Watch C8 Corvette Go Airborne For 110 Ft In Wild Dukes Of Hazzard Stunt

In a spectacle that combined horsepower with audacious ambition, a stock Stars and Stripes-adorned C8 Chevrolet Corvette recently took to the skies, soaring 110 feet through the air at action sports icon Travis Pastrana's "dirt playground" in Maryland. While Pastrana, renowned for his daredevilry in motocross, rally racing, and more, wouldn't pass up an opportunity like this, it was fellow stunt driver Jim York who bravely put the mid-engine sports car to the ultimate (jump) test.

In the video above, the stunt ultimately saw the stock C8, hastily spray-painted with an American flag livery, hurtle towards a thankfully less-hastily made ramp. The goal: clear a 110-foot gap, a distance rarely attempted by a production sports car, let alone one without significant modifications.

The genesis of this airborne Corvette came after Pastrana's victory at Cleetus McFarland's Freedom 500 race, where he won a brand-new C8 Corvette Z06. However, deeming the high-performance Z06 too nice to destroy, Pastrana opted to sell it and acquire a standard C8 for the stunt. 

Pastrana said that there were actually loads of practice as a build up for the final long jump, involving a series of test runs with vehicles like a limo, Subaru BRZ, motocross bike, and an ATV to calculate the optimal speed. Calculations indicated a takeoff speed of around 70 mph would be necessary to successfully clear the chasm. However, the narrow, winding, and bumpy track leading to the ramp presented its own challenges. 

When the moment of truth arrived, Jim York, a seasoned stunt performer himself, wrestled the Corvette down the uneven approach. Despite their calculations, the car only managed to achieve 64 mph at takeoff. The slight deficit in speed led to a nail-biting, albeit successful, landing. The low-slung 490 hp Corvette remarkably survived the impact mostly intact, though the force of the landing was significant enough to deploy the airbags. 

Data recorded by the Corvette's built-in Performance Data Recorder revealed that future attempts with similar results could indeed be repeatable.  Still, the team indicated that improvements could still be made, hinting that the Star Spangled Corvette might yet fly again, with Pastrana at the helm no less.