One of the many stunts developed by Needham was his car cannon. Typically when Hollywood needed a car to roll over they set up a hidden ramp to drive over. Needham developed his cannon so a car could be made to flip on que and there was no need to film from special angles.
He welded a large, heavy wall section of pipe into the car’s floor with a few feet of it sticking into the passenger compartment and a short section sticking out the bottom. A piece of telephone pole was held in the pipe and a black powder charge on top with a remote electrical igniter. When the rollover was needed the stunt driver pushed the button and the telephone pole fired out of the pipe, flipping the car on demand.
The first time he tried it it led to some of his most serious injuries. The film was McQ and the location was the beach chase scene. In practice Hal used a single charge of powder and the car only lifted a small amount. They had 4 charges left so they used them all for another practice, unaware that the explosive energy squared with a doubled charge.
The car sailed 30 feet into the air and landed on the roof. It was bent nearly in half. Needham was unconscious and needed mouth to mouth. He broke 6 ribs, his back, punctured a lung and lost at least 3 teeth. They backed off the charge for the actual filming and it worked perfectly.
Stunt coordinators still use it today. Anytime a car flips in a chase scene I always watch the car on its back to see if I can spot the smoking, 10" hole in the bottom. I spotted one just the other day but can’'t remember the film. I have never seen the piece of telephone pole, I don’t know where it goes.
Dennis