SA Footy

Top Gear's mysterious test driver the Stig will take off his trademark white helmet and show his face to viewers for the first time.

Presenter Jeremy Clarkson said the pre-recorded programme will include a scene where the Stig barges into the studio and removes his helmet.

Clarkson said the Stig showed his face to the camera for the first time "in an atmosphere that you could cut with a knife".

In his column in the Sun newspaper he said the show's director, who has worked in television for 25 years, said he had never seen anything like it.

He added that "hardened, emotionless camera crews said the hair on the back of their neck prickled".

Clarkson added: "As a television moment it's up there with Neil Armstrong walking on the...corpse of JR Ewing."

He said Stig's identity would be a "staggering surprise" to viewers.

A BBC spokesman said: "As Jeremy said, in tonight's Top Gear Stig will remove his helmet for the first time."

The Stig test drives cars around the Top Gear test track in Dunsfold Park, Surrey, and trains each week's guest for their lap for the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car feature.

Former Formula One driver Perry McCarthy was Top Gear's original Stig, who dressed all in black during the first two series. He was replaced with a new Stig, dressed in white, after he revealed his identity.

blink wrote:I read on news.com.au that under the helmet was Michael Schumacher - surely he isn't the real Stig and this was just a stunt? Schumacher would have better things to do (like swimming in his hundreds of millions) than test drive cars for a UK TV show I'd have thought?

Cambridge Clarrie wrote:

blink wrote:I read on news.com.au that under the helmet was Michael Schumacher - surely he isn't the real Stig and this was just a stunt? Schumacher would have better things to do (like swimming in his hundreds of millions) than test drive cars for a UK TV show I'd have thought?

That's what I thought too. If he wanted to drive one of the cars they have on there he'd just go and buy one (or maybe two) of them!