You may remember one of our Feature Flicks last week that might have left you sitting on the edge of your seat, as the driver of a BMW 1M played car Tetris while skillfully driving through different shaped cutouts in concrete walls. The cutouts of the 1-series called for the 1M to drive through them straight forward at first, while getting more difficult with side cutouts, challenging the driver to drift sideways through them. This crazy stunt left many of us scratching our heads. Is it real? Well, BMW Canada has more tricks up its sleeves and takes the 1M to clouds.
Instead of pulling an outrageous stunt in a desolate desert like the first video showed, BMW raises the stakes and takes the 1M atop one of the highest helipads in the world: the U.S. Bank building’s landing pad in Los Angeles.
The video starts off by showing a panoramic view of smoggy Los Angeles, with the high-rising U.S. bank tower looming over the neighboring skyscrapers. A change to an aerial view of the city makes you wonder what is forthcoming, as you see one building’s helipad after the other increase in height, which helps create perspective on just how lofty the world’s highest helipad really is. Ominous music plays as the towering helipad comes into sight, and while you try to focus on the ant-sized cars below, you might even miss the first shots of the 1M itself, as it appears so little on the large landing pad.
The view pans back out to a panoramic view of the building, and if you look closely, you can see the Bimmer circling the pad. The real fun begins when you’re taken back to the top of the building, where you hear the tires of the 1M screech as it drifts around the brim of the pad. One slight error could result the driver plummeting to his death, which makes us wonder why he is even wearing a helmet. It’s possible he could be wearing a parachute in case the 1M decided to fly. Or, maybe the whole stunt is a fake.
Many people were skeptical of the authenticity of the 1M’s first ‘wall’ video, claiming the walls were computer graphic images. So is the case for this video. Would a BMW 1M, or any car for that matter, really be given permission to perform burnouts on a helipad with no safety equipment but a helmet? No. But do we enjoy watching the packed 335-hp twin-turbo 3.0-liter I-6 do its thing sky-high? Yes.
The point BMW Canada is making is that the car is thrilling to drive. It doesn’t matter if the setting is fake, the ad is simply exhilarating to watch. The idea for this string of ads parallels the movies—we know they’re not real, yet we still love to watch. As for the 1M, it’s definitely very real.
What do you think of the outrageous videos? Do they work?
Source: BMW Canada via YouTube
