Transcontinental Driving Record Claimed to be Broken

FoxNews ^ | Oct 20,2007 | Rick Leventhal

[Daffynition]

Full disclosure: I like to drive fast. Always have.

I was intrigued and excited to meet and interview Alexander Roy, who, with a co-driver, claims to have broken the unofficial transcontinental driving record, racing from New York City to the Santa Monica Pier in 31 hours and four minutes in a 2000 BMW M5.

The pair are backing up their boast with plenty of documentation, including in-car video, GPS markers, eyewitnesses, and a time card punched in Manhattan and again when they reached the California coast (the time card machine was flown across country and held on the pier by a waiting friend).

I'm not endorsing the feat. I'm not encouraging anyone else to attempt it.

[Daffynition]

• Click over to watch Rick's report on Alexander Roy's ride across the U.S.

[Daffynition]

Wired has a much better version: The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory

[PeteB570]

Averaged 90.1 MPH and hit 160 MPH in selected areas. Hmmm.

Notice the support gear/equipment inside the car and the overhead aircraft. They put a lot of planning into the effort.

[Daffynition]

Alex Roy discusses modifications to his BMW M5 on this page. Worth a view.

Randolph highway patrol sunglasses, 20-gallon reserve fuel tank, Tasco 8 x 40 binoculars fitted with a Kenyon KS-2 gyro stabilizer, military spec Steiner 7 x 50 binoculars, Hummer H1-style bumper-mounted L-3 Raytheon NightDriver thermal camera and LCD dashboard screens, front-and-rear-mounted sensors for a Valentine One radar/laser detector, flush bumper-mount Blinder M40 laser jammers, redundant Garmin StreetPilot 2650 GPS units, preprogrammed Uniden police radio scanners, ceiling-mount Uniden CB radio with high-gain whip antenna. Check. Check. Check.

And a Beechcraft twin-engine spotter plane piloted by Paul Weismann, a high school friend, along with another pilot named Keith Baskett. They're scouting for cops, traffic, and construction during the vulnerable daylight drive across the Midwest.

If he didn't break the record, he planned on using two planes ... "Next time."

[rawhide]

Thanks for the article link. A fine read.

[Daffynition]

Rare to find such a well written article these days. And the links on the Wired site are excellent, including the film that inspired Roy: "C'était un Rendez-vous."

[chaosagent]

Gumball Rally was a better movie than Cannonball Run.

And for what it’s worth, the real name of the race was

“The Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash”