The Stig reveals what REALLY HAPPENED in the Top Gear 24-hour race | Le Mans road trip

It was an unusual

race

. We had a BMW with a diesel engine and a plastic spoiler screwed on that did nothing, so Jeremy was there. I tried to show him the Grand Prix track at Silverstone with a discussion and then the fog came out and Jeremy came in and I think to get to the end, it's very early on a Wednesday morning in the south of England because Ben Collins and I are heading towards the lemon classic. He told me we would meet him on the beach. It should be here somewhere you can. You're a tunnel wow listen to the music today's video is sponsored by eurotunnel and today we're traveling using flexi plus which is worth considering if you're planning your own

trip

to Le Mans Spa Monaco or just a

trip

to the mainland.

Get your own exclusive check-in followed by access to the flexi plus lounge, there you can relax with a snack and take your time as you can take any train leaving for France that you want during the day. There are some great cars in the car park that will get on the same train as us to attend the lemon classic and another great advantage of using this service is that you will be the first on and off the train, so thanks to eurotunnel for sponsoring the video of today and make our trip. to Le Mall, an absolute Breeze Michael, so the point of this

road

trip was I wanted to take you back in time for a moment because

what

people might not realize is that outside of Top Gear you had a very legit racing career , whose heyday was LE Mall for 24

hour

s, so

what

do you remember from your time racing at that circuit?

There are so many good memories there. I mean, racing was what got me into Top Gear in the first place, that was my pedigree if you like. go um go and do that job and um I mean the

race

is here it's an amazing pilgrimage to start with the whole adventure

really

begins you know getting there and when I was running for Askari which was my race there in the prototypes, they had a supercar development, so that was part of it, so they took their car there with Andy Wallace and a Bentley and another driver who was in a mg, so he stormed out with these, you know, versions of

road

, yeah, than we were racing and it's just a cool part of the whole cultural aspect of getting to the race and then participating in the 24

hour

s.

Well, we'll delve into your careers and have a good chat about it once we arrive. the mall, but when it comes to you and traveling, what do you like? Do you like a road trip or do you like to fly abroad? What is your type? I mean, I love flying, it's great, there's just some places you can't drive to, but France is none of them, you know it's right on your doorstep and I think you soak up a lot more culture by seeing it, you know, even if you go the wrong way, you find something you wouldn't necessarily have seen, to have a coffee.

I think it's a much better way to see the country and, yes, but particularly Le Mans because it takes you through some of the most beautiful parts of France and it's just epic, well we're on flexi plus so we'll buy some snacks . for the trip and let's take the train I have my eye on something I bet you do oh you're a little loving at least there's nothing left to discover say I'm going crazy I bought you a drink for the trip what are you doing? You were looking for fish, right? So you mentioned that driving the Escari was basically the pinnacle of your career.

What was that car like? Looks like an amazing package. This guy was an absolute animal. It was originally a bottomless tub that had been converted with and powered by a V10 Judd engine, 800 horsepower sounded amazing, design your Defenders for that, yeah I mean occasionally you would get loose and we would be close to something for days, wow the ringing in your ears, ten thousand repetitions, um, sequential, sequential box, um, no. power steering without servo assisted braking your foot would be numb after about an hour of pressing the brake pedal because the grip level of the rains is very high and it was an open top cabin and I feel like some days people look at them and think which maybe You don't think so much time for us, but you are talking like Formula One, if not more, yes, there is no shortage of falls and, in reality, the open air that I spent racing single-seaters is exactly what it was.

It basically handled like a Formula One car and the only thing against it was that it was a bit heavier, that was the effect of the sports card class specs. But wherever you went, I mean, it was always rock and roll, the amount of power coming through the wheels. When the wheels spin and with that engine, the revolutions, the needles bounce making this phenomenal sound and in places like the mother's, you are at full speed for 85 of the lap, it's fine and the rest is enormous. braking and then a big commitment through the chicanes. I mean, there's never a

really

slow curve in Lamont, but hopefully, when we get back to the circus, some of the memories will probably come back for sure.

Love. What a feeling, all this Joy has been stealing from me. We all need someone who can make us believe, so the amazing thing about this place is that you walk out of what was a mall and you're on Multan Street, it's ruining it. I brought the Scottish weather with me, but what's this like at 200 miles an hour, amazing, um, I love it, I mean, on this particular straight, you come flying in after you've done the s Dunlop bridge, all that stuff and then you step on the hammer, basically, so 85 of this lap is at full speed, you are always trying to take the shortest distance, the fundamental thing is to be as late as possible on the brakes each time without locking the tire because basically you don't have ABS to protect the tire and you're racing for a period of one hour, so whatever you do with that tire, you have to live with it for that hour, to be as fast as possible, you're making me want to do things, but now Even before the Le Mans classic, it is a public decision, isn't it?

