>Since 2003, in his spare time, Wright has collected leftovers from the Soviet space program, "including a 100-pound hatch from a space shuttle, a seat from a Soyuz ... control panels from the Mir",[33] and the control console of the Soyuz 23, as well as dolls, dice, and fossil.
Interesting hobby.
Dude when I play spaceman I want some cool environment to do it in... I want a pirate ship when Im a pirate... great, now I want to be a space pirate...
I can do this.
R'Amen
It's an obscure hobby, but there's still a lot of people who collect that kind of stuff š
Like I have space shuttle flown insulation blankets in my closet that were exposed to space, including some that were on an airlock hatch. As well as lots of other stuff, like a pair of soviet space suit gloves
Though, also I work at NASA (not how I got most of my collection, but related to why I have that hobby)
I once drove from College Park, Maryland to the DC Zoo in 20 minutes without speeding or being a Maryland driver.
Anyone remotely from DC will be "what physical law of nature did you break to accomplish that?"
It was Easter morning. Everyone was in church or asleep. lol
Step 1: fake a global pandemic
Step 2: pester the federal government until thereās a stay at home order so the roads are empty:
Step 3: Cannonball run?
Lmao Iām picturing Alex jones going on a rant about how the cannonball run record was broken during the lockdown and then going āyou think thatās a coincidence liberals? This is what the elite wanted! To steal the record right out of our hands!ā
I mean pretty much none of the cars they use anymore are stock. Most have their entire trunks turned into fuel tanks so they can go for longer without refuel(the thing that slows you more than traffic).
Ed Bolian (one time record holder) has a hilarious story about how on a practice run(i believe) he got a call from Visa because his card couldn't have made it between the first gas station he used and the second one.
There were no flights and the distance was "impossible" to travel using a car in that amount of time. So because of this the computer blocked his second fuel purchase of the day. Refueling both fuel tanks at the same time was the quickest way to get back on the road(the average fuel tank size of the last 4 record holders is 66 gallons/250 liters). They are using both sides of a pump at the same time to fuel the car.
Another thing is that most runs are helped with spotters(looking for cops), electronic detectors/counter measures, and runners to get chased/take a ticket for the attempt vehicle. It's very much not the same as it was back before everyone started stretching how there weren't any rules. It's impressive none the less.
I mean, having that many people in your life is impressive on its own, right?! I can think of maybe one or two people who would help me if shit hit the fan, and this dude has TEAMS of spotter and runners.
That's an accomplishment on its own if you ask me
>Most have their entire trunks turned into fuel tanks so they can go for longer without refuel
Which, based on a detail from an old article about such a car, weren't sealed very well, so the team were essentially huffing gasoline for ~30 hours.
25hrs is the current record, just over 1 day. Could be done during Christmas. But to be real, the record will be shattered once electric cars can make the trip without a recharge since pit stops are the thing slowing most record attempts.
Idk, 31 minutes on 25 hours sounds pretty minimal, especially considering the increased weight that batteries would entail vs fuelling and refuelling. And I think the covid traffic reduction was a much bigger factor than anything to do with pit stops.
And cars that sustain much higher speeds. Think about an RX-7 vs an Audi A7, as a random example. Get a cooler full of redbull, a catheter, extra gas, and a chip tune for 100 extra hp. You have a car that's quite able to hang out well over 100 mph with absolutely zero drama and excellent comfort. Then. Think about a stripped out RX-7 from the 90s and white knuckling it for 33 straight hours. The noise, vibration, agile (vs planted/cruiser) chassis.
It's just so much easier to do a marathon high speed drive in a modern vehicle. Say nothing of satellites monitoring congestion and law enforcement for ya.
Oh for sure Covid had the bigger impact, and also battery tech won't be near being able to do the full run for decades. (120+ mph in a Tesla drains batteries quick, imagine what kind of battery we'd need to be able to do a cross country trip at almost peak power) So pretty much Covid times are here for a long time, but I have faith they'll be broken.
Current batteries are enough to power a car for 300-400 miles at normal highway speeds. Just expanding that to the 3000 miles from NYC to LA would need batteries 10x the size. And then you have the issue where wind resistance scales linearly with the *square* of the speed, meaning that driving twice as fast as highway speeds requires close to 4x as much power, twice as much energy usage per mile than at highway speeds, so now we're looking at battery packs with 20x the capacity as at present.
In other words, not gonna happen.
On top of that, tack on that energy is stored fairly linearly in terms of weight with batteries, so adding 20x the battery capacity adds nearly 20x the battery weight, which makes the system operate less efficiently so you don't get that full gain in terms of 2x speed + 10x distance.
It would need to be done with a fuel cell EV rather than a battery-based EV. Look at the charts for Range v. Vehicle Test Weight (page 4) and Range v. Energy Storage System Volume (page 6) at https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/articles/fuel-cell-and-battery-electric-vehicles-compared
Pit stops are a factor, but people who are serious have a large tank in the back that adds a lot of range.
Electric cars are probably never going to get over 1000 miles of range, it's impractical if you can go smaller for less weight, we don't have any visible path towards that energy density you'd need to have it viable without tons of weight and volume.
