Posted on 10/31/2013 3:52:36 PM PDT by nascarnation
Ed Bolian had a serious cross-country need for speed.
The 28-year-old Atlanta man and a two-man crew shattered the unofficial record for fastest drive from New York City to Los Angeles earlier this month by making the 2,813-mile trip in 28 hours and 50 minutes, besting the previous mark set in 2006 by more than two hours.
Using a souped-up 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG, Bolian, co-driver Dave Black and support passenger Dan Huang left the Red Ball Parking Garage on 31st Street in New York City at 9:55 p.m. on Oct. 19. The trio later arrived at the Portofino Hotel and Marina in Redondo Beach, Calif., at 11:46 p.m. local time on Oct. 20. The ride went as smooth as anyone could’ve imagined, Bolian said.
“The trip went completely perfectly, in ways I could not have guessed,” he said. “We had no traffic, no construction, no accidents, we didn’t find any speed traps and had no bad weather … It was perfection.”
The trio stopped only three times to refuel, add oil and to take restroom breaks. The Mercedes’ average speed was 98 mph, Bolian said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yeah, and then when you have wrecks, there will be a lot more deaths and injuries if you have higher speed limits.
2 extra tanks.
You'd think that, because of decades of government propaganda, but several years back when Montana eliminated their interstate speed limits, traffic fatalities decreased.
The biggest problems with speed limits is that too many of them are artificially low. People know how fast a safe speed is without nanny telling them what it is.
I agree that artificially lowering the speed can actually contribute to accidents because when it’s too low, people tend to get bored and want to be distracted.
Contrary to government propaganda, the vast majority of people drive at reasonable speeds no matter what the silly signs say.
“I have to wonder how many “lookouts” he had along the way to avoid the various State Highway Patrol’s and their “eyes in the sky.”
That’s a good question, I don’t see how he did it without some sort of blockers. I don’t see any other way to do it almost, but you would have to have a heck of a lot of folks in place up ahead. Do they get on the highway and do 85 for so many miles until he passes them? Or is he just relying on his radar jammer and hopes nobody actually eyeballs him whiz on by?
Freegards
Just downloaded Trapster. Have to try it next trip.
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That's exactly what I was thinking. So what's the probability this guy got lucky and didn't get stopped ONCE versus having blockers or lookouts ahead of him?
Common sense would be he had blockers or lookouts planned out and ahead of him for the route he was taking.
Think about this too, his "average" speed was what, 89? Counting construction zones (no way he didn't run into any of those) or parts of the interstate that are still 55 mph (such as the I-80 corridor that runs not far from me) there are parts of that trip that he was likely well above his posted average speed.
I just don't see a way he made the entire trip in 29 hours at 89mph on average without lookouts, jammers or both.
I'll bet it was fun as heck though! :-)
“Think about this too, his “average” speed was what, 89?”
98 mph according to him. Maybe he really blasted it when he got out West, and it drove the speed way up compared to the East and Midwest. But I would think 98 mph is usually a naked eye ticket, as in that car is going waaay faster than normal.
Freegards
Fun cars, aren’t they? I’ve got an LGT Limited wagon, a little more room, almost the same zoom as a WRX.
Don’t ride your oil changes though, full synthetic, change every 3k religiously. Learn what cavitation sounds like and park it if you hear it. It’s the difference between $1,500 and over $7,000.
Great cars, awesome engineering with that one issue, a disintigrating turbo throws debris into the engine block.
“I believe the starting and ending points are the same used in the old Cannon Ball Runs of forty years ago.”
In spite of the blazing fast run those guys did, I would still say namesake Cannonball Baker made the more impressive drives considering he was running alone on most of them, and on dirt roads part of the way.
Cannonball Baker, who won the first race ever held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, made his first coast to coast run in 1914 on an Indian motorcycle - 11 days. Quite a guy.
Keeping the Baker name was something Yates wanted to do as I recall reading this stuff in the 70s.
Kind of a Gonzo event every time. But, over fifty years ago when I was 14, I came up with nine cases of dynamite I wasn’t supposed to have, so I might not be a good judge of prudence in action.
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