5 ms·

'Cannonball' speed record broken – New York to LA in less than 29 hours

50 points by codezero 13y ago

DanBC 13y ago
> He concedes his endeavor was a dangerous one, especially when you consider Bolian slept only 40 minutes of the trip, and co-driver Black slept an hour. But Bolian went out of his way to make it as safe as possible, choosing a weekend day with clear weather and a full moon -- and routes, when possible, with little traffic or construction. It's interesting how people justify things to themselves. "Okay, sure, I'm an asshole, but at least I made efforts not to be terrible". Travelling at a weekend might just mean a much higher number of inexperienced drivers making rare journeys, thus making weekend racing more not less dangerous. And isn't the point of having a co-driver to let one of them sleep while the other drives? Driving while tired is very dangerous. I agree with the rest of the thread - these people should be prosecuted. Take this stuff to a race track where other people have made a choice to be there.
- fastball 13y ago
  I don't know about you, but with enough caffeine (which really isn't that much) I can easily stay up for 30 hours with little to no side effects.
  - smoyer 13y ago
    Enjoy that while you're young ... I once spent a month sleeping every other night to complete a project (note: not everyone loses focus after x hours and I did take Edison style 20 minute naps a few times a day). Now that I'm older, I find it hard to stay awake when it's approaching midnight, but I'm often back up by 0330 to 0430 in the morning. I probably sleep less in total than I used to.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    > I can easily stay up for 30 hours with little to no side effects. You think you can stay up for 30 hours with little to no side effects. Maybe you can when you're not driving, but being behind the wheel adds a bunch of stuff that causes tiredness. It's boring, there's a monotonous sound from road surface, the road is hypnotic. Try it - get a game console and some driving game (like Forza or Gran Turismo) and do the very long races for 30 hours.
  - bluedino 13y ago
    >> I can easily stay up for 30 hours with little to no side effects. I can drink 6 beers without it affecting me. Hopefully at least one of us knows neither of those statements are true
- wglb 13y ago
  What about wholesale speed limit violations on major expressways and freeways in and around major cities?
- yarith 13y ago
  As a motorcyclist I'll take someone driving 100 mph over someone txting and driving any day of the week.
contextual 13y ago
For every moron to break the 'Cannonball' record, there will be a hundred other morons who, in an attempt to break the record, will plow over pedestrians and animals. Not a proud moment to be a human.
- imjared 13y ago
  Source?
- monkeyspaw 13y ago
  You speak with much certainty. As the original record was set over 25 years ago, surely there have been incidents of people trying to break it and "plowing over pedestrians", no? I wouldn't encourage people to try this, but your statement "there will be a hundred other morons... who will plow over pedestrians" is hyperbolic. Especially since we can look back to the original record.
Xylakant 13y ago
I'm sorry to spoil the fun here, but if you want to drive a race, rent a race track and don't do it on public streets where you endanger innocents.
- 13hours 13y ago
  Agreed. I wonder how this article jeopardises him in terms of getting arrested for this. It's basically a public confession isn't it?
  - rurounijones 13y ago
    The guy who did it in the M5 (Or that might have been someone doing the gumball rally record) had to research statute of limitations for all sorts of driving offenses he might be charged with in each state before he went public.
    - tgb 13y ago
      It looks like he averaged 85 miles an hour [1] - above the speed limit pretty much anywhere in the US. That's pretty indicting, but I bet he can't get a ticket since no individual agency knows that he sped in their jurisdiction. I'd personally love to see some effort made to peg him with at least a speeding ticket by looking through, say, toll road logs. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+LA+to+NYC)%2F29+hours http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+LA+to+NYC...
- rwallace 13y ago
  Yeah. Hopefully these assholes can be criminally charged; their identities are known, after all.
  - welly 13y ago
    Yeah! Hopefully! Because despite the speeds they were going, there were absolutely no casualties, accidents or incidents. Let's charge these bastards anyway. That'll stop them not killing anyone in the future.
cromwellian 13y ago
