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Top Gear driver The Stig 'originally known as The Gimp'
BBC Top Gear stunt driver The Stig was originally named ‘The Gimp’ according to the man who first played the mystery role.
By Alastair Jamieson
Published: 7:25AM BST 23 Aug 2010
Top Gear's The Stig Photo: BBC Perry McCarthy, the Formula 1 star who was The Stig in the first two series of the revamped Top Gear, said he was signed up to the programme by Jeremy Clarkson.
Mr McCarthy, 49, spoke out as the BBC prepared for a possible court battle with the current Stig over plans to publish a book that could lift the lid on his identity.
His face concealed behind a blackened visor, he takes to the track in an assortment of cars, as well as training celebrities to set lap times in Top Gear's popular "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment.
It is thought only about six people - including the programme presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond - know the identity of the current Stig for certain.
Mr McCarthy told the Sunday Mirror he met Mr Clarkson at a party in 2002 attended by their mutual friend, racing driver Damon Hill.
The driver said: “He came over and said, ‘We’re ¬relaunching Top Gear and it’s going to be huge. We need a racing driver called The Gimp. Do you fancy it?’”
“I said, ‘Yes, but there’s no way I’m going to be The Gimp. Think of another name and you’ve got a deal.’ So he went away and came back a day later with The Stig.
He went to posh Repton school where they call the youngsters ‘gimps’. It was his little joke.”
McCarthy’s incarnation of The Stig is now referred to as the ‘Black Stig’ because of the colour of his overalls.
The latest Stig, now widely thought to be Bristol-based stunt driver Ben Collins, wears white overalls.
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