The Stig theory

[ghetto ke]

I first thought "The Stig" was ex-rally driver Stig Blomquist, but The Stig looks in better shape than Blomquist My money's on Damon Hill

[Klutch]

"It is rumoured that Ben is The Stig on BBC TV's Top Gear. The Health & Safety Executive report into Richard Hammond's Vampire dragster crash in September 2006 records that Collins "worked closely with Top Gear as a high performance driver and consultant".[1]"


Taken from wiki

[gunbz-r]

theory does work, but its from wiki, tho it does work so could be. has any one come accross the current series on bbc on cable cause im sick of watchin 2005/2006 shows on sbs

[Dom86]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gunbz-r @ Nov 23 2007, 06:36 AM) </div>they would hide him to create drama and intriege, not to discount your theory.
when they have F1 drivers on and they talk about lines through the hammer head(i think), and they say that all the F1 driver take the corner differantly to the STIGG. but they could just say that to through you off.
i herd he was Mark Webber, but dont know about that!

[Dom86]

From what I've read and heard, the current "resident" Stig could be a number of people. The most likely are ex-f1 driver Martin Brundle, Top Gear motoring writer and ex-F1 driver Julian Bailey or former ASCAR driver Ben Collins (this came from the report into Richard Hammond's accident). Perry McCarthy was the original.

My theory, along with many others, is that he does all of the track-based work at their HQ and abroad. However, when you see specials, e.g. the Stig gets to drive the Renault/Toyota F1 car, Maserati MC12 etc., they substitute their regular Stig for one of the F1 test/reserve/race drivers. It was heavily rumoured that the "Stig" that drove the Renault F1 car was in fact Heikki Kovalainen (spelling ), at that time a Renault test driver. This would be be allowed as the white suit doesn't identify him, nor piss off the team sponsors, and if he bent it, it wouldn't be such a huge issue for the team. Also, it has been noted that sometimes the Stig's height varies between different tests. Perry McCarthy confirmed that currently there is no one "Stig", but multiple test drivers who masquerade as the Stig at a Palmer Sport activity day in Bedfordshire, UK.

Whilst we're on Top Gear, here are some of the best Clarkson quotes around - enjoy :lol:


"I'm sorry, but having a DB9 on the drive and not driving it is a bit like having Keira Knightley in your bed and sleeping on the couch. If you've got even half a scrotum it's not going to happen."


"We start tonight with the highlight of my childhood. It's the Ladybird Book of Motorcars from 1963, and as you would imagine it's full of rubbish really. Just endless boring grey shapes, until you get to page 40, where you find the Maserati 3500 GT. Now this for me, when I was little, was like kind of Jordan and Cameron Diaz. In a bath together. With a Lightning jet fighter. And lots of jelly."


"[about Porsche Cayman S] There are many things I'd rather be doing than driving it, including waiting for Bernard Manning to come off stage in a sweaty nightclub, and then licking his back clean"


....."the last time someone was as wrong as you, was when a politician stepped off an aeroplane in 1939 waving a piece of paper in the air saying there will be no war with Germany"


"America: 250 million wankers living in a country with no word for wanker"


On the Alfa Romeo Brera...
"I only have to imagine this in black, with tan leather and I'm nursing a semi!"


Illustrating the lack of power of a Boxster - 'It couldn't pull a greased stick out of a pig's
bottom'



On the Vauxhall Vectra VXR:
"there is a word to describe this car: it begins with "s" and ends with "t" and its not "soot".
Hammond:"So its fairly terrible then?"
Clarkson:"Oh no...losing your leg is fairly terrible: this is another league of badness!"


"some say, that he used to throw microwave ovens at homeless people - and that he long before anyone else realised that jade goody is a racist pig faced waste of blood and organs............all we know, is that he's called the Stig!"


"the Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite"


"Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary... That's what gets you."


'The air conditioning in Lambos used to be an asthmatic sitting in the dashboard blowing at you through a straw'


"Koenigsegg are saying that the CCX is more comfortable.
More comfortable than what... BEING STABBED?"


"The only person to ever look good in the back of a 4-seater convertable was Adolf Hitler"

(Fed up during the caravaning trip)
"You aren't allowed to have a party, you aren't allowed to have music, you aren't allowed to play ball games, you aren't allowed to have a camp fire, you have to park within two feet of a post, you have to keep quiet, you have to be in bed by eleven. This is not a holiday, it's a concentration camp!"


"This is the Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that's much to shout about. That's like saying "Ooh good I've got syphilis, the BEST of the sexually transmitted diseases.""

(mercedes CLs55) "Braking in this car is so brutal, it would be less painful to actually hit the tree you were trying to miss."


"I don't understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?"



