In series 16, debuting in December 2010, Collins was replaced by a second White Stig, whose identity was revealed by Clarkson in 2024 to be racing driver Phil Keen.
[5] In 2009, another Times article reiterated that only a few production staff, the show's presenters and other BBC journalists knew the Stig's true identity.
[5] When asked about his identity in a rare spoken interview for the show Veronica Vibes of a Dutch channel, the Stig reportedly said, "I don't remember; my memory was erased when I got the job.
"[16] He has been depicted as a piece of cargo, being collected by Clarkson from the baggage conveyor at the airport;[ep 10] he has also been shown stored in a cupboard when not in use.
[ep 1] The original Stig, Perry McCarthy, described in 2006 how a racing driver was intended to be used as part of the presenting team in order to produce definitive fastest lap times for tested cars.
The scene which saw Black Stig "killed off," nicknamed "Top Gun vs Top Gear," was an attempt to race to 100 mph (160 km/h) and then come to a halt on the 200-metre (660 ft) long flight deck of HMS Invincible, a Royal Navy aircraft carrier on which British Aerospace Sea Harrier jump jets reach 100 mph (160 km/h) before take-off.
The Stig accelerated along the deck, and an on-screen speedometer indicated 109 mph (175 km/h) before a cutaway shot saw the car flying off the end of the runway ramp and into the sea.
[27][28] Although McCarthy said in 2006 that, following his exit from Top Gear, he harboured ambitions of re-entering racing in the Grand Prix Masters series, he went on to run an investment company and appear as an after-dinner speaker.
Various sources claimed him to be a number of different racing drivers, including Collins, Damon Hill, Julian Bailey, Russ Swift, Darren Turner and Tim Schrick, as well as former Top Gear presenter Tiff Needell.
[7] After observing the Stig's charity drive around the Silverstone Circuit just before the July 2008 British Grand Prix, former Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso remarked, "Whoever's in that car is a seriously good driver.
"[38] On 20 June 2009, Clarkson announced in his newspaper column that the Stig would show his face in Top Gear's series thirteen premiere, airing the next day.
"[21] The episode showed the Stig driving a black Ferrari FXX around the test track for a record-setting time of 1:10.7, before walking into the studio and sitting down.
The Times stated that beginning a month after the White Stig's first appearance, the company had experienced an increase in profits ascribed to "driving services provided for the BBC, mainly in the Top Gear programme.
"[45] On 1 September 2010, the case was decided against the BBC, as the High Court refused to grant an injunction blocking the publication of the autobiography now acknowledged to be authored by Collins.
Clarkson advertised for a new driver in his 4 September newspaper column, noting the successful applicant must know that "no one, under any circumstances, should ever rat on their friends".
"[54] Bookmakers' favourites to become the new Stig included Anthony Davidson, Damon Hill, Russ Swift, Heikki Kovalainen, and an unspecified female driver.
[53][55] On 1 October 2010, it was announced that Collins would join Five's Fifth Gear motoring show, where he was introduced by Vicki Butler-Henderson as someone whose name "rhymes with The Twig."
[57] In the "USA Road Trip" special (debuting 21 December 2010), the presenters branded the Stig a traitor; May declared his true name to be Judas Iscariot.
Collins returned to Top Gear in the series 18 special "50 Years of Bond Cars," where Hammond interviewed him on his work as a stunt driver in the film Skyfall.
When Top Gear U.S. drove a modified off-road racer through Colorado against a kayak, they introduced "Backwoods Stig," who wears a white racing overall with torn off sleeves.
[3] In the "USA Road Trip" (aired 21 December 2010), Tiff Needell was brought in as an "Emergency Stig" to train Danny Boyle on the track.
[68] In June 2008, the Stig drove a passenger in a two-seat Formula One car at speeds up to 178 mph (286 km/h) for three laps around the Silverstone Circuit in wet conditions, hours before the start of the 2008 British Grand Prix.
The drive was the prize in a charity auction held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital where the winning bidder paid £35,000 for the privilege.
He also appeared before the BBC's 2011 British Grand Prix coverage when Clarkson and Hammond gave the camera crew a tour of the Top Gear studio.
On 8 December 2016, the Stig appears for a short moment in a segment from Top Gear: Series 23, where he is seen reading a paper while Ken Block zooms past in his Hoonicorn Mustang along with Matt LeBlanc.
[73] For a period, the Stig, along with the Top Gear presenters, appeared in miniature at Legoland Windsor, arranged around a model of a Caterham sports car.
"[9] The Sunday Times in 2009 described the Stig as "not a man but an idea, possibly an extraterrestrial," speculating that, along the lines of the Spartacus mythology, the more people that were linked with the character, the stronger the mystery would become.
[citation needed] He was also captured by a Street View tricycle in three locations within Legoland Windsor in Berkshire, including riding a go-kart and sitting on a camel.
[75] A Street View image taken from the A40 Westway of the Stig apparently standing in a window of the Top Gear office was reportedly just a cardboard cut-out.
[79] Other Stig merchandise has included bubble wash, pens, keyrings, soap on a rope, lunchbags and a "sonic toothbrush.