If you happened to be the area of Blaenau Ffestiniog in (obviously) Wales recently, you might have been treated to an unusual aerial display.
It wasn’t the Red Arrows, or the Blue Angels, or even the Snowbirds. No, it was a Ford Fiesta, wearing the colors of the Daysure Wales Rally GB. In an event intended to promote the rally, the FIA World Rally Championship and local adventure tourism, one brave hatchback took to the skies.
This particular stunt took place at the Llechwedd Slate Caverns. The visitor attraction will be part of the UK’s round of the WRC for the first time this year, dubbed “The Slate Mountain” stage.
It’s also the location of Zip World Titan, the longest zip line in Europe. The four-line attraction in the heart of Snowdonia has visitors sliding down at up to 125mph, from a start height at more than 1,700ft. Or, instead of four people, one person driving a rally car.
Ben Taylor, managing director of Dayinsure Wales Rally GB, comments:
“To promote the thriving adventure sports destinations in north Wales which, of course, includes the World Championship rally, our original thoughts were to put some of the top drivers down the zip wire… but, together with those at Zip World and our title partners at Dayinsure, we all got a bit carried away.”
Fortunately Dayinsure specializes in short-term car insurance. That said, we’re not sure what category of use this would fall into, or what the resulting claim would look like.
Taking driving duties for the stunt was Matt Edwards. Edwards is currently leading the British Rally Championship, so he’s used to a bit of air time in a rally car.
Did he really drive the car down the line? We’re not convinced, especially as the car seems to switch wheels in the air and has a serious case of one-sided toe-in… You can judge for yourself with the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-EtezV3hKM
