---
title: "Insane Person Backflips Over a Speeding Formula E Race Car"
description: "When being a stuntman doesn't rush adrenaline enough."
date: "2016-04-18"
modified: "2016-04-18"
authors:
  - name: "Will Sabel Courtney"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/will-sabel-courtney"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/3059/insane-person-backflips-over-a-speeding-formula-e-race-car"
categories:
  - "News"
  - "Racing"
  - "Watch This"
tags:
  - "stunts"
  - "WTF"
---

# Insane Person Backflips Over a Speeding Formula E Race Car

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/0418160-formula-e-backflip-hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Doing a somersault over a car is all in a day's work for someone like Damien Walters. After all, this isn't just a man who's put his body through hell as a stuntman for films like *Skyfall*, *Captain America*, and *Kingsman: The Secret Service*; this is a man who does all that for work, and then goes home and does parkour *for fun*.

Somersaulting over a car backwards, though? Where you can't see it coming? That's a whole different kettle of crazy, death wish-having fish. But apparently that was Walters's dream, and [the folks at Formula E](<https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/2862/the-drive-goes-behind-the-scenes-at-formula-e-long-beach>) were more than happy to help help him fulfill it.

Since he couldn't watch the race car bearing down on him, Walters had to depend solely on a timer hooked up to a laser tripwire a few hundred feet behind him. When stunt driver Alistair Whitton's Formula E car crossed the invisible line, it started the clock, leaving Walters watching the clock to determine when the car would arrive. Which largely depended on Whitton maintaining a consistent speed on every run. The slightest error in timing by either of them, and, *pow*—hello, Mexico City emergency room. Or worse.

To keep that from happening, Walters and Whitton practiced. A lot. The duo went through hours and hours of trial runs, many of which would have resulted in Walters being turned into a pulpy red mist if the car hadn't been intentionally trying to miss him.

Unlike [Kobe Bryant's viral video shenanigans a few years ago](<https://youtu.be/BIWeEFV59d4>), there's nothing fake about this clip. (At least, not as far as *The Drive* could tell, and we have a pretty reliable bullshit-ometer when it comes to special effects.) Which makes this doubly impressive. We'd have guessed it would be harder to leap over a car when you have a set of gigantic brass balls weighing you down.

https://youtube.com/embed/EF9bbY3-lQU

https://youtube.com/embed/_Uv64c4HdTg

## Author
Will is the former managing editor of *RIDES Magazine* and the former online editor for *0-60 Magazine*. He has worked for *Time Out New York* and *Rolling Stone*, and was the creator of *College Cars Online*, the first automotive blog specifically targeted at college students and young professionals.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/willsabelcourtney>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/willscourtney>)