Some say he’s… actually human. The show is ruined!
The article mentions that he was brand manager for Hornby Scalextric, which is interesting as that’s one of the brands James May featured in his program about childhood toys. I wonder if that’s not a coincidence.
Yes, I noticed that too… but Scalextric is pretty much “it” when it comes to slot car racing in the UK, which I think has more to do with it.
I don’t really care to know the identity of The Stig. To me, The Stig is The Stig, tame racing driver. It’s like when you go to Disney and see Mickey Mouse on a float in a parade. You don’t wonder who is in the suit, as far as you are concerned that’s Mickey Mouse up there on the float.
My pet theory was that it was Martin Donnelly, a promising F1 driver whose career was cut short by the worst F1 accident of the late nineties.
I guess I always bought into the theory that ‘the Stig’ was any of several different specialty, F1 or rally drivers that happened to have some time available on filming day when they needed any old stig. I suspect that is still at least somewhat the case.
That would be early nineties. The crash was at Jerez in 1990.
:smack: That was supposed to read “late eighties and early nineties”, and apparently Mistakes Were Made.
Yeah same here. As long as they do the schtick about the Stig I’ll still think of him as the Stig.
Question: Why does whoever happens to be introducing him at the time refer to The Stig as “Our tame racing driver…”
Is it some sort of Britishism I’m not familiar with? Is that like jail/goal only team/tame?
As in a domesticated racing driver, as opposed to a normal racing driver who charges around a track in a racing car.
Ahhh, ok, that makes sense! I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every episode of the “new” Top Gear, even the ones before James May (that fat guy was not good) and always wondered why Brits pronounced team as tame. That’s, what like 14 seasons of being wooshed?
I need a drink.
“Tame” sounds better than"domesticated."
Wait, The Stig is gay?
I’ve generally found the conceit to be amusing, even if it does become annoying at times. It does make me wonder what they’ll do now, if it means that they’ve now fired two Stigs.
Domesticated racing driver? Like a pet?
I always figured it was the usual Top Gear sarcasm at work, in that the Stig would tear around the track in the car being tested in a anything-but-tame manner. After all, it is rather unlikely that the Stig really has 2 sets of knees, his teeth glow in the dark, or that he’s scared of bells (among other things Some have said…).
Or is that what you meant by domesticated and I misunderstood.
And as for the subject of the OP:
Wasn’t Ben Collins ‘outed’ as the Stig back in 2009?
The main reason the Stig was popular was the mystic around him. Nobody really wanted to know who he was, far better to laugh at the jokes and imagine that he was mentos level cool.
But now Ben Collins wants to spoil this harmless bit of fun for millions of viewers so he can cash in with a book at christmas.
Logic says: What an asshole. I hope they get rid of him, whether by changing the “Stig” in some way, or by just getting a new Stig, winking at the audience and pretending nothing ever happened. Ben Collins can go drive ice cream vans.
It never occurred to you that they were pronouncing “tame” as “tame”?
Yikes, it’s possible that you are hearing an entirely different show to the rest of us! Let’s hope it was just that one word! 
I didn’t realise it was Ben Collins outing himself. But it seems he was out of contract, and they would have gotten a new Stig anyway, just like they had done once before, so I suspect that won’t upset things too dramatically. They may have to twist it into something different, though.
Yup; during the reports on Hammond’s crash. He was named as Top Gear’s racing consultant in the investigation. Folks put two-and-two together.
That’s what happened to the original (black) Stig.