Everything about The Stig totally explained
The Stig is the name given to the anonymous
racing driver on the
BBC motoring show
Top Gear. In the show he's cast as a mysterious "tame racing driver" whose identity is unknown, and who never speaks or removes his helmet on camera. Nonetheless he's fully credited as a presenter, albeit as "The Stig", alongside
Jeremy Clarkson,
Richard Hammond and
James May.
The Stig's primary functions on the show are to
post lap times in various cars around the Top Gear circuit in
Dunsfold Park, and to train each week's guest in setting a lap time in the
Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car feature on the show. In addition the Stig carries out other driving duties when the need arises.
The Stig has also appeared on some of Jeremy Clarkson's motoring specials, such as
Heaven and Hell and
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, as well as on BBC's
Whizz Whizz Bang Bang.
Origins
The Stig's name derives from presenter Jeremy Clarkson's days at
Repton School. According to Clarkson, new students were always called "Stig." A proposed name for the Stig was originally "The Gimp" until protests from
Perry McCarthy nixed the idea. There have been two official Stigs on the show, while various other Stigs have made
cameo appearances for particular episodes.
Black Stig
The first Stig wore black overalls and helmet. It was introduced in the first episode of the current format by Jeremy Clarkson as the resident test driver, as the presenters couldn't consistently post fast times themselves. Clarkson noted that "we don't know its name, we really don't know its name, nobody knows its name, and we don't wanna know, cause it's a racing driver." Clarkson then described The Stig as having a very small brain, who had worthless opinions, a disorder described by Clarkson as "
Mansell Syndrome". Its job description was to "just go out there and drive fast".
Black Stig posted a lap time of 1:46 for the
Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment. This Stig was used for the first two series of the show. It was then "killed off" at the start of the third series when he was shown driving a modified
Jaguar XJ-S off the flight deck of
HMS Invincible during a stunt and landing in the sea.
White Stig
After the Black Stig was "killed off", a new "White Stig" was introduced, wearing white overalls and helmet. White Stig has been featured in the show beyond just the Power Lap segment. His work has included driving cars in other segments of the show, for example finding a winner between the
Aston Martin V8 Vantage,
BMW M6 and
Porsche 911 Carrera S on the
Isle of Man, and racing against the hosts in a bid to see who would cross the starting line at a race track; White Stig driving a
Caterham Seven kit car from
Caterham,
Surrey to
Knockhill racetrack in
Scotland against the hosts in assembling an identical car from the ground up. In Series 10 The Stig was recruited to take public transport in the Cross London Challenge and had to deal with such tasks as riding a bus, using an
Oyster Card and having to answer a
mobile phone, but instead just stared at the ringing device.
White Stig has also appeared outside
Top Gear in some of Clarkson's motoring specials, such as
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly where Clarkson reviewed and compared American and non-American cars,
Heaven and Hell, where the Stig was used to compare the track times of the
Chevrolet Corvette C6 and the
TVR Sagaris, and raced Clarkson, in a
BMW M5, with a
Ferrari F430. In Clarkson's latest DVD, Supercar Showdown, The Stig, in a Porsche 911, raced
Sabine Schmitz, in an Audi R8, around the Ascari track in Spain, to see which was the fastest.
White Stig posted the fastest lap time of 1:44.4 around the
Top Gear test track for the
Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment.
Cameo appearances
There have been two cameo appearances by other Stigs on the show.
Episode 3 of Series 9 was set in the United States, with the presenters purchasing American cars and driving them across four states whilst on holiday. One of the challenges set for the presenters was for the cars to set a lap time around a racetrack, for which "the Stig's American cousin" was introduced. He was nicknamed "Big Stig" by the presenters.
