Nissan Threw a Car off a Crane Head-First, There Was a Driver on Board

How many of us had the courage to go bungee jumping? That's right, we're not among those who did it either. It definitely isn't for anybody. But throwing a car head-first from a platform situated at 213 feet and 3 inches (65 meters) above the ground is a whole different story.

"This is the kind of challenge that Nissan furiously loves," says the brand's Marketing Director Jerome Biguet before the car plunged into the air.

If you think that is impossible, wait until Nissan tells the story. The French branch of the Japanese carmaker took a Nissan Qashqai e-Power on a platform up in the air in Puteaux, located in the western suburbs of Paris, France.

Nissan sent the Qashqai skateboarding, surfing, and paintballing in commercials. So bungee jumping sounds like the next logical step. It took the automaker a whole month to plan this stunt. First, the interior of the car was stripped. Only the driver's seat remained on board alongside the dashboard.

The platform with a cage was specifically built to withstand the weight of the vehicle, both in a horizontal position and at an angle of 45 degrees, to give it the right momentum before the leap.

The preparations on the day of the stunt started at 6 AM when the teams of experts arrived at the scene in the Paris Business District to install the crane and level it properly. The one who measured the height of the crane from the ground using a laser measure tape was the Official Adjudicator, Prav Patel.

The man who took the high-level risk of bungee jumping with the crossover was race driver and stuntman Laurent Lasko. The crane operator raised the Nissan into the air and slid the door of the cage open, letting the car drop head-first with only a strap attached to it.

The Nissan Qashqai plunged to the ground and bounced up and down when it reached the total length of the strap that secured it to the platform from which it had jumped.

Afterward, the crane slowly brought the Nissan back with its wheels on the ground. Minutes later, after inspecting both the car and strap, Prav Patel confirmed the record.

The car was actually secured with eight straps, which would provide greater control over how far and how fast it would come down. According to Nissan's Marketing Director Jerome Biguet, the next advertising campaign will see the Qashqai leap from building to building.

With automakers competing for the best sales figures, there will surely be others trying to break this bungee jumping record as well.