Stunt driving; you’ve seen it in films, in adverts and possibly even at a local car show, but we bet you’ve always wanted to have a go. Well now you can, as THQ’s new game Stuntman: Ignition gives you a chance to put on the helmet of an aspiring stunt driver and master all the (very scary) moves that you’ve only got to watch before.

But that wasn’t enough for Flipside’s resident game guru Keri Allan, who went off to stunt school to find out more about the reality of stunt driving and the technologies they use, and was quite surprised by what she found out…

You’d think that stunt driving was fun – right? Well that is true, but the amount of behind the scenes work in pulling off one five second stunt is pretty impressive. It can all depend on the time given and the budget, but sometimes these stunt specialists can spend weeks making sure they get the ‘trick’ just right.

“On a big feature film, for example, we’ll have two weeks rehearsals to turn one car over,” explains stunt co-ordinator and driver extraordinaire Ray DeHaan. “We’ll either have an identical copy of the car to play with, or if the car’s very expensive then we’ll get another car, weigh it up and get it designed so that the characteristics are the same and then we’ll jump it.

“We may land it into boxes, or we may do the real thing and see how it performs; what kind of flight it takes. Then we’ll watch that back and we’ll change things so the trajectories different then we’ll finally be ready to do the real thing.”

Quite interestingly, computers can play their role in working out trajectories, and all the possible outcomes of a stunt before it happens, but they key to the success of these stunts are actually the drivers themselves, and most mistakes – if there are going to be any – come down to human error.

With this in mind, these stuntmen will use the aid of a computer to work out roughly what they want to, and what will happen, and then ‘practice’ physically, to make sure it will all go as planned.

DeHaan explains. “Physics has a mind of its own. There was a stunt we were doing recently where we had a road motorbike jumping over a car, and its suspension is not designed to do that. So, we got a very small ramp and ramped it onto a very small landing ramp so we could see the trajectory of the bike in the air. From there we then just kept making the ramps bigger, and kept adjusting and adjusting until we got to the perfect arc; which was about eight feet off the floor. If we’d just gone straight for that (without some trials) it probably would have ended in a crash. I’m sure a computer could have worked something out, but you’ve got a human being driving it, so you’ve got human error (and we have to consider that).”

But its not just computers that can play a role in the world of stunt driving, other technologies are also used. For example, when it comes to the massive car crashes you see, with the car rolling over and over, that’s thanks to nitrogen canons. These canons are like pistons that go under the passenger side of the car. You simply push a little trigger button that fires the car over and begins to flip.

Even simple things like laser pens play a pivotal role in getting a stunt right. Co-ordinators use these to guide their drivers into stopping on mark – at the precise right point. Not doing so can lead to nasty accidents and expensive re-shoots, so that’s very important!

But interestingly, technology is also known to cause problems for the stunt co-ordinators and drivers themselves.

“More and more we’re finding that technology is working against us,” says world renowned stunt driver Russ Swift. “We have to make sure the car hasn’t got ABS, traction control, or any sort of electronic aids that would stop us locking the wheels when we want to do anything like that,” he explains.

Indeed, the latest car technologies are often safety related features, therefore making it harder to do death-defying stunts!

Take ABS technology; an anti-lock braking system. If you apply the brakes very hard the front wheels can lock, and you’ll stop turning and slide. This loses all control as you cannot steer either. ABS rapidly puts the brakes on and off, tens of times a second, stopping the slide, and lets you continue steering while braking.

Then there’s traction control, which is completely computer controlled. If one wheel is sensed to be losing grip, power is reduced to it, and transferred to the other wheels with grip. This is particularly useful in a situation like getting stuck in snow or mud, as normally the wheel without grip would spin wildly. It also helps stop a slide when cornering too fast, so you can see how it would stop a stunt.

“Most modern cars are run by computers, and most of the things we want to do for stunts and for films is to put the car out of control, which looks very visual. So we come up with a bit of a problem there,” says DeHaan. “When we first get the car, we have to disconnect the computer, disconnect the ABS, any traction controls that are in there etc. We have to disconnect air bags in case we knock something; you don’t want that going on in your face,” he highlights.

“Cars are riddled with gizmos and electronics,” continues Swift. “You need to disconnect the ABS, traction control, sometimes we’ve even had to have an engineer down with a laptop to reprogram a car.

“It used to be that you’d just stick some tape over the button on the handbrake and maybe disconnect the ABS and away you’d go. I couldn’t do handbrake turns in a new Jaguar recently because the brake was button-operated and wouldn’t deploy above 10mph.

“I put some smaller wheels on a Nissan 350Z to force the back end of the car to break away for another stunt, but the car sensed a fault and went into ‘low power mode’.”

So, these kinds of features have to be disabled by the team in order to make the stunts possible. The concern is, however, as technology progresses, doing stunts is going to become harder and harder.

“It’s an evolution really; things are changing all the time. I’ve been doing this for 35 years, and I think it will be the technology of the vehicles that will make the difference. Now that there is highly sophisticated technology in place, cars are designed to do what they’re intended for, and no more. Once you do start pushing them (to do things like stunts) it can get tough,” Swift concludes.

So there you go, that’s your introductory course to stunt driving technology. But be warned, stunt driving could be a very different thing in the future if technology continues to progress. These stunt guys are going to have to move with the times, and find new ways to beat the technology in order to do their amazing stunts. But whatever happens we don’t want them to stop; its great fun whether you’re watching, playing or doing stunts yourselves.  

BOX OUT

Ever wondered how it feels to be sat in a car at the top of a hill, waiting for the signal that would lead to your driver putting pedal to the metal and doing a ramp to ramp jump through some mean looking flames?

Well I can tell you, its nerve wracking but damn exhilarating at the same time! Kitted out to the max in a flame retardant jumpsuit, pads on my elbows and knees, wearing a neck brace and a stifling helmet and belted tightly in place, I was ready to experience stunt action first hand, and I loved it.

Keeping my need to do dramatic stunts at bay as I drove on the M25, last month I made my way down to an old testing track site in Chertsey, Surrey, where along with a bunch of other games journos with a death wish, we got to do some funky stunts. These ranged from smashing into barrels and speeding through an assault course, to driving up on two wheels and of course doing the jump of death through some rather hot pyrotechnics.

Pulling the stunts out of a hat, I first got to be a passenger in a car going up on two wheels. To do this you drive up a ramp and then, well as a passenger, sit there and watch the driver keep control and balance the car as you hold on for dear life, grinning!

The fun bit is getting the car back down however. You get a quick warning and then it’s a matter of hitting the accelerator and turning the wheel a little and ‘Bam!’ you’re on the ground. It’s a bit like riding a rollercoaster really.

As for the fire jump, it’s amazing but over oh so quick. It’s the build up that gets you nervous, but then you just hold on tight and enjoy the ride.

So there you, I can now say I’ve done two moves in real life that I do all the time in the Stuntman game. I probably squeal a lot less when I’m playing the game, but both are so much fun!