New footage released on YouTube today shows the Black Stig, Top Gear’s original star driver, climbing out of the ocean, raising speculation that the BBC may consider bringing the character back after the current Stig's identity was revealed last month.
The original Stig, the masked racing driver who became a household name, was the brainchild of Jeremy Clarkson when the programme was relaunched in 2002. The character was retired around the time he was identified as British racing driver Perry McCarthy. The Stig's name was based on the monicker given to new boys at Clarkson’s school, Repton.
A press release that accompanied the video announced: “until now, the original Stig from BBC Top Gear was thought to have been killed back in 2003, when he drove a modified Jaguar XJS off the end of HMS Invincible aircraft carrier at 109mph. . . The nation was shocked that the Stig was dead. However, recent footage has been found on YouTube showing that he miraculously survived.”
Until he was unmasked few people apart from a handful of BBC production staff and journalists knew the true identity of the current white-suited Stig. The name of the Stig, beloved of the show’s hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, has been an open secret within the motoring world for some years, but the media have refrained from publishing his name to uphold the spirit of the programme.
Late last month, however, a newspaper outed Ben Collins, a Bristol-based former American speedway driver and stuntman, after following up a story in a Bristol newspaper about a man commissioning a photographic studio in the city to produce limited edition prints of the character.
Before Collins, Perry McCarthy played the Stig for 22 episodes of Top Gear, until his identity was revealed. McCarthy said he was the original Stig in the second edition of his autobiography Flat Out Flat Broke, which, contrary to popular belief, was published after the black Stig was retired.
Adding further layers of mystery to the legend of the Stig, the press release continues: "how he survived, nobody knows. Some believe he used the nitrous octane equipment from the Jag to breathe. Some believe he can communicate with dolphins and they cared for him. Has he returned because he can sense White Stig has had his identity exposed?"
It remains to be seen whether the BBC will consider a return to the former incarnation of the character or if this is little more than an elaborate hoax.
Daniel Kertcher established Platinum Pursuits in 2001 as a vehicle in which to share his knowledge of strategies to use the financial markets to grow wealth, with the aim of achieving financial freedom by making your money work for you.
His argument is that until you become financially literate and develop a method where you're able to get a reasonable return on your capital (i.e. making your money work for you), you will instead be forever working hard for your money.
Daniel Kertcher personally achieved financial freedom at a relatively young age, through his knowledge of property and then financial markets investing. Through using Options and leveraged instruments such as CFDs, Daniel developed a system to trade the markets where he could benefit from the leverage when the trade went in the direction he predicted, and hedged his positions so that there was a limited downside risk.
Some people in the past have criticised Daniel's message of striving for financial freedom in a high-risk environment such as trading derivatives. However, it is not Daniel's or Platinum Pursuits' goal to encourage everyone to trade the financial markets. Every kind of investing contains an element of risk, so this level of education is aimed specifically for those who want an understanding of professional trading techniques and strategies that they hope to apply to their own capital, and it is absolutely true that many people are not yet in a position to invest a chunk of their savings.
To be truly financially literate, it can pay to explore all the options available when you are in a position to try to get ahead in life. Daniel currently presents free introductory seminars nationally on selected dates from February to November.