For some reason, this reminded me _The Last Chase_ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASCmH1HdG6g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASCmH1HdG6g
spuz 13y ago
This is quite an incredible feat. I thought after reading Alex Roy's 'The Driver', that this record would stand for a long time. Certainly not be broken by a full two hours. What is interesting here is that these guys have decided to go public almost immediately. Roy and his team were sworn to secrecy for something like 2 years while the statute of limitations in the states that they committed crimes expired. I wonder how these guys think they will get away with not seeing the inside of a police cell. For those interested in what this kind of thing takes, I recommend this talk by Alex Roy at Google NY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQpg0tvap4A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQpg0tvap4A
- Ntrails 13y ago
  Do you consider a diamond heist to be an incredible feat because as it turned out no one was hurt? The reason they succeeded is they didn't get caught. Everything else is irrelevant. Next time they should fly to Germany and fuck about on the autobahn for a couple of days, at least people will be prepared for drivers to be doing that speed. Edit: I do think 55mph is a pretty dumb limit though.
  - Xylakant 13y ago
    > Next time they should fly to Germany and fuck about on the autobahn for a couple of days Please don't. We have enough idiots over here mistaking the autobahn for a racetrack. I'll tell you a secret: It's not. People get killed here just as in the USA, for example the accident when a professional test driver for Mercedes cannonballed his prototype car into a previous accident. Despite darkness and bad visibility he was going beyond 190km/h and impacted with 170km/h, killing the driver of another car - despite the fact that that person was already out of their car. Two people that were out on the autobahn trying to help other victims of the crash narrowly escaped death. I remember that quite well since I passed there like half an hour before. If you want a race, take your car to the Nürburgring for a weekend. It's still legendary and still dangerous, but at least people know what they signed up for. It's actually affordable: 195 EUR for 4 laps with instructor: http://www.service-zum-nuerburgring.de/details.php?id_nr=3069&knr=24 http://www.service-zum-nuerburgring.de/details.php?id_nr=306... Edit: Picture of the accident: http://www.nq-online.de/index.php?&kat=56&artikel=5699 http://www.nq-online.de/index.php?&kat=56&artikel=5699 There's not much left of the car.
bmj 13y ago
Jalopnik has a detailed article, too: http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-drove-across-the-u-s-in-a-record-28-h-1454092837/@tcraggs22 http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-drove-across-the-u-s-in...
wglb 13y ago
This is a great story, quite dangerous, but all the comments here scolding this event, I suggest that you take a drive during the morning commute on the illinois tollway, say around Lake Cook towards ohare and let us all know how many are driving at the speed limit, which is 55. If you go 70, you are likely to get run over. Or if you drive the posted speed limit in a construction zone, you are likely to get honked at. Similarly, on the Edens where the expressway begins, at 0600 on a work day, if you want to drive 70, you better be in the far right hand lane. So according to a tracking company whose officials asked not be identified because they were unaware that Bolian would be driving so illegally when he hired them. Seriously? The tracking company thought that they would be driving just a little illegally, not so illegally??
- podperson 13y ago
  Everyone drives a little illegally ;-)
ck2 13y ago
They need to subpoena those external gps records and give them a ticket and suspend their license for every state they went through over 100mph. Think about how many lives they endangered.
jschulenklopper 13y ago
> The mark? Alex Roy and David Maher's cross-country record of 31 hours and 4 minutes, which they set in a modified BMW M5 in 2006. If you want to read more on Roy/Maher's record race that beat the previous record by an hour and three minutes, put this well-writen piece in Wired on your weekend reading list: http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_cannonballrun?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_canno...
yarith 13y ago
After reading this thread I feel very few commenters have actually driven across the USA. It is easy to go 100+ mph for a few hours and see maybe a dozen cars (esp in Texas and New Mexico or any stretch of I-10 for that matter). I actually feel it is more dangerous for people on SF's 101 that go 60mph instead of 90mph.

