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Give us a break.

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Don't try anything you're about to see us do at home.

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On this trucking episode of Mythbusters,

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we've got three big stories about big rigs.

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That is crazy!

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First up, there's the dynamometer of death.

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This is the coolest toy ever!

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Adam and Jamie test the gory story

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that a truck tire blowout can knock your block off.

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Wow!

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Then buckle up as the team takes on the night rider.

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I just hope the car still works when I get my truck.

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Adam and Jamie ask, can you ramp it up on the highway?

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I think I have 75.

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And finally, Cari Torian Grant put their lives on the line.

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It's getting dangerous now, and that's how we like it.

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As they find out if drafting increases your fuel efficiency.

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Oh my God!

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Who are the Mythbusters?

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Adam Savage

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He's having a good time.

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And Jamie Heidemann

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He gets me all worked up just looking at it.

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This is beautiful!

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Between them more than 30 years of special effects experience.

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That was heavy.

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Joining them, Grant Imahara

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Jamie makes it look so easy when he does it.

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Tori Bellaci

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Somebody ordered some exploding pants.

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And Cari Byron

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High explosives and electricity.

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They don't just tell the Myth.

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They put them to the test.

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We have a killer of a myth.

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Literally.

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Bring it on.

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Well, you're in a vehicle alongside a semi-trailer truck.

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And the myth is that when the tire blows,

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it's such a powerful explosion that it will not only break your windshield,

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but also decapitate you.

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That is perfect and right up our alley.

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Tires can short-turn nasty.

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Overpressurize them and the results are explosive.

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But if you're unlucky enough to be alongside when a big rick tire blows,

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would you literally lose your head?

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Dynamo, dynamo, dynamo, dynamo, dynamometer, dynamometer.

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Now I was thinking this is a perfect thing for spinning our truck tire up to speed,

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except that nobody west of the Rockies will let us blow a truck tire

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anywhere near their dynamometer.

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We're going to have to make our own.

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Why don't we do it in a myth-buster style?

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We'll say get a really powerful pickup truck and yank the bed off of it

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and drive the pickup, drive wheel up to speed,

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just underneath the truck tire,

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and that'll take the truck tire up to speed and we're there.

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Let's do it.

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In a typically ingenious plan of action,

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Adam and Jamie will build their own super-sized dynamometer.

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They'll sync a pickup truck,

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lower a big rig onto the spinning wheels,

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and put Buster in the firing line.

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In three, two, one.

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And the first step in taking Buster's block off with a blowout

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is pairing back this pickup.

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We cut the sides off this truck because we need to expose the drive wheel.

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The drive wheel is going to provide the power to turn the big semi-trailer tire.

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So we need to get at that wheel.

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We've got everything else out of the way.

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We'll put the semi-trailer on top of this and fire this puppy up

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and see what happens.

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Jamie makes it all sound so easy,

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but at the Chabot gun range,

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the reality is that this is an enormous undertaking.

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Our trailer's going to go here.

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A pickup truck's going to go there.

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The pickup's drive wheels need to spin at more than 50 miles an hour.

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But so that it can't go anywhere,

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the MythBusters must sync its tires into the ground.

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Dude, give it more gas!

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Well, hell, that ain't no truck no more.

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That's a dynamometer!

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With the dyno fired up,

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next the boys need a big rig to put on it.

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And this should do.

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Yeah!

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I've just secured our big rig trailer to the biggest forklift we've ever used on the show,

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which is rated to 30,000 pounds.

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It's not only a safety precaution,

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but it's also a key part of the experiment in allowing us to adjust

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how much pressure is actually on the big rig's tire.

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With the forklift locked and loaded,

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the trailer is lowered into position.

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And once the two tires kiss,

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everything's ready for a test.

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Look at that!

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Their dynamometer may be ugly,

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but it works like a charm.

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That's what you call the ghetto dynamometer.

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So now it's time to burn rubber

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and blow this big rig myth sky high.

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Seems fine.

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Yeah, I agree. We get it up to speed.

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Wham! Boom! Do it.

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The big rig myth that we get to test

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happens to be one of the most popular topics on the fan site.

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Have you guys heard of drafting?

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Oh, that's when you try to get up as close as possible behind a trailer of a big rig to save fuel.

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Yeah, the idea is that the big rig slices through the air,

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creates a low pressure zone in its wake,

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and you need less fuel to move your car.

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I've always wanted to try it, but I just never had the nerve.

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I was afraid that the driver was going to slam on the brakes.

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Following a big rig dangerously close

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may seem like an insane way to pass time,

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but according to fans, it can actually save you money.

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The theory is that the closer you tailgate a truck,

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the more you'll decrease the drag of air resistance,

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and the more fuel you'll save.

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Before we go full-size with this myth,

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I think we ought to do a few small-scale tests

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just to see if there's anything going on behind the big rig aerodynamically.

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If we're going to test aerodynamics,

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I know NASA has a wind tunnel.

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I'd be happy to call them and see if they'll work with us.

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In the past, the team have constructed their own wind tunnels for testing.

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That's exactly what we're looking for.

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But this time, they're going straight to the big guns, NASA.

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And the idea is that the wind flowing through here is very even and steady.

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We're going to blow smoke through over our model big rig,

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and if we see that smoke collecting at the back end,

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that indicates a low pressure zone.

