Top Gear's Stig prowls Loch Ness

We're obliged to all those readers who rushed to alert us that The Stig of Top Gear fame has been spotted on the shores of Loch Ness: The Stig captured at Loch Ness on Street View Of course, no one knows just who The Stig is, but what's clear is that, in common with Judge Dredd, he never takes his helmet off - a fact proved …

[Kravex]

Stig

"Some say he knows the location of Nessy..."

[doob]

Identity hiding fail

I like the way that his helmet is perfectly clear, but his stomach appears to have been blurred out.

[Jason Bloomberg]

Stig with a stick ?

Why has Stig apparently been auto-blurred just north of the genitals ? What exactly what was he doing ???

[Alain Moran]

Black Vauxhall

Is it me or is the stig driving a Black Vauxhall?

If you spin round, you can see two cars in the lay-by behind ... one silver which appears to have two people in it, and another Black one (I think it's a vauxhall, I'm not very good with modern cars) which has nobody in it ... evidently this must be the stig's own car!

I would have thought he would be driving something a bit more swish than that :o

[Anonymous Coward]

Black car

seems to have a google sticker in the back. Is this in fact the stig, or some kind of imposter?

[fergal]

eh

thats not a Google sticker. thats a watermark.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sticker?

That "sticker" is Google's copyright watermark you numpty.

[fergal]

Vauxhall

Isn't that what Google uses for their streetview cars..!!!

all a bit suspect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Some say he is the real loch ness monster

and that the google car is afraid of him.

[lansalot]

a small warning however...

Earlier, I googled

"the stig" "loch ness"

and half the results that came up were pages loaded with malware.

Be very careful if you're tempted to find it that way ! Other than that, nice one Stiggy-fella !

[Field Marshal Von Krakenfart]

Euphemism

"he never takes his helmet off "

Fnarrr, Fnarrr

Paris, who has taken off at least two helmets

[TeeCee]

What I want to know.

Why has the Google blur-o-matic (tm) (beta) decided to blur out his, er, gentleman's area? Is there some previously unknown fact about The Stig being given away here?

(Cue endless 40' snake/Nessie gags)

[Scott Mckenzie]

Really..

No-one knows... you sure about that?

Aside from myself and about 9000 other people on various fora i'm aware of i'm sure there are many others too.

[Brutus]

ODFO

This is not a fail. To be honest, Scott, I rather like the pretense that no-one knows. It's a bit like not knowing that Santa Claus is really your Dad (or Mum or whoever).

On the other hand, I also appreciate the fact that you haven't blurted out the name of the tame racing driver(s).

[MAB]

I discovered the stig at Loch Ness

I spotted the Stig mooching round Loch Ness! I sold the news to the Sun. Well, I say sold, I'm yet to receive any money.

I was previously an armchair parachuteer. I would put a fan in my face and rapidly zoom into Google Earth stopping just before I hit the deck, or max zoom level reached - whichever was sooner. I'm now an armchair driver. I travel along the countries roads (via streetview) - again with my trusty fan in my face (not sure why as my windscreen is fully functional) looking for the Stig. It's environmentally friendly too with 0 carbon emission and very little sulphur.

Are there any other readers out there with no lives like me?

[Annihilator]

Hopefully

"Are there any other readers out there with no lives like me?"

Not sure, but if there are, can you invite them all round to your house? Be good to keep them in one place I think!...

[John I'm only dancing]

A Stig of many colours

How can the man be in so many places at once? Has he rent the fabric of space and time? We must be told.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice but...

They could have been a bit more subtle about it. Following the A82, the camera car was clearly photographing travelling away from Stig in both directions and they even left in one shot taken from the layby parked up behind the other black opel and Stig's silver Honda. Guess it must have been a bit chilly and Stig didn't want to be stood around too long, assuming it is the real Stig and not some Google wag.

[JP19]

Cardboard cut out.

As has been widely discussed on the Interwebs, the office window siting is a cardboard cut out.

[Anonymous Coward]

well if its discussed on the internet...... !!

how can a cardboard cutout, show more of him when you move up and down the road. it may be fake but its not 2 dimensional

[Anonymous Coward]

'Who' is the Stig?

What makes you assume the Stig is a 'who'?

[Scott Mckenzie]

Indeed

That is a little bit 'singular'

[incunix]

the stig has been revealed right??

