Who is the Stig? The Stig is…

This week brought news that The Stig – Top Gear’s “tame racing driver” – may have inadvertently revealed his secret identity to sneaky journalists.

In a classic sting, the Stig was interviewed on camera and then his accent was compared to Prime Stig Suspect Number 1.  A match?  We’ll leave you to hunt down the footage on You Tube (and we’re not about to ruin the fun by saying who people suspect it is) but we’re not so sure.

For people who are keen to unmask the Stig perhaps spare a thought for what happened to the previous Stig: The Black Stig.  When his secret identity was revealed a terrible thing happened to him on board an aircraft carrier and he was never seen again - see the video here.  In the next series of Top Gear the White Stig had taken his place and the Black Stig was spoken of no more.

This week the Top Gear site has gone into Rumour Control over-drive and their Inside Mole has outed several different Stigs this week:

First up was Graham Hill, former Grand Prix star and dad to British Champion Damon Hill.  Thought to have died in a plane crash in 1975 this was revealed to be an elaborate hoax to cover the time until he could take up his mantle as the Stig.  He certainly has the driving prowess to drive like The Stig (and a damn fine moustache to go along with it) but it wasn’t long until another contender was put forward…

 

Next on the list was Barack Obama.  That’s right, the freshly-minted 44th President of the United States of America is The Stig.  Allegedly.  Is there no end to the man’s talents? According to the Top Gear website President Obama decided to run for office during a break in filming Top Gear.  Surely, though, President Obama would have brought more change to the role of The Stig? We’re just saying…

 

Last on the list of outed Stigs was Sir Tom McKillop – the chairman of the embattled Royal Bank of Scotland.  Considering the unfortunate circumstances of RBS at the moment then it seems about right that he would have been away on filming duties for large portions of time.

So if this Stig goes the way of the first who should we expect to see replacing his gloved hands on the steering wheel? And what colour will those gloves be?  All vital questions that need answers and, as it happens, we have a Stand-by Stig right here at Buyagift Towers.

Our very own Jon M – search engine marketer extraordinaire – is the perfect candidate should the current Stig find himself out of the famous suit.  Fast cars? Check.  Superhuman steering skills? Check.  A mean line in driving music? Double check. 

We reckon Jon is the perfect shoe-in candidate.  And to prove it take a look at this photo here (faces blurred to protect the innocent):

Photo credits: Lothar Spurzem (Graham Hill photo) – Pete Souza, The Obama-Biden Transition Project (Barack Obama photo) – BBC (top gear still)