Mind yourself....lads....

Saturday morning for me started out at 9am - an early start but I didn't mind, I was hoping to find my next car.

I've loved cars since I was a kid. MKII Golf GTI, wow - I wasn't even into double digits and I knew that a GTI had darkened rear lights compared to a normal Golf, I was car mad.

I couldn't wait to get my licence, when I finally did I found the next hurdle to overcome - Irish car insurance. For me to be a named driver on a Fiesta back in 2001 I shelled out IR£3,000. It was worth every bit, the freedom it gave, my own wheels. Over the years I've learnt how to clean a car back to showroom condition. From a special sponge for my car, an alloy wheel brush, a chamois, tyre dressing and this was 'just' a Fiesta. But it was MY Fiesta.

Along the way I've had three VW Golf GTIs, two of them the excellent MKV, an Audi S3 MKII in stunning sprint blue and currently a BMW 335i coupe. This isn't me showing off, I don't drink a lot, I rarely go on holidays - my passion is cars and that's where my money goes. I dread to think how much depreciation it's cost me.

I decided over the last while to see if I could step into something that extra bit special and it led me to a lot of guys dream car - a Porsche. I booked a test drive with a Porsche dealer and I decided to see if I could find what I was looking for.

Unfortunately on Saturday during the test drive I learnt an important lesson - no matter what the car is, you've got to appreciate what the conditions are. The build quality of the Porsche is probably a strong reason while I'm here and alive but it doesn't matter what the car is, when you're heading for a tree, your fate flashes across you, it sounds like a cliche but you DO wonder will you see your family again, your loved ones, your friends... how is this going to end..WILL I be killed in the next few moments from impacting with a tree? Thankfully I didn't get to answer those questions and the car came to a halt albeit upside down, with the driver and myself hanging, glued to our seats by the seat belts. The frayed material on my jacket with an imprint from the belt shows how hard the tension of the belt was.

It's also not bullshit when people say everything happened in slow motion - it did.

I crawled out of the mangled car, my hand spewing blood, a car which five minutes previously hadn't got so much as a mark on it and the next sight I saw was the same one I've posted for you below. I can't describe the mixture of shock, disbelief, relief and just luck I felt looking at what was left of the Cayman.

It's safe to say someone was watching over me on Saturday.

I'm so grateful to a student nurse named Ciara who stopped close by a few minutes after the crash and helped me calm the bleeding, you'll make a fine nurse I've no doubt. The doctor in the Beacon hospital who helped make a traumatic shock and a painful procedure go as swiftly as possible.

On the way home a radio report said an Irish man in his 20s had been killed in a road accident in Australia after hitting a tree. It hit home as I looked down at my injured hand and realised once again how lucky I was to escape with the injuries I received.

The next day I learnt that the Irish man killed was barely in his 20s and the son of a fellow radio presenter, Lynsey Dolan from Country FM. I couldn't believe that while the accidents had been so similar I was so lucky, yet somebody's child had been taken from them tens of thousands of kilometers away. My thoughts are still with you.

If I can take one thing from this to give to others it's LADS you won't realise the consequences that road accidents have on people until you've been in one. Don't get yourself into a situation where you need to find out.

Take my word for it.

Wanna know who the Stig is? Read on...

Identity of Top Gear's The Stig revealed as Ben Collins

The Stig

Patrick Foster, Media Correspondent

To the viewers of Top Gear, he is part man, part machine, with veins that course with petrol. But the true substance of “the Stig”, the BBC programme’s so-called tame racing driver, was revealed yesterday to be somewhat more prosaic.

The identity of the character, who test-drives cars around the Top Gear track, was divulged at the weekend as Ben Collins, a Bristol-based former American speedway driver and stuntman who doubled for Daniel Craig in the latest James Bond film.

The name of the white-suited 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.

On Sunday, however, a newspaper outed Collins, 33, 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.

The BBC has a policy of never commenting on the identity of the Stig, who has a cult following around the world. A spokesman for Top Gear said yesterday: “We never comment on speculation as to who or what the Stig is.” Collins was not available for comment.

Privately, staff at the corporation could not hide their frustration. “It’s bloody annoying,” one show insider said. “You wouldn’t write a piece saying that Santa didn’t exist.”

Collins has always denied being the Stig, fearing that he could face the sack if his identity was disclosed.

Perry McCarthy, a previous Stig who wore a black suit, was fired off the deck of a warship after revealing his role as the character in his autobiography. It is thought, however, that Collins will not face a similar fate.

The disclosure of the Stig’s identity came after an internet hunt by fans of the programme. One clip posted on YouTube shows the Stig talking with a Bristol accent to a television crew, before cutting to a clip showing Collins speaking in similar tones.

The driver has also featured as himself in episodes of the show, and a report in 2006 into Hammond’s near-death crash stated that Collins had briefed the host and “worked closely with Top Gear as a high-performance driver and consultant”.

Before starring in the programme he had a varied career that included a four-year stint in the Army, work as a television presenter and a job managing Hornby’s Scalextric brand.

After beginning in motor sport in 1994, he raced in Gran Turismo cars at Le Mans and in Formula Three. He now charges upwards of £1,000 for giving motivational speeches.

Top Gear is one of the BBC’s most viewed programmes, and has been screened in more than 100 countries. The most recent series finished in December and the show will return to the BBC in the summer.

The name Stig originates from Clarkson’s former school, Repton, and was the moniker by which new boys were always known. The cult surrounding the character has grown because he is routinely introduced on the show with a humorous reference to his alleged non-human faculties. Introductions include “Some say his voice can only be heard by cats”, and “Some say one of his eyes is a testicle”.

The speculation surrounding the identity of the driver has been so intense that it featured in the ten most-searched-for terms on the Ask.com internet search engine.

— Damon Hill, the former world champion of Formula One, has in the past been erroneously named as the Stig.

This is an actual sign in a garage in Ashbourne....

Wonder are they booked up??