Swift-ly he goes

First impressions are not always an accurate judge of character. A case in point is Russ Swift.

Meet him for the first time and he’d strike you as this cheerful, down-to-earth, soft-spoken middle-aged man who, at 60, would probably prefer the bus to getting behind the wheel of car and facing the hassle of driving through traffic.

The reality is that Russ is an acclaimed display driver – the kind of person who would rather be inside a car doing things that would make your jaw drop.

Swift

His precision driving repertoire includes driving a car on two wheels, lots of sliding and donuts galore. And then there is the one that has broken multiple Guinness World records for Swift – parallel parking in the tightest space.

Travelling with speed from the opposite direction, he first noses the car into a space between two parked cars and then slides the rear around to a perfect halt.

When its all done, there’s usually little over 30cm of free space left between his car and the other two. Certainly as stylish as it is a dramatic way to side park.

At the Thailand International Motor Expo 2011 in December, the man created as much cheer as he drew gasps from the bewildered audience.

Swift says he just loves the response he gets from the crowd.

“I just have the best job in the world! I’d do this for a hobby if I wasn’t getting paid for it! I’m very lucky to have made a living out of it for 30 years,” he said after the show.

“However, the instant I don’t think I can perform as good as I ever did, I will retire. I’m still enjoying it as much as ever and my display is still getting better.”

There’s obviously no looking back for the man who first worked as an apprentice in engineering.

“I served my time as a template maker making parts for heavy engineering. My grandfather and great grandfather were involved in shipbuilding. In fact, my grandfather was responsible for the cuttings on the Titanic – the stern frames and all the propeller brackets were made in Darlington, my hometown.

“I was following in their (my grandfather’s and great grandfather’s) footsteps until I got interested in cars and abandoned the family tradition to do this.”

Swift’s first ever experience in a car though, was rather brief.

“It was in my father’s car on my uncle’s farm and I crashed it into a fence post! But that taught me to be very careful in the future,” he said with a laugh.


He actually learnt to ride bikes first for many years and the two-wheelers remain a passion.

“Once I started driving I started competing in motorsports. I started doing shows and later got asked to perform my tricks in public and realised there was a niche in the market for this type of entertainment.

“For the last 30 years, I’ve been entertaining people all over the world.”

On how he got into the “stunt-biz” industry, Swift recalls that a rally was being held and the organisers wanted someone to entertain the audience during the race intervals.

 “I did it and got paid for the first time. I then realised that there was a demand for such shows and it just snowballed from there.”

Swift’s driving skills were memorably put to the test in 1987, when he performed stunts in a crowded parking lot in an Austin Montego for a television advertisement.

The close-ups were done by an actor, but Swift, who was uncredited, was responsible for the driving. It was during the filming of the advertisement that he came up with the parallel parking manoeuvre, which has remained his trademark to this day.

Before performing at a show, Swift says he usually has access to a motor racing circuit very close to him to practice the stunts before-hand.

“I’m doing this virtually every other day of the week – we flew into Thailand yesterday (Wednesday), we do our last shows at 7pm on Monday and we fly out at midnight. We’re going to South America, next. We’re travelling all the time.

“When I got here yesterday, I had about 15 minutes practice to familiarise myself with the car and the area but apart from that, I don’t get a lot of time for practice, to be honest! We hope to be back in Malaysia next year. We did a car launch there in 1989.”

For the recent Thailand International Motor Expo, Swift was brought in by Subaru and showcased his stunts in a souped-up Impreza.

“The performance and the handling of the Subaru cars do not really make my job any easier. I’m trying to slide the car around and make it go out of control and that’s quite difficult when you have a car that handles as well as a Subaru.

“A bad handling car is in fact easier for me to use, to be honest!”

As crazy as his stunts may look, Swift says safety is always a top priority, adding that his stunts don’t always involve “huge risks.”

“Anything involving jumps is usually quite dangerous. If anything does go wrong on your approach you can have a really bad accident. I’m quite fortunate that I haven’t had any bad accidents, but I don’t do death-defying stunts.

“My show is a demonstration of the wonderful cars I get to drive and of my skills, really. I don’t risk my life and when I do all my tricks I leave a little bit of room for error so that I don’t have accidents.”

Swift jokes that the worst accident he’s had in recent years was when he stripped the paint of the bumper of a car.

“The last accident that we had, we were sponsored by a tyre company that had some stickers on the bumper. In my stunt, I accidentally ended up ripping the stickers off the bumper, though the paint was alright.

“But with that said, I’ve never really done any serious damage to a car. Accidents do happen but they’re very minor.”

For the Swift family, the apple has indeed, not fallen very far from the tree. Russ’ son, Paul, also performs stunts. Swift senior naturally approves.

“Yes, Paul’s following my tyre tracks! He’s been doing it for 25 years now. As soon as he was able to appreciate what I did, he wanted to be in on the action.

“I converted my ride-on lawnmover to drive on two wheels and he was driving that when he was seven years old! And then I built him a half-sized car.”

Looking back at his Swift says he’d like to be remembered as the man who pioneered a very unique sort of entertainment.

“When I started doing this, there was nobody doing anything similar and I’ve gone around the world and introduced this kind of display to people.

 “I’d like to think I’ve been innovative and come up with manoeuvres that people have never seen before, and at the same time, given everyone a lot of pleasure.”