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Top Gear stunt nails loop record

The Top Gear Live Stunt Team has posted another World Record by completing the first double loop – called the Deadly 720 Plus - on a motorcycle.

The feat (though why it's 'deadly' as nobody has been killed) was completed as the climax to the first of nine Top Gear Live shows at the Birmingham, England, national exhibition centre over October 25-28, 2012.

The stunt comes just a few months after the same daredevil team was the first to complete a double vertical 720 in a four-wheeled buggy. That stunt was performed in Durban and has been officially recognised as the “First Double Loop by a Car” by the Guinness Book of World Records.

'NERVE-RACKING AND SPECTACULAR'


The Deadly 720 Plus uses the same pair of eight metre-high steel loops as those erected in South Africa and courageous stuntman Gary Hoptrough rides a standard KTM 250 SX-F with recalibrated dampers to cope with the extreme demands.

Top Gear Live creative director Rowland French said: “I can’t believe we’ve actually cracked it here at NEC in front of a live audience after so many issues in the build-up to the show.

“Having now done the Deadly 720 on four and two wheels I have no idea what we’ll dream up next – but you can trust us to come up with something even more astonishing.”

Jeremy Clarkson was equally amazed. He said: “We started Top Gear in its current incarnation 10 years ago as a pokey little motoring show and never dreamed of setting world records. To be fair, all James (May), Richard (Hammond) and I did was stand on stage and introduce a stunt man mad enough to want to turn himself upside twice on a bike.

"But it was pretty nerve-racking and spectacular!”

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