Car Ramp
Steel - size unknown (good enough for a 2 door car)
SKILLS USED: Metal fabrication (cutting, grinding, turning, milling, MIG welding), button pressing
For this project we repurposed an old ramp to launch a small 2 door car. None of the designs and ideas are mine (including the launching rig), I just made the modifications and got to press the button during testing. The parts of the ramp seen in a lovely shade of rusty brown are old and not mine... The fantastic fresh steel bits on the other hand are mine!
Diverter pulley frame I fabricated and attached to the old ramp.
Everything was boltable because after testing the ramp had to be disassembled and shipped abroad for the shoot.
In addition to the pulley system used to launch the car, I installed additional "kickers" to give the front of the car a little bit of POP! as it left the ramp.
The ramp out for it's day of testing. The car was hooked to a steel cable that goes over the top center of the ramp, around 180 degrees and back to the diverter pulley shown before. That cable can finally be seen exiting to the left of this picture.
The cable hooked to the bottom of the car. Cable ties were used to keep it secured until the rig was fired and they were easily broken as the car left the ramp.
A slug with the other end of the steel cable attached was fired from a "Nitrogen cannon" of sorts, to give the car its explosive action.