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Pedal-to-the-metal, totally illegal, cross country sprint for glory

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  • Pedal-to-the-metal, totally illegal, cross country sprint for glory

    Really long article, and really interesting about the guys who hold the coast to coast American driving record.




    And so the clock starts and the taillights flare, and they're off again, strapped down, fueled up, and bound on an outlaw enterprise with 2,795 miles of interstate and some 31,000 highway cops between them and the all-time speed record for crossing the American continent on four wheels.
    The gear is all bought and loaded. Twenty packs of Nat Sherman Classic Light cigarettes, check. Breath mints, check. Glucose and guarana, Visine and riboflavin, Gatorade and Red Bull, mail-order porta-pissoir bags of quick-hardening gel, check.

    Randolph highway patrol sunglasses, 20-gallon reserve fuel tank, Tasco 8 x 40 binoculars fitted with a Kenyon KS-2 gyro stabilizer, military spec Steiner 7 x 50 binoculars, Hummer H1-style bumper-mounted L-3 Raytheon NightDriver thermal camera and LCD dashboard screens, front-and-rear-mounted sensors for a Valentine One radar/laser detector, flush bumper-mount Blinder M40 laser jammers, redundant Garmin StreetPilot 2650 GPS units, preprogrammed Uniden police radio scanners, ceiling-mount Uniden CB radio with high-gain whip antenna. Check. Check. Check.

    At the moment, the driver and copilot of this E39 BMW M5 are illegal in intent only as they obediently cow along the tip of Manhattan, funnel into the Holland Tunnel, and spill out into New Jersey along a six-lane mash-and-merge. The speedometer reads a cool 60 miles per hour; the clock reads 9:12 pm.

    "Unacceptable," Alex Roy says. The 35-year-old driver is addressing both the numbers and himself. Then, after 20 sickening minutes in construction traffic, Roy says it to the darkened highway, pushing up over 110 mph while his copilot squints along the scabbed blacktop for the deer that might end their lives and the policemen who might kill their trip.

    Continued in article....

  • #2
    Mmm nice write up!!
    Putting warheads on foreheads since 2004

    Pro-Touring Build

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    • #3
      Awesome.
      2004 Suzuki DL650
      1996 Hy-Tek Hurricane 103

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      • #4
        He's got a book out ("The Driver") and I just finished it up this weekend.

        The stories about Gumballing are far more interesting than the one about this record. I think partly because he's going to make a movie about it. It was a good read for car guys.

        Here he (Alex Roy) is at Google giving a talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQpg0tvap4A

        Of course, I drive an E39 M5, so I'm a bit partial

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        • #5
          You know that is a hell of a drain on that car to run that many electronics. I love the entire concept
          I wear a Fez. Fez-es are cool

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          • #6
            Ya know you want to post the intro to cannonball again.

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            • #7
              That movie (documentary) has been in production since about 2006. I have e-mails I sent them inquiring about it back there, with their response being (released very soon) There has been almost no news in 6 years. cool deal, but I doubt we will ever see the finished film.
              DE OPPRESSO LIBER

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              • #8
                Trailer
                The Cannonball Run. The U.S. Express. The World Record. The True Story. 1983. 32:07. New York to LA. Non-stop. Coming Soon in 2008.Read the blog: http://www....
                DE OPPRESSO LIBER

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                • #9
                  Just the thought of that is awesome, and crazy.
                  sigpic18 F150 Supercrew - daily
                  17 F150 Supercrew - totaled Dec 12, 2018
                  13 DIB Premium GT, M6, Track Pack, Glass Roof, Nav, Recaros - Sold
                  86 SVO - Sold
                  '03 F150 Supercrew - Sold
                  01 TJ - new toy - Sold
                  65 F100 (460 + C6) - Sold

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                  • #10
                    It would be harder today just because of the amount of traffic on the roads, and it would be easier because of all of the no-pursuit policies out there.

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