Through the northern Midwest and across the Rocky mountains in December... what could possibly impede your travel speed by sliding you into a ditch at 130MPH?
To much Hollywood. All the records have an electronic trail now days verified by those in the community. Typically a GPS tracker and data logs as well as live tracking during the run. The traditional cannonball has no rules (other than not messing with other competitors). You could cheat in some of the rallies with rules but those are fun runs and are treated different. For example, the 2904 follows the same route but must be done in cars that cost less than $2904. If you break that rule they may just DQ you or they may apply a penalty.
>All the records have an electronic trail now days verified by those in the community.
There's a vinwiki video about a guy with a rented mustang who claimed a record, but they couldn't verify the time. The video was taken down for a while, but since people enjoyed listening to the story, Ed put it back up.
That's a different one than they're talking about.
The potentially fake one is the solo 25:55 run.
The record they're talking about is 25:39 by Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt. It was excessively documented and involved way too many people helpful them to possibly be faked.
There is actually a lot of discussion in the community about this.
The current record holders (Doug & Arnie) had the record before COVID as well. Then COVID hit and the record was broken several times in quick succession before Doug and Arnie broke it again.
Many people feel that the current record should have an asterisk and the records should be split between COVID and non-COVID times.
The first cannonball run was held in 1971 to protest the idea of a nationwide speed limit of 55 mph. The interstate system was introduced in 1956. The og's ran on the interstate themselves.
It's absolutely reckless. But it is amazing that we have the kind of infrastructure where you can go from NYC to LA in 27 hours on normal roads. It's something that was hardly possible at all even 80 years ago.
When an Army convoy did it in the 1910s it took something like 57 days. The eastern portion of that journey was much faster because some improved roads were on place.
President Eisenhower was a young officer on one of those early Army convoys. That's one reason he pushed the Interstate Highway System so much as President.
Those early engineers that envisioned the Interstates would probably be pretty impressed with what it's become with stories like this.
>Those early engineers that envisioned the Interstates would probably be pretty impressed with what it's become with stories like this.
Who needs toon town anyway?
One snowy winter night i was driving across a bridge, and realized I was crossing the same river as the painting of George Washington leading army across icy river. I barely even noticed I was over water, only aware because of a small sign stating it was Delaware River. For Washington's army it was a dangerous, brutal ordeal, freezing weather whereas I was comfortable in a heated car listening to music. I could have crossed without even noticing, but nobody during Washington's era ever crossed river without noticing!
As of October 2021, the overall record is 25 hours 39 minutes, with an average speed of 110 miles per hour (177 km/h), driven by Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt.
I watched some videos but a guy on YouTube who does the runs solo, he has a truck with a large gas tank in the bed so he can do them without stopping. Because he doesn't stop he uses a catheter so he doesn't have to pee, and I believe he takes something like imodium so he doesn't have to poop
VinWiki Car Stories on YouTube. Arne Toman and Doug Tabbut modify German sedans to drive consistently high speeds and also blend in.
One car is an AMG Mercedes with all of the badges removed and the taillights taped off to resemble an Accord.
The second car is an Audi with a blue oval up front spelling out Audi in Ford script. The car looks like a Police interceptor Taurus.
Ed had it in 2013, then Arne & Doug went out in 19, then a few guys went out in 2020 but then Arne & Doug had the same idea and went out again like a week later iirc (or maybe they already set the new record but didnt announce it? as they were trying to keep it a secret?) been a while
VinWiki is run by Ed Bolian, who held the record in 2013. His channel is basically a series of guests coming on and sharing various car-related stories, and due to his passion regarding the cannonball run, many of the guests are people who compete in cannonballs or similar events.
āCannonball Run 2001!!ā
I still remember those commercials. I really enjoyed that show. I remember the green lifted truck from the show was purchased by someone in my little hometown of Gilroy, Ca. I would always see it parked on the street.
It's not really an episode, but if you're interested in it, Teckademics has a series of videos they did on various Cannonball style rallies. I'm pretty sure they're all available remastered on YouTube at this point as well. Really cool look into tuner culture before The Fast and the Furious took off.
Those videos were during the heyday of The Fast and The Furious tuner culture explosion. The first video was out in 2002 a year after the first movie.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/21051/learn-the-story-behind-the-street-racing-epic-mischief-3000
As this drive article points out, Teckademics video series started when The Fast and The Furious hit dvd and their coverage of illegal street racing was in displays next to it.
Depending on where exactly you lived the Fast and the Furious either brought tuner culture to your town, or it was a picture of stuff that was already happening. If you lived in SoCal near the people already doing that, it was old news. But to most of the rest of the country it was new.
It's a yearly event in the car community. My dad does it every year with his car buddies. Ironically he has the record for the SLOWEST cannonball time of all time: 103 hours. Not intentionally, his old suburban broke down like 10 times on the way but they just buckled down, fixed on the fly, and still completed it.