There are cars coming in the opposite direction on almost two lanes and there are roundabouts that take us off the current Multan Street, yes, I mean, the surprising thing is to think that until relatively recently, a few decades ago, there were no chicanes on this straight and Simply They kept picking up speed and all they saw in the distance was a hump on the track with the Mulsan Kink that they took at 250 miles an hour in the first class cars and, um, when the tires were worn out, I've seen a little bit of Derek Bell's Inca taking that corner and the cars you know you're running low for, so you're running low.

Wing configuration to go as fast as you can on the straights. The car is actually on its side, it's going 250 miles per hour on that curve, so this. you'd be out of the first chicane yeah heading into the second chicane yeah so you were just flying through the

gear

s and you were saying when you run the escari here it was weather like that so you were on Aqua plates down here yeah There were some great ones. There are puddles here, actually I mean they're scary judge, with all that power the

gear

s really went really fast so he's like bang bang he goes through the gears and gets to top speed but with the rain you know now you have 700 horsepower in your foot. and yeah, charger, we had 800 horsepower, okay, bigger tires and all that, now the weather we're in now, I mean the whole place is wet but not flooded, but the rain there was those heavy drops suitable ones that simply hit the floor.

I actually saw the drops hitting the puddles on the track and had to build a mental map of where they were and try to navigate the streets to avoid the worst parts, but you can't, there were some sections that were completely flooded. cars on the wall from left to right and uh it was one thing trying to hit them at speed because you still have to move forward to move forward so you would be accelerating causing the wheels to spin in the first gears and then you know in fourth and fifth . You really have to hold on.

I love that this is a public road and we just went through huge gravel traps which is the second chicane there yeah and then you're finishing the last stretch of the San Mall and here you definitely feel the speed so even though It's about four lanes wide, I think these trees really give you that great speed, yeah, you see them go by, you see the white line, so you're very aware of Le Mormon, there's a lot of things. hit if it goes wrong, um Peter Dunbreak, Mark Webber discovered that in the Mercedes on the next straight towards Indianapolis, yeah, so he put the car in gear because these things are very aerodynamic and obviously there was an airflow problem, you know , forget it.

The pulpy car took off at 190 miles an hour and they were very lucky, but yeah, the downforce is working at maximum and at the end of this straight, you have this pretty tight corner at Milsan, there's a nice little trick. although you can cut that Apex and really square the corner for a really good exit, there are other places here where you can use a little more track, that destabilizes the car and depending on what you're driving it may or may not be faster, but in This one I found out that you end up skirting very, very close to that gravel, so you're talking about going up to the curbs and I've heard a lot of people say that Le Mans is not just a 24 hour Sprint when you're racing where the cars during a time in which again was just a Sprint or is it backing up enough to be careful when cornering and changing gears and all that kind of stuff in the years I've done it, you come here, it's a one hour 24 Sprint and there was some people you know saying oh you know you have to be a little careful, it's like no, the only precaution you take is these baguettes that they started using for track boundaries, you run them repeatedly, yeah.

I want to stay away from that one when you're going 200. Even at this speed you feel like the baguettes will break the gearbox. Yes, you are running. You drive as fast as you can, but you have to choose your battle in terms. how much abuse you want to put the car through, so now this is the fastest part of the track in these scary days, it's about 2 20, so most cars will do about 200 miles per hour, surprisingly on the prototypes , this was just a lift and turn to the right before breaking the GTS, you just hit the brake quickly, take off a little bit of speed and then you go through this and it's surprising, yeah, not so much, you hear you end up in the middle of the road, part of the break and You have to do all that before this left bend and you never use the entire track to the right and you rush to make the most of that bend.

Appropriate bench level. I didn't notice that proper camber, so it's a lot faster than you think and ironically, this last corner here, this little one, is quite slippery when braking, so you're braking at a lower speed, no. you have the downforce and very often you see people. Turn there and you certainly see the back of the car get pretty skittish. I love this curve, then you give it all the power and you give it back the power pretty hard. This is one of the slower parts of the track before you launch into the Porsche corner sequence, which is my favorite part because all the corners here are connected in a downforce car, but even in a GT that has more downforce fast, you could go into the corner the more grip you have because you'll have more air over the wings and, um, a real commitment to think I'm going to go. to have that grip, yeah, I just leave it here.

