I saw a video about a guy refurbishing a previous winner of the Cannonball run. It was a BMW with a lot of specialty equipment. Including police-style flashing lights, which no doubt were intended to get slowpokes to move out of the way, fast.
I’ve seen in-car videos of guys driving like this. The driver obviously drives, but you also need a navigator and a spotter or two. Who use binoculars to search for signs of police ahead. They also have various radar sensors and laser jammers, and even I believe air support–advisors who tell them what lies just ahead so they can adjust speed accordingly.
So they’re not solo, by any means…there’s all sorts of special equipment, team roles and and even an external support structure (pilots, spotters and even people scouting for good places to fuel up, no doubt).
If you tried it by yourself, nobody’d hear about it. But the official runs are well-financed team efforts. I’m sure such people know about each other; maybe try to contact them online?
Additionally, these guys who just set the record had “boots on the ground” – extra guys in different states driving sweep and looking for cops, and a motorcycle escort for the final miles by the guy who set the NY-to-LA motorcycle record. They had good comm with all – they were connected by radio.
It’s quite a logistical feat that accompanies the driving effort.
Sarrazin’s film, “The Gumball Rally”, was five years earlier and, in my opinion, a better film. I loved it when Raul Julia removed the rear-view mirror, “What’s behind me is not important.”
Thanks! I have a number of places in mind, not the least of which is CA 33 out near Ventucopa. 33 out of Ojai is one of the few places you’ll ever go where bikes outnumber cars.
Semi-related: I once was returning from Car Week in Monterey, coming down the 101. As I was tootling along at 10 over, I got passed by a convoy of Italian exotica, trailed by one of those sleeper AMG Mercedes. Not one to pass up an opportunity to let someone be the rabbit, I fell into queue and on that day, learned that my BMW would happily let you set the cruise control at 110mph. Or more.
I’ve absolutely been on stretches of two-lane highway that are straightaways for very long stretches and that aren’t heavily traveled. After awhile, you’re tempted to speed just to end the frickin’ monotony (and I think most people do so by a few mph). However, they’re not controlled-access roads. Controlled-access roads tend to be interstates in the states I’ve been and are very rarely devoid of drivers. Most of the highways are not controlled-access, however. When I drove a two-lane highway to work every day, I seldom had a day free of someone turning off a farm road ahead of me at a complacent 10 or 20 miles under the speed limit*. It’s surprising how many people have poor speed-and-distance judgment. It declines with age, I hear.
If you’re of the mindset that it doesn’t matter of the triple-digit speeder alone might get killed (since he’s knowingly taking the risk), there are definitely such stretches. Then it’s a matter of playing the odds. I’ve known people who got killed hitting a dark cow at night (dad and small daughter), hitting a deer, having a blowout at 90 mph, hitting a patch of freshly chip-and-sealed road, and hitting a patch of black ice. I’m sure those have colored my perspective. I’ve always felt bad for EMT’s called to those kind of fatal crashes. I hear they’re usually pretty ugly. But then, I’ve known many, many more people who’ve sped down rural roads and have NOT come to grief. It’s the odds.
*Of course, I knew to keep a wary eye out, and I wasn’t speeding, so there were very rarely any close calls.
I agree, although if the state they live in doesn’t recognize it’s legality, they’re likely get nothing.
I live in Iowa, but work in South Dakota. Iowa recognizes speed cameras, but SD does not. Funny enough, those cameras are set up right along I-29, near where it enters SD. But when Iowa petitions SD for resident information on SD license plates, SD refuses to cooperate. I’ve heard that even people who are issued tickets in SD fight them and win, because those cameras are not legal in their state.
Not saying all states banning speed cameras do it that way; just that SD does.
Seriously, would speed camera even be able to catch their plate given how fast they were going or would they be out of range of the viewfinder by the time the shutter clicks?
But if you live in Arizona, you have to just laugh at their location filming. They use the Flagstaff area for every state from Illinois to Arizona. And there are no mountains in Illinois.
Plus, there are scenes driving on 89A south of Flag, which is both most definitely NOT a fast road, and doesn’t go anywhere they want to go.
My pretty-basic Canon digital SLR has shutter speeds of 1/4,000th of a second. A car going 250 MPH (if it could) covers… if I do my math correctly…
250 Mi/Hr X 1/60 Hrs/Min X 1/60 Mins/Sec X 5,280 ft/Mi = 367 ft/sec
1/4,000th of that is 0.92 feet
0.92 feet X 12 inches/ft = 1.10 inch
Therefore a car going 250 MPH, caught by my camera, travels 1.1 inches in that 1/4,000th of a second. And that’s if the car is traveling tangentially to the camera. If it’s coming towards the camera, which is how I would take its picture, then its lateral movement (tangential component of speed) relative to the camera is much less than 1.1 inches.
WAG-it’s the triggering mechanism( no idea what that is) that can’t lock on beyond a particular speed. Or the car goes through the “zone” too fast to trigger.
I hitchhiked in my wasted youth. Some rides went rather fast. A suited fellow zipped his Olds Toronado over the SF Bay Bridge quickly one night - I think the gauge pointed to 140 mph. I muttered, “Aren’t you afraid of tickets?” He answered, “No, I’m deputy director of the California Highway Patrol”. Rank hath privilege, true.
Another ride went north from near Salt Lake City to the Canadian border on I-15. Speed rarely dropped below 100 mph. I caught rides like that on California’s Central Valley I-5 too. Drivers usually say they’d rather have traffic behind them, not in front.
I was in no hurry for my fastest US coast-to-coast on the ground. I stuck my thumb out 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles and arrived in Washington DC just 3 rides and 60 hours later. That’s almost as good as Cannonball Baker’s 53-hour speed drive. Returning, I was rushed, so it took over a week. Life is like that.
(I’ve driven from Pacific to Atlantic coasts in 6 hours but the isthmus of Tehuantepec is narrow.)
Enough of thumbing. IIRC a north-south Nevada highway is blocked off to casual traffic by police one day a year to allow speed runs. But that’s totally legal. Where’s the illicit fun then?
I think a number of attempts were just ended in the middle of their runs when something happened that made it impossible to finish under the current record. IIRC, the previous record was set after an aborted attempt where they had to slow down too much because of a severe rainstorm.
Speaking of the previous record run, I seem to recall that it was kept quiet for over a year until all possible statutes of limitations for, e.g., speeding had lapsed. I’m a little surprised this record was announced so soon after it happened.
Why do you think that most Cannonballers make better time in the eastern half of the US vs western? Is it because most LEOs patrol in the afternoon & evening vs the early morning (after midnight) and before the noon hour?
I have no idea where I came across it, and it’s been years now, but I swear I read something to the effect that Aykroyd has done the NY-LA run in less than 40. I can’t find it in an internet search either under cannonball or the gumball rally.
