When it comes to coolest jobs, it’s hard to beat Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters.” The show’s cohosts got their start developing special effects for Hollywood movies, then advanced to television stardom with the popular show. Every episode brought the chance to try another wacky stunt.
More than a few episodes of “Mythbusters” centered on cars — not surprising when you consider all the rumors and myths involving our four-wheeled friends. As a car enthusiast, you understand these are, naturally, the show’s finest moments. But which car videos are the cream of the crop?
Escape a Sinking Car
This myth is one that, like many others, has been replicated in countless silver-screen outtakes. It’s fun to see the Mythbusters take on this myth, since the team at “Top Gear” nearly killed host Richard Hammond attempting it.
Adam Savage’s attempt retains the same dramatic feel as the “Top Gear” test. What’s the outcome? You’ll have to check out the video to find out.
Chain Fence Car Crash
Cars drive through chain-link fences on TV all the time, but does the stunt actually work out in real life? As evidenced by the show’s carefully planned test, you can indeed drive a car through a fence, but you might have to deal with the airbags deploying afterward.
Curiously, they didn’t take into account how things might have gone with a more heavy-duty fence, some of which can stop an 18-wheeler going over 60 mph.
JATO 3 Rocket Car
If you’re a fan of the Darwin Awards, you may have heard the story of a man who strapped a military-grade rocket to his car and took to the sky — at least for a short while. For the record, he was only trying to go fast on the road.
The Mythbusters team are always at their best when there are rockets involved, so when it comes to driving a rocket car, you know they’re up to the test.
Drive a Car on Moonshine Fuel
It seems to make sense that if race cars run on pure alcohol, your grocery-getter will do just fine running on ‘shine. But do the host of computers and sensors that come in a modern fuel system keep new cars from burning the firewater?
In a car-savvy move we approve, they test the fuel in both older, carbureted cars and late-model cars with computerized fuel injection. Which do you think runs better?
“Knight Rider”
There are lots of things from the classic ‘80s show “Knight Rider” that probably deserve to be questioned, but the famous stunt where Michael pilots KITT up the ramp of a moving big-rig truck is the archetype for many other similar stunts.
The team manages to replicate Michael’s super-stud maneuver flawlessly at increasingly high speeds, keeping the semi-truck-commandeering dreams of countless Gen-Xers intact. The only way to make this stunt better would have been to replace the ‘80s-era Camaro with a KITT replica.