50 points by codezero 13y ago

DanBC 13y ago

> He concedes his endeavor was a dangerous one, especially when you consider Bolian slept only 40 minutes of the trip, and co-driver Black slept an hour. But Bolian went out of his way to make it as safe as possible, choosing a weekend day with clear weather and a full moon -- and routes, when possible, with little traffic or construction. It's interesting how people justify things to themselves. "Okay, sure, I'm an asshole, but at least I made efforts not to be terrible". Travelling at a weekend might just mean a much higher number of inexperienced drivers making rare journeys, thus making weekend racing more not less dangerous. And isn't the point of having a co-driver to let one of them sleep while the other drives? Driving while tired is very dangerous. I agree with the rest of the thread - these people should be prosecuted. Take this stuff to a race track where other people have made a choice to be there.

fastball 13y ago
I don't know about you, but with enough caffeine (which really isn't that much) I can easily stay up for 30 hours with little to no side effects.
- smoyer 13y ago
  Enjoy that while you're young ... I once spent a month sleeping every other night to complete a project (note: not everyone loses focus after x hours and I did take Edison style 20 minute naps a few times a day). Now that I'm older, I find it hard to stay awake when it's approaching midnight, but I'm often back up by 0330 to 0430 in the morning. I probably sleep less in total than I used to.
- DanBC 13y ago
  > I can easily stay up for 30 hours with little to no side effects. You think you can stay up for 30 hours with little to no side effects. Maybe you can when you're not driving, but being behind the wheel adds a bunch of stuff that causes tiredness. It's boring, there's a monotonous sound from road surface, the road is hypnotic. Try it - get a game console and some driving game (like Forza or Gran Turismo) and do the very long races for 30 hours.
- bluedino 13y ago
  >> I can easily stay up for 30 hours with little to no side effects. I can drink 6 beers without it affecting me. Hopefully at least one of us knows neither of those statements are true
wglb 13y ago
What about wholesale speed limit violations on major expressways and freeways in and around major cities?
yarith 13y ago
As a motorcyclist I'll take someone driving 100 mph over someone txting and driving any day of the week.

contextual 13y ago

For every moron to break the 'Cannonball' record, there will be a hundred other morons who, in an attempt to break the record, will plow over pedestrians and animals. Not a proud moment to be a human.

imjared 13y ago
Source?
monkeyspaw 13y ago
You speak with much certainty. As the original record was set over 25 years ago, surely there have been incidents of people trying to break it and "plowing over pedestrians", no? I wouldn't encourage people to try this, but your statement "there will be a hundred other morons... who will plow over pedestrians" is hyperbolic. Especially since we can look back to the original record.

Xylakant 13y ago

I'm sorry to spoil the fun here, but if you want to drive a race, rent a race track and don't do it on public streets where you endanger innocents.

13hours 13y ago
Agreed. I wonder how this article jeopardises him in terms of getting arrested for this. It's basically a public confession isn't it?
- rurounijones 13y ago
  The guy who did it in the M5 (Or that might have been someone doing the gumball rally record) had to research statute of limitations for all sorts of driving offenses he might be charged with in each state before he went public.
  - tgb 13y ago
    It looks like he averaged 85 miles an hour [1] - above the speed limit pretty much anywhere in the US. That's pretty indicting, but I bet he can't get a ticket since no individual agency knows that he sped in their jurisdiction. I'd personally love to see some effort made to peg him with at least a speeding ticket by looking through, say, toll road logs. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+LA+to+NYC)%2F29+hours http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+LA+to+NYC...
rwallace 13y ago
Yeah. Hopefully these assholes can be criminally charged; their identities are known, after all.
- welly 13y ago
  Yeah! Hopefully! Because despite the speeds they were going, there were absolutely no casualties, accidents or incidents. Let's charge these bastards anyway. That'll stop them not killing anyone in the future.

