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A short documentary has been released by Jaguar on its latest offering, the Jaguar E-Pace, detailing how its engineers brought a perilous barrel roll stunt from concept to reality.
The stunt, which took six months to produce, was over in just 1.5 seconds when the E-PACE was revealed to the world at London’s ExCeL on Thursday, July 13 and Jaguar leapt into GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ history with its new performance SUV for the furthest barrel roll in a production vehicle. Over a million people* watched the stunt within the first week online.
Graham Wilkins, Chief Engineer of the Jaguar E-PACE, said: “It’s in an engineer’s nature to want to continually improve. We asked ourselves ‘how do we better the F-PACE loop’, which was spectacular. The next natural evolution for Jaguar was to push the car to leave the ground.”
The film documents the challenges the engineers and stunt team encountered to ensure the 270-degree: long barrel roll was completed successfully, as well as recording the computer-generated data that kicked off the development of the stunt.
The E-PACE withstood an impressive 33 test jumps, with only minor safety modifications – including the fitment of a roll cage –made to the vehicle. Its strong and stiff body, which is comprised of boron steel and aluminium, ensured the car easily withstood the extreme durability testing.
The feat, inspired by cinema’s most iconic car stunt, was overseen by experienced stunt personnel, including veteran stunt co-ordinator Gary Powell and Terry Grant, the stuntman behind the wheel and holder of a further 21 ‘officially-amazing’ GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ titles. These include the spectacular GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title setting loop-the- loop in 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y64JhPtpicA
Terry Grant, the stunt driver, said: “As far as I am aware, no production car has ever cleanly completed a bonafide barrel roll and therefore it has always been an ambition of mine to perform one ever since I was a boy. After driving the Jaguar F-PACE in the record-breaking loop-the-loop, it has been amazing to help launch the next chapter of the PACE family in an even more dramatic dynamic feat.”
The Jaguar E-PACE is a five-seat, compact SUV that packs the design and performance of a Jaguar sports car into a spacious, practical and connected all-wheel-drive vehicle.
The E-PACE is the newest member of Jaguar’s SUV family, joining the ground-breaking all-electric I-PACE Concept and the 2017 World Car of the Year, the Jaguar F-PACE.
