Comments on: "Did I make it? Is everybody pleased?"

"Did I make it? Is everybody pleased?"

mrducts — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:52:25 -0800

"Did I make it? Is everybody pleased?" (SLYT)

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:01:43 -0800

"Ron, now let's just get this quite clear - you're intending to jump across the English Channel?"

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:05:18 -0800

(link)

By: nj_subgenius

nj_subgenius — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:07:19 -0800

About the only thing I liked was the soundtrack which sounded like the colliery band from Brassed Off.

By: anazgnos

anazgnos — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:08:45 -0800

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_at_Your_Heels

By: castlebravo

castlebravo — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:10:32 -0800

OK, somebody HAS to add Keyboard Cat to this.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:12:26 -0800

Now all of a sudden she started to knockin' And down in the dips she started to rockin' I looked in my mirror; it was dinintegreencoln That was the end of my Hot Rod Lincoln

By: Joe Beese

Joe Beese — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:13:03 -0800

nj_subgenius: "About the only thing I liked was the soundtrack which sounded like the colliery band from Brassed Off." The soundtrack - which reminded me instead of Gil Mellé's work on The Andromeda Strain - was great, but I liked all of it. The 70s were a golden age of death defiance. I fear we won't see their like again.

By: Malor

Malor — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:15:39 -0800

He broke his back in that crash -- for the eighth time.

By: moxiedoll

moxiedoll — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:18:54 -0800

The 70s were a golden age of death defiance. Brilliant.

By: winna

winna — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:24:45 -0800

He broke his back in that crash -- for the eighth time. Yeah, that was what horrified me. How many times do you have to break your back before someone does an intervention?

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:28:56 -0800

Kenny Powers, the guy in the car in the video, was not even supposed to be the driver. The entire stunt was set up by Ken Carter, a different stuntman. He built the car, got all the sponsorship, etc. He was intending to do the stunt himself. From the Ken Carter wiki page: "Believing that Carter had lost his nerve, the film crew secretly arranged for another stunt driver, American Kenny Powers, to perform the jump while Carter was in his hotel room in Ottawa" Here's why it all went awry: "Unfortunately, the bumps in the ramp have not been fixed, and as the car accelerates, it starts to shake itself to pieces and falls apart in midair." via the Devil at Your Heels wiki page. Maybe that's why Ken Carter hadn't been so keen on doing it.

By: Atom Eyes

Atom Eyes — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:29:01 -0800

About the only thing I liked was the soundtrack... I... don't get it. What's not to like about this (totally awesome) video? The haircuts? P.S. I think the haircuts are pretty awesome, too.

By: Mach5

Mach5 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:32:28 -0800

Kenny Powers?! I bet he can throw the ball faster than fuck.

By: aquathug

aquathug — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:38:33 -0800

The soundtrack is brilliant! I hope that someone composes a score like that for my greatest F*up ever.

By: rlk

rlk — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:43:28 -0800

This is one of my earliest memories. I can't tell when or under what circumstances this appeared on network TV, but I spent my childhood assuming that jumping a car a mile is a readily accomplishable feat. One need only bolt the hood down very securely.

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:43:32 -0800

Supposedly the concrete base for the ramp is still there. I can't find it on Google Maps, but maybe someone else can. Here's Ogden Island. Based on the wide shots at the beginning of the video, I'm guessing the base would be toward the northernmost portion of the island, on the Canada side, obviously.

By: I'm Doing the Dishes

I'm Doing the Dishes — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:57:05 -0800

Here it is. You can see the runway and the pond next to where the ramp was.

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:58:26 -0800

I don't get how this went wrong. They painted the Lincoln yellow and stuck little wings on it and everything.

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:01:57 -0800

Wait wait wait. You mean this is real? I can't believe I'm so jaded that I thought this was a faux-70s viral video. I mean, a Lincoln Continental? Seriously? You might as well try the jump with an El Dorado, or a camper van.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:05:21 -0800

He probably would've made it, too, if not for all that illegal contraband stuffed in the back.

By: yiftach

yiftach — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:07:37 -0800

I was enthralled the whole time. It seemed to me almost as if the parachute deploying is what screwed it up, but I'm not a physicist, so what do I know? I know that was awesome, though. The 70s: When the word intervention still had negative connotations of unwelcome interference in someone else's affairs.

By: headless

headless — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:09:45 -0800

Turns out a Lincoln Continental is about as aerodynamic as, well, a Lincoln Continental.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:10:04 -0800

Slower than a speeding bullet, less powerful than a locomotive, but just about as aerodynamic

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:10:42 -0800

great minds, headless

By: "Elbows" O'Donoghue

"Elbows" O'Donoghue — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:14:18 -0800

This post has inspired me to attempt to become the first man to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a lime-green, 4-door 1978 Chrysler New Yorker. If I can accelerate to a speed of Mach 11 by the time I hit the ramp I should be okay.

