Over its 14-year span, MythBusters delivered memorable experiments, from reshaping a Ford Taurus into a golf ball to deploying a semi truck to destroy props in the final episode. During the Alaska Special with hosts Kari, Tory, and Grant, the crew examined the claim that speeding up during an unavoidable moose collision allows the animal to flip over the vehicle, leaving the driver unharmed. The outcome proved this false, confirming that damage occurs no matter the approach.

The footage on the official MythBusters YouTube channel detailed their approach to the test. To avoid harming a real animal, the team constructed a stand-in moose using rubber sheets and cables after first observing a live specimen closely.

A Swedish thesis on crafting a rubber moose simplified their task, though they lacked prior details on materials or dimensions. Rather than measuring a wild bull, they used a captive moose measuring 9 feet nose to tail and 6 feet at the hump. A feel test led them to select rubber over ballistics gel. The finished dummy featured steel hip joints and weighed about 620 pounds.

Busting the myth

Kari noted the absence of antlers on the dummy, yet this proved minor during the actual runs. Inside E-TECH's facility, two tracks allowed a truck to tow a test car into the dummy at 45 mph using a 2:1 ratio setup, where the truck moved at half speed. The car included a guide bar on one front hub for straight tracking.

The first run produced expected results, with both the dummy and the midsize sedan suffering heavy damage, including nearly flattened A-pillars. The team then added a remote braking system to test deceleration. In the final trial, they sped up another car for 30 feet before impact. Braking reduced damage compared to the 45 mph hit, but accelerating to 51 mph destroyed the third car, as did a 75 mph strike on a two-door coupe.

The replica kept the test free of gore, yet the results showed unavoidable harm. Grant concluded that the myth would only apply to an F1 car exceeding 97 mph.