A FLORIDA DRIVER'S LICENSE

Will be sent to this motorist.

Comments

[Tamara]

I blame the Red Bull!*

*Sorry this is not witty.

[Madness]

wow. just ... wow.

[Cynthia]

:o

[qetzal]

Holy Hollywood, Batman! And all this time I always thought those movie scenes were physically impossible. You know the ones - the speeding car crashes into the back of another, and instead of just getting crushed, it somehow launches 30 feet into the air, looking more or less undamaged. Although in the movies, the car invariably does a half roll, (always to left - did you notice that?), and lands upside down before skidding a quarter mile on its roof. So I guess now we know that in reality, launched cars crash into 2nd floor dens in Basingstoke, Hants. So those movie scenes were bogus after all.

Okay, I'm rambling, aren't I? Sorry. Insufficient caffiene....

[slyeyes]

Was Tim "The Toolman" Taylor behind the wheel?

[U.O]

qetzal -

Yah, I think they roll to the left 'cuz they put the cannon on the right side, away from the driver ...

those poor folks ... unnamed ... finally they get a chance for their 15 minutes of fame, and no one knows who they are, because they have no names ...

... well that's what it SAYS!

[qetzal]

U.O. - I saw that one too. Their parents should be ashamed.

Also, I'm glad to hear there's a good reason for those cars always rotating left. I thought maybe it was caused by some fundamental chirality of nature. Like that Cornwallis Force that makes your toilet flush counterclockwise, or clockwise, or whatever it is. (Rambling again, right? Sorry.)

[U.O]

qetzal -

Yeah, I thot of that cornflakes effort thingy too, but I had the "stuntman" stuff explained to me a long time ago -- in another century, in another millennium (but not in another Galaxy ... it was actually in a Pontiac Bonneville ... um ... never mind ...) and that's how they get cars and stuff to do that ...

they've got what's essentially a cannon mounted in the proper place, and when the trigger is pulled or the charge ignited, Newton's Third Law of Motion (or maybe it's the Dred Scott decision ...?) makes the car go up ... since the cannon is not in the exact center, there's a rolling effect ... away from the cannon, which is on the side away from the driver ... and ... Voila! ... flying car!

I know ... TMI ... whatever ... it's Saturday ...

[Madness]

i have this urge to watch a bunch of movies that involve flipping cars to see if it really is the left side they always flip onto .. -twitches- -looks for vcr remote-

[Buddha]

My theory: these people are living in an alternate dimension. That would not only explain the car's apparent violation of the laws of physics, but also how they can have a next-door neighbor named George Harrison.

[Darth Curt]

I can't imagine hearing the crunch of metal and bricks and furniture being moved around (that's gotta be pretty loud) and then thinking... that stupid dog knocked something over again.

[slyeyes]

Maybe they have a very large dog.

[qetzal]

slyeyes -

Yeah. Clifford the Big Red Very Clumsy Extremely Violent Dog.

[D'Artagnan]

Or maybe the promotional activities surrounding the release of the Hitchhiker's Guide movie have just simply gone a little too far.

[qetzal]

PS - U.O., you're way too practical and informative this morning. It's Saturday; watch some cartoons!

[Eleanor]

*snork*
"dog knocked over something"
*snork*
"George Harrison"
*snork*
"very large dog"

And it was a Beemer - what other car could manage this trick!

*wonders if it was a secret filming for a movie*

[U.O]

(Still being practical and informative, but relaxing bit-by-bit ...)

I see [In my mind's eye, Horatio] instances of the car rolling the other way ... and I'm thinking that in those cases ... where the auto in question goes airborne and sails over a bunch of others, before landing atop the pile, that the gagmen (stunt drivers) may have set up a ramp system, rather than using the cannon to roll the car ...

If you've ever noticed, when a car comes to a ... hazard? ... and it leaps across a gap ... it always soars high above the ... opening ... [Notable example: General Lee in Dukes of Hazzard ... puns intended, always]

FAKEFAKEFAKEFAKEFAKE ... if such is tried by regular non-hollywood drivers, the front of the car will drop, and the whole auto will be crunched into the impediment, thereby shortening it a la accordian folds, and the driver will then be able to park in the "compact" zones closer to the front door of Waldo's or the motel ...

THEY USE A RAMP, to get the car airborne ... or, in the rolling leap/crash scene, one side higher than the other, to put the spin on the car ...

Signs off as Former Aut Swenson's Thrillcade/Jimmy Lynch Jr. and his Death Dodgers fan

[Alex]

I feel kinda bad for taking the mystery out of it, but I think that cars (not built for racing) traveling in excess of somewhere around 200 mph can lift off. Hit a bump in the road, and there's your ramp to make it fly even higher.

Still, that's one hell of a wreck. And there's the question of how to reach 200 mph on a city street, not to mention how George Harrison came back from the dead.

[Alex]

*whispering*

Memo to self: read other comments first.

*/whispering*

A cannon? Darn. That just sucked the fun right outta that story.

[qetzal]

Actually, U.O., according to the story, they didn't use a cannon or a ramp. They apparently used something called a "kerb."

Must be some new-fangled British stunt-thingy.

;-)

[Sondra]

Hey! HEY!! HEY!!!!

I Sent That In!!!!

GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

[queensbee]

um, isnt geo harrison, uh, dead?

[bossy]

It must be Spring Break at Hogworts. Looks like the Weasley family got a new car, but Ron still hasn't learned how to drive.

[U.O]

Yes, qetzal ... my point exactly ... the British word "kerb" is a combination of other ingredients (not unlike a Doctor's prescription) that make up the whole ...

In this instance, the word "ke" (Lower Slobbovian for "cannon") and the word "rb" (Elbonian for "ramp") form the new word designed by the British governing body of Racing and Other Stupid Things Done With Cars ...

Therefore, it is much easier to say "kerb" than either "cannon" or "ramp" or "rampcannon" or "cannonramp" ...

Very clever, these British ...

[qetzal]

Well, I don't know about these British. But those ones over there, what ramped their car into the second floor den, don't seem so all fired clever to me....

[U.O]

No, I was referring to their language skills, not their driving techniques ... Hey, they do not know (not knot no) which side of the road is the proper one for driving ... I mean, how can one expect them to NOT do silly stuff like that ...

[Rev. Gomez]

No, no, no! We need more competent officers. Have they never seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I think that Dick Van Dyke had an evil hand in this event.

[killy]

A thirty-inch burrito. D'ye think he's compensatin' for somethin'?

[Lil Elvis]

My first thought? Billy Joel just got out of rehab.

[Stupendous Man]

Lil Elvis, you rock! rotflmao *snork...wheeze...snork*
Glad I came back to this thread just to look around!

[RealMcCoy]

Ah yes... a BMW. Gives credence to that old joke "What's the difference between a porcupine and a BMW?"

[Flukey]

I think all the guys out there are working on how to launch THEIR car way up in the air like that...

[NickS]

Basingstoke Observer, 9th February 2006:
"A driver who crashed his car into the first floor bedroom of a Basingstoke family's home has been banned from driving and jailed for 15 months...Jimmy Ayres of Hearsey Gardens, Surrey...At the time of the crash Ayres was unlicensed because he had failed to take a re-test after having been banned twice following a string of motoring offences...Ayres climbed out of the burning car, which had fallen to the ground, and fled the scene - knowing his two friends were still trapped in the wreckage. At the scene police found an identity card belonging to Ayres....Ayres initially denied ever owning a BMW or having any recollection of the incident."