Clarksons highway code on cyclists: 'trespassers in the motorcars domain, they do not pay road tax and therefore have no right to be on the road, some of them even believe they are going fast enough to not be an obstruction. Run them down to prove them wrong'


"I was reading The Mirror the other day and came across a letter from a reader who wrote, 'I was riding my bike to work when this red Ferrari pulled up next to me. Out of the window, Jeremy Clarkson shouted 'Get a car', and drove off.' What I actually said was, 'Get a car you hatchet faced, leaf-eating Nazi"


"Britian's nuclear submarines have been deemed unsafe...probably because they don't have wheel-chair access"


1) "If we are being honest HIV is a pathetic virus, it can only live in the air for 6seconds and it does what ebola does to you in 10days in 10years"
2) "Mandela just doesn't deserve his pedestal, I'm mean the blokes a bit dodgy"
3) On Mandela's claim that Cuba is a good advert for democracy!!! "Well Mr Mandela why don't you go and ask one of the 12 year old cuban prostitutes which way her parents voted"


"Now we get quite a lot of complaints that we don't feature enough affordable cars on the show......so we'll kick off tonight with the cheapest Ferrari of them all!"


On the Lotus Elise:
"This car is more fun than the entire french air force crashing into a firework factory"


"Now as you can see I lost the battle to have two engines on the back because of three very important reasons. One: weight. This is 600 Lbs and that's the same as having a whole American sitting on the tailgate..."


"I would still buy the DB9 over this, and save myself the £60,000. The problem with this car is its gearbox, its just........"
Hammond:"THAT bad is it?"
Clarkson:"Oh no. Robert Mugabe is bad, this is in a whole different league!"


In the olden days I always got the impression that TVR built a car, put it on sale, and then found out how it handled. Usually when one of their customers wrote to the factory complaining about how dead he was.


"the DB9 has rear seats but no mammal yet created, not even when God was on the LSD trip that gave us the pink flamingo, could fit into them."


Assessing Hammond's crash:
Clarkson:"you can see from the tape that the tyre is starting to come apart. now why didnt you spot that?!"
Hammond:"I had a lot on: i was doing 288 mph."
Clarkson: "What do you mean you had a lot on? I can be in the office on the phone, doining the paperwork, kids are shouting at me, wife etc, if a lion walks in, I'm going to notice it!"


"Sure it's quiet, for a diesel. But that's like being well-behaved... for a murderer."


"I dont often agree with the RSPCA as i believe it is an animals duty to be on my plate at supper time"


"there are footballers wives that would be happy with this quality of stitching... on their face"


"Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It's like making a hard core adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You'd just end up with a sort of half hour close up of some bloke's sweaty face. "


"Much more of a hoot to drive than you might imagine. Think of it, if you like, as a librarian with a G-string under the tweed. I do, and it helps."


"you cant have this car with a diesel, its like saying, i wont go to stringfellows tonight, ill get my mum to give me a lapdance, shes a woman!"


"During the break we got complaints that we don't show enough green cars so here's one..."
Pointing to a Lamborghini Murcielago... in bright green


Tonight, the new Viper, which is the American equivalent of a sports car... in the same way, I guess, that George Bush is the equivalent of a President.


On the Porsche Cayenne "Honestly, I have seen more attractive gangrenous wounds than this. It has the sex appeal of a camel with gingivitis."

[gunbz-r]

i love clarkson he's so cool i want his plane

[Dom86]

:lol: hes a funny man!

[driftke70]

pretty sure its either damon hill or nigel mansel, the reason his identity is hidden is because people would say, oh damon hill could never drive ferraris well, or hes just saying that because he has a deal with pirelli or something like that. My boss explained it to me the other day and it makes alot of sense. Eliminating the driver figure gets rid of a whole disgruntled whining element that people have.

[v-tec]

Never really thought about it till asleepatthewheel said 'current "resident" stig', but they probably change who plays the stig each season to keep us guessing.

I havent paid enough attention to driving styles of the stig to know if it looks different at any time but it would make sense to do that.

Having said that im still fairly confident that the stig that talks is damon hill, they even had him on the show once

[Driftspec]

I've seen so many theories of who it would be. I think they proved that their height changed from series to series, so I agree that the Stig does vary. But we all remember the famous interview, when it was the only time the Stig has actually spoken to someone on camera, and sounded remarkably like Damon Hill

As for special occasions (like the F1 driving scenes) I'm sure they hand the white suit over to a team-approved test driver, I don't think too many F1 teams would be keen to see a driver other then their own (despite possibly being a former world F1 champ) drive their cars.


But, such is the appeal of Top Gear. Have a person no-one (publicly) knows drive hard and fast, and watch the ratings climb. Matched very well with Clarkson's Tame Racing Driver introductions