May was in Norway in March to record scenes for the popular car program “The Grand Tour”, together with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. Together, the three previously hosted the well-known car program “Top Gear”, which was shown on news, among others. The recording took place, among other things, at the former naval base Olavsvern in Tromsø, writes the British newspaper The Sun. Olavsvern has a tunnel system with roads that can be driven by car. Photo: Erik Drabløs/Forsvaret Olavsvern is a disused naval base located in Tromsø municipality. Photo: Erik Drabløs/Forsvaret The tunnel system inside Olavsvern. Photo: Håvard Lior / news The submarine dock at Olavsvern. Photo: Håvard Lior / news The presenters were driving rough inside a tunnel in the decommissioned base when May’s car drove into a wall at around 120 kilometers per hour. May, who allegedly hit her head hard and broke at least one rib, was sent to the University Hospital of Northern Norway (UNN). However, he recovered well from the incident, and joined the recordings again after a couple of days, the newspaper writes. It was the yellow car on the left, a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8, James May was in when he crashed into a wall in Tromsø. The picture is taken from “The Grand Tour”‘s Instagram, and was taken when they were in Norway in March. Photo: Screenshot/Instagram – Sorry After the news became known on Friday evening, several of the presenter’s fans took to social media to show their support. Some of them also make fun of him, saying he is now in the company of colleague Richard Hammond, who in 2017 was in a serious car accident when he crashed a Rimac Concept One in Switzerland. “Thanks for all the kind comments and funny jokes about my crash,” May wrote on her Twitter account, continuing: “But it’s been a while, it wasn’t too bad and I was fine.” James May on a visit to Norway in March. Here he sits in the car he would later crash at 120 km/h in Tromsø. Photo: Screenshot/Instagram The Top Gear star ends the post by apologizing to fans of Mitsubishi’s Evo range for damaging the car. About Olavsvern The construction of Olavsvern started in 1961, and the facility was opened in 1968. The facility has cost around NOK 4 billion. In the period 1980–1991, the base was expanded with a large internal ammunition storage. In 2009, the Storting decided that the naval base should be closed down and disposed of. In 2013, the facility was sold to the Olavsvern Group for NOK 38 million. The rate was NOK 105 million. The sale of the submarine base gave Norway a lot of negative attention in NATO and in the international media, when it emerged in 2015 that Russian research ships were allowed to use the base. Source: olavsvern.no
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