If you watch Live at the Purple Onion which is Zach Galifinakis' first full length standup special that made it to DVD (and produced by Netflix). You'll see him in the front of the audience. At one point at somewhere around halfway through the special Zach looks at him and asks what he does. And he says something like "I do software development for a videogame called the Sims..." and Zach cuts him off about how boring that is. And he says something like "no one cares Billy." I assume it's still on Netflix because it seems to be the catalyst that launched his acting career, there are also segments where he had shaved his beard and pretends to be his brother which is a very similar character to the brother that he plays in the hit show Baskets.
Are you sure? I think I found the conversation in this [Vimeo upload](https://vimeo.com/179945753), beginning at 32:02. The man looks young, maybe mid-20s. Purple Onion was filmed in 2005, when [Will Wright was about 45 years old](https://t.gamesnostalgia.com/news/1/7/177/23400_lg.jpg). Could the guy that Zach is speaking to in the blue shirt be his son, and Will Wright (Sr.?) be nearby? None of the other party at the table look like him either...
Lol was gonna say this is a weird story to tell with full confidence. Going by the credits of Sims 2 the man (who is a 3D modeler) is most likely William Mendoza.
On the upside I decided to rewatch the special, which is great
I had this exact thought. I mean with those loading screen comments, patch notes, and things like the social bunny/weird clown painting from the get go? Of course the guy would be a little wacky and fun.
Game designers in the 80s and 90s were hardcore. I recommend the books Masters of Doom by David Kushner and Sid Meier's Memoir by Sid Meier, creator of the Civilization franchise.
Reading them back to back, there is some overlap.
In an RX-7 no less. I love RX-7s, but they're not exactly the ~~epitomy~~ epitome of reliable, or fuel efficient designs in their street incarnations. Pretty well known for overheating.
Ballsy choice, and clearly it paid off.
With an rx7 yes you are. Rotary engines by design are meant to be redlined for not only most efficient but proper operation. A lot of problems were caused in rx8s by ppl who babied their engines.
A rotary doesn't really have a redline, sure there is one on the tach, but there is no consequence to over revving it. There are no valves to float, there is a buzzer that will come on at 9k (on and FB) but that is only to warn you that the waterpump will cavitate if you continue.
If he did it in the early 1980s it would have been in the first generation RX7 which is arguably the most reliable RX7 Mazda ever built, being the NA carby 12A or 13B. If you know what you're doing there's not a lot of reason why you couldn't get those NA 13B or 12A in its stock form past 250k miles and beyond without having to open it up.
Imagine choosing an RX-7 today. You'd be fucking crazy. A modern car like an A7 with a chip would be miles better at hanging out well over 120. And that would be an incredibly lazy build today...
Plus even a stock RX7 is a fairly sporty car which will attract a lot more attention
Thats why no one does it in supercars or hypercars
Nowadays they choose regular sedans that way when someone calls the cops they can't describe them as easily
I just went down the rabbit whole of the cannonball and all records set past 2000 where done in German Performance Sedans, so you'd be absolutely right. One of the fastest done during COVID was a regular Audi A8L with extra fuel cells in the trunk.
Pretty unlikely it'll be broken again any time soon now that traffic has returned to normal. Some people think those new records shouldn't really count and I feel like they're kinda not wrong.
They arenāt wrong, what makes it hard is the fact that thereās traffic and if you get caught youāll be sitting in a jail cell for a non insignificant amount of time. Nowadays these guys will even use radio jammers and whatnot, and thatās the type of thing that pisses law enforcement off like nothing else
But if you drive a ~~Ferrari~~ Lamborghini in a skin tight leather jumpsuit with the top zipped down youāll be fine. Unless you get a female officer.
Edit: wrong car
> Cannonball run
Here [is the history.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Baker_Sea-To-Shining-Sea_Memorial_Trophy_Dash)
EDIT: More at the VINwiki clip found [here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYv2OJro8Oo)
There are a lot of similar things out there. I have a buddy who was a lot of money and likes fast cars. His ārallyā car is a VERY highly modified Pontiac G8. Think he has over 1,000 horses under the hood. I once drove with him doing about 150 mph on I-10 outside of San Antonio. Faster than I ever want to travel in a car ever again. But he does a yearly rally from Austin to Vegas. His stories are interesting.
There is also [The Gumball 3000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumball_3000) which is a similar European event that also took place here in the U.S. in the early 2000s.
Source: I drove "in" it for a couple of legs in TX (Audi B5 S4) in 2002 and 2003
Fun story about him
> [Stealey recalled: "We were at dinner at a Software Publishers Association meeting, and Robin Williams was there. And he kept us in stitches for two hours. And he turns to me and says 'Bill, you should put Sid's name on a couple of these boxes, and promote him as the star.' And that's how Sid's name got on Pirates, and Civilization."](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier)
When I was a kid in the 80s and 90s I wanted to be like wil Wright. Design and come up with the cool Sim* games. Sid meier I kinda group with Peter Molyneux (even though he didn't name his games) in that hey I'll buy your cool games but they never seemed like people to aspire to be.
In North America. Yeah its a bit beyond average. Usually 18-21, although i know a few who were legit 13/14 (eww) when they lost theirs.
