There is zero rebound when it lands, that's a bit weird. I replayed that part a couple of times, it doesn't look like there is any vertical velocity at all when it lands, which, given SpaceX's ability to do this with much heavier objects should be no surprise but it makes it look as if the vehicle has very little mass. If the tanks contain 250Kg of compressed air (which means it is pretty much liquid) and you toss that out in ~1 second or so then you'll be near the end of the depletion so if the vehicle would be launched just a little bit higher it would slam into the ground instead of gently landing. There isn't much reserve there.

You're right. The McMurty is an actual car with a driver in it.

What do you mean? It's the exact same concept

I don't pretend to know the details of the show, but if it was actually doing what's implied I don't think the lighting would have been set up to hide so much.

More like jumping. It was clearly able to lift off from the ground.

Remember when Elon announced a humanoid robot by using a dancer in a robot costume? Seems reasonable that he would have some "technical assistance" to make his stage show look great. No idea if it was cables or not, but reasonable people can doubt the veracity of the theatrics.

At race speeds (say over ~150 mph), you don't even need a fan or any active mechanism. Just passive venturi channels on the underside can generate so much down force they are strictly limited in F1 because they can easily enable cars to sustain extremely unsafe speeds.

There are some McLaren street cars that use passive venturi channels which from their shape alone, generate more down force at high speeds than the car's weight. In theory, the car could drive upside down (if there was a Daytona-sized race track shaped like a ~30 ft diameter pipe).

Yeah, it turns out that in very specific and controlled situations, using a fan to make downforce is great. It's also a very obvious thing to do in those situations and doesn't do much for you otherwise.

Imagine a normal car having to carry around the added weight of fans, COPVs, and the plumbing to make it work. And only being able to use those only if the track is clean and there are no other cars nearby.

The Chaparral 2j is one of the most inventive and cool looking cars I've seen.

Not f1, Can-Am but yeah, I'm really surprised this isn't a more common approach to modern track cars. Obviously banned in most motorsport but I'm surprised with all of the one-offs these days that it's not more common.

You can’t drive it anywhere that manhole covers might exist, lest you destroy the car and/or turn the manhole cover into a deadly projectile.