Top Gear tested Alonso's F1 car around their race track

That's ok because the Ferrari F1 2004 destroys the Renault

 

Any one got a pass?

 

Who is this "Stig"??? I was really surprised to see how well he drove the F1 car..... An ex-F1 driver?

 

Not sure on F1, but I do remember Jeremy Clarkson saying that he is/was a race car driver. But he listens to the MOST HORRIBLE music while driving.

 

I've been looking into the topic out of curiosity but have not found any definitive answer yet (or rather too many answers for any of them to be credible).

Consensus is that there has been two Stig's in the history of Top Gear, and that #1 was a dude by the name of Perry McCarthy. There are different theories as to why he waas replaced, ranging from a tragic accident to more mundane business reasons.

The new Stig is the subject of furthermore speculation, Clarckson has managed to create a phenomenon of near Roswellian proportions. This anonymous status is said to stem from commercial conflicts, understandable if the guy is otherwise employed by as high profile test driver by a car manufacturer.
Among the candidates:
- Tiff Needell (host of rival 5th Gear show, try making sense of that)
- Alan McNish
- Damon Hill
- Johnny Herbert
- Margaret Thatcher

Since we seem to be running out of steam on the "F1 vs stick" and "which blue is this" threads, it's about time that we have a "who is the Stig" thread (unless this is already a repeat).

Beyond this fundamental question, there's probably worse jobs out there than spending days making silly british jokes while powersliding cars around an old air field.

 

Well, Tiff and Jeremy did host the old Top Gear at the same time, and Tiff drove Prost's F1 Ferrari around the track. So who knows. Some Karters in the UK think it is Ben Collins. Or maybe it is Jason Plato?

 

I've heard that Tiff is too tall compared to the Stig on Top Gear. I bet that the driver of the Renault is (or was) a test driver for an F1 team or currently with Renault. No way could someone go from a street car to an F1 car and do that well. Thanks for the video though, very cool!

P.S. I downloaded the full episode from viper007bond.com and they had a WRC car against a bobsled, 612 Scag vs. airplane (similar to the DB9 vs. train), and old race cars vs. new street cars. Very interesting stuff.

 

Sometimes, I don't think he's actually listening to the music (but dubbed later on). For example, when Stig was driving the Enzo, they played music.... but there's no stereo system in the Enzo...

 

Now didn't that 612 segment just make you fall in love with that car? It did me...even sounded good!

 

I believe the new Stig is Ben Collins. http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38913&highlight=stig

Apparently the F1 Renault was driven by Heikki Kovalainen and not Stig as they said on the programme http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42378

 

Especially the buzz ...
Are you kidding ?

 

Maybe not the buzz, no, but the sound from outside the car was much nicer than I expected

 

Wow!
That was just awesome!
Thanks for posting!

/Peter

 

I've tried for several days to download this, but every time I right-click and select "save target as" I get the "unable to connect to server" error. Any idea what the problem is?

Gary

 

I hosted the video on yousendit.com. The link is automatically taken down after 7 days or 20 downloads (so it'll be gone by either Decemeber 30th or in 15 downloads). If everyone else could host the video on yousendit.com and post it in this thread, no one should have a problem downloading it.

http://s21.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1HA1NG42H6K9D3R6PLNEEBX2OP

 

The full Top Gear (and 5th Gear) divx's are downloadable with P2P clients supporting Bit Torrent.

 

That was an awesome video. If that was the stig that he is truely, a very good driver. Imagine what Alonso would have been able to do?

 

If Alonso was driving at the limit and doing so on a completely dry track, I'm guessing he would be able to lap somewhere in the low 50's.

 

Thanks a million, I've got it, great video.

Gary

 

I don't have access to download anything on this current computer but can someone post the laps times for the renault as well as a few of the next fastest cars? I'm just trying to get an idea of just how much faster the f1 car is. Thanks

 

If my memory is correct, the F1 (and its driver) clocked the lap in 59", the closest car was the Enzo with 1'18".

 

you'll notice that the music must be added in afterward, due to the fact that he's listening to it in autos not fitted with sound systems in several shows.

 

Wow, what an awesome episode.

The 612 vs the bus/train/plane and the evo vs the bobsled was great!