Episode 4 of Series 10 featured the presenters driving across
Botswana. To test the performance of the three cars used by the presenters around a dirt rally track, Clarkson introduced "The Stig's African cousin." This incarnation of The Stig was black, wore only
Puma shoes, a loincloth and the iconic white helmet. He set lap times for two of the cars, but walked away from the track when Clarkson's
Lancia Beta failed to start. The others joked that African Stig was trying to get a respectable time by walking the course, and didn't bother using the car as it was too slow.
Records
The Stig's fastest official lap time around the
Top Gear test track was 1 minute 17.3 seconds in an
Ascari A10. Faster times had previously been posted in a
Renault F1 car (0.59.0), an
Aston Martin DBR9 (1.08.6) and a
Caparo T1 (1:10.6), but none of these were deemed street-practical due to inability to navigate regulation UK speed bumps, or because they can't be purchased by the public.
Identity
The Stig's true identity is never revealed on the show, and in order to maintain the secrecy, all shots show him wearing full racing
overalls and matching
Simpson Diamondback
helmet. All that can be seen from the gap between his helmet and jumpsuit is that he's a white male with dark hair. It is also known that he wears Size 10 racing boots as discovered by the
Sunday Times and a well-timed camera flash managed to show The Stig's eyes by
Auto Trader.
The identity of Black Stig was revealed to be
Perry McCarthy when his book
Flat Out, Flat Broke was published in 2003. McCarthy is a former
Formula 1 driver and test driver for the
Benetton,
Arrows and
Williams teams, and also tested for
BMW F1.
The identity of White Stig hasn't been officially revealed. In a
Winter Olympics special episode of
Top Gear, The Stig was shown doing a ski jump using a snowmobile. According to the Swedish tabloid newspaper
Aftonbladet, the driver performing the ski jump stunt was Dan Lang, a Swedish snowmobile cross driver.
In January 2006, a Daily Express article reported that
Julian Bailey was The Stig. The Stig has talked in an interview with a
Dutch TV Channel,
Veronica where he'd a distinctly English accent. While Top Gear was filming in
Zolder on May 22th, 2008 doing a future segment, a camera crew from TV Limburg shot footage claiming that they pictured The Stig as test driver Tim Schrick,, thought further evidence has refuted that claim.
Both Russ Swift and Perry McCarthy
Mark Webber was interviewed on
July 31,
2005 and at the conclusion of his lap, Clarkson presented him with an "I AM THE STIG" T-shirt.
When former F1 driver
Nigel Mansell appeared on the show, Jeremy Clarkson noted that The Stig theorised that the
Suzuki Liana (the show's "reasonably priced car" at the time) could achieve a 1:44 time on the track. Mansell proved the Stig's theory by lapping in a time of 1:44.6; The Stig subsequently posted a lap-time of 1:44.4 in the Liana. During the review of
Jenson Button's lap, Clarkson commented that he, as did most of the other F1 drivers, took very different racing lines from The Stig's. Button commented that "...obviously, The Stig isn't a Formula One Driver, then." to which Clarkson replied with "Might be."
Although The Stig does talk with celebrities while preparing them for their "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" lap times, he's never shown talking on screen, and in
Top Gear magazine articles he's portrayed as unable or unwilling to talk. Clarkson has written that The Stig isn't permitted to talk on screen because any opinion he might voice on cars would be rubbish;
Listening habits
Another source of entertainment for the presenters is the music The Stig listens to whilst doing Power Laps around the Top Gear track. Often a specific genre will be chosen for one or more series. These have included
power ballads,
one-hit wonders,
easy listening,
prog rock,
baroque,
advertising jingles,
foreign language tapes,
romantic novels, salesman techniques, and
self-help tapes.
Introductions
The hosts of the show will often introduce footage of The Stig by offering humorous speculations as to his identity, such as "Some say that his voice can only be heard by cats, and that he's banned from the city of
Chichester. All we know is... he's called The Stig." The introductions often include references to topical news stories. Previously, Stig's name would be used in formal introductions, such as "His Holiness, The Stig!!"
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Stig'.
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