When you make energy drinks, it's not enough to just sell them to the general public. You have to sponsor crazy activities so people know you're serious about the energy in your drink. Red Bull has a couple of Formula One teams and once made a guy jump out of a space balloon; now Monster Energy had a rally driver do the world's first successful car backflip in a Mini Countryman.
They claim it's the world's first car backflip, anyway. If anyone else out there has evidence that this has been done before, we'd love to see it.
Regardless of who's first or not, this is an amazing achievement by Frenchman Rally Raid world champion Guerlain Chicherit, who spent four years preparing for it. (Here's some footage of him attempting the same stunt earlier this year, perhaps in a practice run.)
Chicherit launched a Mini Countryman into the air, flipped a 360, then landed all four tires onto an 8-meter high snow ramp in southeastern France. He did it twice, according to Monster — once in a private attempt this morning, and later in front of some spectators.
Congratulations, Monsieur Chicherit. You did a stellar job.