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The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory (2007)
- iamben 13y agoWithout reading the whole article, I'm guessing this is an abridged version of Alex Roy's great book 'The Driver'? http://www.amazon.com/The-Driver-Dangerous-Pursuit-Outlaw/dp/0061374997/ http://www.amazon.com/The-Driver-Dangerous-Pursuit-Outlaw/dp... Definitely worth a read if you're into that kind of thing.
- gaadd33 13y agoYeah its a pretty old article (2007) so it was probably published in the lead up to that being released.
- elements 13y agoI really enjoyed that book as well. Around that time, I came a across a documentary about both his run as well as the old Cannonball and US Express races. It was still being made at the time, but it's been released since. http://www.32hours7minutes.com/ http://www.32hours7minutes.com/ I haven't seen it yet, but it looks quite good.
- everyone 13y agoIncredibly childish thing to do, endangering innocent peoples lives.
- diminoten 13y agoHow are people's lives endangered?
- teraflop 13y agoI would hope this is obvious, but "driving in the dark at 50 mph over the speed limit" has a high risk of causing a fatal collision.
- iamben 13y agoNot sure if it mentions it in the Wired article (and not condoning it), but he was using an awful lot of high end tech - night vision, helicopter etc.
- maxerickson 13y agoThe Wired article mentions they had some friends in a plane for some of the daytime segment. No helicopter mentioned.
- iamben 13y agoIt was probably a plane I was thinking of. It's 5 or 6 years since I read the book :-)
- diminoten 13y ago[citation needed], when you take into account the technology being used.
- austinz 13y agoTechnology can mitigate the risks, but not eliminate them altogether. I've nearly skidded off a road a few times when misjudging the curvature of unfamiliar onramps or offramps (and taking them far too fast). I've seen a couple of other highway features which, if taken too fast by an unfamiliar driver, could easily lead to calamity. Technology also can't compensate entirely for driver fatigue or bad snap judgments, both of which are a real threat for any traveler (not just these guys). The article makes it clear that he plans ahead, relies upon support, and tries to stick to straight stretches of highway. Good for him, and if he wants to risk his life doing 130 down a deserted highway at 2 in the morning so be it. But honestly, from the article, it looks like he has a habit of weaving through traffic at unsafe speeds, and as someone who's nearly been killed by insane drivers trying similar stuff...well, honestly, I'm not impressed.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- kylelibra 13y agoThere is a documentary about this that has finally been released: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1329299/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1329299/
- pmorici 13y agoThere are also several documentaries out there about the "Gumball 3000" mentioned in the article.
- lelf 13y agoIn one page — http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_cannonballrun?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_canno...
- brianbreslin 13y agoI didn't read the entire article, did he beat the record? What speed do you need to average to hit 32hours cross country? 90mph? I wonder if now it could be accomplished more easily using 2013 traffic and weather data apps. Like waze and Stormpulse and dark sky and maybe google glass or other augmented reality apps paired with night vision and other sensors.
- HeyItsJames 13y agoYeah he beat it by a full hour and three minutes, using a spotter airplane and a new co-pilot. Man, what an awesome story. Completely reckless, but completely awesome.
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoIn the end, Roy never attempted the 25-minute Manhattan Rendez-vous. But he claims to have raced a 27-minute "practice run." He proudly estimates that he hit top speeds of 144 mph [through downtown New York]... Christ, what an asshole.
- jonmrodriguez 13y agoThis meant running dozens of red lights at absurd speeds and left little time to react to sudden contingencies like pedestrians. [page 3] Yeah.
- codex 13y agoMost accidents require multiple simultaneous factors: bad weather, a tire blow out, a bad night's sleep, a crying baby in the back seat, a deer in the road. The driver of any one car has control of only a fraction of these. By operating at high speed, you add another factor and decrease your capacity to respond to the others. It increases the risk of an accident by at least an order of magnitude, if not more, and commensurately increases risk of death to the driver and to innocents. The whole thing reeks of douchebagerry.
- juliangamble 13y agoThe author of Simcity, Will Wright - was involved in a similar activity in 1980 http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/news/2007/10/will_wright http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/news/2007/10/will_wrigh... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Wright_(game_designer)#Personal_interests http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Wright_(game_designer)#Per...
- nicholassmith 13y agoI've read this story a few times and always love it. Yeah, driving fast inherently carries a lot of risk, not only to yourself but to others around you, but it's a risk dependent on how well you know your car and how well you can drive it. You can't mitigate all the risk, just a chunk of it. The likelihood is motorway speeds will be pushed out faster at some stage, so the record might be easier to break. However, 6 years on there's even more eyes in the sky so if you try it you're going to jail.
- JanezStupar 13y agoYet another asshole in a BMW. Whats with the BMW drivers? Really?