Ben Collins Stunt Driver

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1

Great job guys, nice fall.

Ah, lovely. Didn't need that one.

- Thanks a lot.

- Thanks, Ben.

Ah, cheers, Andy. Sweet, thanks.

I'm Ben Collins. I've been a stunt driver

on Batman, Bond, Fast and Furious.

I've also played

the masked racing driver

on a popular motoring

programme called Top...

Hello, Ben.

Thanks for joining me

at such short notice.

Oh, it's, it's an absolute pleasure.

Uh, do you not think this

would be easier on the phone?

You will soon understand

the need for precautions.

Yep, you're a known paranoid and, uh...

We've known each other

for years, anyway.

- And you're certain of this?

- Your name's Barry.

You're the psychotic stunt coordinator,

uh, whose got, sort of this massively

overblown sense of secrecy.

I brought you here because I need someone

with a very specific set of skills.

Okay, go on.

It's a high-profile feature film

that requires a high-speed car chase.

Well, you have cable-tied

the right man for the job.

The scene is set

at a high-security weapons store,

at a top secret location,

manned by heavily-armed mercenaries.

Some of the guards hear

the sound of an engine roaring to life,

and our hero car,

with you driving, naturally,

leaps up from an underground bay

and the chase is on.

The guards, realising

it's a rogue vehicle,

open fire on the car

that's racing through the weapons store,

avoiding other vehicles and gun fire.

Armed with blanks?

In the main, yes.

- In the main?

- With the alarm raised...

A guard triggers

the electric gate to seal the facility.

You, in the hero car, must make it

through before the gates close.

Providing you get through,

you'll begin to make your escape

off-road around the outer

perimeter of the store.

After avoiding further gunfire,

you will then be pursued by a 4x4.

This means that the hero car

must run well off-road.

Okay, I think I can handle that.

Could you just rewind

to the part about the blanks?

Once you have made your way

onto the main road,

the car needs the speed

to outrun the 4x4.

After this, you'll then

be pursued by two further vehicles,

yet to be decided by the director.

Any idea what they are, or...

The last attack will be from the air,

either by plane, helicopter

or by attack drones.

Naturally, the aircraft will be armed.

With blanks?

The feature film is set in

the present day, so no old stuff.

You have 48 hours to get out there

and find me the perfect car

for this stunt.

Great. You've got yourself

a stunt driver.

Now, although Barry the stunt

coordinator's recruitment techniques

are a bit unorthodox, to say the least,

he does have an exciting mission.

But it's quite a tough one

because it's not that straightforward,

picking a car that performs

just as well off-road as it does on it.

And, I'll tell you now,

I'm not picking an SUV.

They claim to be masters

of everything, but really,

they don't do anything that well.

And the other thing that is playing

on my mind is this aerial attack,

because whether it's

a plane, a heli or a drone,

all of them have a massive top speed,

and I need something that can outrun it.

But I do know a place

where top speed is almost unlimited.

This is Rockingham Motor Speedway,

a 1 .5-mile piece of Americana

that looks like it crash landed in the

middle of the English countryside.

This seven-degree banked super speedway

is the fastest of its kind in Europe.

But, it's not just the track that makes it

feel like you're in the deep south.

Because Rockingham has a fleet

of America's greatest gift

to the motorsport world,

NASCARs.

Born out of the days of moonshiners,

running illegal whisky at high speed

across the southern states.

It's now a multibillion dollar

global motorsport empire.

Now, the secret of NASCAR's

success is its sheer simplicity.

Because, here I am, sitting

inside a space frame cage,

basically covered in steel sheeting.

Up front is a bellowing

V8 push rod engine

that kicks out 600 horsepower,

slaved to the rear axle

by this gigantic prop shaft.

It sits on these great,

big Goodyear bags of rubber

that's gluing me to the track

when I wind the engine up.

Given an open stretch,

easily I can bust it past 200.

And that's enough to keep

a helicopter or a drone

or pretty much whatever it is

that is coming at me

from an aerial attack, on its toes.

Gonna get the hammer down, baby!

Shake and Bake! Shake and Bake!

I just love this car.

It reminds me of the good

old days I had here

racing in the ASCAR series,

when I won the European championship,

and set the lap record,

which still stands.

So, this NASCAR has super speed,

so it gets a massive tick in the box,

in terms of evading aerial attack.

And it can maintain

those speeds for extended periods,

so, another important tick there.

The only thing that is troubling me,

when I'm travelling in a straight line,

I have to turn the steering

wheel quite a long way to the right.

That's because this car is built

to turn left and kind of only left.

So, what I'm gonna do is

take it onto the infield

and see how it fares when I turn right.

It's so unstable

and the brake pedal is so stiff.

Jeez.

Okay, that wasn't very good

or dignified.

The brakes just aren't

designed to be leant on that hard,

because you hardly brake on the oval.

Because the wheels are pointing

the wrong way, when I turn right,

you just get this massive understeer,

touch the throttle

and the back end lights up,

because the axle's pointing

the wrong way as well.

It's like driving, I don't know...

A wheelie bin.

Here we go.

There's another tight hairpin.

I'm dreading this.

Keep turning, keep turning,

nothing's happening.

I think I'll be doing that all day long.

I love this baby, but I think I'll have

to retire it and find something else.

Something like that looks pretty nice.

Now, I know Barry said no old cars,

but if it was good enough for Steve

McQueen in Bullitt, it'd be rude not to.

Now, this is a bit more like it!

A proper American muscle car.

The 1965 Ford Mustang was built to

chew up road courses like this one.

Now I should have no problem

tackling a few lefts and rights.

I love these old cars.

You can feel the heritage of it.

You can smell the leather.

You can smell some gasoline,

actually, to be honest.

You've got lots of movement in the Tyre

that, really, you can embrace it

and drive the car to its limit.

I drove a car just like this one

in Fast and Furious,

chasing through the streets of London.

Now, that high-pitched

sound you're hearing

is the inside wheel spinning,

so there's obviously...

There's no lock diff

in the back putting traction

through both rear tyres, which is

not good for making forward progress.

It's, uh, pretty spongy

and not really that stable,

and the jelly-like suspension...

Well, you can't exactly say

it corners like it's on rails.

Oh!

It's all right, granddad.

The beauty of the '65 Mustang, though,

is it does look the part,

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