Yesterday, there was a video going around of a 2010-ish Honda Crosstour seemingly stuck on a narrow roadway, where it was perpendicular to the road – and, let’s be honest, “road” is generous, this looked like more of a sidewalk, at best – with the rear wheels dangling over the edge. Only once you play the video do you realized that this car wasn’t stuck – it was, for some absolutely baffling reason – making a turn. A turn like a three-point turn to change direction 180°, only because of the absurd narrowness of the “road.” This was a turn that had as many points as stars in the night sky, and, somehow the stone-faced, unflappable driver just did it, and never once even looked concerned. How? Who is this beast with R134a in his veins?
Here, you really should just watch this:
— Gente Que Se Extingue Sola ????????♂️ (@extinguiendonos) May 15, 2023
Holy shit, right? I mean, this does bring up so very many questions. One of which I think I can answer, which is where the hell is this? If the license plate of the car is a clue, then this seems to be in the city of Liupanshui, in western Guizhou province, China. That seems to be a mountainous area, which sort of explains this terrain. It doesn’t explain the resistance to guard rails, though. I’m told the city is known as “The Cool City” but that’s because of low summer temperatures, but after seeing this dude, maybe there’s more to that.
The bigger question, of course, is why. Was this done just for this video? I mean, maybe, since there’s someone standing there videoing the whole thing. But I feel like even if that’s the case, you wouldn’t make a video like this on your first attempt at doing this; this driver had to have done this before, and known it’s possible. But why would someone have done this in the first place? I get that reversing down that little lane has to be sort of nervy, but it can’t come close to the feeling of the rear axle of your two-wheel drive car dangling fecklessly over what looks like a, what, 15 to 20 foot drop?
What’s on the top of that hill that’s keeping him from pointing his car the right way up there? How is he not getting out of the car every few seconds and walking around it, looking and muttering in distress, like I would have? How is that car so free of scrapes and scratches, relatively?
I think front-wheel drive serves him better than rear-wheel drive, but I wonder how much AWD would have helped here? Would this even be possible in a RWD vehicle? How often does the driver pull shit like this? Does anyone still want to drive with him?
Damn.
After watching I still cant tell if this is the world’s best or worst driver. Sure, anyone can back up and do a 3-point turn.. Thats for amateurs.
Idea: D-
Execution: A+
In a strange way, this is the most impressive display of driving ability I have ever seen!
Even if this is done just for the clicks, why on earth isn’t the cameraman letting him know when he still has a good foot in front of the car to go forward?
This reminds me of a Tom Arnold line from True Lies:
“Ballsy. Stupid, but ballsy.”
One of these videos went viral a couple of years ago on what looks like the same road, although less extreme overhanging than in this.
It was then debunked, that it was done for clicks, it’s not just everyday crazy Chinese driving, perspective makes the drop look higher than it is etc.
I guess the guy doing it has chosen the cross tour as an extreme vehicle to do this, relatively long car compared to road width, FWD, but short enough front overhang and wheelbase for this still to (just) be possible.
Reminds me of back in ’88, I was working with another person in Colorado Springs for a football game and we had a day off with a Fifth Avenue rental car. We went into Garden of the Gods. Noticed a dirt road in the middle of the park called Rampart Range road that seemed to head up the mountain. Thinking what the heck, we headed up. Switchback after switchback, we climbed, but always still looking out over the town. Great view and we stopped several times.
We then got the bright idea to see where it goes. More switchbacks, then it pivoted to the west side of the mountain, and snow started showing up. The road ruts got deeper and deeper, the road itself getting narrower and snow really piling up. Not a single turnout or driveway/road. It was like driving on a cattle path, in snow and ice, with boulders on one side and a 1000 foot drop on the other.
When the Fifth Avenue started dragging the bottom on the ruts to the point it was almost stuck, and night was falling, we decided to turn around. I drove, co-worker guiding me. We knocked a few large rocks off the side, freaked out the car was going over, but 20 minutes later and a million small motions, we managed to finally point down hill.
I was white knuckle the whole time, and wondered if my co-worker would at least wave at me when the car plunged over the side. Car was scratched up (I’m sure the underside was properly dinged and scratched), but when we returned it they were busy, so no inspection and signed off on it. I still wonder to this day what’s up that road but not going up it with a proper 4X4.
