For years, Ben Collins was the mystery man behind the helmet who played Top Gear’s tame racing driver, The Stig. As you can imagine, he has a few stories from behind the scenes that he has shared with the VINwiki YouTube channel.
Collins sat down to tell a few stories from his days on the popular car show, speaking about his experiences coaching celebrities for the “Star In a Reasonably Priced Car” segment. While there, he coached celebrities such as Cameron Diaz, Jay Leno, and Tom Cruise.
That last action star, in particular, was the cause of consternation for Top Gear‘s producers and the BBC. Collins explains that while he was tutoring Cruise on how to get around the lap, he was asked not to teach too well for fear that the star might go too fast and injure himself, which the BBC’s insurance might not be able to cover.
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In some ways, the BBC was proven right, as after ignoring their instructions, Collins told Cruise that he could cut the track slightly on the final corner to carry more speed over the line. The star known for doing his own stunts followed those instructions a little too closely and wound up putting all four wheel off the track.
As he got back onto the tarmac, the car lifted onto two wheels, and Collins says his heart was in his mouth. More concerning still, while the inside wheels were still in the air, he could actually hear the revs building, suggesting that, rather than trying to steer out of the incident or brake, Cruise was actually still focused on getting over the line faster.
As you may remember, it all worked out in the end for Collins and the BBC, as the car simply landed back on its wheels with no harm done to the actor. However, for Cruise, the lap turned out not to be his fastest, so I guess it didn’t quite work out for him.
Collins shares a number of other stories from his time on the show, saying that comedians were by far the worst to teach. With seemingly no sense of self-preservation, they appeared to find off-track excursions funny rather than scary, meaning that he to first build some fear in them before sending them out for their fast laps.
Hear all about which comedians in particular had a death wish, and how Collins sprayed Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari FXX with gravel in the video below.