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. 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 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets.
It has just been remastered and released on DVD.
Update: The link to the quicktime I had is down, but there are two mirrors here (1 2)
It’s amazing. And the thing is, it looks just like a video game. As a matter of fact, I have driven at those speeds, on those streets, past those monuments and buildings virtually in Midtown Madness 3.
And man that Ferrari sounds nice.
Thanks to JWZ for this one.
