Ben Collins (the old stig) talks about Topgear

Took this video at the Launch of the new A6 in the O2. Ben Collins was interviewed by Craig Doyle and told us about the wig and Jeremy Clarkson...

[badmoonryzn]

Ben is an awesome driver and I think he did a great job on Top Gear. He put up some times no one can match. Salute to

[JonathanAllen]

Ben Collins is an immensely talented high-performance driver and an all-around great guy. Anybody who disagrees is just bitter and envious. Anybody who thinks he was wrong for doing what he did is the worst form of hypocrite. If they were in the same situation, they'd do exactly the same thing. They're just too cowardly and dishonest to admit it. The fact is, first and foremost, you have to look out for yourself. Rational self-interest should trump every other consideration, because if you don't look out for yourself and what is in your best interest, do you really expect anybody else to do it for you?? They're looking out for themselves as well. Ben did what any logical thinking person would do. He owes no apologies to anyone. May he live long and continue to prosper.

[deezynar]

He did a great job for Top Gear as the Stig. He revealed his identity only after he was already outed by voice recognition from an interview with a Dutch reporter. The Top Gear producers were stupid for having him speak. He wrote a book that is very complimentary to Top Gear and all the people there. Top Gear got a lot of great publicity out the whole deal and they have a new Stig. Win / Win.

[messvideos]

Don't know if you did, but I read that book and I think it's quite good. Yeah, it took a bit of that mystery from The Stig, but gave me a whole new perspective on my heroes, racing drivers :)

[AddictionToGaming]

I don't hate Ben Collins at all.
At first, sure, I was mad at him for revealing himself, but after I've read why did he do it, I know that he did right thing when he left
Great driver, great man, great book...Respect

[icyolololo]

That's the thing!
He didn't made much money...especially if compared to Hammond, Clarkson and May. But he still was loyal and made lots of concessions for the show.

[CruiserZone]

Just after he came out i read an interview with him in the paper, he said he was sick of trying to shove sandwiches through the visor of a helmet for his lunch on TG.He also said that one day while in a canteen, in all his gear, a worker walked in, threw a TG mag on the table and asked him to sign it, he did, "the Stig", the worker said "no, ur real name, Ben Collins"(this was when everyone was geussing).So after saying all that he now says he used to mess around in a wig for all the world to see?!

[Eleglas]

What Jeremy was pissed about was that they were friends, he came often came over to his house, but then he found out he was writing this book behind his back and felt betrayed which is completely understandable.

[LandIsFlat]

For all "back-stabbing" comments: get your facts straight. This is a typical case of big enterprise bullying the little guy.

Ben did what he could to help the show grow, got paid in peanuts, risked his life on regular basis, could be sacked for a smallest mistake and was constantly shown and reminded that he is an expandable nobody. He was courageous enough to run the book by BBC execs before publishing it, planning to do it after he is fired. Instead, BBC took him to court. Who is to blame?

[BobFlavinVideo]

I have deliberately stayed out of the chat on this video, it's fun to see all the comments about Ben and how freaked out some of you are about his book.
I've met Ben on a couple of occasions and he's a really nice guy, I do agree that he should have talked to the guys on Top Gear before getting ready to publish the book but there was a bit of bad form from BBC with court cases and all that.
Top Gear is still on with Stig and I still love the show, so everyones happy...right?

[baileythedudeman]

i want old and new stig to race
for the hell of it

[pradoist]

He makes the program in Poland nowdays.I like him.

[clarauk]

to all you haters of the stig .ben collins. he got paid so little , worked so hard for years keeping hes identity right, check out how much he got paid and what he contributed, , and made j clarkson look good in a wig, he did most of the driving .clarksons fast driving on the straight mostly drag racing .ben got a raw deal

[PhantomGett]

@madmaxrules I bough the book as well, it's actually well written and I knew what the media's side of the story was, and I wanted to know Ben's... Glad I read it. It's really interesting to read how he got there... And sheds a lot of light in the nature of top gear's "fake" stunts.

[acidmatar]

ben did show up on the last episode aired, u guys know right?

[ListowelLiam]

can't blame him for trying to make some more dosh for his family. Even before he revealed himself as he stig he was my no. 1 guess, so I wasn't really surprised...

[KatleinaTrancy]

To be fair he appeared for less than 2 mins to drive a car around the track most times.

[BobFlavinVideo]

@gyro231995 I don't suppose your name is Ben Collins by any chance?

[Gandalf]

I'm with Ben Collins on this. He had a mortgage and a family to look after just like the others. They made loads more money than him yet he stayed loyal for SEVEN YEARS and he kept shtum all that time. But whilst he kept silent - the other three did adverts, spin off programmes, wrote books, made DVDs ... and made millions whilst he fell further and further behind. No wonder he got hacked off in the end! Most people would. It was Clarkson, May and Hammond who were the greedy ones, not Ben.

[ardvark]

I don't know about his money but he is now driving in polish tv program about cars. It's a very small program. I can't really understand why someone like Collins would like to be in a small program in small country.