What is it that Damon Hill smelled like which proved conclusively that he was the Stig?

I think it was magnesium.

My take on it is the Stig changes according to driver availabilty, the cars being driven, the country concerned, even if the piece requires driving or not. I doubt a racing driver was needed in the episode he crossed London by underground for instance, any 2 bit extra would be cheaper and do a better job.

Ah yes, I think you're probably right. Anyway, on TG it was The Stig that was driving, but on the event documentation it was BC.

I'm pretty sure that Ben wasn't African Stig or American Stig either. Ben Collins at Britcar was a solid choice for that event and is also not conclusive (in itself) that he is The Stig.

Didn't the Ben rumors start after the investigation into Hammond's accident?

There may not be hard proof of who the week to week stig is, but there is certainly a nice pile of clues that has mounted over the years. If it turned out not to be Ben, that would be a bigger revelation then if he admited to it.

Ah, but the African and American (not to mention German) Stigs were of course understood to be different and separate creatures, even if they all come from the planet Stig.

We are speaking of The Stig. And that is mostly Ben Collins although, mysteriously, not all the time. For instance, when driving a F1 Renault, The Stig is believed to have become temporarily Finnish and may have had similar temporary identity alterations at other times too. Perhaps we should say that Ben Collins is A Stig all the time and The Stig most of the time.

Unless/until the BBC fire him.

...and the FXX was unquestionably Schumacher so, yeah, probably better if his Autobiography was called 'I Am A Stig'...

In the words of full metal jacket...

"This is my stig. There are many others like it, but this one is mine...."

Ah guys stop spoiling the fun

The Stig is a mysterious creature from an unknown origin with no human senses. Simples

I doubt that was pit-wall-nutter in that FXX too FWIIW.

Martin Donnelly told me that it was Ben and he sometimes did it. That was at the Grand Prix master's at Silverstone in 06. I was pretty drunk so he could have told me anything and I would have believed it.

Anyway, the whole Stig thing is boring. It was good up until about 3 years ago, now they treat him/her??? (BEN) like some sort of god. When in reality he's just a decent sports car driver with some success in ASCAR.

I've always thought 'The Stig' character was created as a way of getting race driver expertise without the problem of filming schedules and racing calendars clashing. No race driver would want to commit to always being available for Top Gear and potentially missing out on race drives. With 'The Stig', the programme could use any available driver if the regular one was unavailable. Also, some manufacturers insist on only a contracted driver in their car (e.g. Heikki in the Renault F1 car) and this could easily be accomplished under the 'Stig' umbrella without the viewers being any the wiser. The running joke of the Stig character and the speculation it has created are fortunate by-products. It has been generally accepted that Ben Collins was the regular Stig since midway through Series 3, as it was previously known that Perry McCarthy was the first regular Stig.

Of course, it might all be an elaborate smokescreen, and The Stig might be Victoria Beckham.

Judging by this story, the gloves are off, the toys are all out of the pram, and this time, it's personal. The Exec Producer of TG seems to have taken it all rather too much to heart.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11108795

All the stuff about 'the secret' is a bit rich - by taking this to the High Court, the Beeb has made sure that it isn't a secret anymore. You could weep for all those disappointed kiddies come Christmas time!

Next time we see The Stig, if we ever do again, I think we can be pretty certain that it won't be Ben Collins!

It's a very brave (or very stupid) person working in the media who [publically] calls a company controlled by Rupert Murdoch "a bunch of chancers". Kind of screws up your job prospects ...

Given Murdoch's "views" on the Beeb, it's not like he has much to fear. He could of just been more accurate and labelled the whole News Corp a POS though

http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2010...tig-he-is-ours/

Quite a good read from TG editor, particularly the George Michael line

The real reason AW is so upset over all this is because they've run out of neutral colours to dress whichever new driver gets picked to be the stig. Grey? That'd give further proof to it being http://f1chronicles.com/wp-content/uploads...herMercedes.jpg



Is Nelson Piquet Jnr still available? I honestly think the TG editors/writers/producers don't want a racing driver as one of the presenters. The writing of Top Gear is so character driven that fitting in an extra personality to the tried and tested cocky/geeky/cheeky trio just wouldn't work. Making him into an anonymous robot they can laugh at together is a bit of fun and still delivers the same driving skills as if they were putting up with a non-compatible personality.

They could always just 'resurrect' the Black Stig? Everyone will know it isn't the same one as before, but it would make an interesting twist in the story of the Stig...

