The Top Gear Live festival kicks off in Durban this weekend, where visitors can watch the Top Gear presenters perform their usual shenanigans with high-powered ‘chariot’ racing, supercar grudge matches, an F1 showcase, as well as celebrity drag races. The Wesbank Super Series will also be in attendance, with the Bridgestone Production Cars, Volkswagen Polo Cup, Formula VW and Formula Midas 1600 all taking to a specially built street circuit.

Another highlight of the show will be a record, double, loop-the-loop attempt by the Top Gear Live Stunt Team. Appropriately dubbed the Deadly 720, the plan is to perform the stunt four times throughout the course of the weekend. Although the team has completed a single loop more than 80 times as part of the previous tour, Top Gear Live Creative Director, Rowland French says, “Adding the second loop… multiplies the danger by more than two and creates the very real possibility of the buggy falling out from the top of the second loop. There are absolutely no margins for error, which is probably why no one has ever been mad enough to try it before.”

The technical team has developed a specially designed dune buggy for the purpose, reinforced and equipped with two functional systems: a hand control connected to the steering wheel to lock out the accelerator pedal and a light fitted on the dashboard that turns green when the car reaches the required speed. Each of the loops is over 8 meters tall and made of about 7.2 tons of steelwork, with another 25.4 tons in ballast weight to keep them steady.

The Top Gear Festival will take place in Durban on June 16 and 17, 2012. Tickets are on sale and range from R250 for a bronze ticket to R995 for a platinum ticket. For more information, visit the Top Gear Festival website.