Having rediscovered the joys of the RSI-inducing Rocket Robin game on our own site last Friday, talk on TopGear.com turned to the most ambitiously rubbish car-based stunt ever pulled using rocket-propulsion.Obviously our own attempt at Reliant-based space exploration featured highly. And then someone remembered this.

In the early 1970s, when such things were positively encouraged, American (not Canadian, apologies – Ed) daredevil/idiot Kenny Powers was nominated as driver for a cunning plan.It involved him driving/flying a rocket-powered Lincoln Continental – with wings – off a massive ramp and over the mile-wide St. Lawrence River on the border between Canada and New York State. It cost an estimated $5.5 million in today’s money. And it didn’t go well…

There’s actually a fascinating tale behind all this – check out the documentary The Devil At Your Heels for the full story.