The Stig is Ben Collins

[Blowfeld]

The Stig is Ben Collins – clues that Top Gear fans should have spotted

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwdvban4 ... r_embedded[/video]

Ok, so the secret’s out … and as comedian David Schneider tweeted an hour or so ago, “I guess now we must replace the question “Who is the Stig?” with the question “Who is Ben Collins?”

Well we know that Mr Collins is 35-years-old, spent four years in the army, has acted as a stunt double in James Bond and has a fairly impressive track record when it comes to driving.

Fine, you can get all that from Wikipedia … but the thing that is really frustrating many Top Gear fans today is that they didn’t guess Collins was The Stig earlier.

Over the past few years many clues have emerged suggesting that the all-white clad racing supremo was Collins rather than, as many believed, a famous racing driver like Michael Schumacher or Damon Hill.

Even before the 2003 accounts for Collins Motorsport Ltd were revealed last week as stating, “In addition, driving services were also provided for the BBC mainly in the Top Gear programme which promotes Ben’s driving reputation and offers good long term prospects for continuing income”, there were other tips that you could have picked up.

Well, for a start, there was the 2008 photograph of the driver (left) where a well timed flash broke through The Stig’s usually ‘anonymity ensuring’ dark visor … the eyes looked quite a lot like those belonging to Collins, as the video concludes.

Also, there were the 2009 reports that Collins had been caught out ordering commerorative photographs of The Stig from a Bristol printers.

As if that wasn’t enough, then there was the voice … as we see here in this video (left) from early last year. When The Stig starts speaking on camera to Dutch television it turns out he doesn’t sound dissimilar to Collins.

In addition, Ben appeared as himself on Top Gear on several occasions (below).

Many are now asking, was there a knowing wink when he got picked to play in the car football match … could you see the smirk on his face when he took on the skateboarder? Well have a look at the videos and see for yourself … no … I couldn’t see anything either …

In fairness, including Collins in the show as himself was a masterstroke by the BBC, because who would ever suspect one of many professional racing drivers that featured on the show … haha, the joke was on us.

So now you’ve seen the clues, are you annoyed that you didn’t spot The Stig earlier … or are you going to pretend you were aware of his identity all along … just like me?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkk0EMhm ... r_embedded[/video]
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48GCPJ4J ... r_embedded[/video]
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y-ba2BX ... r_embedded[/video]

http://www.beehivecity.com/television/t ... ed1212321/

[katied]

Interesting. The Stig being anonymous(up until now) is one of the things that makes Top Gear great.

[Blowfeld]

Interesting. The Stig being anonymous(up until now) is one of the things that makes Top Gear great.

You have a good point. I wonder if this mean the end of the White Stig. Could it possibly be a double bluff? Ben's name has been out of the bag for awhile now.

What is mad is Jeremy Clarkson makes a insane amount of money on that show. Richard Hammond and James May might do alright, along with their secondary shows and books, I have a strong feeling the BBC writes off the Stig at stunt man wages. A shame because he is a integral part of the show and this Stig is a hell of a driver.

[Blowfeld]

MidWeek Motoring with Gavin D’Souza

Some say he once wrestled an elephant to the ground using the power of his mind, and that he has a life-size tattoo of his face, on his face.­

All we know is he’s called the Stig.

This now-iconic three-line stanza has been the staple introduction to the faceless racing driver of the world’s most famous motoring TV show, Top Gear.

If by some chance you have managed to get through the last eight years not ever having watched the programme from the UK’s BBC 2, the Stig is an anonymous being in a white Alpinestars racing suit whose very existence is for the sole purpose of driving cars as fast as they can be driven.

Some say he is stored in a cupboard between the show’s biannual seasons.

Shortly after each episode’s Power Test, Jeremy Clarkson, or occasionally one of the other two, would in this way reveal two interesting and brilliantly irrelevant ‘facts’ about him before showing a clip of him thrashing the day’s supercar around the track to set a lap time.

He also appears in the show’s feature films racing against the presenters, driving cars for tests and on one occasion, fighting boy scouts.

His somewhat bizarre taste in driving ‘music’ polarised viewers, leaving them either in splits, or secretly thinking to themselves, “That would sound quite good on the way to work actually.”

It is truly remarkable that the show’s writers were able to craft such a robust and endearing personality around a faceless character who never utters a word; he has 2,553,106 fans on Facebook at the time of writing.

When the credits roll at the end, he is even listed as the fourth presenter.

And now it would appear that after thirteen seasons of existing in shadow, the current Stig’s identity has been revealed amidst a flurry of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ in the sticky domain of the tabloid press.

