Ben Collins, formerly The Stig for Top Gear UK

Ben Collins, formerly The Stig for Top Gear UK

With a resume that includes stints in the army and motorsports, plus the role of the Stig on the popular television show Top Gear, there are probably few others more suited to be a stunt driver for the latest James Bond movie Skyfall than Ben Collins.

It should come as no surprise to hear then that Collins has been hired as a stunt driver for the movie, which is currently filming in locations all around the globe and due for release in October.

Collins was spotted recently on the set of the movie during filming in Istanbul, Turkey, reports the Mirror.

One of his tasks was to drive a Land Rover Defender into the side of an Audi A5, almost destroying both cars in the process. To control the SUV, Collins sat in a special rig mounted on top of the vehicle. As for the A5, 15 individual examples were used for the movie, six of them during pre-filming tests.

Other vehicles set to star in the new movie include the Range Rover Evoque as well as Bond’s iconic Aston Martin DB5.

Collins rose to fame following the outing of his role as Top Gear’s Stig in his autobiography. The producers of Top Gear, the BBC, tried to block Collins from revealing his role as the Stig but lost out in court. Collins, understandably, lost his job on the show though he has stated that one of the reasons he wrote his autobiography was because he feared he was about to get fired regardless.