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With the high-speed camera primed to catch the action,

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it's all systems go for the smoke and wind.

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To the naked eye, it's hard to see a pattern,

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but things become crystal clear on the high-speed.

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There's an obvious dead zone,

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a protected area where the oncoming smoke doesn't reach,

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protecting any following car from drag.

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Smoke was gathering behind the truck,

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which proves to us that there is a low pressure area.

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What we're going to do now is take a car in the same scale as the truck,

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attach it to a force gauge,

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and then see what kind of effect that low pressure has on the car.

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But just before that, the team first needs a baseline.

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So the truck is removed from the track

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to see what the force of the oncoming wind is like on the car alone.

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With the smoke off, it may look like nothing's happening,

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but the wind is roaring past the car at over 50 miles per hour.

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And Grant gets a reading.

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Okay, so it looks like we've got a good baseline.

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Definitely.

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Point 142 pounds, and that is just the wind on the car alone.

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So that's the control.

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The question now is, will this figure reduce with a semi-shielding the airstream?

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We're now full seven car lengths away.

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Do we have any drag whatsoever?

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We have 21% drag reduction.

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Are you serious?

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Yeah.

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For Carrie, that was the wow factor.

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So how about when the car gets dangerously close?

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First, they wind the truck in to decrease the distance to five inches,

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or at 10 feet if this were full scale.

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Alright, so we're at 10 feet.

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That's a 60% reduction in drag.

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Whoa!

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That is insanity!

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Alright, we're at six feet away from the truck.

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That is ridiculous.

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I don't think I'd want to drive that close to the back of the truck.

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Let me tell you, you might want to reconsider.

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80% reduction in drag.

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Oh my god!

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Let's go to the suicide zone.

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Alright, let's go to two feet.

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What are we reading?

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You know what's crazy?

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We're reading 93% reduction in drag.

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Are you serious?

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Yeah.

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It's an astounding result.

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But would this actually translate to fuel savings on the open road?

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Well, there's only one way to find out.

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The team will have to go full scale and test this myth for real.

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This is great evidence for us to go on to the full scale test.

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Absolutely.

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We need a big rig.

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We need a car.

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And we definitely need to investigate this further.

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And we need a crazy driver.

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Who's that going to be?

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Later, can we use this ramp to get into this big rig at highway speeds?

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But before all that...

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The boys bring out the big guns on Buster.

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That's a hit man!

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Nicely done!

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Welcome back.

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The myth we're testing is if you're driving alongside a big rig when it's tire blows,

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can that exploding tire kill you or specifically behead you?

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So, this is our big rig suspended in midair by our 30,000 pound forklift.

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We are going to lower this down onto our dynamometer.

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I know it looks like a pickup truck, but in fact it's a dynamometer.

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It'll spin up the speed.

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Spinning this wheel in the correct direction.

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We are going to make this tire fail by hell or high water.

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And that failing tire hopefully will knock Buster's head right off his body.

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The reason we're using a motorcycle here is because this is a worst case scenario.

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Obviously, in a motorcycle you're a lot more exposed.

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And so if a big tire like this goes off, while we could have put a car there,

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we figured this is the nastiest thing we can do with this particular experiment.

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Things are only going to get nastier for Buster.

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Because to blow the tire, Adam and Jamie are going with the direct approach.

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That's the shotgun.

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We're using a standard 12 gauge shotgun with a deer slug in it.

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The deer slug is actually one of the heavier bullets that is available in any kind of normal civilian weapon.

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It'll penetrate the tire and the big question here is whether the air inside the tire,

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is enough to actually make it rip or do something violent other than hiss.

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And what we're hoping, if everything goes really well, what will happen is that slug will enter the tire,

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right about here and compromise the radial.

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That's the steel wires that run around the perimeter of the tire.

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Once that radial gets compromised, if the gods are shining on us,

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this thing will open up like a zipper and fail in a magnificent fashion,

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slicing Buster's head right off.

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That's the theory, but in case the impact is not enough to sever Buster's head,

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the team has an injury monitoring backup.

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Our crash test dummy has shock watch stickers,

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so by looking at which one of these gets tripped, both on his head and on his torso,

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we'll be able to see what kind of damage he sustains during this tire accident.

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With the dynamometer spinning, it's time for the magic bullet.

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Of course, this isn't a typical way for a truck tire to blow,

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but this should result in the catastrophic failure that this myth needs.

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Okay, this is tire blowout, shotgun shell, revving the engine.

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That's a hit, man! Nicely done!

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I heard it go up.

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Yup.

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But that was not the catastrophic failure we wanted.

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Jamie was right on the mark, hitting the tire dead on, but there sure was no explosion.

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That's a neat hole, it's right there.

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That's the hole?

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Well, that ought to tell us something.

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I mean, that bullet's that big around.

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You know, they don't get any bigger than that, and it hit it clean right in the sidewall.

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It had to hit some of those cables.

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That was full pressure. That was a perfect hit, so...

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The high speed shows the moment of impact as the slug pierces the tire,

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but Buster's white-knuckle ride is unaffected.

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To get a tire explosion, you're going to need a plan B.

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We have to come up with a new plan, because what we're doing is working.

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These tires are super crazy, incredibly resilient.

