Quick Stats: Ben Collins, former Stig, race car/stunt driver, author

Daily Driver: 2012 Audi S5 (Ben's rating: 8 on a scale of 1 to 10)

Other cars: See below

Favorite road trip: Melbourne to Bathurst

Car he learned to drive in: 1992 Mitsubishi Shogun

First car bought: mid-1990s Toyota Supra

Ben Collins' identity as the famed white Stig on "Top Gear" was one of the best-kept secrets in automotive entertainment. With recent stints as a stunt driver in "Skyfall" and "The Dark Knight Rises" he has had a career car enthusiasts dream about.

"I know the Stig job probably made a lot of people jealous," Collins tells Motor Trend from his home in the U.K. "But at the time that it started, it was a lot smaller than where it ended up."

Few jobs require someone to conceal what they do for a living. Having to keep his identity a secret all those years was almost like being an agent in the CIA.

"The fun part was that unlike being in the CIA, if you get caught, you don't get shot, so I suppose it was a thrill without the kill," he says, in jest. "But I never expected to last eight years. It was great. When I first took the job, I think the previous Stig, the Black Stig, was there for eight months, so I thought if I could last a year, I'd be really happy, what a great time."

After a year passed and then two years as the Stig, Collins felt like was pushing his luck. "I was there eight years in the end. I was over the moon to have lasted that long and I had a fantastic time the whole way. I wouldn't do anything different. But definitely 2010 it was time to leave and I really enjoyed looking over those good times and putting it down in writing in my book," Collins says, referring to "The Man in the White Suit," a bestseller in the U.K.

Collins grew up watching Tom Cruise in "Top Gun" and wanted to be a fighter pilot. But learning how to drive with his mother was an indication he'd take a different path.

Car he learned to drive in

Collins learned to drive around the Devon countryside in his mother's four-wheel-drive 1992 Mitsubishi Shogun. "It reminds me of "Talladega Nights," where you have to put the fear in the car, when his daddy told him to put the tiger in the back of the car," Collins says. "That's what it was like driving with my mother, because she used to hit me with her handbag whenever I went fast and scared her."

He drove a lot better when she wasn't in the passenger seat, although that was rare. "I could drive fast without being hit in the face with a handbag," he says. "When you learn to drive over here, you have to have someone with a license driving with you and in my case, that was my mother. She hated every second of it and was continuously hitting me in the face with a handbag. I drove the way I wanted to, which probably wasn't what she was hoping."

What his mom hated about his driving back then not only became a job, but also brought him worldwide fame.

They lived on a farm and before he learned to drive in his mother's car, Collins had a Honda ATV, which he loved. "I used to have that flying through the air all the time. In my mind that was the closest thing to being Tom Cruise in 'Top Gun.' I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but all the while really, I was learning and rehearsing car control, which was very handy when I started racing at the age of 19."

Suffice to say, it was easy for Collins to learn to drive. "It was getting used to gears and all that, but you pick it up pretty quickly and then back to the fields, sliding through gateposts and stuff on the ATV, so somewhere in between the two, that's how I learned to drive."

Collins would borrow his mother's technique when he was the Stig. "I've used the same technique when I've been instructing people that won't listen, especially when we had Ranulph Fiennes in the car and I had to hit him on the side of the helmet with my fist because he stopped listening," he says. "But that got his attention. I've taught maybe 130 different celebrities, from Tom Cruise to Ranulph Fiennes."

Instructing celebrities such as Fiennes, a British adventurer billed as "the world's greatest living explorer," in the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment of "Top Gear" was a bit awkward for Collins, since he had to wear the helmet to preserve his identity. "So you could talk through the helmet, which is kind of embarrassing," he says. "They were getting these life and decisions coming from a man they never actually saw the face of."

First car bought

In 1994 Collins started racing, and by 1998, he was in Formula Three and working odd jobs. He bought a used mid-1990s Toyota Supra, and got a great deal on.

"It was a new-shaped Supra. It was an import from Japan, and it think had lower, harder suspension," he says. "It was incredibly fast right up to the point that I buried it into a big 12-ton truck."

He had the car for about a year before the accident in the countryside. "I was driving like an idiot and that was the end of that car and nearly me," he recalls. "I actually bent the axel back on the truck and passed blood for a few days afterwards, from my kidneys. But I was fine. I was still walking, not a problem. After that I drove a bit more of a tame machine. I bought an Audi A3 1.8 turbo petrol and that was such a fantastic car. I loved it."

He ended up logging 250,000 miles on the Audi and is now a brand ambassador for the automaker, a job he's had for about three years.

Daily Driver

Collins drives a 2012 Audi S5, giving it a "V-8" rating on a scale of one to 10. "That's a bit cheesy," he says. "I love it, There's two engine options and I've got the V-8 petrol, which is fantastic."

