Daredevil Driver Completes Backflip in a Mini Cooper
Backflips are usually reserved for the gymnastics mat, the football field or the basketball court but not if you're Guerlain Chicherit, the French sportsman who completed a backflip in a car in the snow.
Chicherit, 34, drove a specially-outfitted Mini Countryman John Cooper Works SUV up a ramp in the snow-covered landscape of Tignes, France, and soared nearly 40 feet in the air before landing safely again on snow.
Video of the back flip, being touted as the first-ever full backflip in a car, was posted by the British automaker to YouTube Sunday, where it has already been viewed nearly one million times.
Chicherit is a former extreme ski world champion who, in 2011, finished fifth in The Dakar Rally, an off-road endurance race, according to his rider sheet on the race's website.
Chicherit took to social media to show off his accomplishment, tweeting "I did it!!!!!!!:-))))," Sunday and also posting a preview of the backflip video to his Facebook page.
The UK's Daily Mirror reports Chicherit was driving at a speed of 37 mph when he went into the 360 degree rotation, a stunt that took four years to plan.
"In the jump, I knew the balance of the car was good and it took me maybe 20 seconds to realize I had landed on my wheels," he said, according to the Mirror. "When you attempt something nobody has ever achieved before, the stress is really high but the only way is to just try it."
