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Knight Rider Myth

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The Myth

THIS MYTH WAS FEATURED IN...
Knight Rider MythEpisode 80: Big Rig Myths

Original air date:6/6/2007
Myth Title: Knight Rider Garage


Myth Description: As shown in Knight Rider (& other TV shows/movies), can you drive a car up into the back of a moving big rig?


MythBusters on the bust: Adam & Jamie


Hypothesis: Adam believed that once the car's drive wheel hit the ramp that the car would propel itself into the back of the big rig.


Procedure/Experimental Design: Adam and Jamie first built a small-scale experiment with a remote control scale car and a treadmill. They then aquired a car just like the one used in the television show and attempted to drive it up into the back of a big rig at highway speeds.


Results: It worked! At both speeds:
  • 35 MPH
  • 55 MPH


Conclusion: The law of inertia acts against the car flying forward once landing on the ramp.


Busted or Not Busted: Confirmed
Fan Feedback

Highlights of the bust:

  • Knight Rider!
  • I like how it was an 80s show, and it was episode 80.
  • I would like to see what happens in backing the car out of the semi while in motion!
  • Why was this myth ever in doubt? After all it was performed on the series by stunt drivers all the time. And this was in the days long before CGI. Besides there are video interviews with the stunt drivers who performed it on the season 1 DVDs where they describe how they did it. It was really cool to see it performed on MythBusters though.

Best quotes by the MythBusters:






Your Scientific Method

Did the MythBusters get it right? How would you have busted this myth differently? Share your experiment design for how you would prove/disprove this myth:

  • I would have had Adam get a perm for this myth to see if his hair would stay in place, just like Michael Knights did when he drove off the rig!


  • Well, logically, if the car is going only 5 mph faster than the big-rig, it would not make much velocity when the car hits the ramp. Also once the car is on the ramp, one does not need to drive fast anymore given the car is taken along by the big-rig, much like anything inside a vehicle is being carried along. Now if the car was going say way faster than the big-rig, say 20+ mph more in speed, then I suspect the car would really fly up the ramp into the trailer or much worse maybe get smash up on the ramp itself. So in the end, this stunt can only work if the car is going only a little bit more in speed than the big-rig. Go way faster, and I bet the car will go flying.






See Also

Related myths: ----

Related resources and reference pages: ----




Latest page update: made by OneLife4Music , Feb 4 2008, 4:48 PM EST (about this update About This Update OneLife4Music added conclusion & tweaked description & experiment - OneLife4Music

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Threads

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Started By Thread Subject Replies Last Post
johnf@home This should be called after "The Italian Job", not "Knight Rider" 0 Dec 27 2007, 11:47 PM EST by johnf@home
Thread started: Dec 27 2007, 11:47 PM EST  Watch

This stunt was done in the (original) Italian Job movie, with Minis.
babybry311 knight rider 0 Oct 15 2007, 3:51 AM EDT by babybry311
babybry311
Thread started: Oct 15 2007, 3:51 AM EDT  Watch
i thought the knight rider car in to the trailer myth was cool
2  out of 4 found this valuable. Do you?    
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