Video: record monster truck jump

"We're gonna keep jumping the truck ‘til we break the record, or break the truck." Not our words (surprisingly), but the words of Joe Sylvester, driver of Bad Habit, a 4535kg, 1400hp monster truck that's just broken the world record monster truck distance jump at the Cornfield 500.

Yep, this Ram-bodied giant managed to jump 72.42 metres - that's more than 42 Richard Hammonds. Sylvester hit the launch ramp at 85mph, only 1mph short of the current monster truck land-speed record, and landed so violently he destroyed Bad Habit's front suspension. And some of, er, America...

Sylvester says: "The level of risk is about as high as you can go in a monster truck. I can't really think of anything else that would be higher risk than that. If you crash at that speed and from that height it's pretty devastating".

Having first claimed the record in 2010 with a 63.39-metre jump, he doesn't think he'll have to defend it any time soon. "It's not a matter of difficulty. It's if they've got the balls to hit a jump at 85 miles per hour, and as far as I know there's not anybody ready to step up and take that kind of a chance yet."

Now watch. Then check out this monster truck near miss, the time Hammond taught a nun to drive one, and our drive in a rather large Fiat Panda....