July 4. America’s Independence Day. It’s not just a good movie, it’s a real-life public holiday and a celebration of the red, white, and blue. In Alaska, it’s also seen as a wonderful day to launch a running automobile off a cliff. Sounds like fun, right?
It’s called the Glacier View 4th of July Car Launch, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. As documented in high-resolution by 1320video on YouTube, it’s a hootenanny of most destructive proportions. Cars are lined up, set running, and they fly right off the edge of a cliff.
What happens next? Well, it’s obvious. They hit the ground and go all smashy-smashy. It’s exactly as rad as it sounds.
The action goes down at the Glacier View River Retreat, a 2-hour drive northeast of Anchorage, Alaska. As reported by Roadtrippers, the tradition dates back to 2005, when the cars were first sent sailing off a 300-foot cliff to the hard ground below.
It was the brainchild of one Arnie Hrncir, who realized his wife’s Volvo was no longer fit for the road. To celebrate America’s independence, he elected to send it plunging to its doom. It was apparently so much fun, it quickly became an annual thing.
The event has continued to grow over the years, even including an aerial component. This year’s running saw the Coast Guard doing flyovers, too. Thousands attended the 2024 event, with a massive record pack of 30 vehicles lined up to crash.
Cars are lined up on the cliff with ratchet straps used to hold the steering straight. Sending them to their flying end is simply achieved by starting the engine and matting the gas with a brick or a piece of lumber.
Some vehicles need further guidance, though. Aside the main runway, there’s a secondary one with a rail system for guidance. This was used to guide a small school bus to its impressive end.
Is it the safest automotive event in the world? Likely not, though spectators are separated from the flying vehicles by a pond to capture any that fly a little farther than expected.
This is what the crowds come for.
Highlights this year included live axles breaking free from pickup trucks, and a former police car going over the edge with lights and sirens blaring. The latter even ended up on fire after a tidy landing in the pond. An RV with a speedboat on a trailer was also quite a sight in the air.
Cleanup is a highly manual job, as the hosts have shared on Facebook. Machines descend on the area in following days to remove car carcasses from the pond and surrounds. The battered husks are then hauled away by semitrailers. It’s worth noting that properly decontaminating the area from lost fluids is largely impractical, but it is what it is.
The river has continued to claim more land at Glacier View over the years, while crowds keep increasing in number. It might get more difficult to attend in future. Thus, if this is something you just gotta see, it’s worth getting your ass up to Alaska sooner rather than later. Here’s to next year.
Image credits: 1320video via YouTube screenshot, RevAlaska via YouTube screenshot
I’m jumping in to add that this is highly irresponsible and dangerous.
Irresponsible, dangerous, and hilarious. You be you, Alaska, God love ya.
I dunno.. I’m a conservative southern boy, but my heart aches when I see vehicles being destroyed for no real reason. Maybe it’s because I grew up poor and worked and saved an entire year to buy my first car – a 1968 Chevelle that was probably in worse condition than many of the cars launched off that cliff. Many poor kids would really appreciate any vehicle, even if they had to learn how to repair it (like I did)..
I have heard of this and it’s so fucking awesome; anyway who says otherwise is dead inside…also they need to do this w/ every single EV since they are trash and then blow them up
Wow….. sooo much fun going on here
Oh boy there’s a whole lot to unpack here, and I’m pretty tired.
I’m just going to keep it brief and say “I’m not a fan of this.”
I like fun too, but this was certainly among some of my first thoughts – “properly decontaminating the area from lost fluids is largely impractical”
Fun is great, but so is responsible fun. This seems….. like something 2 teenagers dreamed up when they were bored and they didn’t bother considering any of the repercussions.
Just a good ol’ boys,
Never meanin’ no harm,
Beats all you never saw, been in trouble with the law since the day they was born.
Straight’nin’ the curves,
Flat’nin’ the hills.
Someday the mountain might get ’em, but the law never will.
Makin’ their way,
The only way they know how,
That’s just a little bit more than the law will allow.
Just a good ol’ boys,
Wouldn’t change if they could,
Fightin’ the system like a two modern day Robin Hood.
It’s like an episode of “Northern Exposure”
Maybe at some point they will get their hands on something like a model S plaid, and clear the pond, followed by a massive battery fire?