Better know as his YouTube handle, TenaciousGrip.
The “how to negotiate 2 cars passing in one lane” videos on their channel reminds me of one of my favorite Amish jokes.
An Amish man and his son are riding their buggy in unfamiliar roads when they end up on a one lane mountain passage. They meet a car coming the other way and the man gets out to speak with the driver.
The driver says “It’s half a mile back my way, but I can see the end of the road from here. Back up!”
The Amish man looks at him silently for a moment, then starts to roll up his sleeves and says “English, you will back up your car that half mile, or I will take no pleasure in what I will have to do next.”
Looking at the stern man and his menacing physique, the driver gulps, gets back in his car and starts backing up. The Amish man gets back in his buggy and proceeds. His son turns to him wide-eyed and says “Papa, what were you going to do if he didn’t back up?”
The Amish man smiled at him and says “figure out how to reverse a horse and buggy down a mountain.”
My first guess was “get medieval on his hiney.”
That would be paradise.
Ok, so they’ve got 39M views on a different vehicle on what could be the same road doing the same thing. I don’t know what yt pays, but I’m thinking it’s enough to cover repairs.
Also, in just a casual glance at their channel, it looks like they have some decent useable tips to get out of situations in an emergency. Kind of a let-down to know they do this regularly: the situation-especially with his expression-was much more fun when I thought it was not staged.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/486/992/0f8.png
Someone needs to translate that Jeff Goldblum Jurassic Park meme into Chinese.
I’ve seen this guy before, this is his jam. Same spot even.
Well, they don’t call it a CROSStour for nothing.
Man, I would’ve had my heaviest friend sitting on the hood, that’s for sure.
Obligatory:
Shagadelic, Baby!
Echoes of this vintage Warn winch ad:
https://warn.blob.core.windows.net/warn/blog_images/1820/IMG_3052.JPG
Awe damn. That is anxiety-inducing.
Wow This had to be done for merely show and using a rental car.
Nobody would be willing to risk and beat their own car for this. Given it now has a flattened exhaust pipe and possible bent rear suspension pieces and half of the front tire rubber burned off.
It’s a rental car “Here hold my baijiu” sort of thing.
There’s not a single company on this planet that is still renting out Crosstours. If my first hand experience of China means anything, this guy most likely was afraid of reversing and decided this was a better idea. There’s a lot of superstitions in China about cars like “red cars are more dangerous because it means people will crash into a brightly colored car” and there’s probably a superstition about reversing down a steep ramp.
The why of it is for their channel. This is basically their whole thing. They can easily drive up the road and turn around or just reverse out. It’s just that won’t get an article written about them. Here’s their channel. https://youtube.com/@drivingskill
I was watching this on Reddit and initially was like “Why?!” before I settled on “Because they can, and it gets the clicks”. Now knowing they have their own channel for this type of stuff, it now makes sense and is also less interesting.
Yeah, planned stunt = not so impressive.
Same thing happened to me when I saw them doing it in a minivan. When I ended up coming across the channel like a week later I was like oh so it’s what they do all the time and quickly forgot about it until now.
Thanks! I knew I had seen this done on the same road with a different car.
This is the kind of stuff the communist government shuts down once they become aware of it. Promoting hooliganism and dangerous behaviors.
These guys will be making Christmas lights by hand for the next five years in a gulag somewhere once the government decides that their videos are bad for public order, or something like that.
Yup, I’ve seen videos and pictures of that whole ramp and it’s all very stupid. I understand the “it’s for the clickz” thing but it’s still stupid. It’s even more stupid when you see them apparently blocking the main (guessing public) road with other cars to perform these “stunts”.
We spread these dumb shenanigans and then we act all shocked when a guy jumps out of a plane and crashes it for clicks.
Let’s not promote stupidity.
It’s not even a road, it’s a driveway
I thought YouTube was banned in China.
Nerves of steel on that guy. That poor differential and steering rack.
But, why? Like you said, reversing down might not feel great, but it seems 100% doable, and a lot better than this
I was thinking the same thing. Why not backup and turn around at the bottom