The S5 is his favorite Audi, besides the R8. "I am superficial in some ways. I love the style, the look of it, and that's also matched by the handling. The grip level is extremely high and the V-8 makes a fantastic sound," Collins says.

He's driven all the Audi models, and while he is a brand ambassador, Collins says he always speaks his mind. "So it's genuine enthusiasm, not forced, but this is my pick. They've given me the one I wanted to have and this is the Audi I was most excited to drive," he says. "For a practical everyday car, the S5 is great and I actually prefer it to the RS5. For me the RS5 is too much."

The car he actually owns is a 2010 Volkswagen Transporter van that's the 4Motion four-wheel drive TDI diesel option.

"She's a beaut," Collins says, rating it an 8. "I made a mistake with the seat layout, only a small one, but what we use it for, for a family vehicle, it's perfect. It's just got fantastic carrying space. You can put the surf board on the roof. I can fit all the kids in there. It's got everything I need, really."

Although he does use it to go surfing, admitting he mostly falls off rather than surfs, the van is also great to pack a lot of gear and transport his go kart. "I've got a 125cc racing kart in there, no problem. It goes about 100 miles an hour, it keeps me honest on the weekend," he says.

Favorite road trip

"One of the best trips I did was when I was racing in Australia in Bathurst, which is their biggest race of the year and I drove across from Melbourne up to Bathurst with the Kelly brothers," he says.

While they could have flown, Collins and the brothers Todd and Rick Kelly drove to the race in a 1952 Chevy.

"Why not it -- it's a '52 Chev, it's one of the coolest cars in the world," he says. "The boys are massive gearheads. They love their cars. We were driving on the road so it took us the best part of a day to get from A to B in this big old Chev, with extremely comfortable seats and very loud music."

You would think the combination of these speed demons in the Australian backcountry might allow for some extra throttle, but instead they stuck to the speed limit.

"It was 55 miles, 60 max -- the whole damn country is low," he says. "I couldn't believe how low the speed limit is. We were in the middle of nowhere, proper back country, and I thought you'd be able to get away with the gas, and maybe getting some speed up. We hadn't seen a car for two and a half hours, but the boys were adamant that we'd all go to jail and that even in the Outback, the police were lurking with a speed gun. I was surprised how serious they were about it. But the Australian police have no sense of humor at all, even in the deep Outback."

This road trip took place in 2009 when he raced for their Jack Daniel's-sponsored team at Bathurst. "We could have flown, which would have been boring, so instead we went and drove it, which was really cool," he says. "It was a big road trip with the Kelly boys. Just like Tom Cruise, except we didn't get stopped and raided by the police."

The Stig and the movies

Collins brings up the topic of "Top Gun" again, and although he didn't get to be a fighter pilot like Cruise in "Top Gun," he did get to instruct and meet Cruise in "Top Gear," but as the masked Stig, of course. "He was fantastic on 'Top Gear,' I was amazed how cool he was and how gracious he was with the whole crew there. It was really nice to see it," he says.

While he has had an amazing job people would envy, Collins has been humble about his career thus far. "I think everyone makes the best choices they can with what they've got," he says. "For me, it's always been about doing the most I could with the ability I had and I love that."

He adds that in motorsports, success is often defined by whether you finish in first, second, or third place. "In racing, in terms of being all that you can be, I know that's a really cheesy expression, but that's what it's all about and I've had a great racing career," he says. "I've been over the moon in that and now moving more into films and the opportunities there. It's been a great ride and I enjoy what I do very much."

Collins has been a car stunt driver in "Quantum of Solace," "Skyfall" and "The Dark Knight Rises," where he was one of three stunt drivers of the Batmobile. "To join them, and serve under Chris Nolan, just an incredible film, it was absolutely fantastic experience," he says. "With films, it's fantastic working in a team environment where your performance really counts. So I'm happy. I'm enjoying getting into films. And you get to see it on screen. It's a great end result."

But Collins still has the racing bug and will continue to do that. "We won the Le Mans series in 2010," he says. "Next year, I'm hoping to be back in the series."

Down the road, Collins wants to get more involved in filmmaking, not just as a stunt guy. "There's a whole range of stuff you can do in films that really interests me," he says.

He's helping produce a low-budget film in the U.K. "I enjoy the whole process, working with the writers, the whole thing," he says. "It's pre-production, so it's very early days, but it's still really cool. And getting involved early on with the script, it's just really, really good fun and that's come by virtue of getting into journalism, writing the book, etc. I can't talk about the plot yet. But once we get it going, it'll be very spectacular."

While he didn't get to become that fighter pilot he saw on "Top Gun," his career and "Top Gear" opened other doors. "I would have loved to have been a fighter pilot, but that will have to wait for my next life, if I don't come back as a cat," he says.