Lego Stig is part of a grand series of racing minifigs, most of them based on Formula One drivers:

Photo Credit: Phil Birkitt

In front of that great white rooster tail is the A2 version of the original Audi Quattro, that snarling, five cylinder Group B menace which would, in Sport Quattro S1 form, prove even more devastating on every conceivable road surface.

The A2 was no slowpoke either: with little more than half the horsepower of the S1, it was good enough for Blomqvist to win five of the 1984 World Rally Championship’s twelve races, including the 1984 Acropolis Rally, where these pictures were taken. Here’s footage of the race, unfortunately with the soundtrack toned down:

But do not despair if your aim is to fill your home or office with the turbocharged pop of Group B. Stig Blomqvist has been racing non-stop since the early Scandinavian flick days of the little two-stroke Saab 96. His senior years hinder neither his racing ability in general nor his skills at handling the Sport Quattro S1 in particular. Observe with volume at 11:

Photo Credit: Audi

My last visit to the United States of America was in the early spring of 2004. I landed at JFK in a freezing wind, clattered in raw metal subway cars up to St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem and proceeded to spend the next few weeks getting hooked on Krispy Kreme donuts, Macintosh computers and a Cadillac Seville with no ass.

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The apartment was on the first floor of an old house by St. Nicholas Park, bathed in regular clouds of marijuana smoke wafting up from the street below, visited by the occasional cockroach and heated by a silver-painted contraption seemingly from the early days of the Industrial Revolution.

They say it was a radiator. Perhaps, but it was certainly an awful radiator. You couldn’t trust it at all. During the cold winter of 2003-2004, it let down the apartment’s two permanent inhabitants—Bertalan pictured above, Lili behind the camera—so many times that it became a sad running joke. There were reports of entire days spent shivering in winter clothes and under blankets. Watching exhaled air form clouds as the ambient temperature approached the bottom edge of water in the liquid state.

But all that was forgotten when the radiator came to life. It snorted and hawked and gurgled and hissed, it was a machine from Victorian England living a second lease on life. You never felt safe in its immediate vicinity as a violent steam explosion with shrapnels of red-hot metal flying through the air often seemed imminent. And it gave off ample heat. It dried towels, warmed up St. Nicholas Avenue, it lifted the spirits.

The Bugatti Veyron sounds exactly like that radiator. That, of course, is no great surprise, as Jeremy Clarkson has already described the car in very similar terms in his December 2005 review for The Sunday Times, writing that “the engine sounds like Victorian plumbing — it looks like Victorian plumbing as well, to be honest.”

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The Veyron is at 03:07

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But it’s one thing to read that in the paper and quite another to stand three and a half years later behind bales of hay in the south of England and hear this modern-day Turbopanzer for the first time. You get used to supercars screaming on the upper edge of the human hearing spectrum and nothing really prepares you for the ultimate of their breed—at least in numbers—to gurgle by as a Victorian battleship, barely exercising the depths of its quirky 8-liter W16 engine. Sounding not like a car at all.

I wonder what Ettore Bugatti would make of this. That the latest incarnation of his lithe French racers is built by Germans to sound like the war machines of the British Empire.

Incidentally, the blue car pictured here is the T-top Veyron, also known as Officially The Fastest Road Legal Production Convertible. It was among the few cars cordoned off from the swirling masses at the Festival of Speed. You could, of course, lean in and poke its polished aluminum wheels, if you had long enough fingers.

I had long enough fingers but restrained myself. But I did lean in to bring you this picture of the Stig's head, which apparently comes on the side of your $2,000,000 purchase:

Photo of apartment with radiator by Lili Mesterhazy.

Jay's in England to visit the Goodwood Festival of Speed and flirt with Elle MacPherson, but it looks like he also managed to swing past the production studio of a television show with many, many more viewers than his own. At least now we know Leno's not The Stig, they never would have packed all that chin into that full-face Simpson helmet anyways. [via Jay's Garage]

Although it's pretty clear to anyone but the most humorous-less people on earth The Stig is not Michael Schumacher, we do know he does seem to like to play with office equipment.

Despite being the first to tell you that Stig would lift his helmet during last night's episode and it would be none other than Michael Schumacher underneath, we're now going to provide three reminders to everyone that no, the blonde-haired track-meister's not the only Stig.

