If they ever get round to making a sequel to Michael Caine’s seminal 1969 caper The Italian Job, they would be well-advised to talk to daredevil stunt driver Guerlain Chicherit. Just in case you haven’t seen it, the film includes a classic scene involving three Mini Coopers criss-crossing Turin as part of an audacious gold heist.
In this clip, Chicherit pulls off a world-first with an astounding backflip in a specially adapted modern Mini Cooper, using a seriously tight ramp located somewhere out in the in the frigid snowscape of Tignes, France. Without stretching the imagination too much, surely this could fit into our hypothetical The Italian Job Two somehow. Escaping the Swiss Alps with a boot full of priceless artworks, maybe?
As a rally driver and professional freeride skier, Frenchman Chicherit is perhaps uniquely well placed to tackle this challenge. He’s been competing in the Dakar rally since 2009, and prior to that won no fewer than four freeriding world championships. But even by those standards, this is incredible.
The level of planning and team work that went into this must have been enormous, as demonstrated by the crowd of cheering engineers who flock to the car once it has successfully landed. And you can understand why – this is action movie stuff, but for real. Then again, who needs CGI when you’ve got professionals of this calibre backflipping classic British motors like it’s a typical day at the office? Have a look for yourself, and see what possible cinematic scenarios you can come up with.