That’s gotta hurt. MINI Countryman nose-dives during 360-foot world-record jump

By Joe Mahan Published March 24, 2014

Careening through houses, thumping down stairs, and slipping onto trains are not the only crazy stunts MINIs are capable of. Everything has to be bigger and better, in order to satisfy some strange human lust for seeing small hatchbacks fly through the air.

Tanner Foust set the Guinness World Record in 2011 with an outrageous 332-foot jum p. Foust, however, chose a flying truck instead of a MINI Countryman. So what on earth was going through professional skier and French rally driver Guerlain Chicherit’s mind when he attempted this stunt?

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Last year Chicherit successfully preformed a back flip in a MINI. The entire car rotated around the engine in midair perfectly. You’d think the team would realize same thing could happen when jumping the Countryman. After all, the four-door MINI has most of its mass up front.

In a bid to beat Tanner Foust, the French rally driver tried to fly an incredible 360 feet. In the video below, you can see Chicherit nearly stick the landing, but the Countryman takes a sever and sudden nose dive. A MINI might look like it can fly, but I wouldn’t wager BMW engineered for flight. Thankfully Chicherit escaped unharmed but went to the hospital for safety measures.

Hopefully the next attempt will be a success; it would be nice to see the king of Hot-Wheels finally get “Fousted”.

Joe Mahan is an intern at Digital Trends working in the Cars section. He is currently a Junior at the University of Portland…

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