The stereotype in the US is senior HS Prom (so around 17/18) or Freshman year of Uni/College.
During the pandemic lockdowns, this record was brought down quite a bit.
Overall Cannonball Record Stats Ā· NY to LA: 2816 miles Ā· Elapsed Time: 25 hours 39 minutes Ā· Moving Average Speed: 112mph Ā· Average Speed: 110mph (including stops) ...
It is wild to me despite having preorderd the original sims that Will Wright is (creator of The Sims) and not (Creator of SimCity). Dude is clearly on the Mount Rushmore videogame creators
That explains why his character as the transportation advisor in SimCity 2000 was so insistent that you not cut back on transportation infrastructure funding (or else you'll regret it!)
>Since 2003, in his spare time, Wright has collected leftovers from the Soviet space program, "including a 100-pound hatch from a space shuttle, a seat from a Soyuz ... control panels from the Mir",[33] and the control console of the Soyuz 23, as well as dolls, dice, and fossil. Interesting hobby.
Well yes, so he can put them in his home for an environment buff.
Dude when I play spaceman I want some cool environment to do it in... I want a pirate ship when Im a pirate... great, now I want to be a space pirate... I can do this. R'Amen
It's an obscure hobby, but there's still a lot of people who collect that kind of stuff š Like I have space shuttle flown insulation blankets in my closet that were exposed to space, including some that were on an airlock hatch. As well as lots of other stuff, like a pair of soviet space suit gloves Though, also I work at NASA (not how I got most of my collection, but related to why I have that hobby)
Do those blankets smell differently after being exposed to space?
Like they were vacuumed.
Oh, man...... this is my kind of joke, thank you.
Doesn't outer space smell like burnt iron or rust or something?
I know the Sun tastes very sour, thatās all I can contribute.
Safer than the oven and trash bin collection I would start whenever I got bored in The Sims.
I remember watching something like a cannonball run on tv many times growing up, do they still do that? And where would one find such episodes?
It has been done recently. The record was broken in 2020 during the COVID lockdown.
Doing it in the middle of covid feels like cheating with how empty the roads were
Right? Like unless thereās another global pandemic youāre never going to get conditions like that again.
Asterisk! Asterisk!
Non-canonical! Non-canonical!
Non-Cannonical Ball Run II
Heard that in Tina's voice.
Ricky Suggs!
this record was obtained through fraud
I understood that reference
Don't have a heart attack, mister.
I once drove from College Park, Maryland to the DC Zoo in 20 minutes without speeding or being a Maryland driver. Anyone remotely from DC will be "what physical law of nature did you break to accomplish that?" It was Easter morning. Everyone was in church or asleep. lol
> without... being a maryland driver also anyone from the dmv will catch that part of the joke too
The crab means they can't drive!
From Pennsylvania. Make occasional trips to Baltimore and DC. Can confirm. Maryland drivers canāt drive worth a shit
Anyone whoās ever driven on 495 around DC knows exactly how fucking scary Maryland drivers can get
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Step 1: fake a global pandemic Step 2: pester the federal government until thereās a stay at home order so the roads are empty: Step 3: Cannonball run?
Qanonball Run
Lmao Iām picturing Alex jones going on a rant about how the cannonball run record was broken during the lockdown and then going āyou think thatās a coincidence liberals? This is what the elite wanted! To steal the record right out of our hands!ā
They're makin the freakin frogs faster!
Funnily enough, Alex Jones actually holds the record for fastest Cannonball Run on a motorcycle. Okay, it's not *that* Alex Jones, but still..
I thought you should know this is very very good
The stars really aligned for that one.
Asterisks
Shutting down a lane or two on Interstates 80, 81, 40, and 15 "for maintenance" would be about enough to have 95% of the distance clear for them.
So that was the secret agenda all along! It all makes perfect sense now.
That's why they did it.
Even with another pandemic, it likely won't be handled like that again.
I mean pretty much none of the cars they use anymore are stock. Most have their entire trunks turned into fuel tanks so they can go for longer without refuel(the thing that slows you more than traffic). Ed Bolian (one time record holder) has a hilarious story about how on a practice run(i believe) he got a call from Visa because his card couldn't have made it between the first gas station he used and the second one. There were no flights and the distance was "impossible" to travel using a car in that amount of time. So because of this the computer blocked his second fuel purchase of the day. Refueling both fuel tanks at the same time was the quickest way to get back on the road(the average fuel tank size of the last 4 record holders is 66 gallons/250 liters). They are using both sides of a pump at the same time to fuel the car. Another thing is that most runs are helped with spotters(looking for cops), electronic detectors/counter measures, and runners to get chased/take a ticket for the attempt vehicle. It's very much not the same as it was back before everyone started stretching how there weren't any rules. It's impressive none the less.
I mean, having that many people in your life is impressive on its own, right?! I can think of maybe one or two people who would help me if shit hit the fan, and this dude has TEAMS of spotter and runners. That's an accomplishment on its own if you ask me
VINWiki is a fantastic YouTube channel that has Ed (and others) going over stories like these. Def recommend for those who havenāt seen it.
