The Greatest Automotive Stunts Caught on Tape

By Josh Condon of MSN Autos

Top speed, zero-to-60-mph time, horsepower — these are probably the most common metrics used to demonstrate a vehicle's performance capabilities. But for a certain type of preternaturally brave (some would say insane) gearhead, cars and motorcycles are gauged more by how high they can fly, how far they can be jumped and how fast a driver or rider can escape from one if something goes horribly wrong. We call these men daredevils and revel in the stunts they commit — or try to commit.
In admiration of those eccentric few, we present some of the most insane 2- and 4-wheeled exploits ever attempted.

Evel Knievel | Kings Island bus jump

Any list of top stunts has to start off with the man who still defines the modern-day daredevil: Evel Knievel. And while picking just one of Knievel's successful stunts is like choosing one work of literature to represent the entirety of Shakespeare, we're choosing his jump from October 25, 1975, at Kings Island theme park near Cincinnati, when the daredevil lofted his Harley-Davidson 133 feet over 14 Greyhound buses — a record that stood for 24 years before being broken in 1999.

 

 

 

Bumps Willard | 360-degree corkscrew jump

Evel Knievel may be the most famous stunt performer ever, but this 360-degree corkscrew jump, performed by British stunt driver Bumps Willard for the 1974 James Bond movie, "The Man With the Golden Gun," may be the most famous stunt ever. It was completed in just one take and has never been re-created, at least according to the British car show "Top Gear," which tried and failed.

 

 

 

 

Ken Block | Gymkhana One

Before Gymkhana was a 5-part series (the image at left is from the fifth installment), plus its own brand and an Internet sensation with tens of millions of views, it was a single video showing an incredibly complex and intricately choreographed piece of stunt driving. In Gymkhana One racer Ken Block shows his incredible skills power-sliding between and around tires, barriers and walls — and even the film's director on a Segway.

 

 

 

 

Faith Dickey | Ballerina stunt

Yes, this was a marketing gimmick for Volvo, but a very cool one nonetheless. Called "the ballerina stunt," this dangerous deed involved two Volvo commercial trucks, a rope running between them and world-record-holding highliner Faith Dickey. She had to cross between the trucks while they moved at a pretty good clip, and complete her walk before the trucks entered separate tunnels, snapping the rope and crushing her against the side of a mountain if she's still on it.

 

 

 

 

Robbie Maddison | 300-foot New Year’s Eve bike jump

To kick off 2012, Red Bull did what it normally does: created something spectacular, petrol-based and completely insane. On the evening of December 31, 2011, in San Diego, Robbie Maddison — no stranger to danger — jumped his motocross bike an unbelievable 378 feet, while simultaneously Levi Lavallee launched his snowmobile a ridiculous 412 feet.

 

 

 

 

Rob Dyrdek | Chevy kick-flip

As part of the marketing blitz for Super Bowl XLVI, Chevy attempted a number of stunts using the new Chevrolet Sonic. Nothing was quite as visually impressive as MTV star Rob Dyrdek kick-flipping a souped-up Sonic over an oversized skateboard. Now that we think of it, this stunt looks suspiciously like the James Bond 360-degree corkscrew that we said earlier had never been replicated. We need a judgment: same stunt?

 

 

 

 

Travis Pastrana | Base jump backflip into Grand Canyon

Unlike nearly every other stunt that Travis Pastrana has attempted in his career, landing his motorcycle safely was never even a consideration here. The stunt: Ride off a ramp into the blue over the Grand Canyon, do a backflip, then abandon the bike in midair and parachute safely. He did it twice, and he was just 18 years old at the time.

 

Hot Wheels double loop-the-loop

One of the first things spectators saw when walking into the 2012 X Games in Los Angeles was a six-story, orange-colored double vertical loop modeled after Mattel's Hot Wheels Double Dare Snare toy racetrack set. Rally driver Tanner Foust and Hollywood stunt driver Greg Tracy launched a pair of all-wheel-drive rally-spec cars into the 66-foot-tall loops, where they experienced gravity seven times the norm, and set a new world record for largest loop in a car.

 

 

 

 

Kenny Powers | Lincoln Continental Super Jump

Some stunts are more fantastic in their failure then they could ever be in success. In 1976, Canadian stuntman Kenny Powers attempted to jump over the St. Lawrence River from Morrisburg, Canada, onto Ogden Island, New York, in a rocket-powered, banana yellow Lincoln Continental. If you've never seen the mile-long, so-called Super Jump, but think you can imagine how badly it failed, you're wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

Evel Knievel | The fountains at Caesar Palace

Evel Knievel was known as much for his failures as for his successes. In this famous miss from 1967, Knievel attempts to jump the fountain at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, and lands just short. His injuries were extensive — a crushed femur, pelvis and hip, wrist and ankle fractures and a 29-day coma. As you can imagine, this video is not for the faint of heart.

 

 

 

 

 

Josh Condon is the former editor of MSN Autos' Exhaust Notes. Based in Los Angeles, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Esquire, Popular Science, Men's Journal and Ralph Lauren RL Magazine.