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94 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+70This is not the greatest car stunt ever attempted. The greatest car stunt ever attempted was my dad trying to drive his Pinto from Vegas to Poughkeepsie in 1976 with all of us in the ***** back with only the 8 track and two John Denver tapes.
- jurow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+69I know it's easy to say in hindsight, but how did they actually thing that was going to turn out well? Land on 4 wheels on the other side and drive off? Parachute from 150 feet up in a 3500 pound car onto solid ground? Really?
- joeydoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+504 years of planning and no one looked at the car and thought........ "hmmm I don't think that's very aerodynamic".........
Did they even look at the car at all during those four years?
Seriously, what a ***** retard. - Crimsonsoul343, on 10/12/2007, -1/+45You think they could have hired a scientist with that 1 million that had to tell them that was gonna happen.
- Haohmaru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+41I love the narrator. After the car disintegrate, a parachute fails and it crashes into the water only feet away from the shore he says:
"Powers jump was unsuccessful." - P3ST4, on 10/12/2007, -3/+38Title should be: "Dumbest Idea for a Car Stunt Ever Attempted"
- icexe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+34Note to self: welding two stubby wings onto the sides of a brick shaped car will not make it fly.
- Heckler078, on 10/12/2007, -0/+29Yeah $1 million back in the seventies ( I assume its the early seventies ) was an outrageous amount of money. But what I really want to know is how do you break your back 6 times without being paralyzed, and yet strap yourself onto a rocket again to break it for the 7th time.
- stisaac, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Site is down. Duggmirror didn't get it. Here's the youtube video that's embedded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpUMSarCSQw
- unloud, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24I think it would have gone a lot further, but the parachute opened way to early.
- Modulo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23the point was awesomeness. what other point is necessary?
- Knice, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25hired a scientist or maybe they could have settled for anyone who passed highschool physics
- dhuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21did anyone break their back?
- riots, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22After the stunt all he asked was "Did I make it? Is everyone pleased?"
This guy should have held off for youtube to be invented and just posted some vids of himself dancing in his bedroom. - homestar2525, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Where did this guy get the money to do this?
- pixelwerx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20Yellow rocket-powered Lincoln Continental you say? Dugg!
- xtmno3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19You know, assuming you have a rocket powered car, and a giant ramp to attempt to jump it off of.
- wastednightmare, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16"Did I make it? Is everybody happy?"??? One crazy dude. should have been more like "Is my hot wife pissed off with me? is she still my wife??"!!
- Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12If you own a rocket powered car and a gigantic ramp I believe you are legally required to engage in some sweet jumps.
- ryanknapper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11According to windgingroad.com, the stuntman (Kenny Powers) is alive and still active.
http://news.windingroad.com/auto-news/video-jumping-the-st-lawrence-in-a-rocket-powered-lincoln/ - tylerdurdenclub, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Please. Don't try this at home.
- honds, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@Heckler078
It says 1976 within seconds of the start of the video. So yeah, mid 70s.
Also, the description says he broke his back six times prior but the video says seven. - gadgetuk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Looks like the car got into a nose-up attitude soon after leaving the ramp - I guess the "wings" were mounted forward of the centre of gravity. Oops. It must have lost a lot of speed at that point and the 'chute opened up. Somehow this reminded me of Hooperman. I loved that film when I was 10....
- ZeroMP, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10You would think that a couple of entry level physics students could have told him that was all the farther he was going to fly....
- LesOReilly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7This took place in between Morrisburg and Iroquois Ontario. He was trying to jump the St. Lawrence river. He wanted to be the guy who jumped a car from Canada to the US. Part of the Runway is still there though it is growing over. You actually see one of our old High school teachers in the video--though when he was much younger--He retired 10 years ago, but he told us the story and showed us the video.
- hockeystatman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Grew up about 20 miles from where this guy was projected to land, and saw the ramp every time I drove back and forth from Ogdensburg, NY to Massena, NY.
It got to be a joke after a while as this guy psyched himself up to do this. The locals started referring to him as "The Chicken Canadian" because he just seemed to have a total lack of "testicular fortitude" to follow through with the stunt.
The result as seen in this video is almost comical at how bad it went off.
I still look back and shake my head when I consider his choice of vehicles. "Yeah - let's use one of the most aerodynamic cars ever built for this. A 1970's Lincoln!" Talk about the best laid plans of mice and men that weren't even close... - iPirate, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@gadgetuk
Yeah... that car was one smug son-of-a-bitch. - potatomato, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6No matter how many times I see this, 'rocket powered Lincoln Continental' gets me every time.
They worked on this jump for four years.
You'd think at least one person would've thought 'Hey, maybe we should put up a landing platform, so if he DOES make it, he won't just crash to earth.' - fjacky66, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7The music was ***** kick ass i want the music.
