Think about how good those videos of crash tests and ridiculous Top Gear and Mythbusters specials do when they just throw an empty car at a wall as fast as they can. Would you be willing to pay to watch someone safely wreck cars for an hour? I would!
I spend too much of my time trying think of new ways to bring motorsports and car events to the masses. I’ve recently had an epiphany, thanks to this video that has been blowing up on social media recently:
The video is simple - it’s just a crash-testing facility remotely crashing cars into each other at speeds over 100 mph, and it’s fascinating. Check out how that Volvo just disappears on contact with the speeding car!
That’s the basic idea behind my new arena event - just remotely crash some cars.
I can’t help but imagine that if the guys in this video set up some bleachers and a fence a safe distance away from the crash site, threw up a hotdog stand, and put an ad in the paper, they could easily sell some seats to a crowd of people, like me, who just enjoy watching harmless, innocent, “scientific,” carnage.
Take it one step farther and turn it into a public service event, get the local cops involved, and teach the community a good lesson about the consequences of speeding. It’s more comfortable than those gore videos they show in traffic classes, but still gets the idea across.
There are already communities where the police host “Beat the Heat” events at dragstrips, encouraging people to race each other in safe, legal, controlled environments. Why not expand upon that?
Here is the basic set up:
- Your local junk yard car crusher clears some space for the arena - this is the only investment on their part (if they can’t fundraise or get the city on board with funding), which they should make up in ticket sales relatively quickly.
- Make it cool using the seating from all the cars just sitting around, stack them on a hill a safe distance from the crash site, and maybe throw up some screens and a slo-mo camera to display for maximum coolness.
- Your local police organize a demonstration and basic presentation for the event, and narrate the show. “This is your car crashing at 60 mph, 70 mph, ..100 mph!”
- Set up a field-trip deal with the local high schools, getting kids around the driving age to go out and have some fun, while learning a valuable driving lesson.
- Take plenty of video, throw it up on YouTube, and watch the views come trickling in.
I can’t imagine this would be difficult to do. Every community already has existing junk yards, crush yards, not to mention the thousands of demolition derbies, monster truck rallies, etc that already take advantage of the destructive appeal of destroying vehicles.
The only downside is getting it set up, but if you try to bring people in by hitting up social media, your local cars and coffee and other events, and getting the local police and fire departments involved, you can quickly profit. Make it a charity event and have a percentage of proceeds go to helping the local community in some way.
If I had the resources, I’d make it happen - the best I can do is get this article out there and hope somebody takes the bait.
Does your local community host any cool events like this? Are you in a position to possibly set something as crazy as a crash demonstration up? Would you go to one? Let me know in the comments.
Top .gif and first video from www.dtc-ag.ch, second video from Fifth Gear