I’m gonna show you how to race from New
York to Los Angeles, as fast as you can, without stopping The race is called the Cannonball, and honestly,
it's less of a race, and more of a battle against the law A battle that requires a bulletproof plan,
a very modified car, and a team with a couple of screws loose Doug Tabutt, Arne Toman, and Dunadel Daryoush This is the team that currently holds the
record And that record, didn’t come easy (show speeding, police lights, high intensity) The trio in question aren’t newbies when
it comes to driving fast cross country, Doug and Arne had been racing the Cannonball
for years, and they refined routes, equipment, and knew the interstate system east to west. But the cannonball race didn't start with
Arne or Doug. In fact, its origin didn’t start as a race
at all, it started as the hobby of a man. A man named Erwin Baker Baker started his racing addiction as a motorcyclist,
signed to the Indian Motorcycle racing team in 1909. and he quickly became the go to man for long
distance riding. He crossed jamaica, cuba and even panama on
his Indian Motorcycle. Then, in 1914, he crossed america. He rode 3,329 miles from San Diego to New
York on that motorcycle. It took him 11 days, 12 hours, and 19 minutes,
and it was a nationwide headline. And soon, the reputation he was building caught
the attention of a man more interested in 4 wheels than 2, Harry C Stutz, the founder of the Stutz Motor
Company In 1915 Harry Stutz offered Erwin one of their
Stutz Bearcat sports cars. The only catch, Erwin had to drive it across
the country - from San Diego to New york. But even for Erwin it was a tall order, Because this transcontinental run was still
mostly a motorcycle event, thanks to the lack of paved roads. motorcycles could navigate uncharted terrain
much easier. But that just made the challenge of a car
all that more fun. Erwin Baker left San Diego in that Stutz and
after a tumultuous 11 days, 7 hours, and 15 minutes he arrived in New York. It was an amazing feat! So amazing that news reporters gave him a
new nickname. Named after the famous railroad train. Cannon Ball Baker. But even still, Baker’s automotive feat
still wasn’t called the Cannon Ball That only happened in 1933 when Cannon Ball
baker completed arguably his most famous cross country run. This time he started in New York City behind
the wheel of a Graham-Paige Model 57 Blue Streak and then set off for Los Angeles And this time, Cannon Ball Baker would go
on to set a record that stood for over 30 years, arriving in LA after just 53 hours
and 5 minutes. 53 hours to do a drive that once took him
over 11 days, It was both a testament to how far cars had
come in the last few decades, and how vastly-improved the US highway system was compared to just
a few years prior. And after that legendary NY to LA run, the
race officially became known as the Cannon Ball run. It’s safe to say that Doug, Arne, and Dunadel’s
2020 run was going to be a fair bit faster than 53 hours. After all, automotive technology had come
a long way since the days of the 60hp Stutz Bearcat. And the obvious choice of car for them would
be their seasoned cannon ball car, their Mercedes E63 AMG. 577 horsepower of german V8 power, all while
looking like your grandma’s daily driver Not to mention an entire arsenal of police
avoidance systems, which I’ll explain in detail later BUT, there was one big issue with that car. (show crash) (https://youtu.be/N2EeJsF75gs) A truck driver fell asleep while driving on
the highway, right at the spot that Arne Toman and his E63 were pulled over on the shoulder And well, as you can see, the E63 was no more. But this team wasn’t one to give up. So they acted quick and bought their friend’s
C7 Corvette. It was a fast car and could probably do a
decent time. But just fast in the cannonball doesn’t
cut it. You need stability at speed, the space to
fit massive fuel tanks and a litany of equipment, and perhaps most importantly, you needed to
be able to be completely hidden in plain sight Of course, what about an EV? They’re fast, efficient, generally quite
aerodynamic, and pretty unoffensive to look at. No need to pack in massive fuel tanks, and
some of the highest end EVs like the Tesla Model S plaid and the Lucid Air can get nearly
500 miles on a charge. But that presents a couple issues, first of
which, is that EV’s don’t always work as advertised. A March Cannonball run means cold weather
in much of the US, and EVs can see a reduction of anywhere from 10-40% of their range in
cold weather. A problem that manufacturers are desperately
trying to solve. For a car like the Lucid Air Grand Touring,
that could be 50 to 200 miles sacrificed just to drive in the cold And before you say that “insert political
party here” made this stat up, thanks to Ground News, we can clearly see that 69% of
the sources for this topic are Center leaning, meaning that most of articles are politically
neutral And not just that, we can see who owns the
news outlets, and if there is any issue with factuality in their articles. In a time when news about electric vehicles
or the automotive world in general can seem highly politicized, tools like Ground News are crucial for uncovering
