Ben Collins Stunt Driver Page #3

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I think I'm gonna have to do

some serious research.

This is the Extra 300

aerobatic stunt plane.

Powered by

a 300 brake horsepower engine,

it has a top speed

in excess of 250 miles per hour.

But it's the sheer manoeuvrability

and handling of this thing that makes it

the F1 car of air race planes.

And this one has been

fitted with two seats.

I think you can probably

see where this is going.

My wingman for the day

is former RAF fast jet pilot

Mark Greenfield.

With over 20 years of

aerobatics coaching under his belt,

including a stint running the world-famous

Empire Test Pilot school,

he's a real-life top gun.

- Are you ready?

- I'm ready. Let's do it.

Okay, power's coming on.

So, that's us airborne.

That did not take long, did it?

No, not at all.

Once airborne, Mark doesn't hesitate

to show me what the plane can do.

Ah...

I hate you already.

Well, I admit I was, uh...

Obviously the whole reason

of coming up here is to try and gauge

how I'm going to fare in a car

against something in the air.

And, uh, I'm not sure if I'm feeling

as confident after that.

And things generally

got worse from there.

Oh, my God.

I don't know what just happened,

but I'm glad that it's over.

I was starting to realise

I could be in serious trouble.

But, the whole thing with a car is that

I can stop, whereas you can't.

Well, it depends

what you mean by stopping.

If you can brace yourself and

I'll show you how we'll stop

relative to the ground in three seconds.

I don't know if I'm gonna like this.

Okay, so that's effectively

a right angle turn there.

- Yeah

- And so, the movement

over the ground was...

uh, pretty much 0.

I just feel like

you've got a whole range of tools

with which to punish me

while we're up here, and...

I don't think that I did anything to you

in a former life to justify that.

As it turned out, though,

Mark had been saving the best until last.

The Cravat, a highly-dangerous

aerobatic manoeuvre

which sends the plane into a wild spin,

twisting around and around in the vertical

whilst tumbling at the same time.

Okay, so, we're gonna pull up

gently into the vertical,

and we're about to go direct...

How was that?

I think, what you've done there is,

you've taken a boy's dream

and you've turned that into a nightmare.

I have your best interests at heart,

but I do want to make sure you understand

the capabilities of an aeroplane.

Mark's demonstration has proven to me

just how formidable

this aerial attack might be.

If we reverse the roles,

and you had to choose a car

to get away from an aeroplane,

what would you choose?

Well, I'd want something that

is very manoeuvrable

and very agile

and tight turning circle would be good.

Lots of power and something that's

camouflaged to match its surroundings.

Next, Mark decided to show me

how devastating a strafing run

would be at 250 miles per hour.

Here we go, rolling in.

Wow, that's amazing,

when you see the ground open up like that.

This is quite low!

There's just no denying it.

A plane is faster, more agile

and more lethal than

I could ever have imagined.

If Mark had been hunting me in the plane,

I would have had nowhere to hide.

Well, thank you very much.

I think I've learned

all I need to know about...

An acrobatic, aerobatic

wizard like yourself.

So, I hope I never meet you again.

Cos if you're working for the other

side, I'm in deep trouble.

Oh...

The ground is still moving

under my feet.

- You're a horrible, horrible man.

- It might do that for a little while.

Yeah, I'm not doing that again.

You have one new message.

Ben, I hired you to find me

a car, not a damn plane.

Stop trying to second-guess me.

That just makes me angry.

And trust me, you do not want that.

As unpleasant as that experience was,

it has given me some idea

of what I might be facing out there.

But I need to get on with this

because the clock is ticking.

And it's not helping me

with Barry's anger management issues.

Now, the stunt plane has given me an idea

about the type of car I might want to choose.

I've got one in mind now

for the underground scene

that could fit the bill and just about

give my attackers the slip.

It's 6:
30 in the morning and, as instructed,

I've arrived on foot at this dockside,

where, apparently,

I'll be met by someone, hopefully.

And that someone is Michelle Westby,

a Drift Cup Competitor,

and my guide into the world of drifting,

the motorsport that's

taking the world by storm.

- Hi, Michelle. That's mega.

- Hi.

- Thank you.

- It's a great location...

And great big space. It's just like

San Tropez, but with concrete.

Beautiful location,

lovely smooth surface here...

- Perfect for drifting.

- Excellent.

I've got a first lesson for you as well.

I'm gonna take you over now to meet

the British Drift Champions,

and they're going to

give you quick crash course in drifting.

- Beauty. Cool. Cool.

- Let's go.

So, let me introduce you

to JapSpeed Drift Team and their drivers.

First up, we have Paul "Smokey" Smith,

Super Pro Drift British Champion of 2012

and one of the hardest

competitors on the scene.

Next up, we have Shane Lynch.

Irishman Shane made the switch

from circuit racing

to drifting in 2007 and

has not looked back since.

So, what I've arranged for you

is for Smokey to let you know

all you need to know about drifting.

- Smashing.

- And then you'll be battling it out

with Shane after, whilst me

and Smokey look on and judge a winner.

Sweet, let's do it.

- Smoke.

- All right.

Lovely stuff, good to

meet you, yeah. Brilliant.

Shane. Looks like a biter. So...

But we will tangle later, me and you.

Teach you some manners, boy. Oh, yeah.

Although my day job involves

quite a lot of drifting,

I've never done it competitively.

So I need to know what

the judges are looking for.

That's mega. And what kind of

things are you doing

to sort of, like, unseat the other driver,

cos you're in attack mode.

You're both in a tandem drift

and it's judged by a pair of judges.

So what are they looking for?

Well, they are looking for

general speed around the course.

- It's not a race.

- Yeah.

But they do like to see you going through

the course as fast as you possibly can.

So speed is important,

so it's not all about sliding.

It's not all about sliding.

It's controlling the power

and getting that power to the ground...

Yes, you're spinning the wheels, but you want

to be constantly moving forward.

And what about Shane, then? Do you know

any tricks to making him uncomfortable?

- If you go in and you're on his door...

- Yeah.

...he'll know you mean business.

And I think that could take the win.

- That's mega. Very cool.

- Yeah.

Now, when I do this with Shane,

can I tap him out the way, knock him off?

Don't crash into him,

judges don't like that...

- But you can rub him...

- Is it against the rules?

- Against the rules.

- It's not against my rules.

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