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:16:58 -0800

Metafilter: Great minds, headless. I'm so, so sorry.

By: Herodios

Herodios — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:18:21 -0800

***they're still not wrinkled ***

By: Grangousier

Grangousier — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:20:22 -0800

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:20:50 -0800

Sys Rq: Ron failed to jump the Channel, as you know. His next project, however, found its way into AskMe.

By: Herodios

Herodios — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:22:14 -0800

And they misspelled "die-ist" on the back of his boilersuit.

By: davejay

davejay — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:35:30 -0800

I look forward to the day Top Gear tries to recreate this.

By: Oriole Adams

Oriole Adams — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:39:42 -0800

Bones heal, chicks dig scars, and Canada provides free doctor-to-daredevil healthcare!

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:40:15 -0800

I look forward to the day Top Gear tries to recreate this. The Stig would do this without a second thought, to be sure.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:42:31 -0800

Is it ironic that the target audience for this sort of ... entertainment is amongst people most likely to reject Darwinism? Or not? I can't tell, and am probably going into some kind of intellectual-snob-gasm. There's a fine line between "cheating death" and "receiving eternal life" that's invisible to certain segments of society.

By: CaptApollo

CaptApollo — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:49:30 -0800

I feel *so* much better about my failings right now.

By: longsleeves

longsleeves — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:52:08 -0800

Ok, now you have a hot 'n fancy wife and a broken back.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:01:27 -0800

The Stig would do this without a second thought, to be sure. Some say what he has aren't, technically, thoughts.

By: zzazazz

zzazazz — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:06:25 -0800

I'm impressed he was able to hold that car steady and actually drive to the end of the ramp.

By: prinado

prinado — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:11:52 -0800

Where there's a will, there's a wave.

By: cmoj

cmoj — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:17:57 -0800

Didn't they have physics in Canada back then?

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:22:56 -0800

Physics did exist in Canada, but you needed to be bi-lingual in order to get permission to use them.

By: xmutex

xmutex — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:23:18 -0800

YouTube comments are of course generally horrific, but this one's a gem: supercharged stealth mode lincoln mother fucking continential sky rocketing over the tributary of the almighty lake dumbfuck. kenny powers is my hero.

By: MtDewd

MtDewd — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:36:19 -0800

Reminds me of a) Evel Knievel (failed) b) Hooper (worked) The parachute deployed early, like Evel's, but it was looking unstable before it went off. It did look like he had enough power to get there, though.

By: WhackyparseThis

WhackyparseThis — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:54:59 -0800

a Lincoln Continental? Seriously? You might as well try the jump with an El Dorado, or a camper van. I think you're overlooking the most cunning aspect of their whole plan... a jet engine in the boot! The full documentary is an excellent tragedy. I just goes to show, if you can dream it, you can do it. Unless it involves trying to jump a river with a rocket powered car. The low-budget NZ parody movie The Devil Dared Me To borrows heavily from it because it is one of the greatest stunt stories ever told.

By: exogenous

exogenous — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:16:37 -0800

Previously on AskMe.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:26:29 -0800

Pro-tip: If you are a stunt man, and your last name is "Powers," your nickname is, by default, "super."

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:35:59 -0800

I am just so sad I can't make the comment: "Oh my god! They killed Kenny!"

By: PhatLobley

PhatLobley — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:50:31 -0800

What a way to make a living.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:09:10 -0800

30 Gs? How was he not Powers Paste that needed to be scraped off the seat? Also, if MythBusters has taught me one thing, it's that aiming a high-speed (rocket) car is nearly impossible. But he was going laser-straight. How?

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:39:27 -0800

But he was going laser-straight. How? It's a straight path; they probably just locked the steering and pointed the thing at the ramp.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:01:36 -0800

It's a straight path; they probably just locked the steering and pointed the thing at the ramp. And had perfectly matched rockets and tire diameters and no bumps on the road. (Actually, it looks like bumps on the ramp are what shook the car apart.) Also: 30 Gs is not itself fatal but seems to need a special suit. Was he wearing one? Maybe he wouldn't have been doing too well even if he had somehow made it.

By: axiom

axiom — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:04:10 -0800

He broke his back in that crash -- for the eighth time. Yeah, that was what horrified me. How many times do you have to break your back before someone does an intervention? Apparently, it's at least 9.

By: Bageena

Bageena — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:10:10 -0800

Gotta say, between this and the Disney decay thread, Metafilter is simply BADASS today. Not unlike a ninja.

By: The Hamms Bear

The Hamms Bear — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:12:24 -0800

YOU'RE FUCKING OUT!

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:26:47 -0800

I think what really went awry is that shortly before this stunt took place, someone stepped on his mother's crack...

