Daredevil Days: The 6 Most Outrageous Evel Knievel Stunts of All Time 7
Evel Knievel was one of the most famous sports personalities of the 1970s.
Inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999, Evel Knievel was dubbed “one of the greatest American icons of the 1970s” by The Times. He held the Guinness World Record for the “most broken bones in a lifetime” with 433 over the course of his career. Of more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps between 1965 and 1980, here are the most outrageous stunts he ever attempted.
Caesar’s Palace
Outrageous doesn’t begin to describe Evel Knievel’s jump of the fountains at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and how he got there was even more unbelievable. In 1967, Evel created a fictitious corporation called Evel Knievel Enterprise, three fictitious lawyers to present his ‘case’, and even made fake calls to the casino’s CEO claiming to be from ABC-TV and Sports Illustrated. That was only the beginning of Knievel’s Caesar’s Palace fiasco, and even though he crashed during the jump, the ordeal, and his recovery, made him as famous as ever.
Ontario, California
On February 28th, 1971, riding his Harley-Davidson XR-750, Evel Knievel successfully jumped 19 cars to set the new world record. Filmed for the movie that held his name, Evel Knievel held that record for 27 years, until it was eclipsed by Bubba Blackwell. Bubba jumped 20 cars in 1998, also using an XR-750.
Los Angeles, California
In November of 1973 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Knievel successfully jumped 50 stacked cars. After that jump, he held the record for jumping the most stacked cars on a Harley-Davidson XR-750 for 35 years, until it was broken in October of 2008. His beloved 300lb, fiberglass and aluminum XR-750 is currently a part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Read the rest of this entry →
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