As we first reported last month, Travis Pastrana was planning to jump the span of the Boot Key Harbor Bridge in Marathon, Florida while a helicopter hovered underneath. Well, he did it. On July 11th, the helicopter hovered in the span and Travis jumped a car over it. Seems simple enough, but there were a lot of steps taken before he could even get to the stunt.
According to Keysweekly: “The Marathon City Council voted 3-2 to approve the stunt with a list of contingencies, including a load test to ensure the structural integrity of the bridge and a comprehensive operations plan. Negotiations between the parties were spearheaded by Fort Lauderdale-based producer David Wells, who encouraged Hoonigan executives to revisit the idea of the shoot and eventually secured a pledge of $30,000 from the company to be used by the city of Marathon for youth recreation programs.”
For those who don’t follow Pastrana, he actually broke his pelvis back in January doing a parachute stunt in Miami.
The car of choice for this week’s stunt was a 1983 Subaru GL wagon. It’s a 4 cylinder engine, modified, of course, with 862 horsepower, to make the jump at 130 mph. They tested the car at the Opa Locka Airport. In Marathon. The Travis Pastrana Boot Key bridge jump was actually done twice, filming for the “Gymkhana” series.