At some point during the Canadian Hell Drivers’ show, next Tuesday night at the Altamont Fair, a man will perch on stilts, eight feet off the ground, in the middle of a ring of fire. Before the fire reaches the man’s feet, a speeding car will crash into the stilts, sending the man tumbling—minus a helmet and flame retardant clothes—to contend with the ground and burning fuel.
"I wouldn’t do that," laughed Ralph Moore, owner of the Hell Drivers and occasional stunt driver.

Moore rattled off a list of other stunts performed by his team, many of which, he said, aren’t performed in any other stunt-driving show: rollovers, dive bombs, T-bones. Motorcyclists will jump 20 cars. A man in a flame suit will be set on fire. A jumping car will explode in mid-air.

Then there’s the precision driving. Multiple cars will drive bumper-to-bumper, door-handle-to-door-handle, going over ramps and crisscrossing, at 70 miles per hour.
"It’s a thrill show," Moore said, as if it needed saying.

The Canadian Hell Drivers is an Ontario-based team of stunt performers. Most of the shows are in Canada, Moore said, but the Hell Drivers are on a swing through Michigan, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York.

Though the drivers seem fearless, Moore said fear has nothing to do with it.
"I wouldn’t say fearless, but trained," Moore said. "Fearless is when you get into trouble. This is highly trained. Highly trained is calculated. Everything is calculated."

That includes how close the drivers can get to the spectators, Moore said. In the team’s 15-year history, no spectator has even been injured by flying car parts, shooting flames, or anything else.
"There’s absolutely no danger to the spectators," Moore said. "The only danger is to the stuntmen themselves."’

Most of the drivers are veterans and have been with the Hell Drivers for 10 or 15 years.
"It takes years of practice," Moore said. "One mistake could cost a life."

The Canadian Hell Drivers are not the only team of its kind in the world.
"This type of show has been around for a long time," Moore said.

A few years ago, the Imperial Hell Drivers came through Altamont on its final tour after a half-century of driving. Its members saw themselves as the last of a dying breed of old-time stunt performers.

The Canadian Hell Drivers, then, are a new breed. The team’s shows are all choreographed to pounding music, Moore said. Still, though the tone is set to appeal to a generation bred on extreme sports, video games, and special-effects blockbusters, the concept remains the same: drivers pushing their vehicles to limit of safety.
"It’s a show of chills, thrills, and spills like you’ve never seen before," Moore said.