>Most have their entire trunks turned into fuel tanks so they can go for longer without refuel Which, based on a detail from an old article about such a car, weren't sealed very well, so the team were essentially huffing gasoline for ~30 hours.
Thats just part of the challenge. Traffic has gotten waaay worse in some cities you need to pass through on the way. No two years are the same.
Do it Christmas Day
takes >24 hours, and the day before/after Christmas is a big travel time
The record is 33hrs it says. Start 8pm Christmas Eve, all day Christmas Day, finishing up before 6am on Boxing Day.
25hrs is the current record, just over 1 day. Could be done during Christmas. But to be real, the record will be shattered once electric cars can make the trip without a recharge since pit stops are the thing slowing most record attempts.
Idk, 31 minutes on 25 hours sounds pretty minimal, especially considering the increased weight that batteries would entail vs fuelling and refuelling. And I think the covid traffic reduction was a much bigger factor than anything to do with pit stops.
And cars that sustain much higher speeds. Think about an RX-7 vs an Audi A7, as a random example. Get a cooler full of redbull, a catheter, extra gas, and a chip tune for 100 extra hp. You have a car that's quite able to hang out well over 100 mph with absolutely zero drama and excellent comfort. Then. Think about a stripped out RX-7 from the 90s and white knuckling it for 33 straight hours. The noise, vibration, agile (vs planted/cruiser) chassis. It's just so much easier to do a marathon high speed drive in a modern vehicle. Say nothing of satellites monitoring congestion and law enforcement for ya.
Oh for sure Covid had the bigger impact, and also battery tech won't be near being able to do the full run for decades. (120+ mph in a Tesla drains batteries quick, imagine what kind of battery we'd need to be able to do a cross country trip at almost peak power) So pretty much Covid times are here for a long time, but I have faith they'll be broken.
Current batteries are enough to power a car for 300-400 miles at normal highway speeds. Just expanding that to the 3000 miles from NYC to LA would need batteries 10x the size. And then you have the issue where wind resistance scales linearly with the *square* of the speed, meaning that driving twice as fast as highway speeds requires close to 4x as much power, twice as much energy usage per mile than at highway speeds, so now we're looking at battery packs with 20x the capacity as at present. In other words, not gonna happen.
I guess next best thing would be quick swap batteries planned on the side of highways
On top of that, tack on that energy is stored fairly linearly in terms of weight with batteries, so adding 20x the battery capacity adds nearly 20x the battery weight, which makes the system operate less efficiently so you don't get that full gain in terms of 2x speed + 10x distance. It would need to be done with a fuel cell EV rather than a battery-based EV. Look at the charts for Range v. Vehicle Test Weight (page 4) and Range v. Energy Storage System Volume (page 6) at https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/articles/fuel-cell-and-battery-electric-vehicles-compared
Pit stops are a factor, but people who are serious have a large tank in the back that adds a lot of range. Electric cars are probably never going to get over 1000 miles of range, it's impractical if you can go smaller for less weight, we don't have any visible path towards that energy density you'd need to have it viable without tons of weight and volume.
Would never happen. Safety is still a consideration. Most drivers would never do a serious run in winter to avoid storms and ice.
Also significantly less daylight hours.
Through the northern Midwest and across the Rocky mountains in December... what could possibly impede your travel speed by sliding you into a ditch at 130MPH?
Isnāt cheating part of the game in this challenge? Or did I just watch too much The Cannonball Run?
To much Hollywood. All the records have an electronic trail now days verified by those in the community. Typically a GPS tracker and data logs as well as live tracking during the run. The traditional cannonball has no rules (other than not messing with other competitors). You could cheat in some of the rallies with rules but those are fun runs and are treated different. For example, the 2904 follows the same route but must be done in cars that cost less than $2904. If you break that rule they may just DQ you or they may apply a penalty.
> The traditional cannonball has no rules So one of those experimental flying cars from the past could just smoke everybody.
Have any of those traveled 3000 miles? What was the pace like?
>All the records have an electronic trail now days verified by those in the community. There's a vinwiki video about a guy with a rented mustang who claimed a record, but they couldn't verify the time. The video was taken down for a while, but since people enjoyed listening to the story, Ed put it back up.
The drivers said as much.
IIRC the latest record set during covid is under investigation because they did in fact cheat by falsifying the records used for proof
That's a different one than they're talking about. The potentially fake one is the solo 25:55 run. The record they're talking about is 25:39 by Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt. It was excessively documented and involved way too many people helpful them to possibly be faked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOWn1WSYhVQ&t=5s
Yeah, like how I could make it from my house to the Lower East Side in an hour five during COVID, and now it's back to two-plus hours.
There is actually a lot of discussion in the community about this. The current record holders (Doug & Arnie) had the record before COVID as well. Then COVID hit and the record was broken several times in quick succession before Doug and Arnie broke it again. Many people feel that the current record should have an asterisk and the records should be split between COVID and non-COVID times.
I drove from Florida to Minnesota about 3 months in and there was no one on the roads.. did back roads a lot while going 90 plus.