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Supposing you're silly enough to tailgate a truck,

252
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:55,000
with this dangerous stunt, really improve your gas mileage.

253
00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:02,000
Tori Granton carries wind tunnel tests have given this myth the thumbs up, in theory.

254
00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,000
That is so much more than I expected.

255
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:09,000
But what about in practice? Time to go full scale.

256
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,000
We should drive at different distances behind the truck.

257
00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,000
We'll start at 100 feet and move our way up to 2 feet,

258
00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:18,000
and see if we save fuel as we get closer to the truck.

259
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:21,000
2 feet seems really dangerous. Who's going to drive?

260
00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,000
I think Grant should do it, because he just had his middle name legally change to danger.

261
00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:28,000
Grant, danger in Mahara. I like the sound of that.

262
00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:35,000
The Mythbusters also like the look of the impressive beast they've lined up for their full scale test.

263
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:41,000
At the Portland, Oregon headquarters of one of America's leading rig makers, Freightliner.

264
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,000
We've got this new Cascadia Freightliner here.

265
00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:50,000
It took 2,500 hours to shape the aerodynamics of this truck to make it the most fuel efficient truck in the world.

266
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:56,000
It's a brand new truck, and we're anxious to get it out on the track again, and help you with that myth.

267
00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:00,000
Test engineer Matt Markstahler reckons drafting is suicidal,

268
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:04,000
especially considering how many blind spots are on a big rig.

269
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:08,000
But he's agreed to help out under controlled conditions,

270
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:17,000
which include a thorough workout for Grant, under the tutelage of Hollywood stunt driver Mike Ryan.

271
00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:24,000
We actually want to build all the way up to a 2 foot distance between us and the truck.

272
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,000
How dangerous is something like that?

273
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:32,000
Definitely, definitely something you don't want to encourage people to do.

274
00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:43,000
I think the statistic is about three-fourths of all the truck accidents in the world that involve a car and a semi-truck that have fatality were caused by the person driving the car.

275
00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:44,000
It's pretty scary.

276
00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:48,000
One of the things you're going to do right now is put a line across the track. That's going to be their starting point.

277
00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,000
Drive down a quarter of a mile, but another mile.

278
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:57,000
Then we're going to have a half a mile to see how much fuel is being used.

279
00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:03,000
It's on this half mile of track that the team will measure Grant's fuel consumption.

280
00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:07,000
And that's test engineer Andrew Smith's department.

281
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:13,000
What we've got here is our data acquisition system, and we're hooked up to the fuel injection system.

282
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:18,000
In fact, what we're doing is exactly the same as if we were physically measuring the fuel that's going to the engine.

283
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:23,000
We're recording all that, and we can compare when we're behind the big rig and when we're not.

284
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:34,000
Once the fuel gauge is in place, Grant will make several runs behind the rig at 55 miles an hour, working his way incrementally from 100 feet down to 2 feet.

285
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,000
But first up, it's the baseline.

286
00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,000
This will be our control test.

287
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:43,000
I'm going to drive along. I'm going to measure data for half a mile.

288
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:47,000
I'll see how much fuel I'm using with nothing in front of me.

289
00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:51,000
With Andrew riding shotgun, Grant puts the pedals on the metal.

290
00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:53,000
Okay, approaching drag strip.

291
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,000
Holding at 55.

292
00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:58,000
Still holding at 55.

293
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:01,000
Approaching the stop.

294
00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:02,000
That's it.

295
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:12,000
Andrew crunches the numbers, and it turns out that driving at 55 miles per hour on the test track gave a fuel consumption of 32 miles per gallon.

296
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:15,000
Will drafting really cause an increase in MPGs?

297
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:25,000
We're going to do it at 100 feet, 50 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet, and 2 feet, which I consider somewhat suicidal if you were driving on the highway.

298
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,000
Three, two, one, go.

299
00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:41,000
Grant starts out at a distance of 100 feet behind the truck, but even this is considered outside the safety zone for most road authorities,

300
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:47,000
who recommend at least 150 feet between vehicles traveling at 55 miles per hour.

301
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:50,000
Crossing the finish line now.

302
00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:56,000
Okay, so that was a good run at 100 feet, maintained a constant distance at 55 miles per hour.

303
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,000
And the result is pretty dramatic.

304
00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:05,000
With 100 feet between car and rig, fuel consumption improved by over 10%.

305
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:11,000
Next, Grant gets back up to 55 miles an hour and closes the gap to 50 feet.

306
00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:14,000
We're going to close this speed, you can collect your data now.

307
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:20,000
With this size gap, fuel consumption improved by 20% on the control.

308
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,000
Grant moves in even closer to 20 feet.

309
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,000
This is starting to get hairy.

310
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:29,000
Starting to approach that blind spot, I can't see him.

311
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:39,000
At 20 feet, the slipstreaming effect of tailing the truck has improved fuel efficiency by an amazing 27%.

312
00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:44,000
But what about tailgating a big rig at 10 feet?

313
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:47,000
It's getting dangerous now, and that's how we like it.

314
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:52,000
Later, that is crazy.

315
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:56,000
Grant earns his stunt driver stripes the crazy way.

316
00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:58,000
That was crazy.

317
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:03,000
But next, we want to know if this tire will behead this biker when it blows up.

