CD Designs Blog

Do you remember Hot Wheels, concrete fans? those awesome-but-compact toy cars, featuring lots of brightly coloured super vehicles ranging from monster trucks to drag racers, which had lots of crazy stunt tracks to race around? Well, creators Mattel have really landed on a monster of a PR stunt!

They set up a giant orange track, and created a seriously rock and roll hot wheels car – done out just like its toy cousins – to hurtle down it with world-famous stunt driver Tanner Foust behind the wheel. The aim was to break the world record for longest jump by a four-wheeled vehicle, set at 301 feet by Johnny Greaves in 2009.

The sheer riskiness and pomp of the stunt was enough to get a whole stadium full of pulses racing at the 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500 event in the US, which the world record attempt provided the opening excitement for before the race started. Tanner sped down the near-vertical 10 storey drop at the start of the track, before smashing the previous record, setting the new bar at 332 feet. He blew every one away – the car didn’t even touch the landing track, but sailed past it completely, with Tanner bringing the car to an easy-looking stop moments later.

Now I can hear you thinking “which Toys R Us do I go to if I want to pick up one of those sets?” Keep dreaming, for now at least.

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