This Epic, High-Speed Wreck Is Nasty -- But We Can't Look Away

Planning on breaking the land speed record? Invest in a nice rollcage.

Indeed, it's likely that the rollcage saved 55-year-old Brian Gillespie's life. The professional driver attempted to break a land speed record in California's Mojave Desert last week, but just as the speedometer on his amped-up Honda Insight approached 190 mph, something went horribly wrong.

A video of the incident, posted to YouTube by John Wylie, shows the car flip close to 20 times at high speed, flinging debris from the chassis until slowly coming to a rest upside down, rocking ever so slightly back and forth. In a comment with the video, Wylie notes "the safety equipment worked as designed, and Gillespie escaped with relatively minor injuries."

Doug Macmillan, Gillespie’s friend and crew chief, told CBS Los Angeles they install "very, very extensive" safety equipment in their cars, and that Gillespie was "very well strapped in."

Still, that doesn't mean Gillespie escaped unscathed. In an interview with "Good Morning America," the driver said he "has no memory" of the crash, adding that responders had to peel the roof of the 2,000 pounds of twisted wreckage to remove him from the car. Gillespie ultimately suffered a collapsed lung and a concussion, for which he spent some time in the hospital.

WATCH the video, above.