Unlike the hoax that Top Gear pulled when they said the stig was the former Formual One Champion, Michael Schumacher, it seems that the Stig’s indentity has finally gotten out. His name is Ben Collins, a 35 year old race car driver and stunt man. He has raced in many catagories including Formula Three, GT3, ASCAR, NASCAR and American Le Mans and has appeared in movies such as Quantum of Solace as a stunt double for Daniel Craig. Everything leaked out when he got into a legal battle with the BBC as to whether or not he could reveal that he was the Stig in an upcoming autobiography. The Sunday Times of London broke the news of Collins being the Stig after seeing financial reports from Collins’ own company, Collins Autosport. They noticed he got a substancial bump in pay in 2003 from “driving services provided for the BBC, mainly in the Top Gear programme”, 2003 being the same year that the last Stig went away.

For one, I’m pretty bummed that good ol Stig’s identity is out, especially since last time that happened the previous Stig got canned. Kudos to you, Mr. Collins, for all your amazing drives and I’m sure you’ll land on your feet!