Awwww. Too Cool to be Real....

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.

AWESOME

The video is sync'd with a google map so as to see the car's progress through Paris. Follow the simple instructions on the left and hang onto your shorts. You can change the map to sat view and zoom in too.

He's up on the sidewalk at one point, goes against traffic on the wrong side of the road, and red lights mean nothing.

A French corespondent tells me that the whole thing was a scam.

Comments from Lelouch prove that the vehicle that carried the camera was his Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9.[1] A picture was released of Lelouch working with the gyro stabilized camera on his Mercedes. This model, which could reach a top speed of 235 km/h, was only available with a 3-speed automatic transmission. Yet, one can hear gear changes up into 5th, with a high-revving engine indicating speeds of well over 200 km/h. Sometimes one can hear the driver miss gears while attempting to shift as fast as possible, something that is impossible with automatic transmission, proving that the sound was dubbed. It is suggested that the sound was dubbed with the noise of Lelouch's 275GTB, which has a corresponding number of gears and a similar engine note.

I and a couple of engineers at the Hughes Helicopter plant, then locatd in Venice, California, analysed it and noted the following:

1) To give an illusion of speed the camera was located just above pavement level. The floors and bottoms of the doors of several moving cars in an adjoining lane and in the right side of the film frame were actually above camera height.
2) Pay attention to how long it took to pass other cars to the driver's right. ... It looked like normal traffic, with the camera car moving at near-normal speed.
3) pay attention to how long it took to approach nearby landmarks such as church steeples, trees, and traffic lights, and finally pass them by.
4) The illusion of speed was enhanced by screaming formula-car engine noises and gear shifts with a dubbed-in sound tract.

Bummer

I measured one stretch at about 6500 - 6750 feet long. The car took 73 seconds to pass along this straightaway...One with no obstructions. He couldn't have been traveling much more than a couple miles over 60mph on a stretch he says he did 140Mph. Coming home from work at 80mph I go 8565 feet in 73 seconds.

Cool tho...