Cannonball Run Record Broken

Erwin "Cannon Ball" Baker set the record for driving East Coast to West Coast in 1933, in his Graham-Paige Model 57 Blue Streak 8 at 53.5 hours. The whole thing sounds like another installation of Smokey and the Bandit, but let's not forget that Burt Reynolds was in a movie titled after and based around completing the Cannonball Run, racing against Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

Years passed, the record was broken a couple times, the most recent being in 2013, when Ed Bolian and Dave Black did it in 2013 at 28 hours and 50 minutes, which held until now.

Road and Track is reporting the record was broken by Arne Toman, Doug Tabutt, and spotter Berkeley Chadwick. They completed the hike from the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach CA in 27 hours and 25 minutes.

Toman and Tabutt stopped a total of 22 minutes for fuel, and averaged 103mph, with the previous record holders stopping 46 minutes and averaging 98mph. They drove a souped up 2015 Mercedes Benz E63 AMG, complete with an Alpha 9 package that output 700 horsepower, and a special fuel cell, that  As far as external changes, there were some trim changes and the taillights were taped to disguise them better.

The coolest difference between this run and Cannonball's is the difference in technology. The inside of the car looks like a spaceship, with a built-in Net Radar detector, AL Priority laser jamming, Escort Max 360º Radar Detector, and an aircraft avoidance system that would alert them to airborne police patrols. They used the GPS App Waze, which notifies users of road hazards and more importantly, police. They also had a remote controlled thermal scope mounted on the roof of the car that picked up the heat signatures of police cars hiding along the sides of the road. They had a CB scanner, taking a page straight from the Bandit himself, and a police scanner.

The trio managed to round up 18 lookouts along the way, and only had one close call with police when they were in the Midwest driving at 120mph. The officer was traveling in the opposite direction, and lit them up with the radar gun. They waited for the officer to turn around, but never did. They called a lookout who said the officer was fueling up at a nearby gas station.

They documented the whole trip on video:

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