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Video: Volvo ballerina truck stunt

Volvo had a interesting idea for its next truck launch – attach a rope between two high-speed trucks, ask a record-holding expert to walk across it and film it all courtesy of an Oscar nominated director.

Volvo’s “ballerina” video has become a YouTube success with 3.8-million views to date.

US slackliner Faith Dickey, world record-holder in high-lining, was asked to perform the death-defying stunt. Dickey is no stranger to walking on a thin line between two points though she’s more at ease high up overlooking mountain cliffs.

Watch the video
 
Faith Dickey said: “I'm used to heights, long lines and lines that sway in the wind, but those lines are firmly anchored to cliff-faces. Walking a line attached to two moving points is something quite different.”

The Hollywood team behind the film were dumbstruck when approached by Volvo as the stunt had never been performed before. Director Henry Alex Rubin said: "My favourite kind of shoot is when someone tells me something is impossible to film. When I hear no, it makes me want to move mountains."
 
"Faith Dickey is the same way. Tell her ‘no’ and it will fuel her. She humbled and amazed myself and the entire crew with her courage.

“This stunt started off as a way to test the precision of Volvo’s massive 16-wheeled trucks and ended up being just as much a testament to guts and courage," he said.

Stunt director Peter Pedrero, who has worked on stunts for films such as James Bond, Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean, said: "And here was I thinking that every imaginable stunt had already been done.

“The fact is that nobody has ever before walked a line between two moving trucks. It felt like an enormous challenge, and its challenges that get me going," said Pedrero.

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The stunt was filmed on a stretch of motorway in Croatia and you can see from the video how each truck occupied a lane with a rope across the median. The film took three takes and Dickey fell off once though she was able to catch the rope and was tethered to the rope from via her ankle harness.

The aim of the film was to highlight the driveability and handling of the automaker’s latest truck model - the new Volvo FH.

Ulf Nordqvist, project manager for the new Volvo FH series: "It's not enough simply to say that we are good. We wanted to demonstrate just how much progress we've made in the area of both driveability and handling."
 
The Volvo FH Series will be launched in September 2012.
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