On Saturday, Top Gear broke a world record by performing the first double loop in a car. As nothing exploded, no sarcastic comments were heard as the vehicle made its loops and it didn’t crash, we can be safe to assume it wasn’t Clarkson, Hammond or May driving.

According to Top Gear:

To defy gravity not once but twice, the buggy had to enter each loop at between 24mph and 26mph. Too little speed and the buggy would fall out at the top of the loop, with fairly grim results. Too much speed would have resulted in an extra G of force on the driver and could have caused him to black out.

When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound very dangerous. More James May than The Stig. Clarkson himself was very excited, saying, “It was quite remarkable . . . I’m just glad no one asked me to do it.” The double loop was part of the Top Gear Live performance at Moses Mabhida Stadium in front of 15 000 people. Although I am sure this was indeed a death-defying maneuver, one can’t help but feel they were always going to nail it. I’m sure they had tried this numerous times before, and it ends up looking more choreography, than Evel Knievel.

[Source: Top Gear]