If you told any Top Gear fan five years ago that Richard Hammond would one day go viral for piloting an anime girl-wrapped race car, they probably would have laughed you out of the room. And yet, here we are in 2026, and that is exactly what happened. Hammond, the beloved British petrolhead known for decades of car chaos alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May, has officially entered what the internet is calling his “anime arc,” and honestly, it fits better than anyone could have anticipated.
On May 3rd, Hammond posted a short video of himself behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS completely decked out in an Azur Lane livery, featuring the character Taihou splashed across the bodywork in full anime glory. The clip spread fast, drawing in fans of Hammond, fans of the game, and plenty of people who were simply baffled by the combination. It has since become one of the more unexpected motorsport moments of the year.
What makes this even more remarkable is that Hammond is not operating in a vacuum here. 2026 has quietly become the year of the anime race car. Earlier this spring, a Mercedes GT3 hit the track wearing a livery from the hit series My Dress-Up Darling, and a BMW turned heads with an Umamusume paint job featuring anime horse girls. Hammond’s Azur Lane moment fits right into this growing trend, even if nobody could have predicted he would be the one to bring it to a mainstream audience.
For those unfamiliar, Azur Lane is a Chinese mobile gacha game that reimagines famous military warships as anime girls. Yes, that is the premise. Ships. As anime girls. It is the kind of concept that sounds absurd until you realize the game has an enormous global fanbase and now apparently has enough reach to put its characters on a GT3 RS driven by a legendary British television presenter. The internet is a wild place.
Who Is Taihou and Why Is She on Hammond’s Car?
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Taihou is one of the more popular characters in Azur Lane, based on the Japanese aircraft carrier Taiho that served in World War II. In the game, she is rendered as a dramatic, powerful anime figure with a devoted following. Seeing her plastered across a high-performance Porsche is, to put it gently, not something the designers of the original carrier could have foreseen. But in 2026, this is apparently just a Tuesday.
The Internet Reacted Exactly as You Would Expect
The comment section under Hammond’s video became its own kind of entertainment. One user perfectly summed up the absurdity by noting it was a Chinese game, a Japanese ship, a German car, and a British host all colliding in one clip. Others admitted they could never have predicted this moment but found that it somehow made complete sense once they saw it. The general consensus seemed to be that Hammond, with his chaotic energy and genuine love of anything with an engine, is exactly the right person to be driving this car.
Fans of the Grand Tour also started dreaming out loud about what a full anime car episode with Clarkson and May might look like. The idea of Jeremy Clarkson discovering his car had been wrapped in anime artwork without his knowledge was, understandably, a popular comedic fantasy in the replies.
This Is Part of a Much Bigger Anime and Pop Culture Crossover Trend
Hammond is not the only public figure getting pulled into anime territory lately. Soccer star Neymar recently appeared in a crossover with the eFootball Naruto collaboration, running around as a ninja in a video that left most viewers confused and delighted in equal measure. The line between mainstream celebrity culture and anime fandom has been blurring for years, but 2026 seems to be the point where it finally dissolved entirely.
Anime aesthetics have been creeping into motorsport specifically for a while now, driven by a passionate fanbase with disposable income and a deep appreciation for custom liveries. Race cars have become rolling canvases, and the fandoms choosing what goes on them are no longer niche.
What This Moment Actually Tells Us About Modern Fandom
There is something genuinely interesting happening beneath the surface of a funny video about a car. Anime and gaming communities have grown large enough and mainstream enough that they now have real-world influence over industries as traditionally conservative as professional motorsport. The fact that a GT3 race car is wearing an Azur Lane livery and being driven by one of the most recognizable faces in automotive television is not an accident. It is a reflection of where audiences actually are right now.
Hammond, whether intentionally or not, just became a bridge between two worlds that do not usually talk to each other. And based on the reaction online, both sides seem pretty happy about it.