after a brief retirement, mccarthy returned to sports car racing, appearing at le mans in 2002 and numerous other events. in 2002, he released his autobiography entitled "flat out, flat broke", in which he spoke candidly about his time in formula one and, in the second edition, his work for the bbc's "top gear" motoring show as the stig, a masked, anonymous, racing driver who evaluated the latest high performance cars. mccarthy was the original, black-suited stig, who left after the first two series. he provided commentary on f1 races for the bbc in 2009. mccarthy now works as a corporate ambassador and after-dinner speaker for corporations around the world.