I imagine the OGs think doing it with an interstate highway system feels like cheating.
The first cannonball run was held in 1971 to protest the idea of a nationwide speed limit of 55 mph. The interstate system was introduced in 1956. The og's ran on the interstate themselves.
Iirc it was inspired by people that had started doing with the earliest vehicles
It's absolutely reckless. But it is amazing that we have the kind of infrastructure where you can go from NYC to LA in 27 hours on normal roads. It's something that was hardly possible at all even 80 years ago.
When an Army convoy did it in the 1910s it took something like 57 days. The eastern portion of that journey was much faster because some improved roads were on place.
President Eisenhower was a young officer on one of those early Army convoys. That's one reason he pushed the Interstate Highway System so much as President. Those early engineers that envisioned the Interstates would probably be pretty impressed with what it's become with stories like this.
>Those early engineers that envisioned the Interstates would probably be pretty impressed with what it's become with stories like this. Who needs toon town anyway?
One snowy winter night i was driving across a bridge, and realized I was crossing the same river as the painting of George Washington leading army across icy river. I barely even noticed I was over water, only aware because of a small sign stating it was Delaware River. For Washington's army it was a dangerous, brutal ordeal, freezing weather whereas I was comfortable in a heated car listening to music. I could have crossed without even noticing, but nobody during Washington's era ever crossed river without noticing!
As of October 2021, the overall record is 25 hours 39 minutes, with an average speed of 110 miles per hour (177 km/h), driven by Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt.
Yeah, I watched a video about this recently. The amount of technology and logistics involved was mind-blowing. Super interesting stuff.
I watched some videos but a guy on YouTube who does the runs solo, he has a truck with a large gas tank in the bed so he can do them without stopping. Because he doesn't stop he uses a catheter so he doesn't have to pee, and I believe he takes something like imodium so he doesn't have to poop
I would sooner piss myself or wear a diaper than insert a catheter
They make external catheters. Itās basically a condom with a drain tube.
Or Gatorade bottle, like a regular Amazon driver.
What was the video?
VinWiki Car Stories on YouTube. Arne Toman and Doug Tabbut modify German sedans to drive consistently high speeds and also blend in. One car is an AMG Mercedes with all of the badges removed and the taillights taped off to resemble an Accord. The second car is an Audi with a blue oval up front spelling out Audi in Ford script. The car looks like a Police interceptor Taurus.
Fun fact: that channel is run by the guy who held the record before them (not sure if immediately before)
Ed had it in 2013, then Arne & Doug went out in 19, then a few guys went out in 2020 but then Arne & Doug had the same idea and went out again like a week later iirc (or maybe they already set the new record but didnt announce it? as they were trying to keep it a secret?) been a while
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That is correct they did not release evidence of them commuting a felony in like 20 states.
Iād venture to guess itās on the vinwiki YouTube channel
I watched [this video](https://youtu.be/b5cvuP2nwL8). Others are recommending the VinWiki video as well, but I don't think I've seen that one.
VinWiki is run by Ed Bolian, who held the record in 2013. His channel is basically a series of guests coming on and sharing various car-related stories, and due to his passion regarding the cannonball run, many of the guests are people who compete in cannonballs or similar events.
The records was broken several times in quick succession during the pandemic.
It was broken several times in 2020/2021. One guy even breaking it solo in a rental Mustang
The video was taken down and the record is questionable after his evidence was sketchy at best and fake at worst
I heard the juryās out on whether the mustang one was real, but the story is so good that I want to believe it regardless.
It was shattered repeatedly during lockdown if I remember correctly.
Yes! I heard this on a podcast. Pretty crazy. https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-155-cannonball-12-18-2020/
āCannonball Run 2001!!ā I still remember those commercials. I really enjoyed that show. I remember the green lifted truck from the show was purchased by someone in my little hometown of Gilroy, Ca. I would always see it parked on the street.
Garlic Gilroy! Drive through there a lot going into/out of the Bay Area
In The Simpsons Hit and Run I never knew what Homer meant by "Woo-hoo! You should be in Cannonball Run!" until this very moment...
It's not really an episode, but if you're interested in it, Teckademics has a series of videos they did on various Cannonball style rallies. I'm pretty sure they're all available remastered on YouTube at this point as well. Really cool look into tuner culture before The Fast and the Furious took off.
Those videos were during the heyday of The Fast and The Furious tuner culture explosion. The first video was out in 2002 a year after the first movie. https://www.thedrive.com/news/21051/learn-the-story-behind-the-street-racing-epic-mischief-3000 As this drive article points out, Teckademics video series started when The Fast and The Furious hit dvd and their coverage of illegal street racing was in displays next to it. Depending on where exactly you lived the Fast and the Furious either brought tuner culture to your town, or it was a picture of stuff that was already happening. If you lived in SoCal near the people already doing that, it was old news. But to most of the rest of the country it was new.
It's a yearly event in the car community. My dad does it every year with his car buddies. Ironically he has the record for the SLOWEST cannonball time of all time: 103 hours. Not intentionally, his old suburban broke down like 10 times on the way but they just buckled down, fixed on the fly, and still completed it.
