Despite what you may have seen in movies and TV shows, cars aren’t generally much good for aerial acrobatic work. That hasn’t stopped professional skier and rally driver Guerlain Chicherit combining his two areas of expertize to become the first person in the world to perform an unassisted backflip in a car and execute a perfect landing on a bed of fresh powder snow.
The impressive feat was performed last weekend at Tignes, a winter sports resort in Chicherit’s home country of France that hosted the freestyle skiing competition at the 1992 Winter Olympics. The jump was made by 34-year-old Chicherit in a modified Mini Countryman and was executed unassisted – meaning that the static ramp had no moving elements to boost the car’s rotational movement. Mini says the ramp actually fits the same template as a quarterpipe on a freestyle snowboarding course.
Video of the jump can be viewed below, which we’ve followed with a previous teaser from Mini that presumably didn’t finish as well.
