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The Stig to be revealed

UPDATED: Jeremy Clarkson promised The Stig would take off his Top Gear helmet today in the UK, but it turned out to be a Michael Schumacher stunt.

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stig11UPDATED: Booooo! It was a stunt using Michael Schumacher to give publicity for Bacardi, which pays him to raise its profile. When Schumacher took off his helmet, Clarkson questioned him on whether the joke rumours about him were true. “Are you illegal in 17 US states?” he asked. Schumacher replied: “Only nine.” Footage at the end of the programme showed Schumacher driving ineptly around the track, causing Clarkson to comment: “You know what? I don’t think that Michael Schumacher is The Stig.” Mystery continues….

Here’s a story that will be all over the press this week.

Believe it or not, Jeremy Clarkson says The Stig will finally be unmasked in the next episode of Top Gear airing today in the UK.

Writing in The Sun, Clarkson said: “Stig barges into the studio and in an atmosphere that you could cut with a knife removes his helmet.

“Hardened, emotionless camera crews said the hair on the back of their neck prickled. As a television moment, it’s up there with Neil Armstrong walking on the… corpse of J.R. Ewing.”

Previous reports claimed The Stig was actually portrayed by four different individuals (or even 8), including race drivers Lewis Hamilton, Ben Collins, Heikki Kovalainen, Chris Goodwin, Julian Bailey, stunt drivers Russ Swift and Terry Grant and a Swedish snow mobile racing champ Dan Lang.

Of course, knowing those boys, the helmet will be revealed only to show another mystery.

Source: Digital Spy, Times Online

10 Responses

  1. I believe he was the Stig for the Ferrair FXX.

    Who else would Ferrari let drive the FXX around the track.

    Ferrari FXX did it in 1.10.7 which is the fastest lap ever. Which was on the same show….

  2. Thanks Ruddeger, so just one more ep now. I still don’t get why people don’t like TGA? I like the classic eps of the original (First one back is the Hilux dropped from a building) but was hoping SBS would show it sooner, guess I’ll have to fast track it myself… and not worry about SBS cutting parts to fit into 1 hour.

  4. Of course it was a stunt. Every newspaper under (and including) The Sun revealed the Stig’s identity during the off season. Not that it was much of a secret. Anyone who really wanted to find out who it was could have very easily by searching the internet. My own site has had his identity out there for anyone to read (with a long list of the evidence) for a year and a half now.

    TopGear’s official website even outed him accidentally for a while when they tagged a video clip of him appearing on the show using his real name with the description “A world champion all-terrain skateboarder takes on the Stig driving a…..”

    The bit about several different people being the Stig is partially true. There are times when it would not be possible for the regular guy to do it. The Snow-mobiling stunt is one example, the hot lap in the Renault F1 car is another. Renault would only let them do it if they used one of Renault’s drivers. Chris Goodwin, Julian Bailey, Russ Swift and Terry Grant are just rumours. They don’t need stunt drivers for the stunts. The regular Stig is already an accomplished stunt driver. He even did the stunt-driving in the Aston Martin DBS for the opening scene of Quantum of Solace.

  6. yeh but its not really the real stig…in the credits he (Michael Schmacher) is credited as special guest…as if they would reveal who the stig really was…. nothing like a bit of free publicity

  10. I’ve just started *coughing* the show, I’ll believe it if it happens…

    But I guess by the time I get it we will know if it has happened.

    BTW David how many eps of TGA are left and will SBS fast track the new UK series?

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