Racing driver Ben Collins has said that the James Bond stunt crew is arguably the best in the world.

Collins, who was The Stig on Top Gear for several years, also provided stunt and precision driving on recent Daniel Craig Bond movies Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.

"The precision driving element is when you're driving the car sliding on the brink of losing control, just being able to thread it around tight obstacles with very, very small spaces to spare," Collins told Digital Spy.

"Drifting with the tail of the car an inch off of a wall or skimming past a camera that's hopefully unmanned - at very, very close proximity without obviously having an accident. It's about being able to thread the needle and pull off these cool stunts."

Asked about working on the Bond series, he added: "When that opportunity came up it was unbelievable really. I really enjoyed working with those guys.

"You've obviously got a great team around you with racing, but when it comes to the tracks you're on your own. With the stunt crews you end up mucking in and being a group.

"Working together on either a car chase, or helping the other guys do their stuff with rigs and what have you. The Bond stunt crew is arguably the best in the world. So joining that posse was unforgettable really."

On working with Craig, Collins said: "We did a lot of training with him when I joined the team for Quantum, so he got quite a wizz and did some great stuff, that's true for all the stunts.

"He does get involved with it as much as possible. For the bits he can't physically be insured for, we step in and we get to keep our jobs for a bit longer and take it to the nth degree basically."

Asked if he thought Craig was the best Bond, Collins said: "I think he genuinely is, I think he's a fantastic Bond. My other favourite was Roger Moore - completely different for different reasons.

"I just love the comedy element. A favourite movie of mine was A View To A Kill, which had that awesome intro with the snowboarding.

"It was back in the days when they used to love a bit of humour, with the Beach Boys song. And then you've got that mad car chase through Paris where the car gets split in half."

Collins added: "I love working in film because it's just a lot of fun. It's a great process and I enjoy co-ordinating the bits I do... I look at any opportunity to do my bits and pieces.

"I was laughing when I saw myself on the screen in Batman of my millisecond cameo, loading up a nuclear bomb on a truck. I really enjoy it. It's one of the great things that can take you in any direction."

Asked for his favourite car from the movies, he added: "It's got to be the Batmobile, I think. To go on that movie and drive that, again I never would have believed it.

"You've got Chris Nolan who's this incredible director, and in the same way as Bond, as much as they physically can, they do these stunts for real. It's great for audiences - they know they're not watching something done in CGI. It actually happened.

"That's where they were coming from with the Batmobile. The first time I tested it, I got 150 miles an hour out of it in testing. I was quite surprised. You've got some curious headphones on, otherwise you'd be deaf after about 30 seconds."

Asked about his acrimonious departure from Top Gear, the former Stig said: "It was an interesting journey, that one. I gave my notice to my boss at Top Gear and my time was up really. I felt that my identity was out there. It was just gathering momentum.

BBC

"Basically I thought my time was up and if I didn't leave I was going to be moved on. It was time to go, and I tried to do that as well as I could, and ultimately the BBC decided that they were going to sue me to prevent me from ever admitting to having been The Stig and I thought that was wrong."

He added: "Within a year, we got back in touch and I was really grateful to join the wounded soldiers, the amputees from Race2Recovery who were doing the Dakar Rally challenge.

"We made up, I got to see the boys and everything, and I felt that we turned a corner on that basically, and there's no reason not to get on.

"No regrets at all. I loved my time there, it was definitely my time to go. I enjoyed writing the book and the book was a success and I've moved on and I'm loving what I'm doing... I'm extremely lucky. I wouldn't change a thing."

Ben Collins is currently supporting the Kit Kat We Will Find You promotion, which gives six winners the chance to win Â£10,000 in 24 hours of activating a unique GPS bar.

James Bond: 50 years of 007 - photo gallery:

Movies: James Bond: 50 years of 007 - pictures



This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io