Ahem https://youtu.be/3D1nA7GGj_Y?si=d-3ct9uht_zuEBgh&t=1196
This the most American thing possible! Right up there with mass shootings, overpriced healthcare, and needless foreign wars!
…needless Proxy wars.
FIFY
Hello, Alaska? This is Karen with the HOA…
You tree hugging liberal turds just don’t appreciate good fun Alaska style. Grow up!
BTW, I can see Russia from my front porch…
Your friend, Sarah Palin.
Irresponsible article? Come on now, The Autopian is just reporting on an already widely covered event, not launching their own car off the cliff or encouraging you to do the same.
On the note of environmental impact, I’ve seen the photo of the Cybertruck on fire in the ocean making the rounds, and this video is a good reminder that vehicles being on fire underwater isn’t strictly the domain of EVs:
https://youtu.be/3D1nA7GGj_Y?si=d-3ct9uht_zuEBgh&t=1196
I visited Glacier View last year. Beautiful area. I hoped to see the car launch area but it’s on private property. I did cross the river shown here to do a glacier walk during a particularly rainy period and a big earthen mound that was there when we crossed the bridge in the morning was no longer there in the afternoon, so it’s not surprising that they’re losing ground to the river every year.
I can understand your point but I’ll stand my ground on this. Point being any publicity is considered good publicity and in this case the whole endeavor is a worthless and destructive waste.
Since those cars only have to run a few hundred feet with no other fluids needed (OK, maybe ATF) why not drain everything including engine oil before sending them over?
Because without oil many of them wouldn’t even make it to the end of the launch ramp.
I dunno, I think an engine can run without oil that long just fine. If it explodes or seizes in the air so much the better.
If not maybe replace the motor oil with vegetable or castor oil.
https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/240/biodegradable-biobased-lubricants
It only needs to run for a minute or two and not particularly well.
A tech I used to work with said that when destroying cash for clunkers trade-ins, even with a special additive in the oil specifically to seize the engine, they would run for several minutes at full bore. I would guess you are correct that just a bit of residual oil in the engines would get these things down the ramp
Yeah, not buying that at all. As someone else already mentioned, cash-for-clunkers offered piles of stories where engines ran for way longer than expected and basically had to be actively killed.
I’m guessing almost any engine here could make it 2 minutes.
So many years ago that ’tis blurred, 1970s ish I spent a lot of time on Alderney. A small island somewhere between England and France and the Biscay Strait (Look it up, it is lovely) Alderney has few roads, and had no MOT requirements. Cars on the island were either very old and cherished or scrap metal that just sort of worked. There was a bus service, the buses were, sort of functional but not brilliant.
There was an annual celebration of all things Alderney called, imaginatively, ‘Aldernery Week’ . There were cricket matches, tug of war competitions, kite flying and many more exciting things and the disposal of the cars.
As this was on an island that is not officially real and it being before many people were born, health and safety regulations were not a thing. To dispose of the cars, drive then off a 200ft high cliff(importantly remember to take the driver side door off and chuck in the back) the highlight was the disposal of the bus. Fill the bus with straw and fireworks, set it on fire, and drive it of the cliff. The knack was, of course, to time the dropping of the concrete block on the accelerator pedal at the right moment before bailing out.
Good story. There is hope for us yet!
Alaska has very strict contamination protocols, and they let this happen every year? Yeah, I saw it on an old RoadKill episode too.
I’ll echo the environmental criticisms, but some of the debris lauched from the cars was also perilously close to the crowd (and there were some kids in the front row). I think someone needs to teach these asshats about engineering safety factors (and I’m not smart enough to do that, but I’m smart enough to know better).
Given the lack of care about cleaning up fuel and fluids – I’m not optimistic about them collecting all the shards of plastics that inevitably fly in all directions after a wreck either.
What a spectacular display of wastefulness and stupidity.
Just a paper rag boy here but yeah irresponsible article. Rectified by some responsible comments, thank you all for that!
I definitely chuckled a bit watching some of the cars fly off. There’s just something slightly jaw dropping about watching a car legitimately fly off the edge of a cliff (as opposed to being movie magic).
