Ghost Rider (stuntman)

"Ghost Rider" is the alias used by a Swedish motorcycle stunt rider.

Biography

Ghost Rider performs in a series of independently produced DVD movies where the recurring theme involves Ghost Rider himself performing illegal maneuvers on his motorcycle on public roads across Sweden and other countries in Europe. The movies show Ghost Rider, mostly in the perspective of cameras mounted on his motorbike, racing at extreme speeds on busy roadways, provoking law enforcement officers into high-speed chases, and performing various dangerous stunts in mostly uncontrolled environments. Ghost Rider usually wears black leathers and a black helmet with black visor to help protect his identity.

Ghost Rider's motorbikes of choice for the movies are the Suzuki GSX-R1000 and Suzuki GSX-1300R. He has used a variety of different year models with differing modifications to each, including a fully carbon fiber GSX-R1000 K4 in "Ghost Rider Goes Crazy in Europe" and a 280+ brake horsepower turbocharged GSX-R1000 K5 in "Ghost Rider Goes Undercover".

Although Ghost Rider's primary vehicle is a motorcycle, he uses a wide variety of other vehicles in the movies including different types of cars, bicycles, minibikes and even a snowmobile on public streets. Each movie has a scene where Ghost Rider rides a highly tuned, turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa. The Hayabusa in "Ghost Rider: The Final Ride" was tuned to convert|417|bhp|abbr=on, and the one used for the later movies was at convert|499|bhp|abbr=on.

Swedish rock band Europe used various clips from the Ghost Rider movies in their music video for the song "Got to Have Faith" from their 2004 album "Start from the Dark".

Notable Feats

*"In Ghost Rider: The Final Ride", Ghost Rider does a timed run in Sweden from Stockholm to Uppsala (dubbed "Uppsala Run", a distance of 68 km or 42.6 miles) in 14m 55s with an average speed of 273.1 km/h (170.1 mph) in heavy traffic. He breaks his own record in "Uppsala Run 2" ("Ghost Rider Goes Crazy in Europe") with a faster bike by a mere two seconds (14m 53s) with even heavier traffic present.

*In "Ghost Rider Goes Crazy in Europe", Ghost Rider does a timed run in Paris, France on the Paris Peripherique (French term for ring road/beltway) and completes the circuit with an elapsed time of 9m 57s. This was done as a tribute to a French street racer going by the alias "Le Prince Noir" (Black Prince) who completed the circuit on his motorcycle in 11m 04s in 1989. The main differences are that the "Black Prince's" lap was in daylight with heavy traffic whereas Ghost Rider's lap was at night with very little traffic and the obvious discrepancy between motorcycle performance.

*Also in "Ghost Rider Goes Crazy in Europe", Ghost Rider does a timed run in the Netherlands from Rotterdam to Amsterdam (a distance of approximately 70 kilometers) in 20m 32s.

Filmography

To date, a total of five Ghost Rider titles have been released. The fifth, titled "Ghost Rider: Back to Basics" was originally due to be released in December 2006. However due to unforeseen circumstances it wasn't released until the 15th of February 2008.

External links and notes

* [http://www.ghostridermovie.net Official Web Site]
* [http://www.ghostridermovie.de/en Web Site with movie-trailers]
* [http://www.turbobusa.net Information on Ghost Rider] (French and English translation)
* [http://www.ghostridermovie.de German Web Site]