content top

The Man in the White Suit: Ben Collins

The Stig, Le Mans, the Fast Lane and Me.

The Stig gets his kit off and reveals how he came to be Top Gear’s iconic racing driver and so much more – including what it’s like to thrash an Aston Martin DBS, train for the Army and face the terror of Jeremy Clarkson’s underwear! When the Black Stig disappeared off the end of an aircraft carrier in 2003, we were introduced to The White Stig. Faster. Stranger. Harder to keep clean. And ever since, millions have wondered — who is The Man in the White Suit? They’re about to find out. Ben Collins caught the car the bug young, kicking his dad’s boss in the balls for not giving him a company Jag. This was the attitude that eventually led him to spend seven years sharing a cabin with Jeremy Clarkson’s underwear, James May’s PhD thesis and Richard Hammond’s hairspray. Because he is The Stig. Now he tells all about life inside the iconic white helmet. What it’s like to guide a blind ex-RAF officer around the Top Gear track; pit a drug dealer’s Mitsubishi Evo against a Trojan tank; set a Vauxhall Monara against Chloe the dancing Ninja; and race double-decker Routemasters against bendy buses. Not to mention all the inside stuff on how the show’s amazing driving sequences are made. He also reveals how he got to be there — setting a Dunsfold lap time faster than Michael Schumacher’s. Breaking records with the best of the best at Daytona and Le Mans. It’s an awesome story, told by an amazing man.

When I first heard that Ben Collins was the Stig I wasn’t sure what to think, and there was so much drama from so many people that he outed himself, and anger from people he worked with, I thought it would be an interesting book to read since BBC tried so hard to block the book but they failed. This book is defenitly for petrol heads and fans of Top Gear, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the book but I started enjoying it more and more as the story picked up. For once you get inside the head of The Stig and know what he is thinking about when he is driving balls out and out of his mind with celebrities right next to him in the most ridiculous of cars. Its fun to see and understand the workings of Top Gear from inside point of view, and you also get an understanding of a racer’s mindset. Half of the book is about Ben Collins development as racer and the other half as The Stig and what he had to do to keep The Stig hidden and sharp. If you can relate to this book then you will really enjoy it.

Link: Amazon
Rating:
r4.0.bmp

3 Comments »