318
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:14,000
In the wrong hands, tires can be downright dangerous.

319
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:18,000
But can they kill if they explode?

320
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:24,000
Well, for Adam and Jamie, getting a tire to explode in the first place is proving somewhat troublesome.

321
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,000
That was not the catastrophic failure we wanted.

322
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:36,000
So to try to turn a tire torpedo, the team is next going to replicate the last moments of a tire that's done way too many miles.

323
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:42,000
And subjecting another tire to high heat and low pressure should do just that.

324
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:50,000
Yeah, we need to heat it up with the external heaters, and we need to really reduce the PSI so that we can get the tire flexing, because that adds heat as well.

325
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:54,000
Flexing is responsible for most blowouts on highway trucks.

326
00:18:54,000 --> 00:19:04,000
If air pressure is too low, the rubber wobbles or flexes, and this flexing can cause rapid, explosive disintegration.

327
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:11,000
We've got heaters posed on both sides of the tire, and the idea is to bring the overall tire temperature up as high as we can get it with them.

328
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:17,000
We're going to start off slow, kind of like a chicken on a spit, and we're going to try and roast the tire.

329
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:25,000
And we'll be looking at this on the thermal imaging camera, and hopefully somewhere in there with all that flexing and all that heat will get a catastrophic failure.

330
00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:33,000
Once the new tire is inflated to 30 PSI, a quarter of its usual pressure, the dynamometer is ready to roll.

331
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:42,000
Well, we're rotating the tire under stress. It's been going for about five minutes, and it's already at 150 degrees. That's the external outer temperature of the tire.

332
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:50,000
We know that the tires start to attain their failure mode around 350 degrees, so that's where our butter zone is going to be in this, hopefully.

333
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,000
We've just got to see how long it takes to get there.

334
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:58,000
But unfortunately, even after 10 minutes, the butter zone has not been reached.

335
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:01,000
It's capped there. It's just sticking around 200.

336
00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:09,000
Although heat failed to fire up the low pressure tire, all is not lost because the mythbusters have another trick up their sleeves.

337
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:16,000
We'll suddenly over-pressurizing the tire, resulting in the biker beheading thereafter.

338
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:25,000
In this line, it's 150 PSI. When I hook it up, it's just going to pass that onto the tire, and if the tire is sufficiently weakened, it's going to blow.

339
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,000
Exploding tire, hopefully. Final test.

340
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,000
In three, two, one.

341
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,000
Come on, baby! Come on.

342
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,000
There we go. That was it.

343
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:44,000
That was it? It looks just like a zipper.

344
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,000
It opened up where you cut it.

345
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:50,000
But it didn't propagate.

346
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:54,000
No. That wasn't very satisfying.

347
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,000
It wasn't what we're looking for here.

348
00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:01,000
This time, the tire did fail, but it still didn't fail catastrophically.

349
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:06,000
With this myth deflating fast, Adam has one final plan.

350
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:13,000
You know, while we've seen the blowout, let's put it under a little pressure on the bottom tire and spin it up to speed.

351
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:16,000
See if we can get some shrapnel out of it.

352
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:21,000
Adam reckons that if the burst tire spins long enough, something's got to give.

353
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:28,000
And sure enough, as the dyno picks up speed, rubber shrapnel soon starts flying far and wide.

354
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:37,000
But have any of these tire torpedoes toppled our wild hog buster?

355
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:40,000
This is the coolest toy ever!

356
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,000
I better pull rubber!

357
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,000
Although rubber shrapnel did get flung, none of it hit our biker.

358
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:49,000
So what does this mean for the myth?

359
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:57,000
If we look at the footage from that camera over there, we'll see one of the large chunks of rubber that flew about 200 feet in that direction.

360
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,000
I watch one piece go like maybe 70, 80 feet straight up.

361
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:03,000
We need to actually find out what happens when you do get hit.

362
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:07,000
Yeah, we need to make it a non-random event. We need to make a rubber chuck.

363
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:14,000
We need to make something that chunks, chunks, large chunks of rubber right at buster's head to see what kind of damage it'll do.

364
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:23,000
But before all that, it's time to get kitted out with another myth.

365
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,000
Okay, so what do we got now?

366
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:30,000
Well, I've got a big rig myth of my own. Have you ever seen the show from the early 80s called Night Rider?

367
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:32,000
Yeah, wasn't the car intelligent or something?

368
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,000
It was. Do you remember how that car came in for repairs?

369
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,000
Yeah, he drove it right up into the back of a big rig.

370
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:39,000
At speed?

371
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:40,000
Yeah.

372
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:47,000
I want to know if that's really possible, or if when your 60 mile an hour drive wheel hits that ramp, boom, launches you right into the container.

373
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,000
Well, where your seatbelt?

374
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:51,000
I will.

375
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:56,000
Before the half was the half, he was the Night Rider.

376
00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:02,000
And his ride? Well, this four-wheel black beauty was smarter than your average car.

377
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:08,000
And if it needed running repairs, there was the famous high-speed entry into the team's mobile HQ.

378
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:16,000
But in real life, once you hit the ramp, wouldn't you suddenly accelerate and catapult yourself through the cabin?

379
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:23,000
You know, obviously we're going to go full scale, but I think we ought to go small scale first.

380
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:30,000
Let's get like an RC car and a running treadmill and just do the whole experiment and miniature first.

