Mock me if you will, but there is no more terrifying thing than to be a passenger in a car someone else is driving at speed. Every gearhead in the world wants wheel in his or her hands and when you don’t have that and your complete faith has to be invested in someone else, it is a weird thing to get over. We’ve all been there at some point whether it was on a race track or on the street. That moment when you are sitting there in the passenger seat when the car or truck you are in his hauling ass and all you can think about is, “What if…” The brilliance of being behind the wheel is that your concentration gets to be on the task at hand. When you have no where to put your hands, your mind can create some pretty spectacular situations…and the guy in this video literally lived one.
You are about to see footage from the Schuss Mountan Snow Challenge, which is an event that I have put on my bucket list to attend. Essentially, when ski season is over for the year at Schuss Mountain in Michigan they invite a bunch of crazies in trucks to race up one of the slopes. The thing has evolved from a straight shot up the hill to a course that involves turns, jumps, and other stuff. In this video, the aptly named Primal Scream Jeep is taking a passenger for a thrill ride up the hill and things don’t exactly go as planned.
The truck starts about a quarter of the way up the hill and then when the driver and his cargo enter the mid point and hit a jump they land awkwardly and “leave the ball yard” turning over in the process. The passenger is OK and we know that because while the truck is turtle he sticks his hand up as a sign that he is a-ok. We’re guessing that he may have soiled his fire suit but he sure had a story to tell the boys in the office on Monday, right?
The Jeep is well built and it did its job to protect the driver and passenger but this once again reinforces my feelings on being the “meat in the seat” during competition driving scenarios. Hated it before, hate it now, will likely hate it forever. You?
