Posted on 06/27/2020 4:59:03 AM PDT by tlozo
You'll be forgiven for stifling a yawn as we delve into the details of yet another Cannonball record. And although the overall New York City-to-Redondo Beach, California record has allegedly been broken again by some folks who have not yet emerged from the shadowy world of hearsay and conjecture, that's not the one we're going to tell you about today. What we're here to talk about is a record that's so stupid it's brilliant, and so crazy it's just about what we've come to expect as the elapsed times on these ill-advised adventures have crept ever closer to the 24-hour mark.
We're talking about a solo run. One man, one car, a whole lot of gasoline, and an alleged 25-hour, 55-minute elapsed time. That’s an average speed of nearly 108 miles per hour.
If you've been following our coverage, you'll know that a lot of people got excited last November when Arne Toman, Doug Tabbutt, and Berkeley Chadwick destroyed a coast-to-coast time that had stood since 2013, behind the wheel of a superbly prepared, blisteringly fast 2015 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG sedan that carried them across this nation in 27 hours and 25 minutes...
Fred Ashmore, 44, of Hancock, Maine, rented a Mustang GT, removed its passenger seats and other interior accessories, strapped in enough extra fuel tanks to bump the car's capacity to around 130 gallons, and made the trip from the Red Ball garage in Manhattan to the Portofino Hotel & Marina in Redondo Beach with only one stop for fuel.
"The Mustang GT will not go any faster than 159 miles per hour," he told Road & Track. "Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying."...
(Excerpt) Read more at roadandtrack.com ...
The story of Dan Gurney and the first Cannonball run is interesting. Dan had been approached by the editor of Car and Driver to drive in the race but turned him down. Fortunately Dan’s wife was in Europe at the time to visit her father who was terminally ill. She told her dad about the race and her father thought it was a great idea, a once in a life time type opportunity. After all, Dan had already competed in just about every other kind of race, why not an unsanctioned, no-rules race. She called Dan and told him to do it. As the story goes, Dan decided to do it and took a red-eye from California to New York to team up with Brock Yates and drive a Ferrari cross country in 35 hours. I think Dan was the only driver to get a ticket in that race.
Dan came from an interesting family. His grandfather had invented some kind of ball bearing and his father and all of his uncles were engineers. His father was also an accomplished opera singer at the Met. One of his uncles sons is the Gurney who is the World of Dinosaurs artist.
There was an NCIS episode with that plot. The killer turned out to be a woman who was PO’d because her squeeze wouldn’t leave his wife.
She was scheduled to attend a conference. Checked into the hotel, attended the first day of the conference to be seen to set up the alibi.
That night she rented a car under an assumed name, wore a disguise and diaper, drove a long distance, committed the murder then drove back to attend the last day of the conference.
I forgot what got her caught.
There is a big hangout for motor cycle folks very near the Blue Ridge Parkway. There are a couple of motels, a campgrounds and restaurants there. For a long time I’ve had a fantasy about spreading organ donor forms in the stores and on the tables in the restaurants.
“He did not go through small towns.”
If he didn’t, he didn’t travel the fast enough ways, if there are any, to accomplish the speeds he had to have used to accomplish the time.
There are only a couple ways to get into Redondo Beach, alone. One is I-10 coming from Las Vegas into east LA, another is I-5 either from Bakersfield or San Diego, or the highway 1 that could support that speed if there were no chippes, traffic, or on loading traffic, which there are on each. Coming from the east and trying to get through 10 through Riverside and/or San Bernadino, and shooting 91 west into Redondo Beach, I can promise you is impossible even at night to reach those speeds.
Raised down there, know those roads. And I sincerely doubt he could have made up the lost time going across LA to average that speed and time over the other parts of the country he traveled. And there are towns not even on the map out there that have speed limits and eyeing cops. And the Nevada Highway Patrol is all over 10 in Nevada with the chippies picking it up in California east of Blythe. No one could get a sneeze through there into Redondo at those speeds.
rwood
Immaterial. I rest my case. No video, no cigar.
Bye.
“Immaterial. I rest my case. “
I would never have you for a lawyer!
“Was the guys name Kowalski by chance?”
Wonder how many will get that reference?
Rent-a-racer.
Its best cruising speed was 90 MPH, pretty much maxed out at 115. It also handled great on back roads.
My personal favorite drive was driving from Kaiserslautern to Spangdahlem AB, 90 miles in 55 minutes. The kicker is, back then only about half of that drive was autobahn. Scared the crap out of one of my passengers, a newly arrived major to our battalion.
We had a meeting go late, it was 5:05, and his wife had big plans for 6. My other rider, had ridden with me on several trips, and was comfortable with my driving, saw the gleam in my eye, and said, "you shouldn't have said that."
The major was showing white knuckles at 115, and the other guy said, "you know why the radio isn't on when he drives? It can't keep up with him." lol
We pulled into the main gate at Spangdahlem just before 6. Some 35 years later, I'm comfortable driving up to 85 on the wide open spaces in Texas.
We did stop in Jerome first, before going on down to Sedona. I bet it was the same road. Did wind your way up a mountain, and in the distance, at the peak of the mountain, you could see a kind of pass or a cut-thru in the trees? Coming down towards Jerome, was there a old scary fenced-in compound, kind of shoddy...with a lot of signs telling you to keep out?
There are a few here who will. The movie’s been referenced in other threads.
Lol! I’d hate to hit that car broadside! The quip about the car not going over 159 mph is funny too.
I see your point but in time it may vanish.
Noice!!!
“The quip about the car not going over 159 mph is funny too.”
Computer limited. I sure wouldn’t take a rental to that limit. Maybe we don’t know the whole story.
Great story! Thanks for posting it. Dude is superhuman. Should be on the 24 hr LeMans circuit. Solo.
Yawnable event... As soon as I get my dang teleport device in my 1948 Nash working and tested, I’ll make the trip with only 10-gallons of gasoline in less than 12.53 seconds...
That’s addressed in the article.
Speaking of points...
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