Has no one seen this??? lol

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8111588.stm

[ravenviz]

BBC on The Stig

"A BBC spokeswoman would not confirm whether or not Schumacher was the genuine Stig: "You have to bear in mind that Top Gear is an entertainment programme. We never reveal who or what The Stig is"

What do they mean *what* the Stig is? Are they suggesting some sort of mechanical monster or a golem?

[Graeme 7]

I'll take the high road if you take the low road

Isn't it odd how in one photo the Google car is in the lay-by and in both directions along the road the car is obviously driving away from the Stig. So since it wasn't a simple drive-by but the Google car actually met up with the Stig, the Google driver either now knows the Stig or he setup a fake.

Although I guess there is nothing to stop the stig driving there in his black vauxhall with his helmet on and never speaking to the Google driver.

[CC]

Not Nessy

He is actually BIGFOOT!

[Martin 28]

Some say...

...that his face isn't where you'd expect it to be, and that his pet is the Loch Ness monster...

[Anonymous Coward]

Some say...

..that the stig is able to interact with technology and insert his image anywhere he sees fit, even if he has never visitied the place.

I believe the stig is immune to the survelience state and only appears when and where he wants... for reasons unknown to mortal man.

Alien..well...has anyone seen his face?

[Valerion]

Blurring of Gentlemans area

Obvious when you think about it - it's where his registration number is!

[Fr. Ted Crilly]

Some say, Sting wears his wifes knickers.............

AC Are you suggesting Stig also has 'laughing Man' powers

[Pudding]

Some say...

...that he was asking passers by for three fiddy.

[John Sturdy]

New algorithm?

Perhaps it's a new blurring algorithm, which instead of blurring faces, replaces the whole image of the person with a Stig image? We could call it stiganography!

[Anonymous Coward]

Bastard.

Some say he needs a new keyboard, because the old one has coffee dripping out of it.

Others say his breath smells of boysenberry conserve and toast..

Whatever, I am not the Stig.

[Pudding]

Some say...

That he was asking passers by for 'Three Fiddy'.

[J 3]

Never takes helmet off...

...and apparently never unfolds his arms either!

Must drive with the power of his mind.

[SimpleUser]

But, that Stig guy -

we perfectly can identify him based on his shoes!

Picture 4 at

http://www.focus.de/sport/formel1/formel-1-countdown-fuer-schumachers-comeback_did_26991.html

proofs nothing less!

[Anonymous Coward]

What is the dark shape in the water...

...just the the left of Stig and up a bit, above left from the tall bent tree.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=57+13%2733.82N+4+34%2719.81W&sll=57.47745,-4.201562&sspn=0.008433,0.021479&ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&cbll=57.226109,-4.572287&panoid=ApPA1rwguy7D-Kl8q6i0bw&cbp=12,106.66,,1,1.33&ll=57.23443,-4.571943&spn=0,359.958243&z=15

[T0ny]

Some say...

... he has the ability to get google to replace an entire section of the A82 on street view

Links are from the ends of the original images facing in towards the stig's location.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?layer=c&cbll=57.231724,-4.563896&cbp=12,208.64,,0,14.8

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?layer=c&cbll=57.222845,-4.576671&cbp=12,41.11,,0,10.99

[IR]

I'm guessing

This is just like all the other famous British characters, like Mary Poppins and Paddington Bear, that were captured by Google Streetview - they were set up. The reg even reported on it sometime last year, albeit initially to ridicule someone who thought that the Mary Poppins character was a ghost for some stupid reason.

[Al fazed]

Stig ?

Don't tell me that Top Gear is faking it now !

Didn't they just reveal the Stig to be Michael Schumacher ?

Either the other Reg commentards should change seats and sit in front of a TV set occasionally.

Or I have been watching too much TV.

ALF

[Ben Tasker]

Obviously not...

Clearly you've not watched enough. The 'revelation' was a publicity stunt, and even Clarkson later said he didn't believe Schumacher was the stig.

Either way WTF has that got to do with the article????

[Anonymous Coward]

The Stig

Some say instead of genitals he has a human face

[Pete 8]

No it is genitals

Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML

[SirTainleyBarking]

Well thats

Top Gears version of "Wheres Wally?" blown out of the water

[Anonymous Coward]

re: the blur

omg i cant see his crotch!!

some say that makes him the crotch-less monster!!!