cromwellian 13y ago

For some reason, this reminded me _The Last Chase_ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASCmH1HdG6g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASCmH1HdG6g

spuz 13y ago

This is quite an incredible feat. I thought after reading Alex Roy's 'The Driver', that this record would stand for a long time. Certainly not be broken by a full two hours. What is interesting here is that these guys have decided to go public almost immediately. Roy and his team were sworn to secrecy for something like 2 years while the statute of limitations in the states that they committed crimes expired. I wonder how these guys think they will get away with not seeing the inside of a police cell. For those interested in what this kind of thing takes, I recommend this talk by Alex Roy at Google NY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQpg0tvap4A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQpg0tvap4A

Ntrails 13y ago
Do you consider a diamond heist to be an incredible feat because as it turned out no one was hurt? The reason they succeeded is they didn't get caught. Everything else is irrelevant. Next time they should fly to Germany and fuck about on the autobahn for a couple of days, at least people will be prepared for drivers to be doing that speed. Edit: I do think 55mph is a pretty dumb limit though.
- Xylakant 13y ago
  > Next time they should fly to Germany and fuck about on the autobahn for a couple of days Please don't. We have enough idiots over here mistaking the autobahn for a racetrack. I'll tell you a secret: It's not. People get killed here just as in the USA, for example the accident when a professional test driver for Mercedes cannonballed his prototype car into a previous accident. Despite darkness and bad visibility he was going beyond 190km/h and impacted with 170km/h, killing the driver of another car - despite the fact that that person was already out of their car. Two people that were out on the autobahn trying to help other victims of the crash narrowly escaped death. I remember that quite well since I passed there like half an hour before. If you want a race, take your car to the Nürburgring for a weekend. It's still legendary and still dangerous, but at least people know what they signed up for. It's actually affordable: 195 EUR for 4 laps with instructor: http://www.service-zum-nuerburgring.de/details.php?id_nr=3069&knr=24 http://www.service-zum-nuerburgring.de/details.php?id_nr=306... Edit: Picture of the accident: http://www.nq-online.de/index.php?&kat=56&artikel=5699 http://www.nq-online.de/index.php?&kat=56&artikel=5699 There's not much left of the car.

bmj 13y ago

Jalopnik has a detailed article, too: http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-drove-across-the-u-s-in-a-record-28-h-1454092837/@tcraggs22 http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-drove-across-the-u-s-in...

wglb 13y ago

This is a great story, quite dangerous, but all the comments here scolding this event, I suggest that you take a drive during the morning commute on the illinois tollway, say around Lake Cook towards ohare and let us all know how many are driving at the speed limit, which is 55. If you go 70, you are likely to get run over. Or if you drive the posted speed limit in a construction zone, you are likely to get honked at. Similarly, on the Edens where the expressway begins, at 0600 on a work day, if you want to drive 70, you better be in the far right hand lane. So according to a tracking company whose officials asked not be identified because they were unaware that Bolian would be driving so illegally when he hired them. Seriously? The tracking company thought that they would be driving just a little illegally, not so illegally??

podperson 13y ago
Everyone drives a little illegally ;-)

ck2 13y ago

They need to subpoena those external gps records and give them a ticket and suspend their license for every state they went through over 100mph. Think about how many lives they endangered.

jschulenklopper 13y ago

> The mark? Alex Roy and David Maher's cross-country record of 31 hours and 4 minutes, which they set in a modified BMW M5 in 2006. If you want to read more on Roy/Maher's record race that beat the previous record by an hour and three minutes, put this well-writen piece in Wired on your weekend reading list: http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_cannonballrun?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_canno...

yarith 13y ago

After reading this thread I feel very few commenters have actually driven across the USA. It is easy to go 100+ mph for a few hours and see maybe a dozen cars (esp in Texas and New Mexico or any stretch of I-10 for that matter). I actually feel it is more dangerous for people on SF's 101 that go 60mph instead of 90mph.