Rob Dyrdek - Backwards Jump

[Mike W]

Rob Dyrdek from Fantasy factory and the prior Kickflip stunt with a Sonic did another stunt today. World's record reverse jump ramp to ram 89+ feet.

Rob Dyrdek sets a Guinness World Record at Six Flags Magic Mountain

Stuart Claxton, the adjudicator for Guinness World Records, walked up to the skidmarked landing ramp, knelt down and pointed to the marks left by the tires of Rob Dyrdek’s Chevy Sonic.

The crowd was silent. Dyrdek, star of MTV’s “Fantasy Factory,” removed his helmet and let out a yell. His audience - mostly friends, crew and fellow cast members - watched as Claxton measured the distance between the two ramps Dyrdek cleared for his stunt.

The stunt enthusiast and former professional skate boarder paced back and forth along the makeshift race strip at the Six Flags Magic Mountain parking lot Thursday, waiting with his fans for the results.

A media rep made the announcement. Rob Dyrdek did it. He set a Guineess World Record for the farthest reverse ramp jump by a car for a total of 89 feet and three and a quarter inches.

“He came off the ramp and maintained control,” Claxton said about the rules for the jump.

Some in the audience were unsure of the success of the stunt. After landing, his car had spun out and collided with the safety railing.

Dyrdek, uninjured, said he wanted to try again.

“He wanted to see if he could beat his own record,” said Sara Leeper, a media rep for the event.

About 30 minutes later, Dyrdek appeared in a second Chevy Sonic to try again. After a second successful jump at 88 feet and one inch, he climbed onto the roof of his car, did a dance and ran toward the crowd of cheering fans for high fives.

“This is the last stunt I’ll do in my life. I’m sick of stunts,” he told the audience jokingly. “I just concentrated on the landing,” he added.

Dyrdek performed the stunt while MTV filmed it for the season finale of “Fantasy Factory,” which airs March 13.

I have some video and pics I need to sort through and upload when I get a chance. This was a 1.4 turbo RS auto trans car. Obviously not stock

Teaser video from yesterday:

Rob Dyrdek: Sonic Stunt Sneak Peek -- #SuperSonicRob | Chevrolet - YouTube

Short attention span video:

Rob Dyrdek World Record car jump - YouTube

(couldn't make the video embed work )

He actually did two jumps in two cars today. The first jump set the record. Landed it fine but in spinning it around to go forward he bounced off a safety wall and busted a wheel. That jump set the record but not quite a picture perfect ending. They had another fully built and prepped second test car as a back up car ready to go. He decided to give it another try to see if he could further beat his own record. He was 7" shorter on the second jump but stuck the landing better and stayed out of the wall. It made for a better victory show.

I have some fun blooper videos of the prior test jumps working out the physics of it all

Mike W

 

[Insanika]

I'd like to see the bloopers

 

[madmac555]

Didn't realize you posted this too

Third pedal for life!

 

[Mike W]

The car was built and prepped for the jump by JEM FX in Santa Clarita. They specialize in big stadium fire balls and prepping stunt and movie cars. Like if you are making a movie and need seven General Lee Chargers to jump and roll and blow up, they would make them for you. They did the roll cage and suspension mods and built the ramps. They also did the prep on the Kickflip Sonic.

What the rear suspension-interior looks like:

Roll cage:

The Sonic was tuned using HP Tuners software by RRE. Chevy really really (really) didnt want any Sonic ever going faster than 24mph in reverse. There were layers upon layers of safeguards built into the ECU to keep it under 4k rpm in reverse. Even with every limit that RRE and HP Tuners could find were removed the car was limited to 4k rpm in reverse. Only by taking the transmission off the CAN network and then putting it back on the network would that trick the system into allowing a higher rev limit. The rev limit was eventually bumped up to 7,500 rpm in reverse to get the required speed.

Two cars ready to play:

Rick from RRE checking the data from the warm up runs:

Rob walking the ramp with the stunt crew:

Ready for launch:

Busted wheel from the first jump:

Prepping the 2nd car for the 2nd jump:

Mike W

 

[$ub$onic]

All picture links broke.

 

[River_Rat]

All picture links broke.

They work just fine on a computer, but not in tapatalk anyway

 

[$ub$onic]

Ok, got it on web view.

That rear suspension is bad ass. Would love a underneath shot of that

 

[jonboys66]

That had to be fun.

 

[Mike W]

First test jump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95HVfzHEPMQ


(I'll take any help for better embedding Youtube Videos)

At first they were planning on going ramp to ground as shown in this video. But to get the distance the height was pretty punishing on the front suspension. The motor mounts broke on the landing and the transmission oil pan hit the tow hook area. The front struts bent and the wheels took a beating too. Apart from landing mostly on the back bumper to start with

First launch ramp:

Wheee!

Ouch:

Ouch:

Impact Zone at about 85 feet:

What a backwards jump played backwards looks like, almost looks more like a skateboard pop-shove it trick:
Instagram

Mike W

 

[$ub$onic]

Wow, quick way to destroy a rs

 

[Nimda]

I like those Sparco wheels. The white looks nice! Might have to dip the stock wheels white pretty soon..

 

[Mike W]

Actually that black car is still running fine. The black car in the pics above did three more test jumps and was the car that did the second jump with the cleaner landing.

Mike W

 

[Mike W]

Video of the 2nd Chevy Sonic backwards jump test getting ready for Rob Dyrdek's world record attempt at jumping a car backwards. Originally they were thinking that ramp to ground could work ok. However the force of the front end landing from the height was a bit too violent. This was the first ramp to ramp test. Still at the same approach speed as the first jump at ~48 mph

http://youtu.be/SxHfIji3Pi4

Ramp to ram this time:

Car all fixed up from the goofy landing on the first jump:

Woulda coulda shoulda... it would have all gone well except If you look at the slow motion on the take off ramp, the front wheels bounce up and the car loses drive for 2/3 of the way up the ramp. The little car lost a little speed and came up _just_ a little short. The landing ramp is actually on little roller bars so it can move and absorb energy if it gets hit.

Doof:

The landing ramp is built to move if it gets hit so it absorbed the energy as designed. The car has a crazy roll cage with heavy protection on the floor so the driver was not hurt at all.

Tough car:

New billet motor mounts held up fine, but what they bolt to cracked off

Next up was a continued search for more speed in reverse and some tweaks to the launch ramp and suspension adjustments to lessen the bouncing on the drive up the ramp. The Sonic RS is otherwise stock with a roll cage and suspension prepped for stunt work by JEM FX and tuned by Rick @ RRE using HP Tuners software.

Mike W