[Steen Hive]

Genitals Blurred?

My knob!

..

Loch Ness!

..

Scotland!

..

Raindrop!

[Anonymous Coward]

These questions must be asked...

Will he need a Pedo Certificate as he works with children ?

What would a Perv Scanner show up ?

How many re-incarnations has he gone through since Blonquist(T/F) ?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought the Stig had been revealed?

Did they not reveal last year that it was in fact Schuey?

[S Larti]

What is El Reg coming too?

Are you some sort of nerd paparazzi now?

[Daniel Wilkie]

Judge Dredd?

He's more resolute in his helmet policy than Judge Dredd...

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/news/00020761.jpg

See?

[lpopman]

titular judgement

hehe, that ain't Dredd at all. It's just that stallone guy in the absolutely shite movie that took ol' stoney faces name....

No true Squaxx acknowledges that movie at all....

hmm, that reminds me, must go and collect my 2000AD in a bit :)

Splundig vur Thrigg,

Lpopman

[Aortic Aneurysm]

Is this...

Not some publicity stunt for the Top Gear "where is the stig" escapades?

[pctechxp]

some say

He run an as yet unreleased AI algorithm and that he plugs himself in to charge at night

Added to give an IT angle.

@incunix Schumacher isn't the Stig, that was just done in a vain attempt to quell the speculation, hence revealed is in quotes.

[Bill Fresher]

Would have been good

It would have been good if the stig was holding his helmet under his arm but Google's face recognition mumbo-jumbo had blurred his face out.

[Jay 2]

Who is really The Stig?

There is no one person who is The Stig. The original (black) Stig was onetime F1 peddler Perry McCarthy. The replacement (white) Stig, for at least the track tests, is reputed to be Ben Collins who has raced GT cars quite a bit and a rather lot of testing of various cars. And for the more specialist thngs that Stiggy does, it's fair to say that someone else was behind the helmet.

The Schuey thing was a nice bit of misdirection, nothing more, northing less.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who?

It's pretty much nailed on that there is more than one Stig. One of the reasons that the BBC came up with the whole concept of the Stig was that it reduced the chances of accusations of corruption. If nobody knew who the Stig was then it would make it hard for anybody to accuse them of bias in the posted times. Some manufacturers may get a little cagey in lending a car to them for track testing if they know that the test driver has a relationship with one of their competitors. And all the best pros have some sort of relationship with a manufacturer. The reason McCarthy got the push was that he told the world he was the Stig, which took aunty Beeb back to square one. Although the Beeb have never said as much it is widely believed in the industry that there is now more than one Stig in order to stop the same sort of thing happening again.

Oh and the Stig in the picture of the BBC offices is probably the prop Stig they use at the studio, and in various other shots.

[David Stever]

Jiggy Stig

...and don't forget the puggy American Stig that came to the track last year (for us in the colonies, it was last year- who know when you saw him). he was quite unstig-like, but quite funny in context.

No helmet, but Ian Hunterish shades will do.

[yoinkster]

to all those thinking the stig is schumacher ...

that was a stunt.

The piece before the removing of the helmet was all about the new ferrari fxx and ferrari would only let schumacher drive it.

one of the stig's identites is well known throughout the intertubes as is the open secret that they have a couple of other stigs for when they need them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gosh!

"that was a stunt."

Really? You'll be telling us next that the pope is a Catholic.

Nobody with more than two brain cells to rub together ever believed that the Schuey thing was anything other than a joke.

[Anonymous Coward]

Intuitive leap?

So did anyone elses brain finish this line before actually reading it and then noticing it doesn't actually rhyme?

"that was a stunt."

Really? You'll be telling us next that the pope is a Catholic.

[Anonymous Coward]

Overalls

Those don't look like proper race overalls to me, indeed they appear to have loose cuffs. So that probably isn't a BBC Stig at all but some sort of imposter. Now quite why somebody should be impersonating the Stig by the side of the A82 is beyond my ken.

[John Goodwin 4]

Pixellation City

Looks like all the attention has garnered the Stig some Spectrum-esque graphics. Checking the Google Maps link now shows the racing suit ragamuffin surrounded by a blur bubble.