Media Bias, as well as opening our own eyes to Blindspots that we have in our own knowledge. You can check out these articles at our link
in the description, and you can sign up for free and stay informed without hidden media
bias. Thank you to Ground News for sponsoring the
video and keeping channels like ours independent and transparent! Now, armed with our new knowledge, an EV most
certainly wouldn’t work for a chilly 3000 mile journey. So the team quickly realized that they needed
another German super sedan, something like their E63 And lucky for them, Arne’s friend had a
Audi S6 that he might have been able to part with. 4.0L V8, 450+hp, it wasn’t an E63 but it
would be more than enough to blast down the interstate at sustained triple digit speeds. So Arne called him Tuesday morning, and 30
minutes later, he was on his way to pick up the car that would break the Cannonball Race
Record. Now, I keep saying cannonball race. But up till now, the story has always been
about one car and one team going the distance And that’s more of a time trial than a race. But 50 years ago, the Cannonball was actually
a wheel to wheel competition, thanks to Senior Editor of Car and Driver at the time, Brock
Yates. In May of 1971, Brock Yates and his 3 teammates
took a 1971 Dodge Caravan Sportsman they called the Moon Trash 2, and rushed across America
in 40 hours and 51 minutes It was supposed to be a celebration of the
excellent US highway system and an F-U to the government for their overly strict traffic
laws. But also, this was the inaugural run to launch
their new event, the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. And they announced that on November 15th things
were going to get serious. Because they would be holding the first ever
Cannonball race. Yates organized 23 drivers in 6 different
cars. And all 6 teams met at the same starting point
that Brock and his team established earlier in May - The Red Ball Garage in NYC There was a Chevy Sportvan rigged with 298
gallons of fuel tanks, a Cadillac deVille, an MGB GT, a Dodge van with a 190 gallon gas tank in
the rear, A Ferrari 365 GTB, a freaking 1966 motorhome, a 1969 AMX, And of course, the Moon Trash 2, A wide variety of cars - all built for the
different roads of life And that's what made the cannonball race so
unique, it didn’t matter what the car was, all that mattered was if you could survive
those 3000 miles. 35 hours and 54 minutes later, it was the
Ferrari 365 that won that first cannonball sea to shining sea race But not for the reason you might think, It wasn’t the fastest car in the race, the
Cadillac actually hit the highest speeds of all the teams. And obviously, It didn't have the highest
fuel capacity, with the Chevy van carrying 300 gallons. Hell, the Ferrari even got pulled over for
speeding, so it wasn't like luck was on their side. The Ferrari won simply because it had the
perfect balance of everything. Good MPG, Excellent acceleration, and all
while being relatively comfortable and easy to handle. Not to mention, it had Dan Gurney behind the
wheel with Brock Yates as co-driver. But even though the Ferrari won, the top 5
cars were separated by just 2 hours. And that's what made this race so different. There wasn't one recipe to the best strategy,
you needed a little bit of everything, and the ability to execute a solid plan. The unofficial Cannonball Sea to Shining Sea
Race happened 4 more times in the 70s The 1979 race saw over 40 teams register,
and even a new record was set, with a Jaguar XJS finishing in 32 hours and 51 minutes. But 40+ cars racing flat out across the US
at the same time was clearly becoming a bad idea. Yates didn't want to be responsible for any
injuries or deaths. And even though there was no money to win,
no prizes, no trophies - just bragging rights - it was still clearly becoming too chaotic So, after 1979, Brock Yates ended the sea
to shining sea race for good. But even though the Cannonball Race was dead,
that didn’t mean the Cannonball Run was. Now you already knew that, because a certain
Audi S6 was set out for the coast to coast run just a few decades later. You wouldn’t be able to tell it was an Audi
however, because Arne and the team decided to give the car a little makeover. You see, If you squint your eyes, the Audi
S6 kinda looks like a Ford Taurus, but if you apply some body color vinyl, along
with the right decals, and a fake Ford Audi badge, then the Audi S6 REALLY looks like
a Ford Taurus Police Interceptor This would be the disguise that would take
Arne, Doug, and Dunadel across America And on a quiet night in May 2020, they took
off from the Red Ball Garage in New York City, just like Brock Yates and his team did all
those years ago. Unlike Brock Yates however, it took them only
4 and half minutes to get out of Manhattan. Covid restrictions saw traffic at their lowest
levels in years, and that was largely the reason they needed to make this run happen
in such short order. Just a few months earlier, their previous
record was completely smashed by an amateur team in a leased Audi A8, and supposedly the
record kept falling from there. And for Arne and Doug, that wasn’t something
they could let stand. It wasn’t long before they were out of New
