Apologies for adding another to the plethora of Stig threads. I got so moithered trying to decide where to post this I thought I'd let the Mods decide where to move it if need be.
After all the hooha I thought Richard Porter said it best "a hilarious joke in which The Stig accidentally writes a rather boring autobiography in the comically overwrought style of Troy Queef. Although come to think of it, that last thing really has happened." Mind you, I'm not the target audience and a petrolhead might find it fascinating.
The book starts with Ben's audition for the Stig job, then the first fifth is about his growing up and his early racing experiences, eg Daytona and Le Mans 24.
Thereafter, (ends on page 323 with the Cruise and Diaz laps) it's primarily about TG, TG Live, Jeremy's DVDS, a little on his other racing and quite a bit on his SAS training.
There are no Deep Throat revelations about TG - from what little he says about the presenters I got the impression he liked Hammond best, was slightly baffled by James and a bit overawed by Jeremy. If there was any friction it was with Andy, but the references to the TG4 are surprisingly few and completely unrevealing.
There are anecdotes about some of the SIARPCs; a chapter about Schumacher; accounts of some of the challenges, and talk about various cars eg the Bugatti Veyron and, especially, the Koenigsegg CCX. Ben's account of binning it in the presence of Christian von K is actually the only car bit I found myself gripped by. Ben goes into the technicalities of driving and, particularly, of driving the Dunsfold track. I'd think petrolheads would find these pages engrossing.
There's nothing about the dispute over his leaving or, really, his reasons for doing so, although he does mention that he'd have liked to race NASCAR and Le Mans as the Stig but that didn't happen; no details of his contracts, NDAs, pay etc. In the acknowledgements he says only "The Top Gear Team, thank you for the good times, I wish you all the best for the future".
I'd be interested to know what a driving enthusiast thinks of the book. It wasn't for me - and is ridiculously overpriced at ?20 for bookshops - but it'll be interesting to see what the media thinks, or if they even bother to review it.
After all the hooha I thought Richard Porter said it best "a hilarious joke in which The Stig accidentally writes a rather boring autobiography in the comically overwrought style of Troy Queef. Although come to think of it, that last thing really has happened." Mind you, I'm not the target audience and a petrolhead might find it fascinating.
The book starts with Ben's audition for the Stig job, then the first fifth is about his growing up and his early racing experiences, eg Daytona and Le Mans 24.
Thereafter, (ends on page 323 with the Cruise and Diaz laps) it's primarily about TG, TG Live, Jeremy's DVDS, a little on his other racing and quite a bit on his SAS training.
There are no Deep Throat revelations about TG - from what little he says about the presenters I got the impression he liked Hammond best, was slightly baffled by James and a bit overawed by Jeremy. If there was any friction it was with Andy, but the references to the TG4 are surprisingly few and completely unrevealing.
There are anecdotes about some of the SIARPCs; a chapter about Schumacher; accounts of some of the challenges, and talk about various cars eg the Bugatti Veyron and, especially, the Koenigsegg CCX. Ben's account of binning it in the presence of Christian von K is actually the only car bit I found myself gripped by. Ben goes into the technicalities of driving and, particularly, of driving the Dunsfold track. I'd think petrolheads would find these pages engrossing.
There's nothing about the dispute over his leaving or, really, his reasons for doing so, although he does mention that he'd have liked to race NASCAR and Le Mans as the Stig but that didn't happen; no details of his contracts, NDAs, pay etc. In the acknowledgements he says only "The Top Gear Team, thank you for the good times, I wish you all the best for the future".
I'd be interested to know what a driving enthusiast thinks of the book. It wasn't for me - and is ridiculously overpriced at ?20 for bookshops - but it'll be interesting to see what the media thinks, or if they even bother to review it.
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