That being said there are two things that concern me:
1) The environmental impact:
“It’s worth noting that properly decontaminating the area from lost fluids is largely impractical, but it is what it is.”
No sorry, that’s just bullshit and you know it. It’s not impractical, they just don’t want to pay for it. They could easily line that pound to stop oil from infiltrating into the ground water. They could quickly excavate and skim the top layer of soil before oil has time to penetrate the ground.
Not to mention that the constant destruction of trees on the cliff is just going to lead to instability, as roots tend to hold everything together. I don’t know how how the Alaska DEM or Federal regulators aren’t all over this event, especially since it’s literally feet away from a major river.
2) Needless Destruction:
I don’t mind seeing genuinely used up rotten hulks of cars getting destroyed; however every time events like this start getting serious notoriety, you start having people with way too much time and money destroy perfectly fine, or even new vehicles. The guy with the Chevy Squarebody for example, spent a ton of time and money doing body work, rust repair, and giving it a semi-professional paint job. Don’t get me wrong, the truck was still junky underneath, but next year someone is going to need to top that.
One of the things that really gets me is that my workplace has to dig up a bunch of soil to treat even a slight leak from a vehicle, while things like this happen and just let it all run into the soil and nearby water.
And it’s in Alaska, America’s semi-official last unspoiled wilderness.
Yeah. This article and the event it describes make me sad. I guess there’s something very American about not giving a shit about the consequences of your actions, so this fits right in with irresponsible fireworks use in areas with high fire danger.
High risk of massive, deadly wildfire <<<<< INTENSE need (want) for a spectacular gender reveal video:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado_Fire
Priorities!!
And the water is very nearby.
“No sorry, that’s just bullshit and you know it”
Not sure. He’s Australian, isn’t he?
Regarding #2, as a person who has been involved in The 24 Hours of Lemons for many years and have seen tons of people on the internet get up in arms about “Y U Ruin Classik?!” but then actually seen how decrepit some of the cars are in the flesh, I’m hesitant to make judgment on what a “perfectly fine” car is.
I have personally spent a ton of time and money doing body and paint work on a $500 race car that has a high chance of being ruined. That comes with the territory.
Maybe I’m just being salty this morning and need more coffee but the more I think on it the more disappointing it becomes that The Autopian would publish an article valorizing such acts of wanton environmental irresponsibility. Bah humbug.
I was pretty sure this would be the case, but some part of me hoped that there was some solution they’d put in place.
Yeah, seems like they just don’t care.
Call me a tree-hugging environmentalist or whatever, but I struggle a bit with this. I’m all for senseless destruction and blowing stuff up and fun, but especially in Alaska, one of the last real wilderness holdouts, throwing all sorts of toxic chemicals into the ground and water is hard to cheer for.
Seconded!! Frankly, it just strikes me as deeply irresponsible. Doesn’t seem like they put much of an effort into mitigating the chemical contamination beyond taking away the vehicles, ugh. That whimsically decorated deer trophy (couldn’t determine from the still whether it was genuine or not and I’m not inclined to watch the videos) could be taken as an indication of the participants’ attitudes towards their environment.
Plus, in some of the thumbnails one can see a car done up in the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee livery, including the flag on the rooftop, which is rather at odds with the so-called spirit of the 4th of July. Somehow it doesn’t seem like they meant for it to be ironical *eye roll*
Yeah, I, for one, found this singularly unpleasant; usually it’s fun to watch automotive mayhem, like when they played darts with caravans on the old Top Gear, but in this case, especially in such a locale as that section of Alaskan wilderness, it’s a case of thanks but no thanks…
Good thing we put all that effort into cleaning up after the Exxon Valdez.
Pretty sure the post cleanup residual mess of any tanker/pipeline spill makes this look like a drop.
I feel like Homer, shedding a tear as I watch the water swirl in the correct, American, direction.
Alaska: the Florida of the North.
I remember seeing this on an episode of Roadkill. We had some friends from Anchorage visiting us this year over the 4th, and they said this event brings too much chaos to the town, so they were glad to be away while it occurred. I think it would be a lot of fun, but at the same time I tend to be sympathetic to abused vehicles and might struggle with that level of destruction right in front of me.