Original Stig still draws the fans

The stig. Photo / Supplied

Perry McCarthy was the original 'ace without a face'.

The first Stig on TV series Top Gear, McCarthy was the most famous masked man on British television before the next Stig, Ben Collins, courted controversy by revealing himself.

Set to visit New Zealand for the 2011 Toyota Racing Series as the manager of Aussie ace Scott Pye, McCarthy is best known as the original Stig. Presenter and friend Jeremy Clarkson originally wanted him to be called 'The Gimp'. McCarthy refused. Eventually they settled on 'the Stig' and a legend was born.

Eight years later, the character is as popular as ever in Britain.

"I'll be introduced at a party or a pub as a former racing driver, ex-Formula One and people say, 'wow, that must be exciting," says McCarthy. "But when they hear I was the original Stig, they go mad.

"They start rushing around, gathering mates, calling friends to say, 'guess who I am with?' and wanting numerous photos - I don't know whether to laugh or cry."

McCarthy is happy to talk about a few favourite stunts from those days - mostly "close encounters of the camera crew kind," he jokes. One involved a 360-degree spin of a Jaguar going at 240km/h when he was "not far away" from taking out the entire crew.

Another time, he was barrelling 280km/h backwards in a Vauxhall before remembering brakes aren't quite as efficient in reverse. He skidded to a stop one metre before the blissfully unaware crew. They thought it was "absolutely incredible".

His personal favourite involved Top Gear co-star Richard Hammond, who was standing in the middle of an airfield and had been told "not to move one inch". McCarthy blew past him at 140km/h, with the right wing mirror clipping his jacket.

Before he became the most famous masked man on British television, McCarthy was a professional driver. He was often referred to as the 'unluckiest driver of all time'. He endured a series of mishaps throughout his racing career - an almost uncanny amount of engine problems, gear failures, suspension issues and crashes.

"It was difficult to accept how many things would go wrong when I was leading international races," McCarthy recalls, "but considering the amount of crashes I had, I always say I was lucky. I became an expert at making the best of a bad situation."

His one shot at Formula One encapsulates his fate. Picked up by the Andrea Moda team owned by Italian shoe tycoon Andrea Sassetti, McCarthy's debut came at Pel in Spain in 1992.

A small engine fire ignited when mechanics tried to start up the car. Minutes later, an unperturbed Perry made his way out of the pit garage. The engine stalled after 20m.

As McCarthy was officially on the circuit, he was not allowed to be pushed back into the pit lane so his qualifying was over - it was reputedly the shortest Grand Prix debut in history.

McCarthy participated in a further 10 grand prix but didn't once qualify to sit on the start line. He was a test driver for Williams and Benetton later in the decade but never got another shot at F1.

He has since raced the 24 hour Le Mans four times but most of his time is spent managing Pye and on the corporate speaking circuit.

The Collins controversy - breaking the sanctity of the Stig's anonymity - is nothing new to McCarthy.

People thought that McCarthy was sacked by Top Gear as he revealed himself in his own book as being the Stig. He denies that and says a newspaper outed him three months before his book came out.

He said the BBC were not "paying me what I was used to" and he realised he could make more from being an ex-Stig than a Stig - from driver training, race car testing and after-dinner speaking.