Mouser

Julian Bailey according to the Daily Express.Winner of the FIA World Sports Car Championship and who raced for Lotus and Tyrell.
Hope this isn't SIAL.

mart360

Yes and no,

the stig is the stig in name only,

the actual driver is a number of professional racing drivers of whom any one can be drawn upon to stig!

that way clarkson & co, can honestly say they dont know who he is


Mart

magicdudey

I worked at a corporate lunch last year and the speaker was the STIG!
Don't know his name but he was a abount 5.5 med to stocky build with blonde/fair hair.

Chip Sengravy

I'm 5'8"

corradoboy

Used to be Perry Macarthy, this seasons favourite guess has been Ben Collins. I agree with the probability that it is probably a few people of whom whoever's available gets the job on the day.

Spring Heeled Jack

talizman

iTrader: (1)

Do you actually believe that Clarkson doesn't know who is the Stig at any given time?

Also, doesn't it make their league table of lap times pretty useless if it could potentially be a different driver each week?

Dracoro

Why? They're all pro drivers, so there won't be that much diff between times. Even if you have one driver, he'll be testing on different days in different conditions etc. He may have off days etc.

It's a fun idea to give people a good idea as to how fast a car is. It's not a science, it's not a rule or fact that one is faster than another. Things could be different on another track/weather/day/driver etc. There's ALWAYS gonna be some margin of error. As I say, it's just a rough idea as to how fast a car is.

At the end of the day, it's an car entertainment show, not a scientific study

TelBoy

It pisses me off most that they bother to take cars out in the soaking wet. At least have a dry track to make the comparisons more worthwhile

Chip Sengravy

Maybe, on the day of filming, it rained or something?

TelBoy

Yes but i can't believe Top Gear don't have the clout to keep the cars overnight and delay filming. Their league table would probably be a lot different if they'd all been taken out on a dry track

talizman

iTrader: (1)

I agree that for the test to be as credible as possible, ALL variables should be identical, such as track, weather, temperature, DRIVER

The only real controllable variables are the track and driver so surely it'd make sense to keep these constant?

At the end of the day we can only speculate as to who the Stig is, and whether he is the same guy from show to show, but none of us really know....

Telboy,

I agree that running in the wet is pi$h!

Some of the car that timed well in the wet would probably be board toppers, if it were dry

Dracoro

Exactly, they often only have the car for the day. They indicated whether it's wet anyway. Wouldn't you rather a wet time than no time at all?

Chip Sengravy

I was being sar-car-stig

TelBoy

No i know, and it's a fair point, but as i say, i can't believe they have such a short window in which to test these cars. Sometimes it's absolutely hammering it down - what's the point of that?!

mart360

Thats the whole point.

if you or i were to take out a top car, i doubt we,dget anywhere near the leaderboard,

using the team of stigs, ensures that whatever the conditions, the result returned will be consistantly within the main group.

lets be honest what differeance does whole, or tenths of a second make in normal day to day driving conditions.


Mart

Chip Sengravy

I could only think, that the logic they may argue behind their running all weathers, is that is a true representaion of real world conditions. I don't know about London, but in Manchester, it rains occasionally

And you have to admit, the 'stigs' can give the viewers some amazing lap times and entertainment, regardless of the weather.

Put it another way, the Stig is taking you out in the Zonda, and the sole object of the excersise is to **** you up. Would you do it in the wet, or the dry?

TelBoy

Mart, have you ever done wet weather trackdays?? We're not talking insignificant differences here, right?? I don't understand from your post whether you consider a soaking track to be a relevant factor or not, in all honesty...

lordlucan

As Mart 360 says different drivers most weeks.

My source is Plans MotorRacing who have a unit right next to the Top Gear track. For £200 an hour you can have tuition on the very track. I was lucky enough to have a few pax laps in a Noble whilst my car was being worked on.

J

mart360

yes done trackdays in differing conditions,

but then again its what do you want from the lapday, do you want to go at stupid speeds, or enjoy some spirited riding/ driving.

we dont see the stig take out a car in the rain and post a sub 2 minute lap, do we,

these guys are pro,s and they take the cars to the limits and back, the differance is they can do it again and again..


its abit like fighter jocks, they can fly a pane and top gun it, but the real flyers are the test pilots , they take the plane far beyond its limits and do it time and time again.

as i said are you that bothered that a poker does a 1,48 in the wet, and a zonda does 1,48 in the dry??

90% comes down to the drivers abilitys, the car is just a method of propulsion.

what you are seeing is the differance between "drivers" and "professional drivers"

Mart

TelBoy

All i want is a consistent league table, otherwise what's the point, that's all i'm saying

Dracoro

I see where you're coming from, but as I said, it's not a scientific study else I'd agree with you. It's just something to give you a rough idea of how quick a car can be round a track. It's fun and entertainment, not to be taken too seriously and certainly not for those to say my small ***** is faster than your small *****

Flatcapdriver

They probably could hold on to the cars for longer periods but you have to bare in mind the programme content which is relatively inflexible in terms of filming. Say it's filmed on a Wednesday for Sunday screening and it rains from Wednesday through to Saturday then they're pretty much screwed and it may be that they can only film on one day - I dunno.

Leslie

I find it every bit as interesting to see how a car will handle in the wet. That is the real test of its roadholding anyway.

Les

Edcase

no speculation needed.

it used to be Perry McCarthy

Then it was Ben Collins

Now it is a mixture of Ben Collins and Julian Bailey, as Ben has a lot of racing commitments this year.

astraboy

it is a consistant league table. Thats why they made it known that a wet lap costs around 4 seconds.
That way you get a good idea of how fast a car it, whether its wet or dry.
astraboy.

TelBoy

It's a consistent specualtion, you mean!!

I just know that personally, i'd give it much more credence if the track conditions were constant. Sure we all like to see Stig blasting round, but the league table can only ever be a rough estimate of ability. A separate wet and dry table would help no end! I don't lose sleep over this - honestly!!

davedipster

Has anyone mentioned understeer yet

Dracoro

All that is, is a test of it's wet weather ability. A dry lap is a test of it's dry weather ability.

Dracoro

What about moist tracks, wet but drying, soaking etc. They all have quite an affect on lap times. Then, there's the temperature, cars generally go better with cooler outside air temps than hot summer ones. And so forth.