381
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:31,000
Okay.

382
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000
Yep, it's the patented Mythbuster Bench Test.

383
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:40,000
In this setup, Adam builds the scaled-down remote control car.

384
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:42,000
Yeah, look at that.

385
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:49,000
And Jamie vandalizes a treadmill to replicate the rolling surface of the highway. Ingenious.

386
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:57,000
The treadmill here represents the road surface. We have a miniature representation of a truck. We have a miniature car.

387
00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:06,000
So the main thing that we're looking for here is what happens when the car makes a transition fully from the road surface onto the truck.

388
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:14,000
If it were to do something like a wheelie or just spin out of control, not get traction or something weird like that.

389
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:20,000
As Jamie said, the crucial moment is when the tires of the car get traction on the ramp.

390
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,000
At that point, both vehicles are traveling at much the same velocity.

391
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:32,000
But once it hits the ramp, the car is now moving at speed and in comparison, the truck is stationary.

392
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:38,000
And the theory is, without a special effects department, wouldn't that cause it to accelerate out of control?

393
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,000
But that's just the theory. How about the practice?

394
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,000
There you go.

395
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:53,000
No need for practice. In a break with Mithruster tradition, there was first time success with a small scale test.

396
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:59,000
We've been thinking that the moment those back wheels traveling at this speed hit this ramp, that car goes f-ching.

397
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:06,000
The high speed camera confirms there's no f-ching factor. The RC car slid into the trailer as smooth as you like.

398
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:14,000
And even without brakes, its entry was slow enough to prevent a serious fender bender with the back wall of the big rig.

399
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:21,000
So, I don't know about you, but the small scale experiment really gave me a lot of confidence that this might actually be possible.

400
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:27,000
Yeah, and when you think about it, you know, the car's got a lot of inertia and for this to crash into the back of the semi,

401
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:31,000
it'd have to all of a sudden be going twice as fast as it was. It's got to really accelerate.

402
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:35,000
Well, I mean, the only thing for us to do now is to go full scale.

403
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:36,000
Yep.

404
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:37,000
Let's get to building a ramp.

405
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:38,000
Okay.

406
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:40,000
Still to come.

407
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:41,000
That's a nice maneuver.

408
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,000
Night rider goes full scale.

409
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:45,000
Dude, that was scary.

410
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:49,000
But first, Grant revs up for the ride of his life.

411
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:54,000
I think if you were going to try to draft a big rig, you are completely mental.

412
00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:58,000
Give us a break.

413
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,000
Don't try anything you're about to see us do at home.

414
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:11,000
When driving behind a big rig, if you're too close to see the truck's mirrors, then the truck driver can't see you.

415
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:15,000
That's why drafting is so dangerous, not to mention illegal.

416
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:22,000
But as Kari Torian Grant have found out, this suicidal driving technique does increase your miles per gallon.

417
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:28,000
At a drafting distance of 20 feet, the team has seen their fuel efficiency in the last few years.

418
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:35,000
But Grant Danger Imahara laughs in the face of his middle name with Mike riding shotgun.

419
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:36,000
Okay, I'm buckling up.

420
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:42,000
He's going to tailgate a truck at 10 feet.

421
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:50,000
I think if you were going to try to draft a big rig at 10 feet behind them, you are completely mental.

422
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:55,000
Even in a controlled situation, it's really, really scary.

423
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:56,000
We're ready.

424
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:00,000
Alright, let's go in 3, 2, 1, go.

425
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:01,000
Go.

426
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:05,000
35.

427
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,000
We have one more shift and then you can go in.

428
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,000
Okay, we've hit 55, we're holding steady.

429
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,000
It's completely in a reviving spot and we can't see him at all.

430
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:20,000
The recommended driver reaction time for this speed is 2 seconds.

431
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,000
Meaning 150 feet between vehicles.

432
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:25,000
We're still with you.

433
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:30,000
At 10 feet, Grant's reaction time is down to almost a tenth of a second.

434
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,000
Sweet driving, Grant.

435
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,000
Okay, returning to the start.

436
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:38,000
It may be madness, but the stats don't lie.

437
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:45,000
With a distance of 10 feet between car and truck, fuel efficiency improves by almost 4 seconds.

438
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:52,000
But this myth ain't over yet as Grant prepares to draft at the insane distance of 2 feet.

439
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:58,000
At 2 feet, one miscalculation and our myth buster will be 6 feet under.

440
00:27:58,000 --> 00:27:59,000
This is it.

441
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,000
The car is 2 feet behind the truck and they're going to be traveling at 55 miles an hour.

442
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:04,000
I mean, this is nuts.

443
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,000
I'm a little freaked out right now.

444
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,000
I mean, we did a lot of training.

445
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,000
We did a lot of training.

446
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,000
We did a lot of training.

447
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,000
But that was with the minivan.

448
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:15,000
This is a big rig.

449
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:17,000
All right, you ready? Let's do it.

450
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,000
All right, man. I'll see you on the other side.

451
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:20,000
It was nice knowing.

452
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:24,000
What's not nice knowing is if the rig has to stop suddenly,

453
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:29,000
Grant will have three one-hundredths of a second to react, faster than the blink of an eye.

454
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,000
Two, one, go.

455
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:33,000
Okay, here we go.

