or cars tested on the show, as well as instructing celebrity guests, off-camera, for the show's "Star in a Reasonably Priced

Car" segment. The character is a pl ay on the anonymity of racing drivers' full-face helmets, with the running joke that nobody knows who, or indeed what, is inside the Stig's racing suit. The identity of the original "Black" Stig, Perry McCarthy, was exposed by a Sund ay newspaper in January 2003, and confirmed by McCarthy later that year. The bla ck-suited Stig was subsequently killed off that October in the series 3 premiere , and replaced in the following episode by a new White Stig who lasted through s eries 15. In series 13, the show jokingly unmasked the Stig as seven-time world champion F1 driver Michael Schumacher. In the hiatus following series 15, racing driver Ben Collins was revealed to be the Stig in a court battle over Collins' impending autobiography, titled The Man in the White Suit. In series 16, debutin g in December 2010, Collins was replaced by a second White Stig, whose ident