The Stig: The Silent Top Gear Driver Behind the White Suit

The Stig is a silent character from the BBC motoring programme Top Gear. Created by Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman, he is a racing driver whose full-face helmet and suit keep his identity secret. His main job is to set lap times for the cars tested on the show, and the question of who sits inside the suit has become one of the most asked questions about the programme.

Where did the Stig come from?

The character was part of Clarkson's idea for the relaunched Top Gear, a show that brought in a live studio audience, a racetrack and comic stunts. Clarkson and Andy Wilman wanted a professional racing driver in the cast, but they had trouble finding one who was comfortable speaking on camera. Clarkson then asked why the driver needed to talk at all, and they decided the role would be silent.

The name Stig dates back to Wilman and Clarkson's schooldays at Repton, where new boys were routinely called Stig. The word was a mocking term for someone from a poor background with poor dress sense, taken from the children's book Stig of the Dump. The original Stig, Perry McCarthy, later said the producers first wanted to call the character The Gimp, and that he refused to be remembered by that name.

A silent driver in a white helmet who was never on screen to speak, and whose identity became a national guessing game.

How was the Stig portrayed on the show?

When the Stig was first introduced, Clarkson described him as a driver nobody knew by name, and nobody wanted to know, because he was a racing driver. The Stig is never shown talking on screen. He speaks only off camera, when he trains celebrity guests for the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment, and in interviews he has offered deadpan answers that have become part of his character.

Richard Porter, the show's script editor, described the persona as single-minded, stubborn and petulant. In 2008 the Stig attended the National Television Awards in character, accepted an award silently and handed the presenter a letter from the hosts with a list of instructions about how to hand over the prize. The character's introductions on the show followed bizarre formats, such as Some say that and All we know is, he's called the Stig.

How fast is the Stig on the test track?

The Stig's main role is setting the fastest times for the performance cars featured in the Power Laps segment. The show often compared his times with those of Formula One drivers. When Clarkson said the Stig believed the Suzuki Liana could lap in 1:44.0, the former Formula One driver Nigel Mansell came on the programme and set 1:44.6, and the Stig replied with 1:44.4.

Other drivers followed. Rubens Barrichello beat the Stig's time with 1:44.3, Sebastian Vettel went to 1:44.0, and Lewis Hamilton later set 1:42.9. The Renault R24 set a lap of 59.0 seconds that stood as the fastest ever recorded on the show for 21 years. Heikki Kovalainen was later revealed to have driven the car as the Stig.

Who was the original black Stig?

The original Stig was the racing driver Perry McCarthy, who appeared in 22 episodes in the black suit. He was introduced after a meeting with Clarkson at the launch of McCarthy's autobiography in 2002, and an audition followed before the producers decided the driver would be anonymous. A Sunday Mirror article published on 12 January 2003 named him, and he later confirmed his identity in a second edition of his book.

McCarthy was killed off in the premiere of the third series in a stunt called Top Gun vs Top Gear. The black Stig drove a stripped Jaguar XJS, fitted with nitrous injection, along the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible. The on-screen speedometer showed 109 mph (175 km/h) before the car flew off the end of the ramp. Clarkson revealed at the end of the episode that divers had found only a glove floating on the sea.

McCarthy's exit remains a matter of differing accounts. He described it as amicable in 2008, while other reports said he had fallen out with the producers. A 2009 Sunday Times report said that Julian Bailey, a former Formula One driver, had stood in for McCarthy at times.

Who was the White Stig?

The first White Stig appeared in November 2003 and remained for most of the show's run. His identity stayed secret for years, although the character's role expanded to include a Caterham Seven drive, a snowmobile jump in Lillehammer and a police pursuit in a comedy challenge. Several names were suggested in the press, including Damon Hill and Julian Bailey, but the speculation ended in 2010, when Ben Collins was revealed as the man behind the visor.

In 2009 Clarkson announced that the Stig would show his face at the premiere of series 13. The driver was shown taking off his helmet, and he was revealed to be Michael Schumacher. The episode had shown the Stig setting a time of 1:10.7 in a black Ferrari FXX, though that time was later disqualified because it was set on slicks. Schumacher was given a second segment in which the Stig's poor control on a Suzuki Liana was shown, and the presenters suggested that Schumacher might not have been the Stig after all.

