In-flight entertainment

Getting air comes up from time to time on car magazines, but jumping cars for photographic effect doesn’t always end well. If you look back in the history books at just how many ‘flood-damaged’ 1969 Dodge Chargers were wrecked jumping stuff in the TV series The Dukes of Hazzard (between 256 and 321 according to the trivia page on IMDB.com), you understand just what it does to a car.

They had three 1968 440 cu in models on the set for the Bullitt movie and the jumping model was much modified. Those scarcely believable long jumps in World Rally Championship events are the result of very careful engineering, incredibly strong cars and endless testing by a group of highly talented test drivers.

In another life serving as a spanner on an amateur team contesting national events, I would regularly see MacPherson struts punched through the bonnet and if you want to see what happens when a Tesla flies have a look at this.