First, one look at Shumacher's record-setting time around the Top Gear test track in a Ferrari FXX, and you realize he's not the same Stiggie we've seen on the show the last two seasons. Schumi was more balls-to-the-wall around the corners than the previous incarnation of our beloved Stiggie.

Secondly, Ferrari's only going to let an owner drive the Ferrari FXX. Make sense to us then that since they were testing Schumi's FXX, they'd have Schumi be the Stig.

That makes sense given the truth is, as most know, there have been many drivers who've played the Stig. From the original black-nomex racing suit-encased Stig played by Perry McCarthy, former Formula One racer and test driver for the Benetton, Arrows and Williams teams — to "Big Stig" who we're pretty sure was played by Tony Stewart after ingesting a small cow, there is a different Stig for different needs. And we're pretty sure African Stig was not at all Lewis Hamilton. Basically, we've been told by the BBC there's been no less than eight drivers donning the white nomex.

The most high-profile is Heikki Kovalainen, the 27-year-old Finnish Formula One McLaren driver who is Lewis Hamilton's partner. Forty-one-year-old former GT world championship racing driver Chris Goodwin, from London, has also starred as the Stig. As has fellow Londoner Julian Bailey, a 47-year-old former Formula One racing driver who raced for the Tyrell and Lotus teams.

Stunt driver Terry Grant from Bushey in Hertfordshire has also slipped into the white racing leathers to become the Stig. Stunt driver Russ Swift is another who has become the Stig. Then of course there were those Ben Collins rumors.

Finally, Dan Lang, a Swedish snow mobile racing champion played the Stig in a Top Gear stunt where he jumped a snow mobile off a ski jump. So to every Stig there is a purpose and yesterday's Ferrari FXX season belonged to Schumacher. Who will be the next to turn, turn, turn in the white racing duds? We guess we'll have to tune in to find out. Which is really what the BBC wants.

And that brings us to the third reminder. See, this was totally a tongue-in-cheek PR play. And it worked. We went all ga-ga over the Schumi as Stig story and you know what, so did all of you. And that's cool, because frankly, it was entertaining as hell. And when it comes down to it, we don't watch Top Gear to be informed, we watch Top Gear to be entertained.

Incidentally, on an almost entirely unrelated note — there's some serious props that need to go out to the Beeb for figuring out the importance of not only having a clip up on YouTube of last night's unmasking (we've included it again here), but for having it up within moments of the show's completion. Good work by Her Royal Majesty's TV service for understanding there's people outside of the BBC's broadcast network interested in seeing this momentous occasion — and beating out the thousands who'd be dropping pirated clips up and online. Already the clip's got thousands of comments and tens of thousands of views. Bravo, BBC.

That's right, as we told you last week, The Stig is Michael Schumacher.

According to Top Gear's own blog, Clarkson boasts tomorrow night's episode is "going to be the best thing that's ever been on television ever." Clarkson then reportedly paused for a brief moment before completing his sentence with "...in the world." Clarkson goes on to say

"the Stig barges into the studio and in an atmosphere you could cut with a knife, removes his helmet...as a television moment, it's up there with Neil Armstrong walking on… the corpse of JR Ewing."

While Clarkson goes no further in providing details to the identity of the show's tame race driver, it's more evidence we'll see the Italian Stallion-driving German underneath Stig's white helmet when we eventually see the show pour down upon us like a torrent of rain.

Additionally, Top Gear's site's spilled the beans on a few more details from tomorrow night's show in an exclusive photo gallery — including a first drive of the Lotus Evora and a train vs. bike vs. Jaguak XK120 race. We can't wait for tomorrow night — be here with us as we'll have first-hand reports as soon as the show finishes airing — as well as, perhaps, some super-secret video. We already know it's going to be simply magical.

Photo Credit: Hannah Johnston / Getty Images Entertainment

MAJOR NEW EXHIBITION LAUNCHED AT THE BEAULIEU ATTRACTIONWorld of Top Gear Now Open

The World of Top Gear Exhibition opened its doors at the National Motor Museum on June 19th.

The new exhibition at Beaulieu in the New Forest features a collection of the actual cars created by presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May for some of their most ambitious challenges on the TV show over the years.