- Myomax65, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@gadgetuk
Do you mean Hooper?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077696/ - scairborn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6What a ***** idiot, seriously thats almost like assisted suicide.
- MMilitia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I don't see how that was ever, even remotely, going to work.
- Punch405, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Balls of Steel, and skill enough to keep it straight pulling those Gs, even if the car was rigged to go straightish. In the 70s, stunt driving was on TV pretty frequently, usually on the Wide World of Sports. We didn't have your Fear Factor or Jackass then, but this is what we *did* have.
(that, and in 1976, you couldn't really buy a shirt in the USA that didn't have some form of the American flag on it) - Hellman109, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I would settle for half of that, then he could get himself the car cause it looked pretty damn cool even if it did fail
- br0ken1128, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The stunt was the idea of Ken Carter, but he wasn't the one who did the jump, Ken Powers actually did the jump..
http://www.brainsonfilm.com/devheel.html
Ken Carter was SUPPOSED to do the Jump but was in his hotel room, they thought he lost his nerve and put his protoge in instead, Ken Powers is still alive.. Ken Carter died doing a stunt where he was trying to jump a body of water, he failed his first attempt and crashed into the water, then vowed to complete the jump the next day.. he cleared the water but crashed into the roof of a building.. that's how he died - Kking199, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Ahh the 70's... when women were women, and stuntmen were lunatics!! (Seriously, have you watched any of Evil Kinieval's motorcycle jumps, he was nuts jumping with that kind of equipment.)
Couple of things. They stated he was going to hit a top speed of 280 Mph. Not even close, I would guess he got around 150-170 mph. 280 mph in a purpose built race car is hair raising and challenging, in a mid-70's Lincoln Continental.... are you nuts?!? We referred to cars of the Lincoln nature as boats... and for good reason. What I did not realise is how well they actually would float!!! lol (seriously, did the car have flotation devices on it or did it land on a sand bar??)
I think the jump would have been much more successful if not for the premature release of the chutes. Thanks for the link, it was a great 70's flashback!! - TortfeasorG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@ unloud:
I agree. I would have liked to have seen how far it would have gone if the parachute hadn't opened up in the first 50 feet of flight. - C0USTEAU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This incident is the subject of a documentary called Devil At Your Heels. The stunt was the brainchild/dream of Ken Carter, who died a few months later in a different stunt. It's a brilliant documentary, well worth a look.
- jackmaninov, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5G force is a measure of acceleration, not pressure. Please don't confuse the huddled masses.
- Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The car didn't float, it landed in 2 feet of water.
- TheCheeta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I found where the ramp used to be:
MS Live: http://tinyurl.com/ygtatr (Better resolution)
Google Maps: http://tinyurl.com/yhgct5 (Terrible Resolution)
Mapquest: http://tinyurl.com/yccfnh (Switch it to Aerial and go a touch south until you see that body of water) - diggdong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Could of used some AC/DC. Was his goal to go completely over the river? He's lucky. What if he made it to the other side? Bannasplit!
- Bob_Oliver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I bet the General Lee could make it without the rocket...
- Kappa3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5One of the most elaborate suicide attempts I have ever seen.
- themacboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Any Aussies in the house?? Remember that his was released, by the late show guys as devil at my heals. They say that this was the inspiration for ***** scared :)
- Djerrid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If you are going to put wings on a car, do it right and put it on a Pinto:
http://www.fordpinto.com/mitzar1.htm - pritch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Is anyone else having a problem with the 30g part of this? If anyone wants to check my maths, feel free, but at 30g, wouldn't a fairly normal sized person end up weighing in the region of 3.5 tons?
- buryme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Here's what he was doing in August 2006 at a racetrack in South Carolina:
Stunt Man/Dare Devil Kenny Powers closed out the evening when he drove a Cadillac into a flaming sedan. The show wowed the crowed as he sped down pit road, slammed into the automobile inferno and then crashed into another parked station wagon. The Timmonsville Fire and Rescue crews extracted Powers from the debris, got him on his feet and extinguished the flames from the burning wreckage. - chrisdelta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I guess they didn't take into account the fact that the drag coefficient of the car changes dramatically with its orientation. Sure, in a vacuum it would've worked. Simple physics. In an atmosphere? Maybe the stunt would have worked with some better aerodynamics and a mechanism to ensure that the front of the car always faced the direction of the other island.
- vanmeir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I don't understand the 30g claim, either. The acceleration from a standstill, at the start of the stunt, didn't look fast enough to produce that kind of force. I think the driver would experience some downward pressure when he hits the curved ramp, but again, it didn't look like something that would produce 30 g's.
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