The Stig is..... revealed.... sorta
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Lexus Champion
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The Stig is..... revealed.... sorta
SOME say he was built from a stolen Ferrari blueprint, others that he’s an alien from the Planet Speed. But they’re all wrong —because the News of the World knows the real identity of The Stig.
We’ve finally run to ground Jeremy Clarkson’s anonymous Top Gear hero .
And we can tell you he’s MARRIED, lives quietly in a comfortable £300,000 home and was once TERRIFIED of driving.
We can also report that when he’s not screaming around the show’s famous Gambon corner at breakneck speed in his white suit and black-visored helmet, the racetrack ace likes pootling around in a £15,000 car that would even bore James May.
And his NAME is . . .
OK, Jeremy, stop tearing up the paper and keep your hair on . . . we have no intention of wrecking the great mystery for Top Gear’s millions of fans. All we’ll reveal is his eyes behind the trademark white helmet and a few other clues.
The true identity of the superdriver who tests new models and coaches stars in the Reasonably Priced Car feature has always been kept a closely-guarded BBC secret. “Who is the Stig?” is one of the most popular questions on search engines.
But last week we found a leak in the Top Gearbox—and a senior BBC source last night confirmed: “Yes **** ******** IS the Stig but don’t tell anyone I’ve told you.”
Some say the Stig drinks petrol and uses a V8 engine to power his Philishave, but we’ve discovered he found his first track outing as a youngster “terrifying”.
Yet that didn’t stop him growing up to learn his trade in Formula First, GT Racing and Stock Cars . . . and almost make the grade as a Formula One driver.
Now in his 30s, he earns around £150,000 a year combining his Top Gear job—showing presenters Jeremy, James and Richard Hammond how it should be done— with some stunt and test driving. And that’s as much as we dare tell you.
We only know that this Stig has no intention of going the way of his predecessor, Perry McCarthy. Perry did the job for 22 Top Gears until he revealed his secret and was “killed off” . . . by being shot off the end of aircraft carrier HMS Invincible in a rocket-powered vehicle.
Former Formula One and Le Mans racer Perry, 47, still speaks warmly about his time. “It was great fun—and I’m still a big fan,” he told us.
Meanwhile the Beeb are determined the present Stig keeps his visor firmly down.
“This is the best-kept secret in motor racing and we want to keep it that way,” said our source. “No one will ever officially confirm his identity.”
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news...-unmasked.html
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Lexus Champion
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Probably is Ben Collins, he is in his 30's, never in Formula One, was in Formula First and GT racing.
Plus +
Plus +
On a separate occasion, following an accident involving Richard Hammond in September 2006, the Health & Safety Executive report into the event recorded that Collins had "worked closely with Top Gear as a high performance driver and consultant" and had prepared a briefing for Richard Hammond preceding the event
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Lexus Champion
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^ http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/12/20/nb...-top-gear-usa/
NBC had planned to bring the popular BBC and BBC America car show Top Gear to us yanks. Instead, NBC has decided to cut its brake cables in the middle of a brilliant power slide.
The official Top Gear blog announced that NBC won't air their US version of the show as a mid-season replacement in 2009.
This means the show and their hosts, Adam Carolla, Eric Stromer and Tanner Foust, are up to grabs for the highest bidder like a drug dealer's impounded Cadillac Escalade at a municipal car auction.
But the saddest news is just around the corner. The gearhead blog Jalopnik reported that the reasons NBC passed on the show were the production costs and the failure of their dismal Knight Rider remake. Well, I'm sure the cars on Top Gear won't talk, so what's the problem?
As weird as this sounds, this is the best thing that could have happened to Top Gear USA. It sucks that a show gets yanked before it has a chance to succeed because another show with a car in it fails. But it's an Oracle-like sign that the show wouldn't have made it, even if it did get on the air, for another equally stupid reason. If their willing to cancel a car show because another show with a "car" in it does poorly, where would it end?
It will also mean they will have much more freedom and room to work on a network who's entire bread and butter isn't car ads. Even if the hosts promised their car reviews, challenges and segments would be based only on their opinions, it's unlikely that NBC will zip their lips when the auto industry's Sword of Damocles swings oh so gently over their heads.
The auto industry also just scored a huge bailout that will only keep their factories afloat for the next three months tops. So maybe audiences won't care whether or not the new Mercedes McLaren is worth the $1,100,000 price tag when you're boiling your own shoes to make soup.
The official Top Gear blog announced that NBC won't air their US version of the show as a mid-season replacement in 2009.
This means the show and their hosts, Adam Carolla, Eric Stromer and Tanner Foust, are up to grabs for the highest bidder like a drug dealer's impounded Cadillac Escalade at a municipal car auction.
But the saddest news is just around the corner. The gearhead blog Jalopnik reported that the reasons NBC passed on the show were the production costs and the failure of their dismal Knight Rider remake. Well, I'm sure the cars on Top Gear won't talk, so what's the problem?
As weird as this sounds, this is the best thing that could have happened to Top Gear USA. It sucks that a show gets yanked before it has a chance to succeed because another show with a car in it fails. But it's an Oracle-like sign that the show wouldn't have made it, even if it did get on the air, for another equally stupid reason. If their willing to cancel a car show because another show with a "car" in it does poorly, where would it end?
It will also mean they will have much more freedom and room to work on a network who's entire bread and butter isn't car ads. Even if the hosts promised their car reviews, challenges and segments would be based only on their opinions, it's unlikely that NBC will zip their lips when the auto industry's Sword of Damocles swings oh so gently over their heads.
The auto industry also just scored a huge bailout that will only keep their factories afloat for the next three months tops. So maybe audiences won't care whether or not the new Mercedes McLaren is worth the $1,100,000 price tag when you're boiling your own shoes to make soup.
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I was listening to the Adam Carolla show and he mentioned that it had something to due with most of the major automakers having declining profits/sales. They were expecting a lot of the sponsors to be automakers (particularly American ones), but with the bailouts and all that probably wasn't happening.
Lexus Test Driver
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From: Inside
Ben Collins does MOST of the "Stunt" driving needed for Top Gear.
It's also been told that the identity of the Stig changes occasionally, especially if it was a car the manufacturer wasn't so sure of lending to Top Gear.
When they had the Maserati MC-12 on, it was the owner who drove the car in Stig's getup.
It's also been told that the identity of the Stig changes occasionally, especially if it was a car the manufacturer wasn't so sure of lending to Top Gear.
When they had the Maserati MC-12 on, it was the owner who drove the car in Stig's getup.
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