In August 2010 the BBC went to court over a planned autobiography by the White Stig, which the broadcaster said breached confidentiality clauses. On 1 September 2010 the High Court refused an injunction that would have stopped the book, which was published on 16 September 2010 as The Man in the White Suit. Collins joined the motoring show Fifth Gear the following month, and The Telegraph reported that the BBC would not renew his contract.

What happened after Collins left?

The new Stig was revealed in the Top Gear special set in the Middle East, which ended with a baby Stig in a manger. The character then appeared in series 16, which debuted in December 2010. The show explained that Stigs grow very quickly, so the new Stig was already fully grown. In his first episode he set a speed record of 1:15.1 in an Ariel Atom V8.

The second White Stig stayed on through the departures of Clarkson, Hammond and May in 2015. His identity remained secret until 2024, when Clarkson revealed that the endurance racer Phil Keen had played the role. Andy Wilman later confirmed the same in his book Mr. Wilman's Motoring Adventure.

Who are the Stig's cousins?

Many episodes have featured cousins and relatives of the Stig, usually when the show filmed abroad or needed a specific skill, such as lorry driving. They all wear the helmet and keep the tradition of silence. The Big Stig, an American cousin, raced the presenters' cars at Palm Beach International Raceway in the 2007 US Special, and an African cousin drove two cars at an improvised track in the Botswana Special that same year.

Later cousins included the Rig Stig, who drifted a racing truck in 2008, and the Eco Stig, a vegetarian cousin who was overcome by diesel fumes in a hybrid car test in 2009. Attack Stig arrived by kicking through a door at a Chinese race track in 2012, and Clarkson called him the worst Stig the show had ever had. The Australian cousin set a benchmark in an HSV Maloo Ute in 2015, and the Leisure Stig was used only for testing caravans.

Teenaged cousins drove a Renault Twingo, a Smart Fortwo and a Volkswagen Up in a race against each other, and an Emirati cousin drove Matt LeBlanc through Dubai in a Bentley Mulsanne. A business cousin appeared in a tie and braces during a comparison of executive saloons in 2019, and the Stig's dad took part in a rally challenge in 2021.

What other Stigs have appeared on screen?

The Australian, French, Finnish, Korean, Russian, Chinese and US versions of Top Gear each have their own Stig. The Australian show introduced a New Zealand cousin nicknamed The Stug, and the American version introduced a Backwoods Stig during a drive through Colorado. The UK show also used temporary Stigs when the usual driver was unavailable, including the former Formula One driver Julian Bailey, who coached Jimmy Carr.

How has the Stig reached beyond the television show?

The Stig has appeared at Top Gear Live events, performed charity drives and turned up in Clarkson's motoring DVDs. In 2008 a passenger paid 35,000 pounds at a charity auction for three laps with the Stig in a two-seat Formula One car at Silverstone, in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. The character has also appeared in video games and children's books.

The Stig's helmet and overalls are available in Gran Turismo 5 and 6 through a partnership with Polyphony Digital. He has also appeared in Forza Motorsport, including as avatar items and as a driver outfit. In 2018 and 2019 a series of children's books, starting with The Stig Plays a Dangerous Game, cast him as a silent secret weapon for a group of friends, and the final book, The Stig and the Silver Ghost, appeared in October 2019.

What other appearances has the Stig made?

The Stig has turned up well beyond the studio. He appeared at the Top Gear Live Stunt Show at the Nurburgring in August 2010, and he accepted an award on the programme's behalf at the October 2008 National Television Awards. He also featured in Clarkson's motoring DVDs from 2005, and he appeared before the BBC's 2011 British Grand Prix coverage when Clarkson and Hammond showed the camera crew the studio.

Some appearances were pranks. In February 2009 a YouTube video suggested the black Stig had survived his crash, showing him emerging from waves at Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex. In 2016 he took part in The Getaway Car with two nephews, Red Stig and Blue Stig. In 2017 he appeared in a Colin Furze video about a bumper car, and a miniature version of the Stig once stood beside a model Caterham at Legoland Windsor.