How I Became a Death-Defying 'Danger Angel'
From the June 1995 issue of Car and Driver.
The most convincing testimony as to the driving skills of the daredevil flock that has evolved into the Joie Chitwood Chevy Thunder Show is that, in more than 50 years of crash-and-burn mayhem, only two drivers associated with the Chitwoods—one a guy called Lucky—have been killed in the line of duty.
The stunt that killed Lucky Teeter at the Indianapolis State Fair during World War II was called "The Aerial Rocket Car Leap." Lucky had dreamed it up a decade earlier. It's a ramp-to-ramp leap in a car, and when his vehicle fell short of the second ramp, that was it for Lucky.
After Lucky went to his reward, a young stuntman in his troupe named Joie Chitwood bought his equipment and started his own show. And when Joie died in 1988, he left behind his name and his show to his sons Joie Jr. and Tim.
The rocket leap is now the specialty of 39-year-old Tim Chitwood. For 29 years, Tim has made a living spinning cars around on a dime and turning them into metal roughage. For this, the show's grand finale, he drives a Chevy Camaro full-throttle into the mouth of a steel tube just eight feet in diameter and 20 feet long. Barreling upward through it, he launches the Camaro through a shower of fireworks and over a row of four or five junkers before he lands some 65 feet away.
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
The Chitwood fleet of Chevys.
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
Lattimore creates the Wall of Doom.
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
Dominick teaches Padgett the finer points of groping a 1978 Olds.
As I will soon find out, the interaction between the fire and my skull will deliver the same thrill, approximately, as breaking down a locked door with my forehead.
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
The team also buys a not-so-fresh set of junkyard-ready bombers for each fair, and subjects each one to a unique form of mercy killing.
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
I scribble frantically to keep up. How fast do we go anyway, Bill? "It's about 50. The faster you go through, the less you feel it."
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
The Chitwood Danger Angels line up and then instantly break out of formation, leap into the Chevys, and erupt into a spray of dirt on the main straightaway.
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
Tim heads for the Ferris wheel—sideways.
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
Dick Kelley
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Car and Driver
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