As a secondary endeavor to the Hydraulic Press Channel, Beyond The Press has given us some exceptionally explosive content; we’ve covered the attempt to send a car into space using dynamite, but the latest video isn’t nearly as complex. It simply involves attaching 50 blasting caps – the smaller explosives used to set off dynamite – to an old SEAT Ibiza and seeing what happens. How hard could that be?
In an expert display of Finnish ingenuity, the team sets up a ring of 72 Chronos slow-motion cameras to capture the destruction at an exceptionally high frame rate. After fitting the test car with caps, everyone steps back and prepares for the detonation – which takes only a few seconds. A testament to the vehicle’s reliability, the engine still fired up after the barrage of explosions.
For those curious why they didn’t use dynamite, Beyond The Press and company revealed that it would shred the car, possibly throwing shrapnel into the extremely valuable collection of cameras. Along with the safety precautions for the capture devices, the team has done plenty of videos in the past featuring vast reserves of dynamite.
After showing the shock and awe in real-time, the high-speed cameras revealed a textbook sequence of destruction – all culminating with the hood being blown open. For such a mild explosive, we were surprised to see the destruction. We’d wager some additional fuel was involved, but we can’t be certain.
Thanks in part to the ring of Chronos cameras, we were also treated to a bullet-time style 360-degree look at the blast. It certainly didn’t offer up the highest production quality, but we’d be remiss not to mention that the video satiated our inner pyromaniac. Set to some hardcore royalty-free rock and roll music, we couldn’t ask for much more.