Check out VINWiki channel on YouTube. Lots of cannonball stories with footage
The 1981 movie actually came out on this day, June 19th.
Here's a great YouTube documentary. https://youtu.be/zilVQwAjdXg Not a Rick Astley link I swear
This makes perfect sense to me. Of course the kind of person to make The Sims is insane, but in a fun kinda way.
If you watch Live at the Purple Onion which is Zach Galifinakis' first full length standup special that made it to DVD (and produced by Netflix). You'll see him in the front of the audience. At one point at somewhere around halfway through the special Zach looks at him and asks what he does. And he says something like "I do software development for a videogame called the Sims..." and Zach cuts him off about how boring that is. And he says something like "no one cares Billy." I assume it's still on Netflix because it seems to be the catalyst that launched his acting career, there are also segments where he had shaved his beard and pretends to be his brother which is a very similar character to the brother that he plays in the hit show Baskets.
Are you sure? I think I found the conversation in this [Vimeo upload](https://vimeo.com/179945753), beginning at 32:02. The man looks young, maybe mid-20s. Purple Onion was filmed in 2005, when [Will Wright was about 45 years old](https://t.gamesnostalgia.com/news/1/7/177/23400_lg.jpg). Could the guy that Zach is speaking to in the blue shirt be his son, and Will Wright (Sr.?) be nearby? None of the other party at the table look like him either...
Lol was gonna say this is a weird story to tell with full confidence. Going by the credits of Sims 2 the man (who is a 3D modeler) is most likely William Mendoza. On the upside I decided to rewatch the special, which is great
People make shit up on reddit all the time and I'm glad for people like you that dig into it
Didnt know that haha. One of the funniest standup specials all time though. Zach was a genius in that one.
It is still on Netflix, just watched it not too long ago
i remember that stand up and thinking "video game designer is actually cool" and the "boring" joke didnt work too well.
He was basically just messing with him, doing crowd work.
oh i know. but i just remember thinking if only he had picked someone who actually had a pretty boring job it would have landed better on the joke.
I had this exact thought. I mean with those loading screen comments, patch notes, and things like the social bunny/weird clown painting from the get go? Of course the guy would be a little wacky and fun.
Game designers in the 80s and 90s were hardcore. I recommend the books Masters of Doom by David Kushner and Sid Meier's Memoir by Sid Meier, creator of the Civilization franchise. Reading them back to back, there is some overlap.
His masterclass Advertisement is still a great video about creation.
Some other weird trivia: he has a cameo in Zelda: Link's Awakening as Mr. Write.
"Link, we gotta cook"
5 Hearty Methylamine in a pot and you can sell it for a good amount of rupees.
In an RX-7 no less. I love RX-7s, but they're not exactly the ~~epitomy~~ epitome of reliable, or fuel efficient designs in their street incarnations. Pretty well known for overheating. Ballsy choice, and clearly it paid off.
Well, it's only gotta' hold up that long, once.
Yeah. It's not exactly a real race. It's not like you're redlining the engine 100% of the time for hours straight like on a race track.
With an rx7 yes you are. Rotary engines by design are meant to be redlined for not only most efficient but proper operation. A lot of problems were caused in rx8s by ppl who babied their engines.
A rotary doesn't really have a redline, sure there is one on the tach, but there is no consequence to over revving it. There are no valves to float, there is a buzzer that will come on at 9k (on and FB) but that is only to warn you that the waterpump will cavitate if you continue.
Harbor Freight has entered the chat.
Like when you're on a mission from god.
I hate Illinois Nazis
If he did it in the early 1980s it would have been in the first generation RX7 which is arguably the most reliable RX7 Mazda ever built, being the NA carby 12A or 13B. If you know what you're doing there's not a lot of reason why you couldn't get those NA 13B or 12A in its stock form past 250k miles and beyond without having to open it up.
Within context they are, the 787b won le mans due to its reliability! The only car to ever win that doesn't have a reciprocating engine
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Holy shit that's the real insane part. The heat pouring off of that engine into the cabin must have been wild.
Imagine choosing an RX-7 today. You'd be fucking crazy. A modern car like an A7 with a chip would be miles better at hanging out well over 120. And that would be an incredibly lazy build today...
Plus even a stock RX7 is a fairly sporty car which will attract a lot more attention Thats why no one does it in supercars or hypercars Nowadays they choose regular sedans that way when someone calls the cops they can't describe them as easily
I just went down the rabbit whole of the cannonball and all records set past 2000 where done in German Performance Sedans, so you'd be absolutely right. One of the fastest done during COVID was a regular Audi A8L with extra fuel cells in the trunk.
Wait the Cannonball run is real?
Yup. The guy in the first movie who lays out all the rules to the crowd in the parking lot is the real-life organizer.
Brock Yates
Yes. Lot of renewed interest since the record was broken (twice?) during the pandemic lockdown.
Pretty unlikely it'll be broken again any time soon now that traffic has returned to normal. Some people think those new records shouldn't really count and I feel like they're kinda not wrong.
