#HTE

Extreme Demonstration: Company Flips Car in Roll Cage Bonded With Their Super-Tape

This video’s title, “Redneck Drives a Duct Tape Car Off a Cliff” is a bit misleading, but perhaps there’s no other way to describe it in 10 words or less. The folks behind FiberFix, a super-tape allegedly 100 times stronger than duct tape, put together this nutty demonstration of its strength:

Three things a Core77 reader will probably be wondering:

1) What exactly is in the tape, and how is it applied?

The tape is impregnated with resin, which begins to harden when you add moisture. I.e. you dip it, then start wrapping it. It dries in about 20 minutes and is reportedly sandable and paintable.

2) How did they form the cage and fix the pieces in place to tape them?

They spot-welded the cage together, then ground the welds off one at a time to tape the joints.

3) What’s the cage made out of?

Jalopnik reports that they used 2" outside-diameter hot-rolled steel tubing with a 0.12" wall thickness.

The crazy thing is that Harmon Brothers, the production company who conceived of the idea, didn’t really know if it would work. The mechanical engineer they hired to vet the concept refused to sign off on it–and they did it anyway. Here’s how:

As you saw, they used half as much FiberFix as they did duct tape. It would be neat if FiberFix’s price was only double that of duct tape, but given that it’s 100 times stronger, it’s of course more expensive. A 2"-wide, 50"-long roll of FiberFix runs eight bucks, or 16 cents an inch. A 1.88"-wide, 20-yard roll of duct tape can be had for about $7 and change, which comes out to a penny per inch. But when it comes to material strength, there’s simply no comparison.