This video is pretty butt-clenchingly terrifying, with the driver seeming to pass out cold as his Mustang keeps tearing ass forward, through a fence and across a field, until, thankfully, the guy finally wakes up and stops the car. But something seems a bit off about all this — was this genuine, or an elaborate and dangerous stunt?
We were sent this link by a number of readers, and I’ll be the first to admit it’s gripping video. But it’s almost too well-staged — unlike most dashcam videos, this camera doesn’t seem to be on the dash at all — it seems to be mounted just left of the seat’s headrest. Such a location would be pretty terrible for actually having in the car or using as a dashcam, but is ideal if you want to clearly show a driver’s unconscious head lolling around.
The forward progress of the car after the driver passes out seems to be explained by the driver putting the cruise control (though, if the car is on cruise control, wouldn’t its speed not vary quite so much?) on at about 0:06 in, and while the driver doesn’t steer, as such, the car continues into an area that, while not a road, isn’t filled with genuinely life-threatening obstacles.
You can see the camera setup in the side mirror: that doesn’t really look like a normal dashcam setup to me:
So, if this was, in fact, a setup, why would someone do something so dangerous, and cause such damage to their car? I’m not certain, but maybe we can learn something from how the driver himself describes the video:
Previously unknown medical condition caused a crash on 4/2/2015. I have never passed out in 26 years, but suddenly passed out. Sorry about disabling the comments, but the trolls got really bad. Media inquiries please see break.com, as Defy Media has acquired rights to this video. God Bless.
“Defy Media has acquired rights to this video.” Does that mean money was made from this? That’s a pretty powerful motivator to do stupid shit. The comments being blocked is a bit suspicious as well, but this is YouTube after all — it’s not like you have to do a lot of explaining about why you may not be crazy about the comments.
Perhaps this is all genuine, in which case we can all be happy this guy wasn’t hurt and hope he gets the medical help he needs. But I’m not exactly convinced, still. The setup, the shot, the relatively minor repercussions, the sale of the rights — all this sort of smells funny.
What do you think, clever collective Jalopnik hive mind?