Stunt driver Mike Ryan has just brought his Fast & Furious skills to the real world by jumping a Lotus truck and trailer over an F1 car.
Ryan, who has also worked on Terminator 2, is no stranger to death-defying feats.
In fact, according to his website, he will “jump, roll, pipe, T-bone, side-wind, slide, spin, cannon roll, jack-knife or just wreck the h*ll out of” anything that has wheels.
This particular stunt was a collaboration between EMC Enterprise and Lotus F1.
“The purpose of this attempt is to illustrate what EMC and the Lotus F1 team partnership is capable of,” EMC’s creative director, Greg Gotts said.
Pulling off a jump like this required an incredible amount of planning too.
Ryan said he needed to plot his speed, angles, and ramp placement to a tee.
Ryan said the main difficulty in the jump was hitting the ramp as straight as possible.
Speed was also important.
“The faster I go, the longer I will be in the air, and the more space I’ll give Martin to go underneath,” he said.
“I’ve flipped them, crashed them every which way you can.
“One thing I haven’t done is jump a truck and trailer, and I’ve never seen it done before.”
The Lotus truck jump took place at Bentwaters Park, where Fast and Furious 6 was shot
To prepare the truck they gutted the interior to remove anything that might be flammable.
Martin Ivanov was behind the F1 wheel, having earned his stripes in films like James Bond and the Bourne franchise.
Before the stunt jump, Ivanov was surprisingly calm, mainly happy that the rain from the day before had stopped.
While only performed by two people, the stunt had a crowd working behind the scenes, as well as an ambulance and a fire truck at the ready.
The two vehicles started off side-by-side.
The truck then headed towards the ramp while Ivanov stayed on its right, ready to swerve underneath when the time was right.
Ryan hit the ramp perfectly, leaving a nail-bitingly small gap for Ivanov to drive through.
Amazingly, the truck jumped 83 feet and 7 inches, setting a new world record.
“It is one of my dream stunts,” Ryan said.
You can watch it here!
Debris flew from underneath the truck as it landed, but luckily the fire truck proved unnecessary.
It’s clear from the interior cameras that Ryan would need a good neck massage after landing the jump.
Other than that, the stunt went without a hitch.