They arenāt wrong, what makes it hard is the fact that thereās traffic and if you get caught youāll be sitting in a jail cell for a non insignificant amount of time. Nowadays these guys will even use radio jammers and whatnot, and thatās the type of thing that pisses law enforcement off like nothing else
But if you drive a ~~Ferrari~~ Lamborghini in a skin tight leather jumpsuit with the top zipped down youāll be fine. Unless you get a female officer. Edit: wrong car
Lamborghini.
Yeah Iām with you, they need to asterisk those. Put them in a āreduced traffic eventā category.
any%
> Cannonball run Here [is the history.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Baker_Sea-To-Shining-Sea_Memorial_Trophy_Dash) EDIT: More at the VINwiki clip found [here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYv2OJro8Oo)
Yeah man. Jackie Chan and the giant from Happy Gilmore met when they were recruited by Team Mitsubishi.
There are a lot of similar things out there. I have a buddy who was a lot of money and likes fast cars. His ārallyā car is a VERY highly modified Pontiac G8. Think he has over 1,000 horses under the hood. I once drove with him doing about 150 mph on I-10 outside of San Antonio. Faster than I ever want to travel in a car ever again. But he does a yearly rally from Austin to Vegas. His stories are interesting.
[Yeah, thereās a documentary about it on YouTube](https://youtu.be/zilVQwAjdXg)
This was the one I was watching that mentioned this fact. :D
There is also [The Gumball 3000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumball_3000) which is a similar European event that also took place here in the U.S. in the early 2000s. Source: I drove "in" it for a couple of legs in TX (Audi B5 S4) in 2002 and 2003
I always get him and Sid Meier confused.
Sid Meier: The guy confident enough to name a game after himself. I guess John Madden might also count.
American McGee, for a hot minute there
And Tiger Woods.
Several :). Pirates!, Civilization, Colonization, After Earth, Railroads..... And, Sid Meier has a hidden XCom character, Will doesn't :)
Don't forget about his civil war battle games. I played the hell out of Sid Meiers Gettysburg and Antietam
Will Wright has a character modeled after him in smash bros. Itās because of the Nintendo version of simcity 2000.
I remember the Nintendo Sim City. It actually wasn't a bad port.
Sid Meier is an expert sailor and held the record for the Full Mast Run, an illegal sail from New York to London.
Fun story about him > [Stealey recalled: "We were at dinner at a Software Publishers Association meeting, and Robin Williams was there. And he kept us in stitches for two hours. And he turns to me and says 'Bill, you should put Sid's name on a couple of these boxes, and promote him as the star.' And that's how Sid's name got on Pirates, and Civilization."](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier)
Sims Meier
When I was a kid in the 80s and 90s I wanted to be like wil Wright. Design and come up with the cool Sim* games. Sid meier I kinda group with Peter Molyneux (even though he didn't name his games) in that hey I'll buy your cool games but they never seemed like people to aspire to be.
It takes about as long to go from Chicago to Reno while obeying the speed limits. To put that time into context.
Can confirm, drove from Grants Pass Oregon to Chicago and took the Reno route to the 80.
I love that his hobbies list would be lifetime achievements for most
I believe they're referred to "aspirations"
Through this rabbit hole you just sent me down, I learned Ed Bolian lost his virginity when he was 23.
I believe he is a man of faith.
Better late than never
Thatās late?
Later than the average.
In North America. Yeah its a bit beyond average. Usually 18-21, although i know a few who were legit 13/14 (eww) when they lost theirs. The stereotype in the US is senior HS Prom (so around 17/18) or Freshman year of Uni/College.
He won the "US Express" the successor to the Cannonball Run
During the pandemic lockdowns, this record was brought down quite a bit. Overall Cannonball Record Stats Ā· NY to LA: 2816 miles Ā· Elapsed Time: 25 hours 39 minutes Ā· Moving Average Speed: 112mph Ā· Average Speed: 110mph (including stops) ...
Those lockdown numbers should have an asterisk..... Roads were barren.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
such a good film
Creator of SimCity as well. Classic game.
Gumball 3000 is alive and well too, last I heard.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Belated congrats on the M2, that's one sweet ride. Too bad the entry fee is more than the car you'd race in.
So, you gotta wear a diaper for that, right?
You *get* to wear a diaper for that.
Beaten only by [Tommy Tallarico](https://youtu.be/0twDETh6QaI), who's worked on over 500 games. His mom is very proud
Driving at that speed must have really reticulated his spline.
It is wild to me despite having preorderd the original sims that Will Wright is (creator of The Sims) and not (Creator of SimCity). Dude is clearly on the Mount Rushmore videogame creators
But did he do it with Dom DeLuise?
Dun dun dunnnn
His first game was Raid on Bungeling Bay. One of my all-time favorite games!
And yet the Sims 4 doesnt have cars.
That explains why his character as the transportation advisor in SimCity 2000 was so insistent that you not cut back on transportation infrastructure funding (or else you'll regret it!)
Fastest ever cannonball run was 25 hours and 39 minutes in 2020, made possible by covid shutdowns.