Hammond ‘the hamster’ on a roll at Pembrey

TOP Gear’s master of wheels Richard (the Hampster) Hammond has been a surprise visitor to Pembrey Country Park.

The mission was for a scientific project he is working. But Richard, one of the trio of current Top Gear presenters, could not resist reverting to type and buzzing about for the first time ever on one of the park attractions, a Segway PT.

“I want one and my daughters will too,” he trilled and he slowly found his balance and wheeled about the park’s Sidan Cafe whose owner Stephanie Thomas invited him to ride Segway.

Self confessed owner of 28 motor cycles and, he thinks, 14 cars, presenter, journalist and actor, Mr Hammond was a little tentative until he acclimatised to using the innovative two-wheel balance machines that have become a huge hit with park visitors.

The Segway PT is a two-wheeled, self-balancing, battery-powered electric personal transporter vehicle.

Computers and motors in the base of the device keep the Segway PT upright when powered on with balancing enabled. A user commands the Segway to go forward by shifting their weight forward on the platform, and backward by shifting their weight backward. The Segway detects, as it balances, the change in its center of mass, and first establishes and then maintains a corresponding speed, forward or backward. Gyroscopic sensors and fluid-based leveling sensors detect the weight shift. To turn, the user presses the handlebar to the left or the right.

As the programme producers tried to bring to an end the impromptu helmetless ride, The Hampster exhibited his Top Gear panache threatening to zoom off along Cefn Sidan Sands before sadly sighing “time does not allow.”

They were probably remembering Richard’s 2006 near fatal crash. He was driving a jet-powered dragster which veered off the track at Elvington airfield, near York, and flipped over at 288mph. He was put in an induced coma, and kept in hospital for five weeks.

But there were no mishaps at Pembrey he barely got up to 5mph.

After securing a take away coffee and a photo call with some stunned park visitors, one of the top ten UK TV presenters took off to Cefn Sidan to study the out tide before exploring the forestry.

Richard who spent a day at Pembrey said: “I cannot believe how beautiful this park and beach is. It has a remarkable history too. It is stunning here and I have the advantage of studying it from the air. Absolutely breathtaking with the tide in. I’ll be coming b ack with the family.”

Stephanie has invited Richard to return with his Top Gear co-presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May for a Segway Challenge.

The trio know Pembrey. They were once chased up Cefn Sidan by a fully armed Lynx helicopter out of RAF Pembrey’s Bombing Range for a Top Gear production.

Richard arrived in another of his machines – a Robinson44 helicopter landing at Pembrey Airport from his mock castle home in Ross on Wye.

HAMPSTER ROLL: Richard Hammond gets to grip with Segway at Pembrey Country Park.