But in all honesty, does it matter really?

Some say that he is the result of a secret government experiment gone horribly wrong.

All we know is that the BBC is in the middle of a legal battle with publishing house HarperCollins over the publication of a very revealing autobiography of the man behind the white helmet.

Surely this must bring a burning sense of déjà vu to the show’s creators, since this is not the first Stig to have revealed its identity through an autobiography.

In 2003, the original black coloured Stig revealed himself as former F1 driver Perry McCarthy in his own autobiography, resulting in his dismissal from the show.

He (his character) was promptly launched off an aircraft carrier to his ‘doom’ at the bottom of the sea, to be replaced in the following episode by the walking advertisement for fabric whitener we all know and love.

And what better way to assert the importance of not breaking the company rules than by tossing the offender into the ocean on national television

But that was during the show’s (and indeed the Stig’s) infancy; the attachment with the audience hadn’t fully formed yet, and no one seemed to care that McCarthy was outed as the tame racing driver.

Now, however, after eight years of mucking about, stretching metaphors and thrashing cars, Top Gear is one of the biggest franchises …in the world, and has power-slid, on fire, into the hearts of more than just motoring enthusiasts.

The Stig’s anonymity didn’t just define him, it deified him.

It often made him the one to count on when the other presenters got a bit too silly and all that could save them was a shot of car being driven hard and fast.

Never mind the legal implications, to reveal the Stig’s identity now would be just plain heartbreaking.

Doubtless a new driver is being appointed as the new Stig for future series; some say they’ve already seen him filming for the next season at the Nurburgring, so fear not; the show is not going to come to a dead halt.

As a word of advice, if you have not already read the stories, don’t. They will affect the way you watch the show.

Fans of who have been around since the beginning might remember Jeremy Clarkson’s first ever introduction of the Stig – long before the ‘some say’ malarkey – which summed things up quite nicely.

“…we really don’t know its name, nobody knows its name, and we don't want to know, 'cause it's a racing driver, and racing drivers have tiny little brains… Its job is simply to go out there and drive fast."

It doesn’t get much clearer than that. On to season 16!

Read More At http://www.3news.co.nz/All-we-know-is-h ... fault.aspx


I don't think it matters if we know who Ben is, let him keep playing the Stig

[katied]

Interesting. The Stig being anonymous(up until now) is one of the things that makes Top Gear great.

You have a good point. I wonder if this mean the end of the White Stig. Could it possibly be a double bluff? Ben's name has been out of the bag for awhile now.


It might be time for Stig 2.0!

[Blowfeld]

Wednesday, September 08, 2010 | Comments: 0
Sky News are reporting that Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has confirmed that The Stig has been sacked.

This follows Ben Collins decision to unmask himself which went contrary to the mystery about The Stig that the TV show had gone to great lengths to create.

The BBC didn't go down without a fight - The broadcaster failed last week in their attempt to obtain an injunction preventing Collins from publishing his autobiography.

When that was refused Clarkson confirmed that the show's format will change.

Sky quote him as saying : "He is history as far as we are concerned, he is sacked. It was a shock. I was hurt, actually, because I liked him and he came around to my house and had drinks and all the time he was writing a book, so I feel a bit hurt."

Collins - who had played the role since 2003 - is a racing driver and stuntman best known as the James Bond stunt double.

Clarkson remains miffed : "We've many, many thousands of people queuing up to be whatever it is that we create. I have spent the last three weeks doing nothing but trying to figure out what we will do instead. We will get somebody. Top Gear is damaged but not out."

Collins is the second party to be booted following a book. Perry McCarthy, the previous incumbent, the black-clad Stig, revealed his identity in a book

Clarkson, lives in West Oxfordshire with the Prime Minister as his MP.

He joked that he might ask David Cameron if he wants to play The Stig.

"You may remember a film called Wall Street in which Gordon Gekko said that 'greed is good' and that 'greed works'. It doesn't. If you are watching this, children, greed is bad."

This story can be found at http://www.newstime.co.za/Lifestyle/Top ... tig/10746/
Clarkson -'Greed is bad' From the man who is the embodiment of greed.
Hammond and May have all kinds of book deals and other BBC shows. Toy Story is that a good use of funds. I normally do not normally buy biographies, I will make an exception for the Stig. Daft of the BBC to let him get so unhappy.

[katied]

Shame they're getting rid of the Stig-he's one of the best parts of the show(though I think the episodes we see on BBC America are from a few years ago-don't know if we'll ever seen any recent episodes.


I love the James May show.The best one was when they built a life size house out of Legos.