I'll be interested to see how much further we can go because a lot of the circuit is very much our circuit and these are probably just fragments of rules. I wonder if we will. Put down the Porsche characters, well you got this first, but you can't use the track, obviously, because we have a two-way traffic flow, yeah, but I want to see you bringing some speed here, yeah, and then go put it in there, yeah, and if you wash off this Apex early, you're done, take a little bit of yes, we'll have a little bit of that to be right in the middle of the road, no more and then go back to the right side to really attack this left and you can see that the cant just runs out.

It's a pretty flat curve, okay, so we'll definitely stop here again. I can't believe you can take proper curves on a public road. Go further. because you can actually see the exit and you'll see how fast this turn is, how close to the wall you are and you can catch a glimpse of this short run before you dive to the left and it's downhill which means you've got gravity working on your con and that's where you feel particularly GT when the cars are right on the edge, literally a kiss on the rear wing would send it to the side so it would look like it's starting to lean away from you. up, okay, that's it, wow, the track falls off and the wall just rushes up, you make a mistake, you'll go straight there early in the morning, around 5:30 in the morning, you start smelling barbecues on the backstretch and in this section. where the campsites are and it's amazing because everything just lights up and the place neversleep well, unfortunately we are going to have to go back there, let's go to dinner, do it, it was a nice easy ride through France, how did you find the drive? the Dodge Charger I love it, it has a lot of usable power and um, I didn't know there's a little flash, turn off the traction control, there's a little bug at the toll booth, you enjoyed a tool booth, right? yeah, the wall slid a little, it's a little scary, yeah, it drags a little when the wheel turns, but um, no, it's good, I mean, I was actually surprised, in fact, we got here on so little fuel burnt when you're being pretty sensible, it doesn't use up the entire tank as quickly yes, it's actually not as brutal as our M5, but one thing I was actually thinking because we've been chatting a lot for 24 hours.

Top Gear brick car, yes, well it was actually a car. Well first of all we had a diesel BMW with a plastic wing bolted on which I didn't do anything but it was a 24 hour race we got to the end which I thought was pretty epic okay did everyone share the driving or well Did everyone drive? Well, that's one thing, that's not the point, they weren't equal parts. I mean, it was interesting that some of them practiced a little bit, so Jeremy was there. I tried to show him the Grand Prix track at Silverstone and we had a discussion about almost every aspect of driving, there wasn't much to see but I showed him.

Where the track was going, James and Paul Hammond literally showed up on race day to qualify. His first lap in the car was a mental qualification and then the race came and he was thrown out in the middle of the night, but he actually held on. pretty good, he swerved into a Mosler, if I remember correctly, Mosley swerved into him, okay, so it wasn't his fault, no, he did exactly what we talked about, he came out to the hangar straight from Adam Maggots and lined up at the right as you would and then you know it was gradually making its way to the left of the stone, the Moses.

I'm trying to go under it and yeah I hit it sideways which was unfair and within a year or so after this jet card accident so I did it. I feel sorry for him but yeah it was an unusual race, the track was packed with tons of cars racing that weekend, everyone drove and then the fog came out and Jeremy came in, basically no one could see anything. James May tried to drive it, put James on. In Jay's case I could see Pace on the tip of his nose so I ended up driving most of the night so they went to bed or went wherever they were going so I was all day and then around breakfast time, I think I was relieved and the boys picked it up and she practically made the sun until dawn, yes, the darkness, the dark things in the fog, but that's when we got the spots back because we were the last ones, but Yes, they did well, the boys did well, they did very well.

It means 24 hour races are hard if you haven't done them before, they cut you in places you wouldn't expect your body to brush against your butt and everyone is doing their part for the camera and everything else on top of it. pressure Jeremy actually got pretty emotional at the end, well it was really his first 20 24 hours and I think getting to the end was still a serious effort and the guys, Steve Big Steve, who desperately needed a belt to help his situation when he was fixing the car, he spent most of the race trying to fix it and keep it running and get it to the end, and it's a miracle when he gets to the end of a 24 hour race without being wiped out and with the car being fixed and fixed it's emotional, well it's really great to know we have a night at Le Mans, yeah, what did you fancy doing?

You know, eat something, go for a walk, but for you this is, of course, that's all you need. Really, the book of all books, the good book, I like to call it. I know the white suit. I have a book with me. Yes, this book is. You know the man in the white suit. The Stig Lamal, the fast lane, and me, yes. have this book, you don't need any other book, there are some great chapters in there. I draw your attention, obviously, to the mother's and some others. They know things I've done and it probably inspires them.

