Incredible moment YouTubers drop a CAR 150ft onto the ‘world’s strongest’ trampoline made of steel, Kevlar and 144 garage door springs
- Former NASA engineer Mark Rober teamed up with YouTuber’s How Ridiculous
- They spent six months planning how to best drop the car from 150ft in Australia
- Video shows the white vehicle bouncing on a Kevlar trampoline and flipping off
A former NASA engineer and two YouTubers have teamed up to drop a car 150ft onto ‘the world’s strongest’ trampoline.
Scientist Mark Rober spent six months planning the stunt which ended up involving a two-tonne steel trampoline with a mat made of Kevlar and 144 garage door springs.
In a video of the drop the white vehicle is seen quickly falling and hitting the super-sized creation with a loud thud – but it remarkably stays majorly intact.
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Former NASA engineer Mark Rober and the two Australian YouTubers behind channel How Ridiculous drop a car from 150ft onto a two-tonne steel trampoline in a new stunt
The car bounces off the Kevlar mat (pictured) and crashes into some of the 144 garage door springs during the impressive drop
When the car is dropped from 150ft (44m) it hits the mat slightly off centre and bounces once.
As it comes down the second time the car spins and knocks into the side of the super-sized trampoline, causing the vehicle to spin and fall off the side.
Despite the intense test of the vehicle’s durability it manages to land wheels down and just inches away from a perimeter fence.
The main shell of the car is also mostly intact, with it having lost its bumper and a metal plate under the vehicle as well as having its front lights smashed.
The YouTubers (pictured How Ridiculous) cannot stop smiling as they watch the stunt go well
The YouTuber’s then inspect the trampoline to see if there was any damage done by their incredible stunt.
They find that one of the garage door clips has bent but overall their creation has survived for the next challenge – a boat.
While they’re stood underneath the trampoline one of the YouTubers says: ‘This is where it deforms and won’t go back to its original shape [the garage door springs].
‘We’ve got a few of them that did that. Oh look at this [the Kevlar net]! It’s bent this. That’s one inch steel man. The car must have come down and hit this.’
Everyone is very impressed with the stunt, which must have been reassuring for Mr Rober who before the car fell said: ‘This is legitimately the most nervous I’ve ever beem in 10 years of making videos.’
Mr Rober, who worked on the Curiosity Rover while at NASA and now runs his own YouTube channel, became involved in the project after How Ridiculous issued a challenge in one of their videos.
The car flips over its nose (pictured) and manages to land on its wheels after hitting the ground
The car spins before landing wheels down after the drop which took six months to plan
Back in September 2019 the two Australian YouTubers, who are based in Perth, filmed themselves dropping a 90kg atlas stone from a height, but this destroyed the trampoline.
They then sent out a request to Mr Rober to join them in trying to come up with a way to make a stronger, bigger trampoline for dropping heavy items.
He then started brainstorming ideas with his ‘buddy Josh’ with them ‘doing some math and running the plan through CAD and a dynamic analysis’.
Mr Rober explains: ‘Eventually we settled on a design and sent the build plans to one of their buddies who lives near the tower. And then a few months later all there was left to do was walk to Australia and check in with the guys.’
Mr Rober (pictured) worked on the Curiosity Rover while an engineer at NASA and now runs his own YouTube channel
The video then shows the group looking at the project’s progress in the workshop and Mr Rober picks up the Kevlar mat.
He explains: ‘The mat is made from Kevlar, which is the same stuff bullet proof vests are made from, and the only way to cut it to the right shape was an angle grinder.’
As for the other materials, Mr Rober says: ‘The garage door springs can support about 450 pounds a piece and we have about 144 of them.’
It took the group seven hours to put the trampoline together on site, with them working through the night to get it built.
In the newest video Mr Rober also explains why he’s enjoyed being part of this project so much, telling viewers that it’s been great to use skills from his job.
As well as working at NASA Mr Rober says that until six months ago he worked for four years in Apple’s special projects group.
During this time he used computer programs such as CAD to work out how things will happen before they’re done – key skills for the car drop project.
For the newest video the men decided to record 10 drops from items including a bowling ball, watermelon, the car and a boat.
Scientist Mark designed the super-sized strong trampoline and it was built in Australia (pictured during construction)