The MythBusters The MythBusters

MythBusters Episode 166: Spy Car 2

Premier Date: May 18, 2011

In a car chase, using wheel-mounted spikes is an effective offensive tactic.

confirmed

Jamie built replicas of wheel spikes from the films Goldfinger (a small blade wheel on a long central shaft) and The Green Hornet (a crown-like assembly of spikes). He and Adam drove side-by-side at 40 mph (64 km/h), with Jamie using each of the devices attached to his rear passenger tire to damage Adam’s driver’s side as much as possible over 500 yards (457 m). Both spike designs shredded at least one of Adam’s tires and left deep gouges in the bodywork.

Jamie then built a device of his own design using a steel pipe the same diameter as the hubcap, with the free end sharpened into two sturdy blades. This design tore up Adam’s bodywork, popped one tire, and pulled the other one off its rim, leaving the car sitting on its chassis.

In a car chase, using a hood-mounted machine gun is an effective offensive tactic.

confirmed

Adam built two different mounts to hold a fully automatic paintball gun on the hood of a car — one for a fixed position gun, and another that could be aimed with a joystick and camera/monitor system. He and Jamie did a control run, with Adam driving and shooting at a target vehicle with a handheld semiautomatic gun, but only scored one glancing hit.

Next, Adam mounted the automatic paintball gun and a full ammunition hopper on his hood and chased Jamie, who drove a target car with the rear windshield removed. He was able to riddle the rear end and hit Jamie’s head and seat a few times with the fixed mount; with the aiming mount, he got so many hits in such a short time that Jamie called an early end to the run.

A bullet fired into the surface of a frozen lake can spin like a top after impact. (Inspired by a viral video.)

confirmed

The testing for this myth began during the summer, with Tory building a rig to hold a pistol at any desired angle and Kari checking the video to work out the geometry of the shot. The Build Team then laid down blocks of ice and dry ice on a rifle range to simulate the frozen lake and tried several shots with a Glock 9 mm pistol. Direct hits left bullets embedded in the ice, while shallow hits ricocheted and left the team unable to find the bullets at all.

After re-checking their own high-speed footage, the team heard a sound that might have been a spinning bullet. Once winter came, they visited Caples Lake in the Sierra Nevada and dug out a target area on its frozen surface for further work. Testing gave no results until they aimed at the center of their target site, allowing for a backward ricochet instead of a forward one. The team found the bullets from these last tests to be spinning in place on their side, leading them to declare the myth confirmed.