Fans of the show will be familiar with challenges such as their attempt to cross the Channel with their home-made car/boats, and the Stretched Limo Challenge, where they set out to turn rusty second-hand cars into luxury stretch limos, and chauffeur three celebs to the BRIT Awards.

Visitors will also experience the Top Gear ‘Enormodrome' which aims to recreate the feel of the Top Gear studio, where the TV show is filmed in front of a live audience.

As well as regular features from the programme including the Cool Wall and the Celebrity ‘Lap Times' boards, visitors can watch an exclusive video presentation from behind the scenes at the TG HQ with Jeremy, Richard and James plus clips from the show featuring the cars on display.

"It makes perfect sense for the National Motor Museum to be working with BBC Worldwide on the launch of World of Top Gear. While the National Motor Museum is primarily about historic vehicles this exhibition shows that cars can be entertaining and accessible to the whole family, not just the car enthusiast. We are delighted with the response that it has received from Top Gear fans," said Stephen Munn, Commercial Director at the National Motor Museum.

"It's fantastic that Beaulieu are preserving for posterity so many of the cars Jeremy, Richard and James have built for the show, and we are delighted to make the cars accessible for Top Gear fans to enjoy close up," said Adam Waddell, Managing Director of Top Gear, BBC Worldwide.

Note to Editors

* World of Top Gear can be viewed as part of a visit to the whole Beaulieu attraction including the National Motor Museum with its collection of over 250 vehicles, Palace House, home of the Montagu family since 1538 and the 13th century Beaulieu Abbey, plus rides, and drives for all the family. Open every day, except Christmas Day, from 10am. For more information Tel: 01590 612345 or visit www.beaulieu.co.uk
* BBC Worldwide's announcement follows exhibition success with Doctor Who where over 1.5 million tickets have been sold since 2005 in venues across the UK from Earl's Court, to Glasgow, to the home of production in Cardiff.

UPDATE: Video of The Stig, unmasked!

We spoke with both PR and production contacts at the BBC, and neither were willing to confirm or deny our report. However, what our production contact was willing to say was if you get the Beeb, you'll want to tune in to the June 21st show to find out. So while we stand by our initial report, we won't know if it's true or not until we get a chance to download hear reports out of the UK as soon as the show airs. But we're more interested in what you think. Is Schumi our beloved Stiggie?

Want to see the "shocking" "unmasking" of the Stig? Click here!

"I was at the top gear recording earlier on today for the first episode of the new series, and the Stig was revealed to be... Michael Schumacher!! this was very unexpected, but totally believable in the end. His full unmasking will be shown on BBC 1 on saturday at 9pm in the UK! attached are a few shots of his FXX which he was putting around the track. The rest of the episode is a interview with schumacher, a hot lap in the lliana and a race between a steam engine, a bike and a 1940's jaguar.

I hope this is useful!"

Yes, well, here's to hoping it's right! (Hat tip to Malcs!)

We've updated the story with comments off the record from BBC insiders here.

The crew was spotted at Alain Airport on a police-closed road doing their Top Gear thing. It's assumed the team will be comparing the latest crop of super-supercars against the thoroughbred McLaren F1, which is inarguably a high-water mark of the craft. Considering the closed road they're on is almost two miles long, we can assume some fairly high speed runs way out there in the desert sun. This promises to be a good one. [Youtube via WCF]

With less than 30 minutes left to go in the auction, you'd better get your itchy-bidding trigger finger ready 'cause this one's gonna come down to a last minute bidding battle. What exactly are you bidding on? One Stig-signed helmet and Stig-signed racing suit. Will it make you drive any faster? Probably not, but you can finally tell that girl who won't sleep with you that some say you're a mythical racing entity that sets hot laps both on the track and in bed. She'll definitely appreciate it, we swear. Head on over to Ebay to catch your chance at winning this historical Top Gear memorabilia.

Or, you could just DNA test that sucker and find out, once and for all, who Das Stiggie really is.

[via Ebay]

We're expecting to see more of these kinds of wacky stories as Brits across the kingdom scour Streetview, which was just revealed for the island nation. Obviously the shot was taken before Ben Collins was discovered to be the white Stig, and the black Stig returned from the sea. Check out the view from the eye of big brother Street View below and zoom in for all the Stiggy goodness. (Thanks for the tips Oli and Witold)

View Larger Map[Top Gear Blog]