After a scandalous trip to the courtroom over a planned autobiography and a not-so-smooth release of official documents from the racer’s company, Collins Autosport, Ben Collins has been revealed and canned from playing the part of the world renowned Stig.

Of course, nobody has confirmed that Collins has been given the boot, but the decision was clear when The Stig showed up at a Top Gear Live event at the Nürburgring racing circuit in Germany on ­Friday while Ben Collins was photographed pushing his daughters in their toy cars in West Country.

The guy should have seen it coming. BBC claims that secrecy of the identity of The Stig is vital to his role played on Top Gear, and Collins even signed a confidentiality agreement to that effect. After news of Collins’ autobiography surfaced, BBC was none too pleased that the racer had breached the contract that has been in place since Collins took on the role of The Stig back in 2003.

We can take this news as truth and just run with it, or we can have a little fun compiling a slew of stories that could put a different spin on it. Hey, for all we know, this could be an elaborate scheme to take the heat off Collins. Of course, the fact that the autobiography is due to hit the stands on September 16th makes it pretty difficult to think this is anything, but the truth.

What do you guys think? Any ideas on who the new Stig could be? Hit us up in the comments section below.