The jump happened in Puteaux, France, where a crane dropped the Qashqai near some tall buildings. To keep things safe, the car was tucked into a special cage. Laurent Lasko, a pro racer and stuntman, sat behind the wheel during the heart-stopping drop.
Guinness World Records officials were on hand to make sure everything went by the book. For the record to count, both the car and the bungee rope had to stay in one piece. The jump went off without any problems.
Nissan set up this stunt as part of their marketing push for the new Qashqai model. They wanted to bring back memories of the car's old TV ads. A new TV campaign will hit screens later this month.
"This is the kind of daring and therefore furiously essential challenge that we love at Nissan. The brand has always shown its ability to innovate and shake up habits with audacity and sometimes even impertinence. In its various TV spots, the Qashqai has tried skateboarding, surfing, paintball… each time thrilling activities. The new campaign will see it jumping from building to building. The idea of a bungee jump to symbolize the personality of the new Qashqai quickly came to mind," explains Jérôme Biguet, Marketing Director of Nissan France.
But hold on a second. Even though Guinness gave this jump their stamp of approval, it might not actually be the highest car bungee ever. Back in 1992, a GMC Jimmy took an 865-foot (263.7-meter) plunge off the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. That's more than four times higher than the Qashqai's jump!
More recently, on the TV show Top Gear, Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff sat in a Rover Metro as it dropped 540 feet (164 meters) from the top of a dam. That's more than double the height of Nissan's jump.
So why does the Qashqai hold the record? It looks like those other jumps weren't checked out by Guinness World Records. The GMC Jimmy jump was set up to promote the new model, while the Top Gear stunt was just for the show.
Source: Nissan