DEADLY 720+: KTM AND TOP GEAR LIVE SET A NEW WORLD RECORD!

The audacious Top Gear Live Stunt Team has established another remarkable World Record by completing the first double loop-the-loop on a motorbike.

The daring feat – the Deadly 720+ – was successfully accomplished on a 2013 KTM 250 SX-F motocross bike as the dramatic climax to the first of nine spectacular Top Gear Live shows at Birmingham’s NEC (25-28 October).

The Deadly 720+ utilises a pair of eight metre tall steel loops which the courageous stunt man – Gary Hoptrough – rode through using a standard KTM 250 SX-F with recalibrated suspension to cope with the extreme demands.

On completion of the stunt, KTM UK Managing Director, Shaun Sisterson, said: “Just incredible! As soon as we heard about this project we had to get involved. ‘Ready to Race’ is not just a slogan, KTM machinery is put to the test across the world in various races and events, but nothing before like this.

We worked closely with the Top Gear Live team with a few bikes from the 2013 SX range and they settled on the light and punchy 250 SX-F four-stroke motocross machine – a bike that has had another great year in the showrooms and track, recently scooping the British MX2 championship and its fifth consecutive World Motocross MX2 title.”

Jeremy Clarkson was equally amazed and said: “We started Top Gear in its current incarnation ten years ago as a pokey little motoring show and never dreamt of setting World Records. To be fair, all James, Richard and I did was to stand on stage and introduce a stunt man mad enough to want to turn him self upside twice on a bike. But it was pretty nerve wracking and spectacular!”