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Historical Footage: Torture-Testing A Plymouth The Old-Fashioned Way, By Using Stunt Drivers!


Historical Footage: Torture-Testing A Plymouth The Old-Fashioned Way, By Using Stunt Drivers!

Nowadays, vehicles are subjected to torture tests in laboratories that can duplicate some of the most violent conditions that an automobile can possibly expect to endure. They are frozen, cooked, crashed, jiggled, and ran at the absolute limits before being signed off for public use, and that’s certainly fine by us. But long before the NHTSA, long before even seat belts, how did a company prove the mettle of their vehicle? Easy: they found the toughest SOB who could drive, told him that he couldn’t break their car and dared him to try. It may not be scientific, but a determined lead foot with a death wish could certainly make quick work of finding a fault in the upcoming model in short order.

This is a promotional film from Plymouth from 1935 or 1936 that shows Plymouth’s current model, the PD, getting the absolute hell beaten out of it in all sorts of imaginative ways. Two of the oldest names in stunt driving make an appearance: Jimmie Lynch, who later ran the Death Dodgers stunt crew, and Earl “Lucky” Teter, who was instrumental in the formation of the “Hell Drivers”. These guys were no-BS stunt drivers and while these look like minor rollovers now, back then that was something to genuinely fear. Click play below…and make sure you have a heat pad ready for your spine, because it’s going to ache in sympathy.


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