Top Gear's Stig Revealed - almost

For over five years now, one question has truly plagued mankind: just who, exactly, is The Stig?

London rag News of the World claims to know the true identity of the always-masked test driver for BBC programme Top Gear. While the newspaper has suspiciously chosen not to print his name, they did reveal that he used to race the Formula First, GT Racing, and Stock Car circuits. Although at one point he was terrified of race driving, he nearly qualified for the Formula One circuit.

Unexpectedly, Stig leads a fairly quiet life. The married man (sorry, ladies) is in his thirties, and uses a run-of-the-mill £15,000 car as his daily driver. He takes home a healthy £150,000 per year for his work on Top Gear, and side work doing stunts and test driving. The newspaper claims to have confirmed his identity when a top BBC source supported the finding.

The source reportedly said, "Yes **** ******** is the Stig but don't tell anyone I've told you."

Hopefully for him, show host Jeremy Clarkson will not kill off this Stig -dressed in all-white- like they did the last Stig. Perry McCarthy, a former Formula One driver, played the Black Stig for 22 episodes of the BBC show, until he revealed his identity in the autobiography Flat Out, Flat Broke. Shortly thereafter, Black Stig was launched off the HMS Invincible aircraft carrier in a rocket-powered Jaguar XJ-S, never to be heard from again.

Then again, maybe the article is rubbish. For years, many have theorized the Stig as being a composite of several different drivers. Perhaps News of the World confirmed one of many. “This is the best-kept secret in motor racing and we want to keep it that way,” said the BBC source.

“No one will ever officially confirm his identity.”