credit Photo: Gina LeVay
How to break the cross-country driving record? Spreadsheets, spreadsheets, spreadsheets. And a copilot willing to ignore any meticulous calculations and instead throw caution to the wind.Alex Roy (pictured) spent two years GPS-mapping and Google Earth-practicing his route from New York City’s Classic Car Club to the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles County, marking every detour, construction project, and speed trap. But to beat the record — 32:07, set in 1983 by duo David Diem and Doug Turner — Roy needed something found nowhere in his spreadsheets: copilot Dave Maher’s need-for-speed, pedal-to-the-medal reckless enthusiasm.
credit Photo: Gina LeVay
It takes a lot of caffeine to drive nonstop for 32 hours. (Red Bull? Check.) Of course, other sustenance was needed too. Before racing off, copilot Dave Maher (right) and Cory Welles, a filmmaker who rode along to create a documentary about Roy’s racing dream, packed the four-door Beemer with energy bars and Vitamin Water, in addition to glucose, guarana, and riboflavin.
credit Photo: Gina LeVay
To break the cross-country driving record, Roy and Maher needed to average 90 mph. For every minute at 80 mph, a minute at 100 mph was needed to keep the duo’s dream alive. But every minute at 0 mph was time the team could never make up. So bathroom breaks were out of the question. The team’s solution: mail-order porta-pissoir bags of quick-hardening gel. A whole bagful.
credit Photo: Gina LeVay
The starting line: Classic Car Club, 250 Hudson Street, Lower Manhattan. Thirteen states — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California — later, the end: Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica.
credit Photo: Courtesy Gravid Films
No great adventure happens without code names. In this case, "Big D" is Maher, "The Eagle" is Roy, and the "Lucky Charm" is Welles. The cross-country race against time was monitored and recorded (via digital video and triangulated time-stamped texting and GPS verification) for posterity, Wired’s story, and Welles’ documentary film.
credit Photo: Gina LeVay
One of the biggest roadblocks to breaking the record: highway patrol officers, about 31,000 along the way. So Roy decked out his E39 BMW M5 with a thermal camera, radar/laser detectors, laser jammers, and police scanners. Blaat! Blaat!
credit Photo: Courtesy Gravid Films
Driving cross-country at an average of 90.1 mph is not for the faint of heart, risk-averse, or non-independently wealthy. The cost of the entire project, minus man-hours, racked up a bill of $150,000. Included in the expenses column were a pair of Tasco 8 x 40 binoculars fitted with a Kenyon KS-2 gyro stabilizer and military spec Steiner 7 x 50 binoculars.
credit Photo: Courtesy Gravid Films
Usually planes flying over highways are looking for speeders, not helping them. But nothing about Roy’s Cannonball Run — as the sprint across the continent is often called — fell into the "usual" category. Roy’s high school friend Paul Weismann and pilot Keith Baskett scouted for cops, traffic, and construction in a Beechcraft twin-engine spotter plane. "Cowbell Ground, Cowbell Ground. This is Cowbell Air. Over."
credit Photo: Kenny Morrison
After 2,800 miles, 151 gallons of gas, six refueling stops, a top speed of 160 mph, and countless moving violations, Roy (right) and Maher reached the Santa Monica Pier in a record 31:04.
