Tiff Needell

Tiff Needell

Born	29 October 1951 (1951-10-29) (age 60)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1980
Teams	Ensign
Races	2 (1 start)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1980 Belgian Grand Prix
Last race	1980 Monaco Grand Prix
British Formula One Series career
Active years	1979
Races	8
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	1
Career points	7
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0

Timothy "Tiff" Needell (born 29 October 1951 in Havant, Hampshire) is a British racing driver and television presenter. He is best known as a former co-presenter of Top Gear and current co-presenter of Fifth Gear.

Biography

Needell attended Ottershaw School followed by City University, London where he achieved an Honours Degree in Civil Engineering. Hired by George Wimpey & Co, his day job was as a Structural Design Engineer.

Racing career

Needell first raced at a driving school at Brands Hatch in 1970. He progressed to Formula Ford, his progress assisted by the use of a Lotus 69 FF he won in an Autosport magazine competition.^[1] He later sold his Lotus and used the money to buy and race an Elden Mk10. Needell's Formula Ford period culminated in his acquiring a Crossle 25F with which he won the Kent Messenger FF Championship after competing for only half of the remaining season. This success landed him a partly paid drive in the Formula Ford 2000 Championship in a Hawke chassis provided by McKinstry Racing. Needell was completely dominant in that car and series which provided him with the springboard into Formula 3. The remainder of the 1970s saw Needell as a front runner in the British Formula 3 series and then in the Aurora British Formula One championship. In 1979 he was unable to graduate to the F1 World Championship due to the lack of the correct licence, but he was back in 1980, driving two Grands Prix for Ensign, qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. However, he had an engine problem and did not finish the race. He subsequently failed to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix.

In 1988 and 1989 he competed in the British Rallycross Grand Prix in a Metro 6R4 prepared by Will Gollop's motorsport team. He achieved a good result in 1988 finishing 4th in the B-Final in what was his first rallycross event, however, the 1989 event was cancelled due to heavy fog after the practice sessions.

Needell made his first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981 driving a Ibec-Hesketh 308LM alongside Tony Trimmer. They failed to finish and again in 1982 this time paired with Bob Evans and Geoff Lees in an Aston Martin Nimrod NRA/C2. However the following year Needell finished 17th driving a Porsche 956. In 1985 Needell briefly led the 24 hours driving the Aston Martin EMKA C84/1 and would eventually finish 11th. His best result at Le Mans was 3rd in 1990. He then had a couple of years in the British Touring Car Championship with Nissan, before returning to sports cars in 1995, driving a Porsche at Daytona and a Jaguar XJ220 at Le Mans. He then drove the Lister Storm for 3 years, reaching 3rd overall at Daytona in 1997 before gearbox problems dropped them to 19th. In 1998 he finished 2nd in the GT1 championship and won the Silverstone Golden Jubilee Trophy race.

Since then, Needell's racing career has mainly consisted of racing tin-tops (hard-topped cars), with varying levels of success in sports cars, historic racing and touring cars. He achieved particular notoriety after an accident with Nigel Mansell at the 1993 TOCA shoot out race at Donington Park.^[2]

Television career

Needell is best known in the United Kingdom as a television presenter and motoring journalist, in particular in association with the BBC TV series Top Gear which he started co-hosting in 1987.^[3] In 2001, when the BBC cancelled Top Gear (the show was brought back in 2002), Needell and the whole cast defected and signed with Five to produce and host a new motoring show named Fifth Gear. He does however, still contribute to Top Gear magazine. Needell has also co-presented 'MPH' at Earls Court in 2003, 2004, 2005 with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond and in 2006 with Jeremy Clarkson and James May (because Richard Hammond was recovering from his accident). He also appeared very briefly in the 2005 Top Gear Comic Relief special, Stars in Fast Cars. In 2009 he appeared on James May's Toy Stories featuring the building of a Scalextric around Brooklands. In 2011, he appeared on Top Gear, driving the Ariel Atom V8 in a race against a BMW S1000RR around the Top Gear Test Track. The segment was done in humour, with James May supposedly driving the Atom V8, only for it to actually be Tiff.

Needell says his highlight to date is "accidentally, ahem, ignoring the strict instructions Ferrari issued about not touching the traction control on their half million pound Enzo..." He has also done this on Fifth Gear while reviewing the Bugatti Veyron as well as the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, joking that his finger slipped after showing viewers the letter from Mercedes-Benz requesting he leave the traction control on.

He was one of several people suspected of portraying the elusive masked racing driver The Stig on the current format of Top Gear.^[4][5] The true identity of The Stig was eventually revealed as being Ben Collins but in late 2010 Needell returned to Top Gear after a nine-year absence to train Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle.^[6] In the same episode Jeremy Clarkson referred to Needell as the "Emergency Stig"

Other work

He has an occasional column in the car magazine Auto Express.^[7]

Needell has lent his voice to the first and second games in the 'TOCA Touring Car series' for British video game developer Codemasters. His voice is also featured in the 'Ferrari Challenge' and 'Le Mans 24 Hours' video game for racing game developer Eutechnyx. He also features in the video game Race Pro racing an Aston Martin DBR9. Additionally, he is the voice of the Road Angel road safety device and GPS speed camera alert system, as well as the face on their advertising campaigns. He was the launching announcer for the high speed Rita roller coaster at Alton Towers, as well as narrating several Discovery Channel documentaries.^[8]

Thruxton Circuit has an exclusive deal which enables customers to pay £145 for three laps of fast-paced driving and drifting with Needell. The laps are filmed from within the car and feature his commentary and conversation with the passenger.^[9]

Personal life

He lives in Wiltshire with his wife Patsy and his three sons, Jack, Harry and George.^[10]

His younger brother Chris is a team manager for Barwell Motorsports team racing Aston Martin DBRS9.

In November 2006, Needell was cleared of 'failing to supply details in relation to a speeding ticket', and the accompanying speeding offence by Pontypridd magistrates. He was defended by Nick Freeman, otherwise known as Mr. Loophole,^[11] who also defended former colleague Jeremy Clarkson on a similar case.

He is a football fan and supports Southampton. He is also an active user of Twitter.^[12]

He also works as an after dinner speaker.^[13]

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	WDC	Points
1980	Unipart Racing Team	Ensign N180	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	BEL Ret	MON DNQ	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	CAN	USA	NC	0

References

1. ^ DRIVERS: TIFF NEEDELL – GrandPrix.com
2. ^ “I could have been Lewis Hamilton” – Auto Trader online
3. ^ Tiff Needell profile – Dave television channel
4. ^ Some say he's Top Gear's true star. We only know he's The Stig, The Scotsman, 28 March 2008
5. ^ Trackside – Who is the Stig? – Auto Trader online
6. ^ Top Gear's new Stig is... Tiff Needell – mirror.co.uk
7. ^ Tiff Needell's column – AutoExpress.co.uk
8. ^ worlds Largest Nuke Explosion Sample commentary YouTube
9. ^ http://www.thruxtonracing.co.uk/experiences/tiff_needell.html
10. ^ Tiff Needell – Fifth Gear on five
11. ^ Needell cleared over ticket
12. ^ http://twitter.com/tiff_tv
13. ^ TMC Entertainment – Tiff Needell profile

External links

• Fifth Gear website
• Tiff Needell on Twitter
• interview on Mitzi TV, "Baby You Can Drive My Car"

Persondata
Name	Needell, Tiff
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 October 1951
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death