456
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,000
We can't even see Grant.

457
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:36,000
Just hit 55.

458
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:38,000
Watch your 20, little buddy.

459
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:40,000
We're at the end of the road.

460
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,000
We're three feet out and closing.

461
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,000
Just bringing it on in.

462
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,000
We are locked into the two-truck.

463
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:50,000
Oh, you are totally in our blind spot.

464
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,000
Completely riding us.

465
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:56,000
Matt at the wheel of the big rig can't see Grant's vehicle at all.

466
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,000
That is crazy.

467
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,000
Yeah, boy.

468
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,000
We just crossed it.

469
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,000
Yes, we got it.

470
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,000
Woo!

471
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,000
Oh, my God.

472
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,000
That was crazy.

473
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,000
How much gas am I going to save?

474
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,000
Well, the result comes with a twist.

475
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:19,000
Up until now, every time Grant's vehicle moved close to the road,

476
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,000
it was a little bit of a mess.

477
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,000
It was a little bit of a mess.

478
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,000
It was a little bit of a mess.

479
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,000
It was a little bit of a mess.

480
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,000
I was right behind the twist.

481
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,000
Up until now, every time Grant's vehicle moved closer,

482
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,000
fuel efficiency increased.

483
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,000
But at two feet, it went down.

484
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:39,000
The fuel economy actually dropped off a little bit.

485
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:43,000
And I think the reason was there was such little air drag at that point.

486
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,000
It was so hard to keep that two-feet distance

487
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,000
that you were always kind of feathering the throttle,

488
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:50,000
getting on the throttle, backing off.

489
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,000
And so that actually hurts fuel economy

490
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,000
when at a really steady foot.

491
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,000
So apart from nervous footwork

492
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,140
on the accelerator when Grant drove like a maniac,

493
00:29:59,140 --> 00:30:02,520
it looks like drafting, as dangerous as it is,

494
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:05,480
does improve fuel efficiency after all.

495
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:09,160
But really, it's just not worth risking your life for.

496
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:11,120
Ah!

497
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:12,860
Dude, nice job.

498
00:30:12,860 --> 00:30:14,400
You got nerves of steel.

499
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:16,560
Thanks, you know, it was really intense,

500
00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:18,100
but we got a great result.

501
00:30:18,100 --> 00:30:20,360
You know what, surprisingly, at two feet behind the truck,

502
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:22,560
it was less fuel efficient because it's so difficult

503
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:25,240
trying to keep that distance between you and the truck.

504
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:27,600
That difficult and crazy.

505
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:30,840
But did you know that even driving at 100 feet is dangerous?

506
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:33,280
Our researchers found that at 55 miles an hour,

507
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:35,680
the minimum safe stopping distance you should allow

508
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:37,000
is 150 feet.

509
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:38,520
All right, so what are we going to call this one?

510
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:40,720
I think we have to call this one confirmed.

511
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,280
You do say fuel drafting behind a big rig.

512
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:46,560
But it's absolutely not worth your life.

513
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:56,400
You think what Grant did was crazy?

514
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:58,880
Wait till you see me draft behind a big rig on my bicycle.

515
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:01,240
Go to discovery.com slash mythbusters.

516
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:03,640
Check it out.

517
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:04,800
Up next.

518
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:06,440
Gentlemen, start your engines.

519
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:09,800
The night riding rubber meets the road.

520
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:11,280
Adam, be careful, brother.

521
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:12,280
It's like.

522
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:22,560
Incredibly, Adam and Jamie have had reason to doubt the hawk.

523
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:26,560
They're questioning the signature stunt from his night rider days.

524
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:29,560
Can you really drive up the ramp of a moving big rig,

525
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:31,560
or is it a mythical maneuver?

526
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,560
To find out, they followed Carrie Grant and Tori

527
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:37,560
to the Madras test track in Oregon.

528
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,560
So we've already done this test in small scale in the shop,

529
00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:42,560
and the small scale test really made it clear

530
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:44,560
that this might actually be feasible,

531
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,560
that the car's inertia would keep it from doing what we thought it might do

532
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:49,560
in the worst case scenario, which is to shoot up that ramp

533
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:52,560
and like right into the big rig in a terrible wreck.

534
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,560
So we've come here to try it out full scale

535
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:57,560
and see if we can do it safely.

536
00:31:57,560 --> 00:31:58,560
It's a simple recipe.

537
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:02,560
Take one big rig, one 1980s sports car,

538
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:05,560
and ramp them up at highway speeds.

539
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:09,560
And not just any ramp, Adam and Jamie have custom built their own.

540
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:12,560
After all, it's their lives at stake.

541
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:14,560
And not an inch to spare.

542
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:16,560
The ramp seems like it's perfect.

543
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,560
It seems to be just long enough to do the job

544
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:23,560
and not really hit much on the car.

545
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:29,560
It does a little bit, but it seems like it clears everything just barely.

546
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:30,560
So I think we're good to go.

547
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:33,560
We're hoping to get up to highway speeds, but we're going to start slow.

548
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:36,560
30, 35 miles an hour is what the first test is going to be at.

549
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:38,560
If that works, then we go to 55.

550
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:42,560
The question now is who will be first in the driver's seat?

