Watch: Why Jump a Chevy Corvette Over 100 Feet? Why Not?

Motor Trend

5 days ago

There is no denying the Chevrolet Corvette is a very quick automobile, even in base form. Spend more on a C8 Corvette, and it gets faster still. With that in mind, Travis Pastrana decided to see if these 'Vettes can fly—more literally. As in, through the air. With Pastrana's stunt background and Jim York's tendency to drive vehicles for purposes they are not intended for, the team set about finding out just what the C8's flight characteristics are.
Travis Pastrana and Jim York jumped a C8 Corvette 110 feet to test its flight capabilities. After careful safety preparations, York's successful jump damaged the car's radiator but left him unhurt. Pastrana aimed to show any vehicle, even a stock Corvette, can fly.
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Of course, this is all captured on video. The clip is set up with a replay of Pastrana's win at Cleetus McFarland's Freedom 500, a race of nearly stock Ford Crown Victorias around the Freedom Factory oval track. He kinda, sorta didn't win cleanly, as he admits to wrecking Brad DeBerti and taking the race's prize (a Corvette Z06!) from him. It was that moment that Pastrana declared, 'We're going to jump it 140 feet to see how well she flies.' Thankfully, in the eyes of Corvette fans, Pastrana didn't jump that Z06 and sold it to get the C8 to be used in the jump. Oh, and he did give DeBerti a proper consultation prize: one of his personal two-stroke dirt bikes.
While Pastrana and company can come off as reckless, it's usually just an act. When it comes to something that will have a high chance of getting someone hurt, he and his Pastranaland crew work to ensure a stunt is properly safe. This starts with dry runs down the dirt path leading up to the 110-foot jump in a dirt bike and a Can-Am UTV. They see what speeds are needed to make the jump, the speed that could end up going too long, and, in one instance, the speed you end up 'casing' the landing by hitting the edge of that dirt ramp.
Before the actual jump done by York, Pastrana adjusts to allow for additional side clearance during the landing after seeing how easy it was to get too close to a dirt bank to the right. While the work meant York was late for his flight back home, it was a proper precaution and shows just how serious they take safety in these otherwise dumb stunts.
When it came time to perform the actual jump, York didn't feel comfortable with the run up and aborted. In the next attempt we see, York makes his run, and the 'Vette soars through the air and makes the landing, albeit a little nose heavy as it crashes the front enough to damage the radiator, the impact enough to set off the still-installed airbags. Otherwise, York was unhurt and able to celebrate the success of landing the jump.
Later, Pastrana uses the Corvette's data-logging and camera recording to report how the car did. He admitted to being slightly disappointed but was overall happy that it worked (and that York was able to walk away). He pointed out with a combination of accelerating on the jump ramp face—to help preload the suspension—and manipulating the throttle while in the air—to adjust the nose attitude while in the air—the Corvette could have possibly landed less nose down, though we're not convinced a Chevy can be worked that way like, say, a much lighter dirt bike. He also said the traction control worked against York along with the bottoming out on the face of the jump to slow the car down from 68 mph at the flat to 64 mph at the moment the car leaves the ramp. While the radiator and the nose were damaged, the actual landing didn't knock the alignment out, Pastrana said. 'The goal was to prove that you can fly any vehicle, completely stock,' he said. Well, at least a Corvette.
Photos by Stephen Victor