God, this Wilman guy is so full of it, and of himself. I have rarely read so much sanctimonious claptrap in one statement (and as followers of F1, you will all know that we get to see some breathtakingly sanctimonious stuff from time to time).
I especially love the way that he blocks off any comment from viewers, on legal grounds - but it doesn't stop HIM from running off at the mouth for paragraph after paragraph.

Mr Wilman really needs to grow up - compared to him the Top Gear presenters look paragons of maturity and good sense.

His post has probably been given the once over by lawyers, while the moderators of the comments, unless they are legally trained, will probably not be able to reasonably recognise statements which throw him in the doo-doo and delete them.

Not saying that's 'fair' but I think it's probably right.

Just thought i'd throw my 2 pence into the discussion, didn't the BBC say they would make public what their presenters etc get paid so as we the viewing (paying) public can see where our money goes, now, I very much doubt on the BBC budget shhet a salary goes out each month to Mr T Stig, surley someone out there could find out if Ben (or any other driver for that matter) is getting paid to appear on Top Gear.

Also I believe that for a time "Stig" duties were freelance with both Johnny Herbert and Nicolas Minassian taking the wheel, (NM at AI one year smiled and answered "I might have been" when I posed this question to him!) Rumour has it that Steve Parrish did the Lorry Stig donuting bit when they were lorry drivers!

Why would you think The Stig isn't getting paid?

Not suggesting that he's not being paid, but whoever is being paid should be easy to track down as the BBC have said they would make public what presenters get paid, therefore shouldn't be too hard to find out if Ben - or any other driver/s is on the BBC payroll (Brundle,DC, Cox and Parrish aside) and you should pretty much have your Stig nailed, btw did you know that in one of the mad "stunts" (think it was a football match with little city cars) Ben Collins actually competed with the cream of the BTCC and the presenters!

Gpoing back to the whole "who is the Stig?" thing BC has been "known" for a long long time and pretty much confirmed after the release of Quantum of Solice when he did 007s stunt driving, now, during the series of Top Gear broacast around that time Stig - while doing hot laps listen to morse code in the car, hmmm spy film driver, morse code, clue?? Stig revealed - luke warm reception to it - new series of Top Gear, now, i'm always looking for a connection so, the next broadcast series of Top Gear goes out in 2009, Stig (remember BC has been outed) is now listening to bagpipe music, DC has retired from F1 and working for the BBC, coincidence?

Considering everyone knows who the regular Stig is (there are a couple others whom I won't mention) why the hell is their a court case on this. What a waste of money! there is NO secret to hide!

According to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvbmpiwn6GI

Ben Collins has been fired.

I don't think the Stig would qualify as a presenter under the BBC claims to reduce salary details.

What a load of self righteous bullshit. The anonymity of the Stig was a bit of fun and everyone knew it was Ben Collins for a while before this. Such a trivial case ruins the Top Gear brand more than a biography by Collins ever could. All a bit of childish fun until some clout took it seriously.

They are fighting tooth and nail not to give out any information at all. Strange that, when the BBC is one of the biggest users of the Freedom of Information Act to extract information from government! But they don't think it applies to them (a bit like the MPs who passed the Act in the first place and then whined when it got applied to them and their expenses were revealed ) .

BBC lose the case and the stig has been revealed as Ben Collins, what a shocker:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a27092...loses-case.html

Oh! Now my Christmas is quite ruined. How the BBC thought that going to the High Court would help to 'keep the secret' is beyond me.

I hope that whoever sactioned this lawsuit in the Beeb loses their bonus.

Ant Davidson should give them a call.

Not sure how much people care about who the guy really is now. The Stig is just a driver in a suit. Do we really care if it's Ben Collins, Clarkson, Schumacher, whoever else?

What I still don't really get is why he choose to seek the trouble over this. The guy is 35, couldn't he wait a bit with his autobiography until his live is like, more complete? He now loses a nice job- to tell his life story, oh yeah he's 35. Sure he has prolly done 10.000 times more exciting and risky things than the average human but still nothing could prevent him from writing it yet, but publishing?

I mean unless he is fatally ill or sick of the job or something, ah I dunno.

The BBC management do not give a stuff about the money they waste, they behave like all such taxpayer funded institutions, politicos, bureaucrats, national and local government, civil administration et al, who have unfettered access to the public's money. Without a care in the world, after all it's not their money they are spending and one can imagine just how much the wig wearers charged for their services.

http://newsarse.com/2010/09/01/ben-collins...-eight-minutes/

I think this is really disappointing news. Of course a petrolhead forum like this is bound to know the score or have worked it out from clues etc, but to most viewers the mystique is part of the fun.