551
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,560
If Adam doesn't die during this experiment,

552
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,560
or maybe if he does, then I'll have to have a go.

553
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:51,560
But at any rate, Adam will be the first guinea pig,

554
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:53,560
and if it seems okay, I'll go in.

555
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:58,560
So Adam, the human guinea pig, suits up for the 35 mile an hour run.

556
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:04,560
And with just one successful bench test and a 1980s TV show to go on,

557
00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:07,560
they're taking no chances with safety.

558
00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:10,560
There's still a lot that can go wrong,

559
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:14,560
which is why we've done a bunch of safety procedures to make this as safe as possible.

560
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:17,560
One, we've added a roll cage into this car.

561
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:22,560
Two, we've added a five point safety harness so that if I roll, I'm not going anywhere.

562
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,560
And finally, I'm wearing a helmet.

563
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:26,560
This is it. Test time.

564
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:28,560
Gentlemen, start your engines.

565
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:34,560
But just as they get underway, it starts raining, making the road and ramp slick.

566
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:37,560
It's a challenge, just that little bit tougher.

567
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,560
While Adam is driving up into the back of this truck, hopefully,

568
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,560
I'm going to be driving right alongside with Mike,

569
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:47,560
who will be coaching Adam in case he sees something going wrong.

570
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:50,560
Adam accelerates, approaching his target speed.

571
00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:53,560
We're at 25, going to 30.

572
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:56,560
We're at 35 miles an hour.

573
00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:59,560
He takes his time getting precisely in line with the rent.

574
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,560
And when he's close enough, Mike gives him the cue.

575
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:04,560
OK, let's go for it.

576
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:10,560
Look at that.

577
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:14,560
Well done. Well done.

578
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:18,560
The high speed camera captures the crucial moment.

579
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,560
As the wheels hit the ramp, they slow down significantly,

580
00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,560
which is where the clever science bit comes in.

581
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:29,560
Any object in motion has a tendency to maintain a constant velocity.

582
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:33,560
This law of inertia acts against the acceleration of the car

583
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:37,560
as it hits the stationary ramp, slowing the car to a crawl

584
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:40,560
and giving Adam plenty of time to stop.

585
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:42,560
That worked beautifully.

586
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:44,560
That was a cinch.

587
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:46,560
That was so easy.

588
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:48,560
Which means there's only one thing for it.

589
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:50,560
They're going the whole hop.

590
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:52,560
I feel like I'm ready to go to 60.

591
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:54,560
Well, let's make it 55.

592
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,560
That's the legal speed limit, I think, on these things.

593
00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:58,560
Perfect. Let's do it.

594
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:02,560
Making it safely up that six foot gap at 55 miles per hour

595
00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:05,560
is a tougher proposition than 35

596
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,560
and the rain is coming down harder.

597
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:10,560
Let's do it.

598
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:14,560
Adam guns the engine and hits the speed ceiling quickly.

599
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:16,560
At 55 right now.

600
00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:18,560
Hold it 30 at 55.

601
00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:21,560
Jamie and Mike are once again in support

602
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:24,560
unless he crashes, then he's on his own.

603
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:27,560
Adam, are you on? Be careful, brother.

604
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:33,560
Look at that.

605
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:35,560
Good job.

606
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:40,560
Once again, Adam made it look easy.

607
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:43,560
The increased velocity didn't change a thing.

608
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,560
The wheels hit the ramp, the cars inertia prevents

609
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:50,560
any crazy acceleration, and Adam parts it.

610
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,560
Nice, man. Good job.

611
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:54,560
Great. Awesome.

612
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:56,560
Dude, that was scary.

613
00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:58,560
Yeah, that was pretty...

614
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:01,560
I was a little nervous there watching you do that.

615
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:04,560
With the myth confirmed, there's only one thing left to do.

616
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:06,560
It's Jamie's turn.

617
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:08,560
This is Jamie. I'm good to go.

618
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:12,560
And he's going to prove that whatever Adam can do...

619
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:15,560
Holding...

620
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:18,560
he can do backwards.

621
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:25,560
Nice work, Heinemann.

622
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:28,560
Move over the half.

623
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:30,560
The Heinemann is here.

624
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:34,560
So the truck ramp, night rider sequence all worked like a charm.

625
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,560
I mean, we were able to do everything we tried to do.

626
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:40,560
Absolutely. You know, one of the things I love most about doing this show

627
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:44,560
is the weird skills we get to learn like stunt driving.

628
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:47,560
I don't know when I'm going to have a chance to use it next,

629
00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:49,560
but it's nice to know how to do.

630
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:51,560
Exactly. And the night rider ramp drive up?

631
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:53,560
Totally confirmed.

632
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:55,560
It worked, confirmed.

633
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:00,560
Coming right up.

634
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:02,560
How you doing, buddy?

635
00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:07,560
Ballistics Buster feels the full force of the exploding Tire of Death.

636
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:18,560
There's no doubt about it.

637
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:21,560
Tires can provide hours of entertainment.

638
00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:26,560
But can these innocent rubber donuts become lethal killing machines?

639
00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:30,560
Well, not if the Biffbusters are anything to go by.

640
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:34,560
Their dynamometer tests sure burnt some rubber.

641
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:38,560
But Buster came out unscathed.

642
00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:42,560
I have to admit, I'm disappointed.

