Monday, May 18, 2009

140 m.p.h. through Paris



On an August morning in 1978, French Filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, A professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris early in the morning. The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.

The driver completed the course in about 9 min, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets.

Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested. He has never revealed the identity of the driver, and the film went underground...

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