Travis Pastrana reportedly plans to jump from bridge to barge on New Year's Eve
In the same way that just about anything under Sir Richard Branson's "Virgin" umbrella has come to mean hip and edgy, things affixed with the "Red Bull" stamp are coming to mean "That's frickin' crazy!" Last year for New Year's Eve Robbie Maddison took his motorbike and leaped on to the 96-foot Arc de Triomphe replica in Las Vegas, then jumped the 96 feet back down to the ground.
This year for Red Bull's New Year, No Limits stunt, Travis Pastrana wants to break the record for the longest jump in his rallying Subaru. He'll be launching from the Pine Street Pier in Long Beach and hoping to make it onto a landing ramp more than 270 feet away. In between the pier and the ramp: 250 feet of water.
Pastrana's going for an old school jump, opting not to use a specially prepared car for the trick. Pastrana says he wants to drive out of the stunt and get back to the party, but also mentions Spanky Spangler as inspiration. Spangler did a 225-foot jump in a Chevy Nova, but he landed in the water -- on purpose. From 270 feet away, flying through the air, Pastrana's attempt to land on a barge will be like trying to alight on a pencil. If nothing else, it should make some excellent TV, and if he makes it unhurt a great start to the New Year.
[Source: AP | Image credit: TravisPastrana.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Das Borgen 9:22AM (10/19/2009)
idiot
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harumph 9:21AM (10/19/2009)
Not to diminish their skills at all but Pastrana and Block end up looking like acrobats and not racers when they do too much of this stuff. Do they actually even race anymore?
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Jason 12:27PM (10/19/2009)
Go to a Rally America event. You'll see both of them there. Travis is always doing something. Stupid comment.
Eric Smith 12:47PM (10/19/2009)
Yeah, I just got done watching the Lake Superior rally this weekend and both of them were there. Pastrana was still pushing himself despite having the championship sealed whether or not he won this event.
Besides, what is Travis going to do between now and SNO*Drift in January, the beginning of the new Rally America season?
harumph 12:57PM (10/19/2009)
So much for civility...
If he is so big in Rally America, how come this is all I hear of him? That's my point.
chris 1:06PM (10/19/2009)
As a matter of fact Pastrana just recently clinched the Rally America open class championship and Block is currently in dealings to start a Monster World Rally Championship team with former Subaru WRC driver Chris Atkinson. Both Block and Pastrana raced this past weekend at the Lake Superior rally.
harumph 1:11PM (10/19/2009)
I just think the stunts sort of cheapen his racing accomplishments as they tend to overshadow them, press-wise.
Fernando 3:29PM (10/19/2009)
Talk to me when they are in WRC, Rally America is training wheels compared to WRC. Loeb, Sordo and Hirvonen would do circles around these guys.
Javanese 9:24AM (10/19/2009)
The man is nuts, but I cant wait to see it!!!
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Paul 9:42AM (10/19/2009)
Any physics guys care to do the math to see how fast he would have to be going?
http://everyroadtaken.wordpress.com
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Jeffrey Smith 9:53AM (10/19/2009)
That math would be really iffy... It really depends on the angle he will be leaving from the ramp off the pier.
Mathematically this problem is only hard when you try to compensate for wind and other such "unknown factors". I grew up on the beach and around piers, I am not to sure about Long Beach, but in Cocoa FL the unknown wind conditions let alone a barge pitching and rolling makes this stunt a really crazy one.
For a back of the envelope calculation.... calculate the time it takes to fall from the pier to the barge vertically.... then divide the length distance by the time to fall and should give you a feet per seconds he has to travel... then convert to MPH/KPH.
Yaroukh 10:16AM (10/19/2009)
@Jeffrey: No offense, but that is quite suspicious math if you ask me.
RyanK 12:45PM (10/19/2009)
Yaroukh, you've obviously never had a physics class then.
In an ideal environment with nothing like wind, your speed in the horizontal direction is constant. All you truly have to account for is how fast gravity will slow you and then pull you back down after your jump. Once you know how long you are airborne, you can calculate the speed needed to make a certain distance within that time frame. Jeffrey just worded it a bit differently.
http://www.niiler.com/phy130/lesson05.htm
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~vawter/PhysicsNet/Topics/Vectors/ProjectilesMotion.html
Shamdiddly 10:29AM (10/19/2009)
That kid ain't right in the head.
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Mayoman 11:05AM (10/19/2009)
Travis Pastrana did great things on a dirt bike.
But we know Ken Block more for his internet videos that his racing. And as great as the Xgames are for other events, the Rally stages (even tho i love watching them)are more for the show then the actual racing.
p.s. I like Pastrana, I hope he doesn't miss.
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TonyInMI 12:12PM (10/19/2009)
ONLY IN A SUBARU!
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Tourian 4:56PM (10/19/2009)
Because an Evo is too good to waste in a destructive stunt like this.
D 12:26PM (10/19/2009)
I'm still amazed at what Maddison did last year!! Can't wait to see this new jump even if it does end up an epic fail. I was a little kid during the Evil Kenevil years and even wanted to be him when I grew up. I still love this stuff and my career as a daredevil never took off. Not sure what it was...maybe it was the risking life and limb part.
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Kitko 1:05PM (10/19/2009)
A great way how to turn a Pastrana into pastrami...
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kal326 2:02PM (10/19/2009)
"Travis Pastrana wants to break the record for the longest jump in his rallying Subaru" seems to be a bit of a contradiction to the linked article that says "I want to use a really close-to-production Subaru, not some super high-tech ramp or super high-tech car. Just a full-on, old-school stunt."
The photo and that phrase would seem to imply that the jump would be made in a rally spec Impreza, which is not the case according to the AP article. Granted the car used would still have a roll cage, its not going to be a rally race car.
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