643
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:47,560
I really wanted to see our rig make a truck tire fail under pressure at highway speeds.

644
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:51,560
Well, you know, I felt the same way at first too, but after thinking about it,

645
00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:56,560
the tire disintegrated exactly the way it would on the highway at those speeds.

646
00:37:56,560 --> 00:38:00,560
The only thing we really did not get while we were out there

647
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:04,560
was seeing an impact from some of those frags into a dummy.

648
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:06,560
Suppose that's what we do now.

649
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:10,560
We take our biggest chunk of rubber, we calculate the speed it left our rig at,

650
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:14,560
and here in the shop we fire it at that speed into a head

651
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:16,560
and see what kind of damage it would do.

652
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:20,560
Okay, I think we can modify the same rig that we had to do specifically that

653
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:23,560
to aim it right at a head and then we'll know whether it works or not.

654
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:25,560
I think it's a terrific way to finish this up.

655
00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:27,560
Alright, let's do it.

656
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:29,560
Terrific indeed.

657
00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:35,560
The plan is to hoist up the pickup truck and sit the drive wheel on another freely spinning wheel.

658
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:40,560
Then a piece of big rig tire will be placed between the wheels.

659
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:45,560
And when the pickup revs up, the tire will be shot out the other side towards Buster.

660
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:51,560
So fresh from the mud, the pickup is driven into place.

661
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:55,560
Looks good, looks good.

662
00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:57,560
Looks good.

663
00:38:58,560 --> 00:38:59,560
I'm here for you buddy.

664
00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:00,560
Okay.

665
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:05,560
An upturned trailer will provide the lower spin wheel for their rubber chucker.

666
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:10,560
Adam and Janie slide it into place beneath the pickup truck.

667
00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:12,560
I swear this is the perfect height.

668
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:17,560
One thing we need to remember is the proclivity of your forklift to drift.

669
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:21,560
So we'll want to put one of those farm stands underneath it or something.

670
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:28,560
So Janie welds some crossbars for stability and their rough and ready rubber chucker is up and running.

671
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:31,560
This whole thing is another lesson in not messing around.

672
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:35,560
I mean we have a trailer, we have a truck, we got power, we have wheels.

673
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:41,560
Let's just kind of like put one here, put one there and we'll shoot some tire rubber.

674
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:46,560
Adam is going to be the driver in charge of the speed at which the wheels spin.

675
00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:50,560
Twenty, twenty five, thirty.

676
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:57,560
And when he hits forty, Janie will feed a strip of rubber that came off their earlier big rig blowout between the wheels.

677
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:00,560
Forty.

678
00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:02,560
Oh.

679
00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:05,560
A hole in one on their test board.

680
00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:08,560
Adam can barely contain himself.

681
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:16,560
Wow, there's nothing left but to get this test set up with the head and just go.

682
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:18,560
That is awesome.

683
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:24,560
This one was going forty miles an hour which is by the best math that we could do on its trajectory and the height it went in the air

684
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:29,560
about how fast that piece of rubber was going when it left our truck out at the ramp.

685
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:35,560
So if this beheads the guy, I'd say this myth is confirmed.

686
00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:43,560
The human analog for the beheading guy has been molded from ballistics gel with a pink spine neck bone.

687
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:45,560
Look at that.

688
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:47,560
Let's grant with a spine.

689
00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:50,560
How you doing buddy?

690
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:54,560
Adam and Janie place him directly in the path of the tire belt.

691
00:40:54,560 --> 00:41:03,560
We've seen that there's a lot of energy contained in these tires when they're spinning and if they disintegrate they can throw pieces of themselves at high velocity.

692
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:11,560
So this test is going to see whether these tires can penetrate a car window, whether they can actually break someone's neck.

693
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,560
That's effectively what the myth is about.

694
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:19,560
With the potential power of this rig, Adam and Janie are taking things to the extreme.

695
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:30,560
Gone is biker buster and instead they'll be firing a tire belt at forty miles per hour through a car window at the driver's head.

696
00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:34,560
Okay, well let's fire the truck up and see what this puppy will do.

697
00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:36,560
Right.

698
00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:48,560
Thirty five, thirty, thirty five, go!

699
00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:57,560
Wow! That was awesome dude!

700
00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:02,560
Amazingly an almost total headlock, first time at the plate.

701
00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:03,560
His neck is broken.

702
00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:05,560
Oh he's killed, he's completely dead.

703
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:08,560
Well, pulled his spine out of his head.

704
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:15,560
Anyone coming upon this scene of an accident would say the body was beheaded.

705
00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:22,560
And any chances for recovery are going, going, gone.

706
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:26,560
Viewed on high speed, the force of the impact is frightening.

707
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:32,560
And it's clear that the only driving our ballistics gel dummy would be doing is in a hearse.

708
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:34,560
Oh, it's a perfect hit.

709
00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:36,560
That's a hit, oh my god.

710
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:38,560
I mean it's just, it's like there's nothing there.

711
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:44,560
Final wrap up, what's the verdict on exploding truck tires?

712
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:47,560
There's not really any two ways about it.

713
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:51,560
If this thing hits you at forty miles an hour or some other highway speed,

714
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:53,560
make it cut your head off.

715
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:54,560
It's confirmed.

716
00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:56,560
I totally agree, confirmed.