The Stig was that character that, for years, kept his identity a top secret. He would show up on the Top Gear show, set lap times, and never talk. Nodding was his means of communication. Now, the last Stig that we know of, Ben Collins, tries to get away from the police but eventually gets got.
It is just an act for his YouTube channel, Ben Collins Drives. Ben admits he has always been fascinated with police interceptors. They are the elite of police drivers. They are well trained and experienced in car chases and in catching perpetrators.
Now, the former Stig, who was on the Top Gear show between 2003 and 2010, wants to find out how his driving skills would far against one of the best interceptors: Ben Pearson, known as Benny Boy from the Police Interceptors show on Channel 5, with 19 years on the police force in West Yorkshire.
The show that Ben Collins put on takes place on the racetrack, with no other traffic participants involved, with no hazard for anyone else but those involved in the chase. In real life, though, such chases involve making decisions that can be a matter of life and death in real time.
There is no TV glam out in the street, and there is enormous strain on the police officers. During the chase, they must also coordinate with the rest of the team and communicate with teammates without losing sight of the car they are after.
The Stig says that there is a general theme: the bad guys nearly always get caught. But he is curious to know what happens if the bad guy is a racing driver like himself. So they took to the racetrack to put this scenario into practice. Ben 'The Stig' Collins drives what he calls “a fairly rubbish vehicle.”
It is a Golf GTi, which – they say – looks like a "bag of spanners." It’s got scratches and dents everywhere, it wears worn-out tires and a messed-up suspension. "I needed a tetanus jab after driving it because it was so filthy," Collins jokes after the experiment. The police officer is driving a BMW 530, which is basically stock.
Ben Collins, a former pro racing driver, does have some aces up his sleeve during the chase and manages to compensate for the poor condition of his Golf.
Does The Stig get caught or does he get away? That is for you to find out by watching the video below. But you should give him a little credit. Remember that, while on the Top Gear show, his driving skills were compared to the of the Formula 1 drivers, and there were rumors of Michael Schumacher playing the Stig on the show. Ben Collins managed to get better lap times than drivers such as Nigel Mansell. Rubens Barrichello was the first to beat the Stig’s lap time.
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