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‘Insane Attempt’: Man Wearing Wingsuit Allegedly Launches Himself Off Cliff Using Mini Cooper

Mar. 29, 2012 9:00pm Liz Klimas

We’ve brought you crazy videos of stunts and extreme sports before: men jumping off cliffs in wingsuits; dare devils whipping themselves around a huge rock formation on a giant rope swing; cars hitting nearly 300 MPH.

This next video wraps up almost all these elements into one. The YouTube description for a video entitled “Insane Attempt at Human Flight” says it all: “Man + wingsuit + canyon + MINI. Never done before!”

Watch the new Mini John Cooper Works Countryman tow as what some have described as “a human kite”:

While the footage is jaw-dropping, Business Insider points out that it could be too good to be true:

Sure, the new JCW Countryman blends the superior traction of all-wheel-drive with a turbocharged 1.6-liter engine good for 211 horsepower and 207 pound-feet of torque, but we seriously doubt its fast enough to provide lift for someone in a wingsuit.

Even it it could, panic-stopping your car on dirt just before the edge of a cliff seems like a really bad idea to us, no matter how many times you’ve practiced it. Make even the smallest error, and you’ll be wishing for a wingsuit of your own as you try to climb out of your car in free fall.

While MINI (surprisingly) doesn’t admit that this stunt was faked, we’re pretty sure the wingsuited accomplice is nothing more than an inflatable balloon towed behind the car, or perhaps an artfully-edited bit of CGI. In any case, we’re sure the JCW Countryman can handle just about anything (else) you’d care to throw at it, within reason.

Mini Cooper Used to Launch Man Wearing Wingsuit Over Canyon

Many — including us — were recently fooled by a crafty piece of CGI (computer-generated imagery) that involved a man who built a set of bird wings and used them to fly. In the end, it all turned out to be an elaborately played fake to experiment with using blogs as a story-telling medium. We’ll keep you posted if anything more comes out on this Mini-Cooper-launching-man-in-wingsuit situation.

The new MINI itself is touted as going from 0 to 60 MPH in seven seconds and tops off at 140 MPH.

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Comments (52)

dpurser
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 8:31am
This is obviously a commercial, why post it on The Blaze? Surely there is enough “real news” without resorting to this type of sensationalist pablum. Are we to take The Blaze seriously or is it just an electronic version of supermarket-checkout tabloids?

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- adoerfler
  Posted on March 30, 2012 at 8:40am
  Racing is in our blood? The wingman wins. Perhaps they should choose an opponent that they could beat.
  
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- FreedomPurveyor
  Posted on March 31, 2012 at 6:00pm
  The pop up ads are especially annoying. That alone is usually enough to keep me away from a website.
  
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ThePostman
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 7:58am
I’d do just about anything to avoid ever seeing a volkswagon dealership again – those people are morons. Incompetent morons.

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- drago
  Posted on March 30, 2012 at 8:15am
  What does a volkswagon dealership have to do with a story with a british made minicooper in it?……
  
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- Quasimofo
  Posted on March 30, 2012 at 8:50am
  Actually, the Mini is owned by German BMW now, not England.
  
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Neno
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 6:47am
“Insane Attempt at Human Flight’: Man Wearing Wingsuit Launches Himself Off Cliff in Mini Cooper”

Wouldn’t that be “On top of a Mini Cooper”

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JesusFreak95
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 6:34am
It’s called a COMMERCIAL, Duh! They are supposed to pay you for such coverage.

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- Gonzo
  Posted on March 30, 2012 at 9:19am
  Maybe they did.
  
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Matrix22
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 6:34am
The ending is what ruins it for me and proves it’s just a fake add (although I guess the flying might be real, but it’s doubtful). There’s no possible way that you fling a guy off a cliff, get out, celebrate for a few seconds, then get back in your car, drive down the cliff, and end up beating the guy. It’d be like throwing a football to yourself.

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- PaxInVeritate
  Posted on March 30, 2012 at 12:28pm
  Indeed.
  
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PaxInVeritate
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 5:11am
At least I can say that I and one other wasn’t fooled by the fake winged flight. So with confidence… “Survey says…!” Fake, yet again.

