The Stig..........

Facts and Rumours

While the Stig obviously has a racing background, his true identity has never been revealed by the Top Gear presenters. The intent is that he functions as an unbiased "standard" that can be used to test cars fairly. However, once Perry McCarthy's book, Flat Out, Flat Broke, was published in 2003, it became clear that he was the original Stig (from 2002 to 2003). McCarthy was a former Formula 1 driver and test driver for the Benetton, Arrows and Williams teams and also tested for BMW F1.

In the first episode of the third series, the original Stig (McCarthy) was "killed off", with some spoof footage of the Stig supposedly driving off the end of the British aircraft carrier HMS Invincible after failing to brake in time. Some believe this was due to the uncovereing of his identity, when whilst scheduled to appear in the 2003 Le Mans 24hr Race he was shown in an episode supposedly shot the same weekend helping the Top Gear team as the Stig in a Citroen 2CV 24hr race. This prompted a change of dress and music, and the white Stig was introduced in the second episode of series 3, on November 2, 2003. Of course, due to the Stig's disguise, there is no reason why Top Gear could not use many drivers, according to availability.

Perry McCarthy - The Stig

Rumours that the Stig was former F1 driver Damon Hill were supposedly confounded when Hill appeared on Top Gear on June 26, 2005. He did the lap and got 1.46.3. However, when asked if he was the Stig, he didn't actually deny this, and some took his apparently rapid availability to appear on the show in another guest's absence to indicate further evidence that he was the Stig. Many racing drivers are often asked if they are the Stig by the public.

Maserati MC12


It appears that some rarer, privately owned cars may be driven by their owner, masquerading as the Stig. This was the case for the Maserati MC12, privately owned by Frank Mountain, a successful property developer; the car was at the time the only one in the country.

Heikki Kovalainen (the Renault F1 test driver) admitted to driving the Renault R24 F1 car around the track in the 2004 series, clothed as the Stig.

In a Winter Olympics special episode of Top Gear, the Stig was also shown doing a ski jump using a ski mobile, suggesting that this may have been another person dressed as the Stig doing the extremely dangerous stunt. According to the Swedish tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet, the snowmobile driver performing the ski jump stunt was Dan Lang, a Swedish snowmobile cross driver.

Heikki Kovalainen

Julian Bailey -
The new Stig
In May 2006, the Stig lost control of the ?415,000 Koenigsegg CCX and ploughed through a tyre wall. Koenigsegg did accept that the car suffered from a lack of rear downforce, and took the car back to Sweden to fit a rear wing, in an attempt to rectify the problem.

Later that month the Stig beat all other drivers (Including F1) in the Suzuki Liana "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" challenge with a time of 1:44.4.

Posted By: DrDublin, Sep 15, 16:28:29