Top Gear fires The Stig

For 7 years, the masked driver known as The Stig, hurried countless supercars around Top Gear's track in Dunsfold England. Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, Aston Martin's, even Citroen's got pushed to their limits by the man "who's ears aren't where you'd expect them to be".

The Stig's character was dreamed up by the show's producer Andy Wilman, and his old schoolmate Jeremy Clarkson. The idea was to create a bit of mystery for the new version of Britain's popular car programme.

Each week, Top Gear's "tame racing driver" would push the latest supercar's around the show's Lotus designed race track. The Bugatti Veyron, and the Ferrari Enzo set record breaking laps in The Stig's hands. He even crashed a Koenigsegg through a tyre wall, when he tried to break the Swedish supercar's blistering lap time.

Then last week, the world found out that British racing driver Ben Collins was indeed The Stig.

The character's identity was revealed when Collins won an injunction that allowed him to publish his autobiography - a move that shocked many of the show's fans.

According to excerpts obtained by Britain's Daily Mail, Collins' new book chronicles his involvement with the show, and the extraordinary measures which he took to keep his identity hidden.

"My golden rule was never to appear in the white suit, without my helmet on." Collins wrote. "I lied to my friends and family about what I was doing."

Ben Collins was a mildly successful Formula 3, and NASCAR driver. After failing to make a name for himself in racing, he returned to the UK in 2001, where he joined the SAS reservists. While there, he was trained in hand-to-hand combat and taught advanced driving to other SAS recruits.

Collins joined the Top Gear cast in 2004, after the original, black coloured Stig (played by racing driver Perry McCarthy) left the show. Ironically, McCarthy left the show under similar circumstances, when he outed himself as The Stig in his book called "Flat Out, Flat Broke".

It seems that neither Stig was allowed to share in the wealth that befell the show's other stars. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May all received royalties, book deals, and guest appearance deals that were worth millions. The Stig however, was bound by a confidentiality agreement that forbade Collins from revealing his identity, or profiting from The Stig's image.

So, to supplement his income, Collins would moonlight as a Hollywood stuntman. He drove James Bond's Aston Martin for the spectacular crash scene in the 2008 hit Quantum of Solace. And, he played Nicholas Cage's body double in National Treasure 2.

To keep The Stig's identity a secret, Collins never parked in the same spot twice. He would also lock his wallet, and cell phone in his car (an Audi A5), then hide the keys so that no peeping toms could find them.

In his book, Collins claims; "I made my own rules: never park in the same place twice, never talk to anyone outside the 'circle' and keep a balaclava on until I was eight miles clear of location and certain that no one was following,"

Collins went to great lengths to avoid being identified. However, a 1 million (UK pound) book deal finally lured The Stig out into the open.

In a recent interview, Jeremy Clarkson said; "It was horrible, actually. I liked him. He came around to my house, and had drinks, and all that time he was writing the book."

He went on to say; "I've spent the last three weeks doing nothing but trying to work out what to do instead. Trust me, we have many thousands of people queuing up to be whatever it is we create,"

Naturally, we can't wait to see what car-crazy stunts await us in the next season of Top Gear.