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Automaker Jaguar decided to celebrate its 80th anniversary with a new world record. But the feat – a bit of stunt driving with the automaker's first-ever SUV – couldn't have been all that impressive to Jaguar's owners back in India, who would have grown up seeing the famous death-well riders at melas for decades now.

Stunt driver Terry Grant performed the highest-ever loop-the-loop with Jaguar's F-Pace at the Frankfurt auto show. Grant took one 360-degree ride around a specially-constructed 63 ft loop, withstanding a G-force higher than that experienced by space shuttle pilots to complete the stunt.

While the F-Pace wowed the attendees at the auto show, India's 'death well' riders have been performing equally impressive stunts in circumstances a lot less showy than the one in Frankfurt. For a paltry entry fee, spectators are treated to a spectacle of stuntmen riding bikes and cars around slanted, nearly vertical pits, known as maut ka kuan, literally death wells.

British rock group Django Django even made a music video inspired by these riders, describing them as, "guys with the most rock solid testicles we've ever come across."

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The stunt originated in the US in the early 1900s, traveled on to the UK, and eventually found its way to India. Its popularity waned in the US and the UK in the 1960s, but death wells are still a staple at fairs across India.

An all-Indian addition to the stunt is that of cars. To up the danger the performers switch from cars to motorbikes and back, mid-performance. They grab money from the outstretched hands of spectators, hold hands with fellow riders and even ride sitting sideways, as can be seen in the above clip. And unlike the carefully controlled sanitised version of Jaguar's world record attempt, India's stunt riders aren't just tempting fate by doing the stunts. With old machines and older materials in the wells, just getting on the vehicles can be a stunt in itself.