The headline really says it all. A massive semi-truck. A ramp. An itty bitty (but extremely fast) Formula One race car, which only has a split second to pass under the airborne truck or else be squashed to pieces.
Watch it right now. It won't take long.
The stunt was organized by F1 team Lotus and their sponsor EMC, a cloud computing and data management company. According to them, the new Guinness World Record for a semi-truck jump stands at 83ft and 7 inches thanks to their efforts.
If the video looked like a stunt taken straight out of a movie, you wouldn't be too far off. Both Mike Ryan, the driver of the truck, and Martin Ivanov, the driver of the F1 car, have done stunts for films like Fast and Furious, the James Bond series and Bourne franchise. That's an impressive resume, and their talent definitely shows.
In a behind-the-scenes look, Ryan dives into the process of setting the stunt up. Safety is the number one priority -- the entire truck was gutted of flammable materials, equipped with a roll cage, and features a special seat that provides extra cushion for when the truck comes crashing back down to the road. It looks like the safety features did their job. Video taken from inside the truck at the time of impact shows Ryan was unharmed, though the force of the truck hitting the ground does knock the door open.
Still, no number of safety precautions take away from how extremely dangerous this stunt is. Ivanov has only a second to pass under the airborne big rig, and one small mistake or moment of hesitation could have proved disastrous for both drivers. Thankfully that didn't happen, and now we can all enjoy one of the coolest vehicle stunts in recent memory.