The terror of Jeremy Clarkson. underwear that's covered, yeah that's Brick Carr, you know stuff like that, good idea, you know what after that? I think I will read it, yes, a lot, it may not be as exciting as coming here to drive a V10 ascari, but this is not bad. The destination for a road trip is epic. I mean, the best thing is that when you're not racing there's no pressure, there's no driver instructions, we can just take it all in and enjoy it. I'm thinking of two goals for today, let's each find our favorite car.

Well, so I thought it would be nice for us to do a little gift exchange, buy each other a little gift. Great, let's explore abroad. Mike. I think I found my favorite car. Okay, now to be fair, this is more my era. the Audi, yeah, I probably should have chosen that already, but I'm not going to accept. I want something that is pure aggression and you can't get more aggressive than this. The Peugeot of the early 90s. Incredible, an absolute naturally aspirated monster B10 three. and half a liter this is your world I know you're the C group guru, yes, more than me, but I mean this is basically the end of the C group era and I would choose this if for no other reason. because of the noise that comes out of this thing, the v10's are absolutely incredible, so in terms of driving, you are absolutely over turbo, yes, just because Christmas under your foot, that first hit of acceleration, your Instant Power has no weight I mean, it's not.

It's like driving a kart, but it's an incredibly responsive kart. That way, let's take a look at this V10, yeah, look at it, yeah, and it's a really neat little package. I was looking at the silk cuts, yes, and those monstrous seven liters. engine, yes, you know it delivers less power than this and the wing, look at the actual wing, when you look in the cockpit, you know that tiny steering wheel, everything on this car is basically a Formula One car with big skirts, you absolutely know the same power. more downforce, actually I think probably, but more weight due to the nature of the rules on sports cars, sports cars is a bit of a tame word to use for these, oh yeah, absolutely absolute weapons and it's funny you chose this because it is my favorite car here.

It's pretty similar and it's right there, let's see. I think it's pretty obvious from your jacket where we're going next, yeah, so this is a 1991 Jaguar xjr14 so it's pretty much a Formula One car with a body, yeah, and you can actually look at it if I show you this It starts here the front of the car starts there and this is just an F1 with wing attacks on the sides yeah so the car starts here and it has a very low profile if you take a look at the other cars in group C. They have big details, they need all this bodywork, this is just wrapped around it, designed by Ross Braun, so Mr.

Ferrari, right, he doesn't build things that don't win, not exactly, so there's the Ford HP V8. what

happened

in the Benetton for Formula One, the V8 engine, manual gearbox and Andy Wallace told me I don't know if it's true that this car creates 10,000 pounds of Dome Force for Queens to reach approximately four tons, yes, that seems. mind-blowing and then, but most of that is created by this bank here. I don't think I've ever seen a rear wing as big as that, it's the biggest template in the world, a huge void almost to the ground, yes, it has four. elements one, two, three, four, yes, pushing the back of the car down, yes, and then to add to that, this is a big Venturi, literally from the front of the car, it starts gradually and then rises into these tunnels, amazing hydraulic jacks, so what's the way out?

Honestly, that F1 engine is not much, it's like 650 700. Compared to my Peugeot, absolutely absolutely, but this partial talk I'm afraid it was completely erased to develop more and become a little faster, but this speed in the curves would have been too much. higher Oh Martin Brundle cried when he first came out of this coronary, I couldn't believe how well he ruled, it would be very difficult to choose between them, they are very different in their approach, but yes this is innovative, it's like a stealth fighter . so this is a little bit before you race in Europe.

I think the paddock next door is right in your ear, abroad. The question is what to buy this as president, so when he goes first, I will go first. Okay, it's been amazing. Journey to the past. I loved a great road trip and I know you are extremely passionate about your group C class, but you also like the new things I do and you have a caveman I do, so I have something to remember. our trip goodbye oh yeah the glicken house 2021 awesome model one to eighteen that's something yeah thank you so much wow I hope you like mine as much as I do that I didn't expect anything in return but Obviously I did, it's very nice.

Here, yeah, it's from a company called The Outlier Man. Take a look, obviously, one thing we haven't revealed to the audience yet is that you bought your car new, yeah, and I thought they would be great for your first trip with your. new whip type driving gloves, yes, Lamont colors, long, 24 hours, good quality, very 80's style that would be perfect for my 90's hatch. I'm still looking forward to putting it on Ben. It's been great taking this road trip with you. It's been great to hear all your comments. Memories and all your comments from time racing at the mall, maybe you'll come back here someday so I'd love to, that's 100 for ambition and I can see the twinkle in your eyes, well you wanna get your hands on some of the merchandise and we must work for it, we will see it well, maybe one day and with that, our quick road trip to France ended the vacation, sometimes it can be decisive and I am happy to see it.

I think we're best friends now. Mike and this is the beginning of a beautiful foreign friendship.