it may sound for someone employed by Boss Hunting, I never really watched Top Gear back in the day. It wasnโt until recently I began working my way through vintage episodes featuring the OG trio. Which is why Iโm late to the party on being emotionally sideswiped by Jeremy Clarkson explaining his connection to the Porsche 928 in a touching story about his dad.
The moment was surprisingly sincere for a show where middle-aged goofballs played โcar dartsโ by launching vehicles into a quarry and drove around the BBC office in a comically small set of wheels; and surprisingly sincere for a sarcastic bastard like old Clarkson. It was also a lightbulb moment vis-a-vis why Jeremy Clarkson always made a point to pick the Porsche 928 for challenges.
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โI know Hammond and May think my 928 Porsche is a bit dull, but for one very good reason, it isnโt dull to me,โ Jeremy Clarkson revealed during Top Gear season 22โs โPatagonia Special.โ
โSee back in 1994, I was living in London and I got a call one evening from my mum to say that my dad was desperately ill in a hospital in Sheffield, and I needed to get there as quickly as possible.โ
โAnd Iโd just taken the chicken out of the oven and I thought, โWell Iโll take that for my mum because she wonโt have eaten.โ I ran outside and I had a 928 on test that week.โ
โWhen I arrived in Sheffield, the chicken was still warm and my dad was still alive. In fact, he died half an hour later. And the truth is, if I hadnโt been driving a car which could sit quite happily at 170 miles an hour, I wouldnโt have had the opportunity to say goodbye to my dad.โ
โSo as far as Iโm concerned, the 928 is alright.
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Tears. Instant tears.
If all this hits a little too close to home โ fear not. Elsewhere, Jeremy Clarkson has vaguely alluded to the same sentiment behind his Porsche 928 dad story, but in a far more hilarious fashion so you can sweep those feelings under a rug:
โIf you have a powerful engine, you can get home at night more quickly, which means you spend more time with your children, which means theyโre less likely to grow upโฆ as glue sniffers.โ
How could anyone possibly hate this bloke?