By: Jumpin Jack Flash

Jumpin Jack Flash — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:29:32 -0800

Hold my beer and watch this.

By: clearly

clearly — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:52:26 -0800

I feel *so* much better about my failings right now. I know. I mean the guy didn't even make it ten percent of the way. (actually 99 percent is probably getting behind the wheel and putting the pedal to the floor)

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:00:25 -0800

Watching this brought back terrifying memories of trying to parallel park a 1974 Lincoln Continental. "What? It's easy! It's got power steering!" "Please stop talking, Dad."

By: mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey

mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:02:53 -0800

Man, that is one bad-ass Lincoln Continental. I mean before it completely disintegrated, of course.

By: spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:23:43 -0800

I'm headed over to Kickstarter with this one. If any of you want to chip in so I can try to do this, well, I'll paint your username on the car.

By: Jimmy Havok

Jimmy Havok — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:25:29 -0800

THere were so many factors there that could go wrong, it's amazing he even got off the end of the ramp. Just for starters, getting a Continental up to 200+ m/h...did he try it on flat ground to see if the car could handle that, or did he just balls it? Then there's the question of keeping it straight in flight. Those little wings look completely decorative. I think a '59 Cadillac would have been a better choice. The consensus seems to be that bumps in the ramp were the problem. Hard to test taht ahead of time, since something that's enough to get a 200 m/h projectile airborne probably wouldn't show to the naked eye.

By: kmz

kmz — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:39:44 -0800

I totally nailed that the other day in Burnout Paradise.

By: Ghidorah

Ghidorah — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:05:39 -0800

Narrator: "Powers' jump was unsuccessful." Understatement, anyone?

By: 2N2222

2N2222 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:26:52 -0800

THere were so many factors there that could go wrong, Jeezuz, yes. This footage boggles the mind. First thing that popped into my head was that the failure actually saved him from having to land a mile away. How was that supposed to play out, anyhow? I'm also amazed that I had never heard of this endeavor before. Took me a while to believe this was a real stunt.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:15:02 -0800

Jimmy Havok: “The consensus seems to be that bumps in the ramp were the problem.” Oh, certainly. It must have been the bumps on the ramp. Heaven knows every time I look at a Lincoln Continental, I think to myself, "Good god, look at those curves! This thing was just built to fly! Why aren't more airplanes this shape?" I can imagine that the sum and total of the scientific investigation into the physics this would involve that Mr. Powers did beforehand consisted in something like: Hmm. So... it's a mile across. And... I'll be going... uh... 300 mph... so... it'll only take 12 seconds to cross the river! This'll be easy - twelve seconds of soaring, a rough parachute-assisted landing, and I'm golden! Which seems sort of kind of intuitive, but... in four years, after spending a million dollars, that seems to have been all the thought he put into it physics-wise? Yowza. I mean, my immediate reaction is to note that at 300 mph a Lincoln Continental won't fucking soar; it'll flip, right off, no question about it, and whether it flips up or down it'll slow down really fast and the pressure will probably make chunks of it fly off in all directions. It's highly unlikely that there's ever been any car that could really soar like that, but if I had to go down a list and try to choose the last car for the job, it'd probably be a Lincoln Continental. So, good job on that, Kenny. Somebody should write up a study sometime about the tremendous impact on society at large in the 70s caused by the simple fact that there was absolutely no social or professional circumstance in which people who knew stuff about physics on the one hand and people who liked spectator sports and stunts on the other were likely ever to communicate with one another.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:16:15 -0800

Holy cow that was perfect.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:19:54 -0800

look forward to the day Top Gear tries to recreate this. The Stig would do this without a second thought, to be sure.. I dunno, I heard The Stig might have a new gig.

By: Jimmy Havok

Jimmy Havok — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:12:24 -0800

I suspect that someone did the basic ballistics calculation. Stunt jumps are a pretty mature craft, and somebody always has to work out the ramp angle and terminal speed to make them work. You can't just go for it and hope, you not only have to make the jump, you also have to avoid overshooting the landing ramp or you'll end up as paste. But yeah, pretty ridiculous to think sheet metal would stay on at that speed.

By: ElmerFishpaw

ElmerFishpaw — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:00:38 -0800

sounds almost like raymond scott doing the music there. i like it.

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:44:52 -0800

Guys, this was the 70's. If you looked up at the sky you were likely to see an F-4E or an A-10. A Lincoln Continental with some big damn rockets was nearly a NASA X plane!

By: smoothvirus

smoothvirus — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:02:31 -0800

Pearn and his Suzuki would have made it across.

By: Spatch

Spatch — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:33:48 -0800

I dunno, I heard The Stig might have a new gig. Mercedes, huh? Well, after Schumacher's DNF in the Reasonably Priced Car, I guess it's no surprise Suzuki didn't pick him up.