It remains to be seen whether the revelation ruins the show in any way for the millions who will have just enjoyed it for what it was. I simply don't understand why it is so important that they reveal the secret now. Top Gear as a show is not far from reaching it's natural end of life (IMO) and a couple of years wait is all that was needed.

It's also pretty sad to see that someone can so readily break the terms of their employment contract and be rewarded for it.

I imagine something like 98% of Top Gear viewers, upon hearing that The Stig is Ben Collins; won't know who Ben Collins is. And after having it explained, will generay have a response similar to "...thats it?"

But I really don't understand. Everyone who cared has known for years. Everyone who didn't cared, has been told numerous times - wasn't it about a year ago some carpenter revealed all over the newspapers he found the Stig dress in Ben Collins house?

You didn't need to be a petrolhead to Google 'who is the Stig'. Ross is right that, when they found out, most people would be none the wiser as to who Ben Collins is, and I agree that it was a bit of fun. But I think the BBC have been incredibly heavy-handed in marching off to the High Court - especially when they lose.

Why not just shrug it off, give Ben his cards for breach of contract, and recruit a new Stig - it could be The Green Stig for instance (co-incidentally, I am available for road tests, weddings and bar mitzvahs!). They could have made it part of the mystique - like Doctor Who regenerating.

Given how this has already happened with Perry McCarthy, I don't think the "mystique" will be affected. I'll be very surprised if there isn't a new "Grey Stig" or another colour one in the next series.



Well, he has lost his job. It would be interesting to know the book sales of McCarthy's autobiography in which he outed himself as the first Stig, as this could give use a reasonable indication as to how much Collins could expect to make from his book.

Ben Collins is a decent enough driver, but I don't know what he has to write about, except being the Stig of course. Perry McCarthy's autobiography had the whole Andrea Moda farce to cover, which was hugely entertaining. I'm not sure that a book by Ben Collins would have the same appeal, even among racing fans.

It's more to do with the mystique that's grown up around it. Of course everyone knows there's a bloke in the suit and that his nipple isn't shaped like the Nurburgring, but 'some say, he's Ben Collins, and that he's been sacked for breach of contract' just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Thing is, Buttoneer, put yourself in Ben Collin's shoes. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Perry made alot more money from his book than being The Stig. The fact that the Stig by his very nature has no human personality means the BBC and TG can get away with paying who portrays The Stig next to nothing when Clarkson et al are on multi million pound contracts. Ben becomes expendable, as was Perry McCarthy. To be The Stig is akin to being a character at Disneyland, pull on the suit and arse about in cars. I'm not saying it's easy to be a racing driver but being The Stig does nothing for your career as a racing driver. Clarkson et al have all formed careers outside TG in other areas of TV that they can rinse for the rest of their lives. The racing drives have probably all but dried up from Ben by now and, as you say, Top Gear's current format being nearer the end than the start means Ben's best bet of earning some decent coin out of it is an external book deal. Yes, it probably undermines his terms of contract and word but as long as he isn't revelaing anything truly confidential about contracts or other people then I don't see the big problem. They'll probably drop white stig off the matching cliffs of Dover for the start of the new series anyway...

Thing is, Perry McCarthy's book had so much more to read about that was interesting than just being The Stig. Being The Stig is in some ways the highlight of Collins career. Which isn't saying much really. And it's barely enough to justify a novelty biography. Either he wasn't getting renewed or the pay was completely crap, because I can't see how the book advance on an autobiography of a guy who won one F3 race and occasionally was on TV would be that lucrative.

I suspect both, because it was far from being a full-time job. I genuinely can't think of any other reason why he'd want to make a mess of things now unless he thought the whole thing was coming to an end or that his role was coming to an end.

It will be interesting to see what they do for the first episode in the next series.

There'll clearly be a new Stig because the character is very marketable.

'sactly. It's gonna sell less copies than Ashley Cole's book. The only thing he's got to say that's of any interest is how shit some of the siarpc were, and his account of hammond's accident, which has been fairly well documented.

I understand there was some resentment that the Top Gear 3 were coining it in with endorsements and the live show whereas Stig was on a flat rate.

Understandable. I suppose.

But The Stig is a prop, not a personality. You or I could do it, so where's the novelty that commands the high appearance fee?