York entirely and into Pennsylvania, Flying down the highway at speeds that were
a little more than the limit. But that’s when they encountered their first
problem The Cops A state trooper was cruising on the highway,
and of course, the team couldn’t just blow by him. And this is where the next crucial tool for
a Cannon baller came into play: Scouts Arne and Doug set up a network of friends
that would act as scouts, driving on the highways ahead of where they were and surveying the
roads for potential obstacles. But when surveying wasn’t enough, Scouts
had one other duty. They were bait. Doug called up one of their local scouts and
told him that he needed to blow by this cop at extralegal speeds and get pulled over,
willingly! Of course, Doug would pay the ticket, but
he just needed the copper out of the way to they could get back to making Cannonball history. And so their scout caught up to where they
were, and lined up to sacrifice himself to the PA rozzers. But right as the scout was getting ready to
smash the gas, the cop pulled off the freeway and the team was off the hook The S6 was now free to stretch its legs, so
they put the hammer down and started flying. And from Pennsylvania to Colorado, they averaged
120mph, with much of the stint being at 160mph, putting them well ahead of where they needed
to be to beat the record. That is, until a radio call blared out on
their Police scanner, “White Audi made to look like a police car. 024A written on the back. Plate is obscured” It seems that not everyone was falling for
the disguise. And the cops knew what Arne and the team were
up to. And maybe that’s because the Cannon Ball
wasn’t as underground of an event as it used to be. Because in the late 1980s, the Cannonball
actually hit the box office. Just as Brock yates ended the cannon ball
races in 1979, he began working on the 1981 movie titled The Cannonball Run https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8BNVDUslcE
2.43 And were not talking some indie film No, this was a full on box office hit with
Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, Jackie Chan, and Farrah Fawcett It was comedy about a fictional Cannonball
Run, and even though it wasn’t the most critically acclaimed film, It ended up being the 4th highest grossing
opening weekend of all time, And that meant that now nearly everyone in
America knew about the Cannonball And that kind of notoriety meant that even
though Brock Yates Sea to Shining Sea race was over A new race was being hatched up by other Cannonball
enthusiasts, this time called the US express This race ran from 1980 to 1983 and it had
all of the crazy antics that the old race had… But only once was the Jaguar's record broken
in that time. It was in 1983, when Doug Turner alongside
David Diem crossed the country in 32 hours and 7 minutes behind the wheel of their 1980
Ferrari 308 GTS A record that stayed for nearly over 20 years Because the popularity of the Cannonball really
tapered off after the mid 80s. Perhaps the widespread knowledge of the run
made it lose its niche appeal, or maybe people just lost interest with how slow new cars
with emissions compliant engines were. Either way, that 1983 run was the defacto
Cannonball record, and nobody could beat it Of course, until rather recently, when in 2006, a gentleman by the name of Alex
Roy took a Le Mans Blue BMW M5 fitted with the best of modern technology, and smashed
that 23 year record. On the outside, the car was mostly stock with
the exception of upgraded suspension and brakes for the long endurance runs Beyond that, a quick ecu flash removed the
155mph speed limiter to reach its true top speed of 195 And then of course there were all the antennas
all over the car Rigged for a police scanner and a CB radio. Oh and the white stripes above the car? Well that was for the spotter plane up in
the sky to see the M5 and be able to communicate any potential hazards to them. Yea, Alex took this to a whole level. And from here on out, this was the new standard He and his friend Dave completed the run in
31 hours and 4 minutes. A new record. But the years that followed Alex Roy’s record
run saw the roads get better, cars get faster, and most importantly, police avoidance technology
get far more advanced. So in 2013, Alex’s record fell. This time it was to Ed Bolian, yes, that Ed
Bolian! And just in case you were living under a rock,
you should probably go check out his content on VinWiki Ed drove a 2004 Mercedes benz CL55 AMG and
to get with the times, he equipped it with a bunch of countermeasures to give him the
best chances possible He had 2 valentine radar detectors, 3 garmin
GPS systems, a CB radio, a radio scanner, 2 laser jammers, a damn ambulance traffic
light changer and then of course a custom fuel tank setup And all that stuff paid off Ed set a time of 28 hours and 50 minutes,
shattering Alex’s 31 hours run And honestly, it was so fast, many thought
a new record would be impossible. But then came the heroes of our story, Arne
Toman and Doug Tabbut just a few years later in 2019. And the car they used was none other than
that 2015 E63 AMG built by AMS Performance. The same one that was annihilated by a sleepy
