Top Gear fans out there will be excited about this, and a bit sad, I suppose. Much like the neighbour in the Tim Allen “vehicle,” Home Improvement, the test driver featured on the hit TV show, Top Gear, has managed to keep his identity secret. Until now..

The Stig

This, from Daily Mail:

The Stig unmasked: Identity of Top Gear’s mystery test driver revealed

The petrol-soaked world of Top Gear is in turmoil today.

Cult character Stig, the crash helmeted driver who tests cars at ludicrous speeds on the show – and whose identity is fiercely protected by the BBC – has been outed.

And staff at the corporation are furious. One insider compared the naming of the mystery driver to revealing that Santa didn’t exist.

What combustible Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson will say about his unmasking can only be imagined.

The previous Stig, Perry McCarthy, was fired from the deck of a warship after disclosing his character in a 2002 autobiography.

 

Revealed: Top Gear’s the Stig has been identified
as former racer and stunt man Ben Collins

 

Many Top Gear fans speculated that he had been replaced by a celebrity, or even a real racing driver such as former Formula One champ Damon Hill.

They may be a trifle disappointed to learn he is in fact a 33-year-old former racer and stuntman from Bristol, who let slip his big secret in the unlikely setting of an art store in Bristol.

The fate of Ben Collins, who wanted a print of himself as the Stig in action for his wall, hangs in the balance.

And builder Jason Goody, 21, claimed he learned his identity last week when he did some work for him and found The Stig’s trademark suit and gloves on display in a cabinet, according to The Telegraph’s website.

MailOnline had not wanted to spoil the secret when the Stig was first revealed by the Daily Star Sunday, but when the article was picked up by the Telegraph website yesterday and The Times and London Lite today, it seemed pointless to hold out.

[read more here]

Awesome.

It reminds me of a few years back when I finally let the cat out of the bag that I was “Woofles” from the SABC children’s spectacular, Pumpkin Patch.

[thanks jase]