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"... L.A.'s spiderweb of interstates for a total of 2825 miles—Toman and Tabbutt were able to maintain an overall average speed of 103 mph..." I've driven cros

"... L.A.'s spiderweb of interstates for a total of 2825 miles—Toman and Tabbutt were able to maintain an overall average speed of 103 mph..." I've driven cross country a few times and I was always happy if I could average more than 50mph over any long amount of time driving. I can't understand how they averaged 103, that really seems impossible without getting incredibly lucky!

vidanay 7y ago
Yeah, I've made several 20-22 hour trips from Chicago to a fishing cabin 8 hours north of Winnipeg, and it's HARD to keep your average speed north of 50. If you make a stop for gas or food, you can literally watch your overall average drop by a few MPH.
- AshleyGrant 7y ago
  There's two big things they did: First, they minimized their stops to four fuel stops. Second, when they were moving, they were moving FAST whenever possible. Well north of 100 mph.
  - vidanay 7y ago
    Third, don't drive a F150 loaded with enough food and beer for four fat guys for 10 days while towing a boat. :-)
- jcranmer 7y ago
  When I was in grad school, my trip home for breaks was 720 miles routinely driven in 12 hours, all stops included, for an average of 60mph. About 5 miles of this entire trip was on non-interstate, and travelling through the cities could be arranged to miss all the rush hours, which means that you can maintain speed limit the entire freeway trip (which is mostly 70mph).
ncmncm 7y ago
I used to congratulate myself for a Portland - Seattle run in two hours, back in the '80s. I never was able to account for seeing a full moon dead ahead, on a slower run.
black6 7y ago
TFA doesn't mention it, but I've read about other Cannonball attempts where the "contestants" do their best to plan the journey so that they avoid population centers during peak traffic hours and the long stretches of desolate highway driving occur at night so the highways are even more empty.

vidanay 7y ago

Yeah, I've made several 20-22 hour trips from Chicago to a fishing cabin 8 hours north of Winnipeg, and it's HARD to keep your average speed north of 50. If you make a stop for gas or food, you can literally watch your overall average drop by a few MPH.

AshleyGrant 7y ago
There's two big things they did: First, they minimized their stops to four fuel stops. Second, when they were moving, they were moving FAST whenever possible. Well north of 100 mph.
- vidanay 7y ago
  Third, don't drive a F150 loaded with enough food and beer for four fat guys for 10 days while towing a boat. :-)
jcranmer 7y ago
When I was in grad school, my trip home for breaks was 720 miles routinely driven in 12 hours, all stops included, for an average of 60mph. About 5 miles of this entire trip was on non-interstate, and travelling through the cities could be arranged to miss all the rush hours, which means that you can maintain speed limit the entire freeway trip (which is mostly 70mph).

ncmncm 7y ago

I used to congratulate myself for a Portland - Seattle run in two hours, back in the '80s. I never was able to account for seeing a full moon dead ahead, on a slower run.

black6 7y ago

TFA doesn't mention it, but I've read about other Cannonball attempts where the "contestants" do their best to plan the journey so that they avoid population centers during peak traffic hours and the long stretches of desolate highway driving occur at night so the highways are even more empty.