Lewis has mad skillz, according to Top Gear’s test driver
In an interview with Simon Mayo on Radio Five Live, Top Gear presenter James May revealed what The Stig really thinks of Lewis Hamilton. Captain Slow said:
“The Stig said – in Stig language, which only a few people can understand – that he (Lewis) was phenomenally good at driving even an old snot-box like our reasonably-priced car, and he was only 22 then.”
May also said that he was surprised at just how good Hamilton was on the Top Gear track:
“Lewis Hamilton is the fastest person ever around our track. He was brilliant though, which is quite re-assuring, because there’s always a little bit of you that thinks ‘well is it really the driver or is it the car or is it the size of the tool kit or the size of the budget or something?’ but no, he was good.”
The man in the white helmet steps into the spotlight
All eyes were on The Stig at the Albert Hall last night: Top Gear’s mysterious test driver accepted “Best Factual Programme” award for the BBC show at the National TV Awards.
Is that The Stig’s girlfriend sat next to him, or just a very confused guest wondering why a man in a crash helmet is sat next to her. We suspect the latter.
BBC show showcases pretty cars we can’t even buy in the UK
Last week, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and little tiny Richard Hammond were spotted in San Francisco respectively testing out a 2009 Corvette ZR1, a Dodge Challenger SRT8, and a 2009 Cadillac CTS-V .
Over the weekend, rumours that they are filming another hour-long Top Gear in USA show were fleshed out as the boys were spotted at the Bonneville Salt Flats (where there are no corners to test the ropey handling of those lumbering American motors), where they sported some rather fetching baseball caps.
See more pictures of Lord Clarkson et al after the jump…
Excellent news for Top Gear fans. The programme has now got its very own channel on YouTube. And as this has been setup by the BBC and all above board, it should mean that the videos actually stay up there rather than disappearing when the internet police spot them (as is currently the case). While this is all very good for you, it does not make life much easier for Gridcrasher because embedding is disabled on all the videos, which means we can’t put them on the site for you. Bugger!
Top Gear is safe! So relax: fix yourself a dirty great mojito or do whatever else you do to relax.
James May and Richard Hammond weren’t happy with the fact that Jeremy Clarkson earned a lot more than they did, but we can reveal that both May and Hammond have negotiated healthy new contracts with the Beeb. The pair will now earn an extra £10,000 per show, which puts them more in line with Jeremy Clarkson.
Celebrate this good news by watching Hammond and May play car football
We don’t know why Jay “The twat in the hat” Kay is still considered a celeb - he hasn’t made a good record since… er, we’ll get back to you on that - but he’s just about famous enough to get a second chance at being a “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” on the latest series of Top Gear.
The main reason he was asked back was as a ringer - Simon “Codpiece” Cowell had been No.1 for ages, and the production team wanted a petrolheaded star who could bring about a change at the top of the leaderboard. In Kay, they got their man.
This video claims that Ben Collins is The Stig. Englishman Collins has driven in NASCAR and F3, and worked as a consultant on Top Gear.
We have to admit, The Stig’s voice does sound remarkably similar to that of Collins. And Scottish racing driver Susie Stoddart said in an interview that she knew for a fact that Collins was The Stig.
So there you have it. Case closed. The Stig IS Ben Collins. Er, maybe.
