28 Facts About Tiff Needell

Tiff Needell is a presenter of Lovecars, and formerly served as co-presenter of Top Gear and Fifth Gear.

Tiff Needell first raced at a driving school at Brands Hatch in 1970.

Tiff Needell progressed to Formula Ford, his progress assisted by the use of a Lotus 69 FF he won in an Autosport magazine competition.

Tiff Needell later sold his Lotus and used the money to buy and race an Elden Mk10.

Tiff Needell was completely dominant in that car and series which provided him with the springboard into Formula 3.

Tiff Needell subsequently failed to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Tiff Needell achieved a good result in 1988 finishing 4th in the B-Final in what was his first rallycross event the 1989 event was cancelled due to heavy fog after the practice sessions.

Tiff Needell made his first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981 driving an Ibec-Hesketh 308LM alongside Tony Trimmer.

However the following year Tiff Needell finished 17th driving a Porsche 956.

Tiff Needell 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.

Tiff Needell then drove the Lister Storm for five years, reaching third overall at Daytona in 1997 before gearbox problems dropped them to nineteenth.

Tiff Needell won at Donington Park in the main Lister entry and then competed in two further rounds in the CSi privately entered Lister.

Tiff Needell took part in the 2000 FIA GT Championship for one round at Zolder.

Since then, Tiff Needell's racing career has mainly consisted of racing closed-wheel cars, with varying levels of success in sports cars, historic racing and touring cars.

Tiff Needell achieved particular notoriety after an accident with Nigel Mansell at the 1993 TOCA shoot out race at Donington Park.

Tiff Needell is a television presenter and motoring journalist and co-hosted the original run of the BBC TV series Top Gear starting in 1987.

Tiff Needell has co-presented 'MPH' at Earls Court in 2003,2004 and 2005 with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond and in 2006 with Clarkson and James May.

Tiff Needell appeared very briefly in the 2005 Top Gear Comic Relief special, "Stars in Fast Cars".

Tiff Needell was one of several people suspected of portraying the elusive masked racing driver The Stig on the current format of Top Gear.

On 22 September 2013, Tiff Needell co-starred in Tommy Kendall's Fox Sports 1 show, Driven - A Race Without Boundaries.

In 2020, Tiff Needell featured on a new TV show Lovecars: On The Road, which originated from the Lovecars YouTube channel where Tiff Needell travels Europe with his co-presenter Paul Woodman to try out no fewer than 50 cars.

Tiff Needell writes for the magazine Modern Classic, together with a regular motor racing news feature on Drive Tribe.

Tiff Needell has lent his voice to the first and second games in the TOCA Touring Car series for British video game developer Codemasters.

Tiff Needell's voice is featured in the Ferrari Challenge and Le Mans 24 Hours video game for racing game developer Eutechnyx.

Tiff Needell was the launching announcer for the high speed Rita roller coaster at Alton Towers, as well as narrating several Discovery Channel documentaries.

Tiff Needell has presented the world series of Powerboat racing throughout the United Kingdom.

Tiff Needell's younger brother Chris is a team manager for Barwell Motorsports team who currently race the Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Tiff Needell was defended by Nick Freeman, otherwise known as Mr Loophole, who defended former colleague Jeremy Clarkson on a similar case.