Top Gear's back! [Vote on the best Stig line ever]

[Skater]

The BMW has to be taught to automatically drive in places, doesn't it? It had to be driven manually around the Top Gear track before it could be done on auto by Clarkson.

It wouldn't work. You could drive it to work once, but it wouldn't take into account the traffic the next day I don't think, so you would go crash the next day.

 

[King Pietersen]

I'm pretty sure they've thought that through and come up with a solution, if you're making a product like that, collision detection would be one of the first things you'd make sure worked. It'd work in a similar way to them parking bleeper things that make sure you dont hit stuff, but would actually apply the brakes for you before you hit the object. I seriously doubt that they'd design a automatic car that doesnt take traffic into consideration, think about it Lee

 

[Kev]

HOLY FECK! 1:44.7 for Hamilton in a wet lap. That's .3 off of Stig's time in the dry!

Pretty Amazing, but it makes you wonder if it being wet makes all that much difference. I mean is that car fast enough that a wet track will really effect it? You hear Hamilton complain that he's only doing 56Mph, the tyres probably aren't put under much pressure at all! My farts are faster than 56Mph!!! Sort of makes you think that all those celebs that did wet laps and were slow actually just suck

 

[Sureshot]

Braking distances would be affected Kev, handling would too and acceleration. It's smaller scale than on an F1 track racing at 190plus, but it'll still affect a car.

 

[Highlander999]

Very good episode last night. Stig was amazing driving in the 24 Hour race, making up so much time.

 

[Kev]

Braking distances would be affected Kev, handling would too and acceleration. It's smaller scale than on an F1 track racing at 190plus, but it'll still affect a car.

Obviously slightly, but not much. Firstly there isn't many braking zones on the track, its fairly fast and not all that technical to drive. The car isn't a racecar so doesn't generate all that much in the way of grip, acceleration or braking so they wont change that much as there is so little performance in the first place and it has ABS so the braking is screwed up in terms of ultimate performance. Yes dry is going to be faster but I dont think it's that much faster, Hamilton is obviously seriously quick, but then all F1 drivers are seriously quick, if you put them in the same car there is never a 2 second difference in laptimes.

 

[Sureshot]

I agree, I think Clarkson is a little optimistic with saying it's 4 seconds slower (like last night), I'm not saying it's a huge impact but there will be an effect, it's proven science. You've got quite a big braking zone into hammerhead and there's another two 'heavy' zones that I can think of.

 

[Kev]

Here's the rough layout of the track, with a little help from google earth and photoshop.



Crooner Curves are the first real corners, double apex, apparently the camber is a bit tricky here. Around the Tyrewall and Chicago, then its down the runway to Hammerhead. Slam on the anchors! Once your out of Hammerhead there's little to do (except close your eyes through the Followthrough and close them again as you pass the Tyrewall for the second time until you get to the penultimate corner, Bacharach, fast entry, fairly heavy braking. Then its everyones favourite corner Gambon, keep it on the tarmac and its across then line in one minute and forty..........

 

[BigCrickNan]

Stig should be an F1 Drive for sure.

 

[Manly]

Stig should be an F1 Drive for sure.

still reckon its damon hill, myself

 

[King Pietersen]

It's not. It's Ben Collins, he's named in the credits of the show, it's almost definetly not Damon Hill. It's between Collins and Julian Bailey apparently, Collins is the more likely candidate though. I'd personally go for Collins, not only because he is the person named most often, but because The Stig is a legend and couldnt possibly have a name like Julian, The Stig isnt a bender ;P

 

[Kev]

Julian Bailey was the original "Black Stig" but he's at the bottom of the ocean

 

[Manly]

Julian Bailey was the original "Black Stig" but he's at the bottom of the ocean

heard black stig was perry mccarthy, he said in his autobiography he was...

 

[barmyarmy]

It's not. It's Ben Collins

There's some pretty compelling evidence for that actually...

It is rumoured that Ben is The Stig on BBC TV's Top Gear. The Health & Safety Executive report into Richard Hammond's Vampire dragster crash in September 2006 records that Collins "worked closely with Top Gear as a high performance driver and consultant" #ref

Also it's been commented on that the Stig takes different lines to the F1 drivers. Mind you you can't trust anything you read on the internet...

 

[Kev]

Well Michael Schumacher often took different lines, especially in the wet.

It's not him though