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Death-defying daredevils and their flying machines

It was hell on wheels at Vancouver's Pacific International Exhibition 50 years ago

Alyn Edwards
May 15, 2021  •  May 15, 2021  •  3 minute read  •  Join the conversation
Canadian Hell Drivers do a ramp to ramp leap over a Datsun 240Z in 1971 at the PNE in Vancouver.
Canadian Hell Drivers do a ramp to ramp leap over a Datsun 240Z in 1971 at the PNE in Vancouver. Photo by Murray Chambers

On May 16th, 1971, the Canadian Hell Drivers were tearing up the track at the PNE’s Empire Stadium. The Quebec-based stunt drivers wowed the Vancouver crowds with rollovers, ramp-to-ramp jumps, crash dives and driving on two wheels with stunt men standing on the cars.

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It was a wild and woolly show that was death defying at every moment. But it was carefully orchestrated with safety in mind. Another thrill show in Exhibition Park that year was put on by the Hollywood Death Dodgers who took the car leaps and crashes to another level.

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Local enthusiast Murray Chambers got into all these events because he took photographs for Motorsport in British Columbia magazine publisher Doug Harder. Harder also produced the demolition derbies that began in Callister Park across the street from the PNE in the Sixties and later through the Seventies and Eighties on the fairgrounds during the annual PNE Fair. In 1970, he brought Hollywood film stunt driver Ron Walker to Vancouver to deliver a thrill show on wheels.

“I needed to give the demolition drivers an hour or so to repair their cars after the heat races and get them running again for the main event which wrapped up the show. So, I got the idea to have a stunt driving segment,” he recalls.

Walker did roll overs and crash dives which became a very popular element of future derbies.

Chambers watched this closely and, with friend and driver Ron Livingston taking the lead, decided that they could do even more death-defying feats with cars. In the years following, Chambers would take the wheel to perfect the triple-decker. He would roar off a ramp and hit the middle car in a stack of three vehicles. The idea was to hit the car so hard that the car on top would go flying though the air.

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  1. Murray Chambers pilots the CKWX radio stunt car through the wall of fire with Ken Bayko tied to the hood.
    Murray Chambers pilots the CKWX radio stunt car through the wall of fire with Ken Bayko tied to the hood. Photo by Submitted
  2. The Canadian Hell Drivers carried their passengers outside the car during a 1971 thrill show at the Pacific International Exhibition.
    The Canadian Hell Drivers carried their passengers outside the car during a 1971 thrill show at the Pacific International Exhibition. Photo by Murray Chambers
  3. Murray Chambers pilots a car through a wall of fire with a stunt man tied to the hood.
    Murray Chambers pilots a car through a wall of fire with a stunt man tied to the hood. Photo by Submitted
  4. Murray Chambers with a perfect hit in a triple stacker sending the top car flying at a thrill show.
    Murray Chambers with a perfect hit in a triple stacker sending the top car flying at a thrill show. Photo by Submitted
  5. Murray Chambers performs a perfect end over end roll over at a thrill show.
    Murray Chambers performs a perfect end over end roll over at a thrill show. Photo by Submitted
  6. Murray Chambers performs a perfect hit in a thrill show triple stacker where the top car goes flying.
    Murray Chambers performs a perfect hit in a thrill show triple stacker where the top car goes flying. Photo by Submitted
  7. Canadian Hell Drivers cross ramps on two wheels while brushing a flagman at the Pacific International Exhibition.
    Canadian Hell Drivers cross ramps on two wheels while brushing a flagman at the Pacific International Exhibition. Photo by Murray Chambers
  8. Canadian Hell Drivers on two wheels go by the grandstand at the Pacific International Exhibition in 1971.
    Canadian Hell Drivers on two wheels go by the grandstand at the Pacific International Exhibition in 1971. Photo by Murray Chambers
  9. A roll over performed by the Canadian Hell Drivers at the Pacific International Exhibition in 1971.
    A roll over performed by the Canadian Hell Drivers at the Pacific International Exhibition in 1971. Photo by Murray Chambers
  10. Canadian Hell Drivers do a crash dive with a 1955 Oldsmobile.
    Canadian Hell Drivers do a crash dive with a 1955 Oldsmobile. Photo by Murray Chambers
  11. A 1958 Oldsmobile gets the worst of it after a Canadian Hell Drivers crash dive.
    A 1958 Oldsmobile gets the worst of it after a Canadian Hell Drivers crash dive. Photo by Murray Chambers
  12. The Hollywood Death Dodgers split the ramp with the flagman taking the risk.
    The Hollywood Death Dodgers split the ramp with the flagman taking the risk. Photo by Murray Chambers
  13. Canadian Hell Drivers do a jump with a 1962 Chevrolet station wagon. Their cars were sponsored by local Datsun dealers.
    Canadian Hell Drivers do a jump with a 1962 Chevrolet station wagon. Their cars were sponsored by local Datsun dealers. Photo by Murray Chambers

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Chambers did this in shows organized by Harder throughout North America, from Dallas to Los Angeles to Kansas City. Apart from a few bumps and bruises, the mild-mannered bespectacled Chambers always crawled out of the wrecked car in one piece. Then he upped the ante when he decided to do the triple-decker crash with trucks. At one thrill show, he hit the middle truck so hard that it spun the top truck backwards, shearing off much of the roof of the truck Chambers was driving.

“That was a close one,” he recalls. “The impact cracked my helmet and gave me a concussion. It was the last one I did.”

One of the most popular stunts was the wall of fire where Chambers would pilot a car through a wall of fire at high speed. His friend and fellow demolition derby driver Ken Bayko would be tied to the front of the car when it dove through the flames.

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“I just wore a helmet and coveralls sprayed with some fire retardant,” Bayko recalls. “There was a way of building the wall so I didn’t get hurt.”

Murray Chambers with the camera used to capture motorsport action shots and posters from the many thrill shows where he performed as a stunt driver.
Murray Chambers with the camera used to capture motorsport action shots and posters from the many thrill shows where he performed as a stunt driver.

Chambers drove the cars through the wall of fire and says it was built with strips of gasoline-soaked plywood that peeled away as the car struck it at high speed. At one show, they did the wall of fire stunt with a bus.

Chambers received hundreds of trophies, many of them lined up in special room at his Burnaby home. He also displays dozens of the posters from the popular events of the past. The thrill shows are now well behind the three old friends who devote a lot of their time to the Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society which has inducted more than 300 local contributors over the past 19 years.

Chambers is a retired ICBC estimator. Harder has retired from the printing business and Bayko works for the City of Vancouver public works department.

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in a Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com

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