Kidd: 'The Stig made me start racing'

Jodie Kidd has credited Top Gear driver The Stig for fuelling her passion for motor-racing.

The model admitted that she "wasn't massively into cars" before she was invited on to the programme by host Jeremy Clarkson after competing in the Gumball Rally.

"I'd never been round a track in my life and The Stig said 'You're quite talented,'" she told Red. "I was like, 'Oh, I'm really quite enjoying this'. So I did the top lap! That was the start of my racing career. I ended up doing two years of racing for Maserati. It's a mad old world."

The Strictly Come Dancing star, who also counts polo and showjumping among her talents, revealed that once she becomes interested in something "it takes over completely and I put my heart and soul into it".

"I tend to run on adrenaline and just keep going," she said. "We've only got one chance and you've got to take every day and just grab it and go for it and love it and enjoy it."

Kidd also admitted that she would never turn down a new challenge, saying: "I could meet someone tomorrow who could say, 'Would you like to come up in a helicopter?' and I'd go, 'Ooh, that would be lovely', and they might say, 'Would you like to fly it?' and I'd go, 'Brilliant', and then the next thing you know, I'll be doing some acrobatic helicopter course in Timbuktu."