17 May, 2016 00:00
The Stig and local comedian Jason Goliath at the Kyalami race track in Gauteng ahead of the ‘Top Gear’ series premiere
Image by: THYS DULLAART
Image by: THYS DULLAART
No taxi driver or street racer could prepare you for a drive with The Stig.
Yesterday The Times drove and drifted around the Kyalami Race Track with Top Gear drivers Chris Harris and The Stig.
Harris drifted around the 16-corner track in a silver BMW M4 and The Stig drove a Jaguar F-Type. Both Harris and The Stig swerved around the corners at over 140km/h.
Harris said: “You can either take corners nice and neat like The Stig —or you can just do massive slides and throw the car in and make it unsettled ... oddly, people always laugh louder when you do that.”
The Times accompanied The Stig in the most awkwardly exhilarating drive because he didn’t say a word. Reaching speeds of up to 240km/h felt smooth and effortless.
The moment that followed the revving felt like life simultaneously leaving and entering your body.
As The Stig drove off, the tyres of the Jaguar F-Type screeched on the newly tarred race track, allowing the small media contingent to hear the sound of the coupé slicing through the wind.
The silence inside the red coupé was even more eerie when The Stig took several corners at what felt like top speed, almost daring the barrier to touch the car.
Six minutes later and it was all over with no words exchanged, not unusual for the stuntman whose identity is a mystery.
Harris said the secret to racing at the speeds he did was to “disconnect”.
He added: “If you think the wall is there you’ll hit it but if you forget the wall is there you won’t hit it.”
The event was to celebrate the launch of the all-new season of Top Gear, which will premiere locally next month. The new version of the BBC motoring show is set for a facelift when it returns with Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc as the presenters after the departure of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.
Harris said driving at those speeds had become second nature to him. But, he added, he was able to go that fast because it was done in a controlled environment.
Having spent time in South Africa, Harris said Johannesburg taxi drivers were secretly racing drivers.
“I just know that if some taxi drivers had a different upbringing they’d be racing drivers and fast ones,” Harris said.
Popular deejay Warras, formerly of 5FM, and comedian Jason Goliath also attended the event and did a turn around the track with the silent racer.
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