Filed under: Etc., Tech, Volkswagen, First Drive
How'd they do that? Driving tricks from the Bourne Ultimatum
Doesn't it always look so convincing? Star lead actor is frantically sawing at the wheel, and when it cuts back to the wide, damn if that wasn't a perfectly clipped apex, with a tinge of four wheel drift counteracted by just the right amount of opposite lock. Even Steve McQueen couldn't pull it off for Bullitt. The real story behind all those inspiring scenes of cars whipping hither and yon is that they're piloted by stunt drivers who have one of the best car guy jobs ever.
There's a nice little sequel to a sequel quietly making its way to theaters, perhaps you've heard of the Bourne Ultimatum? Besides offering a cinematic venue for Matt Damon to further cement his status as a cross between James Bond and John McClane, its serving as a nice little advertisement for Volkswagen's second generation Touareg. Several of the vehicles were given the General Lee treatment (i.e. a couple were kept nice, a whole bunch were thrashed and trashed) during the 140 days of production. Even the stunt drivers were impressed at how the Touaregs just hunkered down and took whatever abuse they were thrown. To get all those bitchin' shots requires maneuvers that'd make you screw up your face in horror. We're talking about things you wouldn't even do to a rented car.
[Source: Telegraph.co.uk]
Being a big-budget feature film, they couldn't resist the urge to make things exceptionally difficult for themselves. Several scenes call for Matt Damon to do this thing called acting - pretending to dodge bullets, leaning out the window to shoot at the bad guys, all while pulling off wheel maneuvers that would make Tazio Nuvolari hang it up. Acting and driving just don't mix - so stunt drivers were used. So far so good, so let's throw in a 360 degree coverage of the interior, so there's no place to hide who's actually piloting the car. That just wouldn't do, so the filmmakers got creative and had a large tubular safety cage bolted to the roof so that a not-insubstantial driver could point the Touareg where it needed to go via extended controls. An extra 500 pounds on the roof must have done wonders for vehicle dynamics, and being all the way at the end of that pendulum would have made us puke in our helmets, but that type of silliness and suspension of your sense of self-preservation are de rigeur in the movie business.
All that effort apparently paid off, as the trick driving looks great in the release, and nobody was flung from the roof of a Touareg like a frozen chicken leaving the bucket of a ballista. All in a day's work, everyone would likely say. Oh, and McQueen? He was replaced by stunt driver extrodinaire Bud Elkins for a variety of reasons, even with his race driving chops.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
cowboy bob 11:57AM (8/11/2007)
I take real offence to your reference that the stunts performed by those using a VW were worse than that which is performed with a rental car. I was on the road at my job for twenty-four years, and I can assure you from personal experience that NOTHING out-performs a rental car. I have played "bumper" cars with co-workers on the Dan Ryan expressway with a Cadillac at over 100MPH. I have "four wheeled" a Lincoln Town Car in the dunes at Bakersfield, and run backwards at speed thru the swamps in the everglades with a Ford Taurus. I have returned cars with missing parts, crumpled fenders, flat tires, (three at once on the same car) and torn up underbellies. I was a master of excuses, and never paid a dime for the fun. I tell anyone that might want to buy a former rental car that the chances are good that it has been run hard, and put thru the ringer by everyone that used it. "Good luck with that" .
Reply
why not the LS2LS7? 12:28PM (8/11/2007)
Impugning Steve McQueen's car driving abilities is heresy.
If a stunt driver can do something on the road in an SUV, the sure as hell Steve McQueen could do it better in a Mustang.
RicardoHead 12:33PM (8/11/2007)
You rule, Cowboy Bob.
Back in college I worked at Enterprise. Sometimes they'd ask me to line up 5 friends and make a 600 mile run (300 each way) to pick up 6 new cars and drop off an old shìtcan. There is no torture imaginable that 6 college kids with zero financial responisbility would not inflict on these cars over the drive. We beat these brand spanking new cars to hell, and they took it and loved it and nver complained.
A VW Touareg is certainly an ok car for a soccermama machine, and if it could take abuse the rental fleets would get a few, but there is a reason they do not. VWs just can't hold up to the pressure after 5000 Avis miles like a rental Cobalt can.
whats 9:37PM (8/11/2007)
Hey Cowboy,Ricardo and BigL How did you boys get around avoid paying any dinero ..that would make more interesting reading...stuff the rentals
Will Hats
matthew m. barnes 3:26PM (8/11/2007)
um... i feel like you're wrong. the touareg is a tough car actually. the reason that rental fleets don't use them is because they're too expensive and nice. also because, how often do you see the rental fleets using non-American made cars? not often.
Reply
Viv 4:26PM (8/11/2007)
You must not have been enterprise lately. Very few GM cars; mostly Hyundai's and Nissans. I actually got a brand spanking new Altima last week for vacation.
PiCASSO 4:11PM (8/11/2007)
How is putting on a updated front/rear fascia considered a "second generation Touareg"?
Reply
Greg A. 12:25PM (8/12/2007)
Indeed. If I recall correctly, Autoblog's own post on the so-called Touareg 2 cast aspersions on the appending of the "2" to the model name. It should be called the Touareg 1.1 or maybe even the Touareg 1.0.1.
cowboy bob 5:34PM (8/11/2007)
What the crap are you trying to say? Did you drop out of school in sixth grade or something?
Reply
big L 7:02PM (8/11/2007)
I visted the southwest with one of my friends. He had a toyota corolla(!) with unlimited miles.
so we got to Sedona. and spotted the Pink Jeep tours. They go out onto Sedona's famous rocks. So we checked into the cost and my friend decided that the Corolla was tough and could take it.
so off we went to the rocks, and the Pink Jeeps passed us. but at the end of the day, the Pink Jeeps had gone a bit further. We had a great time for zilch and the Corolla? made it through! The only thing was that when we got back to Calif, we had to go thru the self-serve car wash to get all the red dirt off the paint. It reached almost to the windows!!
So...rental cars? Yeah! Fun!
Reply
tbirdkatz 12:29AM (8/13/2007)
I want to rent an F150 one time from enterprise and just beat it to death.off road. movin. tailgate. bring it back after a hard day of muddin w/ caked on dirt. just the look on the rental agent's face alone would make the cost $ well spent.
Reply