truck driver just one year later. When it was built though, the car made 700whp
and had a dual nozzle quick fill fuel cell with a total fuel capacity of 65 gallons! And the police countermeasures?! Well that was next level as well. 2 radar detectors, laser diffusers, an app
that gave him police heat maps, a radio scanner, a cb radio, another police scanner with GPS,
brake light cutoff switches, image stabilized binoculars, an aircraft detection system,
a traffic light changer and a freaking thermal scope on a gimbal. And that still wasn't enough to prepare them
for the things they encountered on their run! So you should definitely read the details
on Arne’s blog linked in the show notes below Their finish time was 27 hours and 25 minutes,
well over an hour faster than Ed’s And if Ed’s record seemed impossible then
surely this record was here to stay forever. But you know the drill by now. It didn’t stay forever. Because there was one more ingredient to the
perfect cannonball recipe that everyone else missed. Something that would allow for even Arne and
Doug’s record to be shattered with ease. A freaking pandemic. COVID lockdowns meant that every interstate
highway was wide now open, and the record was for the taking. So in March of 2020, somebody took it. An amateur team led by Chris Allen took a
leased Audi A8, fitted it with a Valentine V1, a hacked together marine fuel tank system,
and a pair of binoculars, and set off to break the cannonball record. And guess what? They completed their run in 26 hours in 38
minutes, taking nearly another hour off of Doug and Arne’s time! This record of course, was hotly contested
by the Cannonball community, Many people claimed that COVID records shouldn’t
count because there was no traffic But the point of the Cannonball was never
to be able to blaze through traffic, it was about man, machine, and road And anyways, the only rules of Cannonball
were the start and end point, and that it needed to be one car wheels on the ground
from beginning to end But, imagine then how fast somebody could
get across a pandemic lockdown USA with a seasoned team, a fully prepped car, and all
the equipment money could buy… Team Doug Part 4 Flash forward to Doug, Arnie, and Dunadel’s
2020 Cannonball, and it was exactly that. Of course, You already know about the team
and the car were up to par, but they certainly weren’t lacking in the tech department either. Radar detectors complemented by laser diffusers, Multiple GPS’ running on a variety of different
platforms to get any and all information on road hazards or speed traps, They even had the E63’s plane crash avoidance
system, designed to detect aircraft in their vicinity, just in case the police were enforcing
speed by plane. Add to that a thermal vision camera, and high
powered binoculars to be used by whoever was sitting shotgun to look ahead and spot any
patrolmen. It was a tech that was unheard of in the Brock
Yates days, and honestly pretty wild for any cannonballer But it was tech that was necessary to break
records That, along with the 67 gallons of auxiliary
fuel tanks they had in the trunk of the car, a modification that has been necessary since
the very earliest of cannonballs And with all that, the team continued through
Colorado at blazing speeds, but by the time they got to Utah, they encountered something
unexpected: Traffic. The magic of doing runs in the Covid lockdown
was to take advantage of those empty roads as people sheltered in place, But Utah didn’t have those same COVID restrictions,
and many Californians were traveling to and from Utah so they could enjoy an unrestricted
vacation. Motor homes, trucks towing boats and jet skis,
the usual inept Californian drivers all blocked the road for the tired trio in their Audi That 120mph average speed ticked down slowly
but surely, and it seemed like the record was slipping away with it. But they managed to get through the Utah traffic,
then blasted across the Nevada desert, and finally into California. And they were still on pace to break the standing
record But despite the lockdown in Cali, Los Angeles
traffic was still horrendous And the team was getting stuck behind trucks,
red lights, smug EV drivers, you name it But they soldiered on, and red light by light
they made their way through LA Until finally, as the sun was setting on the
city of angels, that war-torn Audi pulled up to the Portofino Inn And their official time? 25 hours and 39 minutes. Nearly an hour faster than the previous fastest
record, and 2 hours faster than their own record in the E63. It was a tremendous accomplishment, The Cannonball started off as a feat that
would take over a week at the hands of Ernie Baker Then just days with Brock Yates To now taking hardly over a single day 3 determined drivers Behind the wheel of a deviously disguised
German super sedan Packed full of the best tech With the support of their faithful scouts. Did the impossible, and set a Cannonball record
that is yet to be beaten to this day. And that ladies and gentlemen, is how to race
from New York to Los Angeles, as fast as you can, without stopping Thanks for watching, Subscribe if you haven’t already and join
us on discord to see what we’re cooking up next. I’ll see you in the next one.
