Demo derby addicts, here’s your heaven. Here in the U.S., the only way to see a near-death car take awesome flight before it’s final bow is to either go up to Glacier Bay, Alaska on the Fourth of July and watch as the locals Hail Mary cars off of a cliff onto the rocky riverbed below, or to surf YouTube for the next Darwin Award candidate who found a naturally occurring jump that can launch a $500 Chevy Lumina several feet up into the air and as far as the driver’s commitment to the throttle will take him. In the U.K., however, they just line up a string of dead cars in front of a flat ramp and let drivers take flight as if they were trying to emulate the bridge jump scene in “Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry”. Are the cars caged for safety? Of course…that doesn’t mean that each and every one of these blokes won’t feel the wrath of their decisions in the morning! Some cars aren’t going to be missed, like the Austin Allegro. But the Mini and the Ford Capri have their fans, and they are certainly cringing watching them go up and come back down like a ton of bricks.
Are we sure this wasn’t the, World Hold My Beer Championship?
My local track! Most surreal thing I’ve seen there was a demolition derby for coaches (52 seater single decker buses for you lot over the pond!) that got really good just in time for really thick fog to descend and completely block the view…
As for cages for safety? No. The ministock has an exterior cage (they’re raced by 10-16 year olds) but the others will have a simple roll over hoop, usually made of scaffold tube clamped together at the corners and often lashed around the b-posts with rope! Those guys needn’t bother with helmets – there’s no brain in there to protect…
That driver of the 2nd car was out cold. I wonder if he sustained any long term injuries?