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- PaxInVeritate
  Posted on March 30, 2012 at 6:07am
  Take a look at the third still. The sun casting the shadow for the guy in flight and the Mini appear to be from a slightly different perspective. Even when considering parallax, the shadows still don’t line up right for the same light source. The sun is slightly lower and behind the mini than the guy. At least that’s how I view it.
  
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SpeakUpNow
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 5:03am
I think they should have done this stunt using a Volt. Then the President could have taken credit for it. You know….like he does with drilling oil, job creation, etc.

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Chet Hempstead
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 5:03am
Obviously faked. Look at how many different camera angles there are and how perfectly composed each shot is. Think about how long it takes to set up for each shot, and the odds against getting a perfect shot of the car in motion and the guy gliding through the sky in the background taken from another moving car. Also the driver going fast enough to get down from the mountain to flat ground and ahead of the guy while he’s still in flight is just not possible.

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Latter-Day-Soldier
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 3:02am
If the vid is a fake, than it’s a fake. The music, on the other hand, is awesome.

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climbnjump
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 1:28am
The question was raised in the article, “…but we seriously doubt its fast enough to provide lift for someone in a wingsuit.” The answer is yes, the car is plenty fast enough. It is a standard skydiving wingsuit and will fly just fine with about 75 mph horizontal airspeed . Another poster wondered about the landing. The guy is wearing a parachute – he didn’t attempt to land the wingsuit, he landed the parachute. As far as the car panic stopping just before a cliff… Watch the ad again. He is actually driving almost parallel to the cliff when he stops. He has a large margin of error there. They filmed the car pointed at the cliff edge after the fact. Is the ad fake? I don’t know if it is or isn’t. But it is certainly possible that it’s real.

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- grownup
  Posted on March 30, 2012 at 6:14am
  I used to do this thing where I got my bare motorcycle up well over a hundred miles an hour and laid down on it. The rushing air beneath me floated me clear of the bike. Held onto the hand grips with two fingers. It was just like flying. The lift started at ninety so this stunt is easily doable. And much safer.
  
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The-Monk
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 12:43am
The Mini Cooper might be small but, lets see the same ad using a Smart Car. Now that’s a tiny POS car.

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Slowman101
Posted on March 30, 2012 at 12:24am
Ahhhhhhhh yes. The guy in a wing suit. Makes me wish for a Soviet ZSU 23-4 to properly welcome him.

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yanki161
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 11:53pm
As Reagan said, sort of: “Here we go again.”

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wedgeii
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 10:12pm
fAKE, but nice commercial.

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Paul
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:50pm
o brother

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Zuse
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:46pm
At first I thought it was Obama riding his magic rug to Mecca.

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- Onowicit
  Posted on March 29, 2012 at 10:09pm
  @Zuse
  
  Or Pelosi around the Emerald city.
  
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Secret Squirrel
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:42pm
.
Yes. fake, but good!

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chips1
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:39pm
I know a guy that will do anything, once. I’m going to show this to him. I don’t like him!!!!

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THXll38
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:26pm
Freakin cool commercial.

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clingingtogodandguns
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:24pm
They don’t show the landing, do they.Probably did’nt go well.

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Stoic one
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:21pm
Fake car ad….Mini Cooper.

cute little car

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- Baddoggy
  Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:32pm
  Cute death trap.
  
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Onowicit
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:16pm
As always my first instinct…..shoot it.

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Baddoggy
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:11pm
If you had an accident with an 18 wheeler in that thing you would look like that guy if he hit the side of the mountain.
The forced fuel milegae place on manufacturers have killed a lot of people…The blood is on the enviromental movement wackos hands…How do you feel you murdering @astards??

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lukerw
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:10pm
About 6% of a Group will Deviate from the Normal… as Nature’s way of protecting the Species against a Lemming Plague in the Majority. But, if the 6% were the Sane, tried to test Human Flight, and Succeeded, then they would be Heroes, Not IDIOTS.

LOL :) Go for it, you 6 Percenters!

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cookcountypatriot
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:07pm
phoney

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