The Stig is unveiled!
For any fan of the popular BBC TV (BBC3 8pm) show Top Gear tonight’s episode had the usual features and then some.
They started off with a race and set back in 1949 it was poised to be the race of the century. Steam locomotive versus classic car versus classic bike. And with each vehicle being the fastest in their day it was set to be the race to answer the often asked question, which would be triumphant? The steam locomotive was the Tornado – Peppercorn A1 pacific class steam locomotive, the car was the Jaguar XK120 and the bike was the infamous Vincent Black Shadow. My feelings were that the bike would win hands down as it has the better economy and wouldn’t be constrained by trivial things like traffic. The steam engine obviously has an advantage of the open track but this too proved a myth as they got stuck behind the ever present and annoying commuter train. No vehicle was without it’s problems as the steam engine developed a leak and a blocked water inlet, the car had the problem of a congested petrol station and slow vehicles on single carriage ways but the bike was nearly out of the race when Hammond failed to switch back from the reserve tank and blocked the carburettor with sludge from the bottom of the tank.
I suppose the best winner for this race was the car, as it is a car program, but I often found myself egging the steam locomotive off for it’s historical value. The race was run from London to Edinburgh along the old North road as the motor way didn’t exist back then. The finishing line itself had a humorous moment with Jeremy Clarkson walking into an obviously posh hotel covered from head to toe in soot and the slightest brush with the clean and lightly coloured walls reveals just how dirty he was. The eventual winner, and now not so aptly named doctor slow, was James May who, for once, didn’t experience any mechanical failures.
The next feature of this episode was the moment that they said they were to reveal who the Stig was. No if you don’t know the history about the Stig, he is a racing driver that is used to test most super cars featured on the show to pit lap times against the other featured super cars to compile the super car fastest track list. The Stig has been used in other features such as races and challenges but he’s always in the same white race overalls and white helmet with blue tinted visor. His identity has always been a closely guarded secret and many a joke has been aimed at him to build his character up a bit. I watched with great trepidation as it was only 4 days earlier that I read in the London Metro (17-06-2009 page 39) an article about stunt driver Russ Swift who stated about being the Stig that “It’s not one person” So when Jeremy Clarkson revealed the face of former formula one champion Michael Schumacher I felt a bit deflated. I could believe Michael making the odd appearance but Clarkson was banging on how he gave up every Wednesday (The day the show is filmed before being aired the very next Sunday) to perform his duties as the Stig. I also fail to believe that the BBC would be willing to pay for Michael Schumacher to be available for filming every Wednesday for a car program and drive around wearing a blacked out helmet. If I were producing a car program and it had Michael Schumacher walking passed the same town I would make sure that I had his face in full screen for all to see.
So all I can say is that we will never really know who the Stig is on any given episode of the program unless they decide to do away with the blacked out helmet. This also begs the question of how accurate can the Fastest Lap time leader board be if it isn’t the same driver driving the different super cars. It’s been proved that any number of different drivers, even formula one drivers, driving the same car around the same track will result in different times, even from lap to lap as is the nature of humans, prevailing conditions and conditions of the car. Although it was very fitting that the supercar driven in this episode was the extremely exclusive Ferrari FXX which knocked the Gumpers’ 1:17 lap time off the top with a mind blowing 1:10.
I have further discovered that ex-stunt driver Ben Collins and ex-formula one driver Parry McCarthy were also amongst the people donning the infamous helmet in the past.
We will have to wait and see what other revelations the new series of Top Gear holds in store for us but I can assure you that I won’t miss an episode, just like I haven’t for a few years now.
