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LONDON (Reuters) – The identity of "The Stig," the mystery test car driver on the popular BBC TV motoring show "Top Gear" was revealed on Wednesday after the broadcaster lost a legal battle to keep his name secret.

Ben Collins, who began his racing career in 1994 and drove at Formula 3 level, was named as The Stig after the High Court refused to grant a temporary injunction preventing the revelation of his identity in an upcoming book.

Each episode of the cult show, which has been sold to television channels around the world, sees The Stig whizzing around tracks in powerful cars wearing a white jumpsuit with his features hidden by a white crash helmet with a dark visor.

The BBC had taken legal action to block publication by publisher HarperCollins of an autobiography by Collins in which he said he was the test driver.

The broadcaster claimed the Stig was bound by a confidentiality agreement and that revealing who he is would spoil viewers' enjoyment of the popular programme.

But after more than a day of legal submissions in private, lawyers for HarperCollins said the case had concluded in their favour, the Press Association reported.

HarperCollins said it was disappointed that the publicly funded BBC had decided to spend money taking the legal action.

However, on the show's website last week, Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman attacked the book's publishers for trying to "cash in" on the secret and so spoil viewers' enjoyment.

"HarperCollins have decided none of that is as important as their profits, so if you get your Christmas ruined by one of the best and most harmless TV secrets being outed, you can rest easy in the knowledge that by contrast, HarperCollins' executives will be enjoying a fantastic Christmas," he wrote. Collins, who also featured as a stuntman in the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace," was first named as the Stig in media reports last year after he went to a photographic studio to commission prints of the masked driver in action.

The BBC refused to confirm those reports.

He is not the first driver to have been used in the role on the programme. The original Stig was axed from the show after British racing-car driver Perry McCarthy revealed his identity in an autobiography in 2002.

Michael Schumacher, Formula One's most successful driver and seven times world champion, was also unveiled as the Stig in an episode last June, but the show's fans believed it had been a one-off or a joke and that his true identity remained a secret.

Telegraph

The BBC has spent up to £100,000 of taxpayers' money in a failed bid to prevent the identity of Top Gear’s racing driver The Stig from being revealed.   

Ben Collins, 35, plans to publish his autobiography 'The Man in the White Suit' later this month about his seven-year stint as one of television’s most popular figures.

The BBC was so desperate to protect the character’s anonymity that it spent two days in the High Court and it is thought total legal costs could reach upwards of £100,000.

The High Court on Wednesday refused to grant a temporary injunction banning Mr Collins’s book which is due for release on September 16.

The BBC took legal action to block publication by HarperCollins, claiming that the faceless driver was bound by a confidentiality agreement.

The corporation also claimed that revealing his identity would spoil viewers’ enjoyment of the BBC Two programme, but Mr Justice Morgan rejected the injunction request.

A spokesman for the BBC said the judgement did not prevent it from pursuing the matter to a full trial and bizarrely refused to confirm if Mr Collins was The Stig.

Mr Collins, who lives in Bristol and was a stunt double in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, is thought to have been dumped by the BBC in the mystery role.

After leaving the private hearing he was asked if he had his white helmet with him and said: “You’re trying to tempt me into saying something I shouldn’t.”

The identity of The Stig, who is famous for his race overalls and white helmet, has long been a closely-guarded secret with until recently executives and Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were said to know who he is.

Anyone watch This is England 86?.....Liked the movie, this is a bit pants.