David Sztypuljak and Terry GrantThis time last week, rather than being sat in front of our usual office computer, we were invited by Universal Pictures and Alfa Romeo to a rather different office. That office was Bedford Aerodrome in Bedfordshire and the aim of the day was to learn how to drive a car like we’ve never driven one before!

Alfa invited legendary driving stunt man Terry Grant (look him up on Youtube for some rather crazy results) along with three of his team to show us just what a car can do if you push it to its limit. The day started with a standard race only it was unlike anything we’ve done before. Terry and his team started off showing just how close you can get in a race situation but never actually came close to hitting one another. In the movie, you’ll see Paul Walker driving the FF6 Giulietta (a limited edition brought out to coincide with the movie) which is what we got to drive in the next part of the day which let us lose at the wheel in the race. Alfa were rather proud of the fact that the car they’ve used in the movie was completely unmodified (although with slightly different alloys) so you’re able to buy the car that you see in the movie.

The Alfa Romeo FF6 as Used in Fast and Furious 6
The Alfa Romeo FF6 as Used in Fast and Furious 6

The next order of the day was close manoeuvres and stunts that you’ll see in the movie which basically involves going nuts with a routine that Terry and his crew had put together. It really was astonishing just how hard you can push the cars but again, they never actually touched (other than hitting each others wing mirrors on purpose!). You can see many of the manoeuvres in the video below and were sure that at the moment when all four cars come together that they were going to hit one another!

The final session was spent teaching me some of the things that we got to see in the close driving, stunt and manoeuvres section. The two things we were desperate to learn was the handbrake turn and how to do a J Turn which is where you reverse the car at speed and spin it around 180 degrees and then drive off looking ultra cool! Suffice it to say that we mastered it after a few attempts and you can see the fruits of our labour below!

02-FF6 Giulietta (1)Alfa Romeo have only produced six of the limited edition Giulietta that you’ve seen in the movie to mark the sixth film in the Fast and Furious series. Five of these can be bought and one will be entered into a competition for a lucky Alfa fan to win. All six of the cars have bespoke aluminum dashboard plates which have been signed by the cast of the movie and will be inserted into the cars when you buy / win one so keep your eyes peeled on all things Alfa for your chance to get your hands on one.

Thanks again to both Alfa Romeo, Universal Pictures and Terry Grant & his team for making the day so wonderful. We’re now off to our local supermarket car park to go and practice all the things we learnt!

Some more images from the day are below and you can see all our coverage of Fast and Furious 6 here and our review is now live here.

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