A new record from NYC to LA in a car. Guess their time before clicking

This whole "cannonball" thing, which started in the 70s, had a big lag during the 80s and 90s because of the growth of the country. Increased traffic. Cars sucked.

It's only picked up again recently because technology allows it to be as "safe" as it used to be, when there were a lot less people in the country, and a LOT less traffic.

So yeah, it's a good time to try this. The guys who are way into it, though, are waffling on whether it's "within the spirit," to try now, but really, how else are you going to re-create conditions from the early-70s? Given today's cars and tech, it's no wonder the record dropped so far. It's entirely realistic that tonight/tomorrow, or this weekend, or next weekend, it will drop another hour or so. It's possible THAT record will never be touched again, by cars that are on land, anyway, driven be real people.

13 days and 18 hours

Cannonball Run wrote:

A 2019 Audi A8 broke a stout record from November. A crew of 3-4 with extra gas tanks in the trunk left April 4th at 11:15pm and arrived in Redondo Beach in 26:38:xx. The 45 minute improvement comes amid this current stay at home edict.

They averaged, stops and all, over 122mph

This is more like Kipchoge’s sub2 because of reduced cops and hardly any traffic on the road.

Not sure if this counts. It's like setting a women's WR by using male pacers and wearing Alphaflys.

It's insane to average 122 mph across the country like that. As far as being irresponsible, I'd say that it was the least irresponsible time ever to do it in that so many cars and trucks were off the road that they had the least chance of getting into an accident of any such attempt ever before. I am shocked that they could be moving a lot faster than 122 much of that time, since there had to have been some stops, without getting caught once by a police car! Wouldn't there be multiple, multiple reports of a car flying by on the highways and freeways at 140-150? I'd say that it was absolutely implausible if people hadn't succeeded in doing something close to this in the past. I imagine that the old record set with a red Ferrari was about the most implausible. How could anyone miss that?

Obviously, it is insanely irresponsible to be driving that speed around other cars going 70.

This is ridiculous. It's basically a test of who is willing to drive the most recklessly. If there was a test of how many bullets you could shoot straight up without accidentally shooting somebody, it would be basically equivalent.

dunes runner wrote:

122 miles per hour is crazy.

Where do you get 122 mph? Most direct route looks to be 2789 miles. Or do they go way out of the way to avoid cities? Seems like they could easily kill someone driving that fast.

But this is nuts.

And I had to laugh at secondary headline: "Cannonball purists are criticizing the run as grossly irresponsible while the nation deals with an emergency of unseen magnitude."

Driving across the country at 122 mph is way more irresponsible than breaking any sort of quarantine laws. Not sure if they actually broke any of those.

How the F did they not get tickets.

They avoided tickets by equipping their cars full of radar detectors. These allow them to view any possible speedtraps and police hotspots. They also had a supporting team of "spotters" who checked the local road conditions of the regions they were traveling through. It's most likely that they adjusted their route according to where the police cars were parked.

Trust me, car guys have it all figured out when it comes to avoiding the police.

johnfromSJ wrote:

Trust me, car guys have it all figured out when it comes to avoiding the police.

Ayrton Senna wrote:

Now is the perfect time to do this kind of stuff.

Definitely. The trauma surgeons need to stay fresh and up to speed.

Here's an article about the previous record and they discuss all the tech they used to avoid police detection. As another poster mentioned, I also remember that these runs use scout cars to go in front and alert of any police. And I also feel like previous runs have used helicopter scouts as well, but this article doesn't say anything about that.

Also WAZE shows most cops. It's a traffic App.

Did they pee in a Gatorade bottle?

Only a matter of time until someone tries for a sub-24.

"One country in one day."

Did anyone check if they were wearing cheaterflys?

wejo wrote:

And I had to laugh at secondary headline: "Cannonball purists are criticizing the run as grossly irresponsible while the nation deals with an emergency of unseen magnitude."

Yeah, the complete lack of self-awareness about their own hypocrisy is pretty hilarious. At least one person was reasonable though, saying that he wouldn't criticize it because it would be like a cocaine dealer criticizing a heroine dealer or something like that. And it's ridiculous that people are bickering over who gets to set the rules for something that is totally illegal and officiate an unofficial record. As usual, I suspect most of the critics are jealous.

Bib #1 wrote:

Go Speed Racer Go wrote:

That's pretty cool but how did they avoid getting stopped by the police?

The previous record holder said that in certain stretches of road they sent out other cars in front of them to warn them of cop cars

A previous record holder also disguised his car as a police car to avoid getting pulled over. Also had a spotter plane to warn him of cops ahead

Cannonball Run wrote:

A 2019 Audi A8 broke a stout record from November. A crew of 3-4 with extra gas tanks in the trunk left April 4th at 11:15pm and arrived in Redondo Beach in 26:38:xx. The 45 minute improvement comes amid this current stay at home edict.

They averaged, stops and all, over 122mph

That's actually an average of 105mph, if you do the math (2800/26.63)

Dill Dickleson wrote:

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a30085091/these-guys-just-drove-an-e63-amg-across-america-in-a-record-27-hours-25-minutes/

Here's an article about the previous record and they discuss all the tech they used to avoid police detection. As another poster mentioned, I also remember that these runs use scout cars to go in front and alert of any police. And I also feel like previous runs have used helicopter scouts as well, but this article doesn't say anything about that.

That stuff is all pretty neat, but even with reduced traffic, I'd think a car doing 120 would generate at least a few calls to police in some areas. In some of the larger states they could be spaced far enough apart for them to guess at what they're doing and predict their route ahead of time to set up a tailor-made trap, put an unmarked car into the flow of traffic to grab a plate #, or notify departments further along the route of what's going on so they could be on the lookout to do the same.

How dare you?