New Cannonball record. Coast to Coast in 27 hours 25 mins!

ebonyandivory said:

I've had two giant SUV-totaling crashes. One was a distracted texter and the other from a  DUI drug-addict.

Again, give me a world with these guys on the road. I'll take that all day long over the textinganddrivingdrunkdoingmakeupeatingdoingdrugs type of drivers that populate the interstate today.

 

As much as I can't really approve... you know that they at least were paying attention to their surroundings!

I, too, would feel safer with a driving populace like them instead of the cruise control, center lane, "gonna crash anyway so gotta have a truck to survive it" fatalistic-victim-mentality zombies we have now.

ebonyandivory said:

In reply to Patrick :

So you're jealous that they can do it but you can't because of money? I thought it was strictly about safety.

Rich people can do a lot of things I can't. I just don't hold it against them.

 

Not jealous, but when people are literally getting off scott-free after killing someone with a "well, they were too rich to know any better" defense (look up "affluenza") then yes, there is something broken.  We become a nation of corruption rather than a nation of laws.

This is why some countries tie traffic fines to annual income.  A $400 speeding ticket would be devastating to most people financially, and yesterday's lunch tab for some.  That is a very skewed punishment for the same infraction.

ebonyandivory said:

Who do you want coming at you on the undivided highway, an AMG with three hyper-vigilant drivers/spotters focused solely on driving or the guy in his work van who says "I've only had a few beers, berkeley it"?

I think in the debating world that's called a red herring fallacy...driving drunk is also an illegal act, but it isn't really relevant and only attempts to divert the topic from the original discussion.

If these guys could have somehow arranged to have all the roads from New York to California cleared of traffic, with emergency staff stationed at regular intervals along the way, and drove in a vehicle equipped with a roll cage, fire suppression equipment, safety harnesses, etc. while wearing fire suits and helmets, then maybe I could condone it.  Otherwise, no.

In reply to stuart in mn :

Yeah I don't get all the "this is great" here. Nope. This is dangerous to other people and extremely illegal to boot. Like Baruth said, go racing if you've got something to prove.

Whether or not these guys are more or less dangerous to others than distracted or drunk drivers is irrelevant. They all belong in jail including the Cannonbozos. Going 193 on a public road? Sneeze and you're dead without a proper racecar.

ebonyandivory said:

I'll take three trained guys in a well-prepped AMG doing 160mph on the same highway I'm on any day rather than the idiots I share the road with on a daily basis.

Literally a terrible argument.  The "daily idiots" would be in the road in either case. Now you're just throwing a car going 150 into the middle of the idiots, which is unlikely to improve the situation,.....

Total red herring.

In reply to Knurled. :

All of which has nothing to do with using having "money" as a cudgel against Cannonballers

In reply to irish44j :

Literally? You sure?

Red herring? The only red herring here is members assuming these Cannonball participants are anything but EXTREMELY rare. Lightning can also kill you but I'm pretty sure you're not ranting about lightning even though it kills ~50 people per year while as far as I know zero deaths can be attributed to the Cannonball run.

 My contention is that I personally feel safer driving on a highway with these lawbreakers than the run-of-the-mill dangerous drivers today. You can argue "red herring" against how I feel all you want but it doesn't really change anything.

Everyone here who hasn't violated the law in a car in a very dangerous, ill-advised way please stand up.

Dave M said:

In reply to stuart in mn :

Yeah I don't get all the "this is great" here. Nope. This is dangerous to other people and extremely illegal to boot. Like Baruth said, go racing if you've got something to prove.

Whether or not these guys are more or less dangerous to others than distracted or drunk drivers is irrelevant. They all belong in jail including the Cannonbozos. Going 193 on a public road? Sneeze and you're dead without a proper racecar.

There are so many things that are bad I don't know where on the bad scale to put this.  
 
Is driving Drunk worse or better than this?  
Is driving impaired ( medication legal or otherwise)  better or worse?  

Is driving high on marijuana better or worse? 
 

Is driving with a bad heart better or worse? 
Is driving with diabetes not under control better or worse? 
 

etc etc. etc!!  

In reply to frenchyd :

I don't have infallible answers but as I've stated, for myself, I feel safer around guys who prepare diligently for a very specific goal. In this case, that specific goal is obviously to avoid crashing but much more than that, they are focused intently on traffic, weather, road conditions etc. and have spotters paying attention to the variety of electronics in the car.

Again, give me that vs the woman applying makeup, the 20-something on OxyContin, the young, inexperienced girl running late to college or the elderly couple who can barely see out the windshield.

Personally I'd much rather get side swiped by a vehicle going approximately the same speed as me vs getting hit by someone going twice as fast as me.

To each their own but the danger of a collision when someone is cruising at 140+ is far higher than someone hitting you going the same or slightly higher speed than you are.

In reply to docwyte :

Ok but the likelihood of being sideswiped by a Cannonball participant with two to three occupants who's sole focus is on very precise driving and navigation and any potential obstacles using 18-20 spotters and even airplanes is so infinitesimally small it shouldn't even be a concern.

I ask: are you more concerned with being collided with by the everyday vehicles sharing your road or an actual Cannonball participant because I've never seen one in the flesh. But I have had two trucks totaled by idiots. Hell, one even drove through my house!

I see dangerous, idiotic decisions being made every single day of my driving life. I've even made some myself but I have yet to see a Cannonballer ever. 
 

Unless these Cannonball runs are way more common than I'm led to believe, I'd be willing to bet close to zero members have even seen one and never will.

Am I the only one who wants to just drive the route at legalish (flow of traffic) speeds? I think it'd be cool to see what a straight shot would be like if you kept stops to a minimum and just drove it with a friend or two keeping tabs of fuel stops and such. 

In reply to DjGreggieP :

You absolutely are not alone! Perfect use of the word "legalish".

In reply to ebonyandivory :

You're confusing the accident/risk rate with the absolute number of accidents/amount of risk.

Of course there is way more risk from distracted/drunk/whatever drivers because there are tens of thousands of them. But there is only one Cannonbozo car. That doesn't mean that what they are doing makes sense or is smart or is safe. Think of it this way: would you argue that one additional drunk driver on the road is ok? After all, it's just one driver, and they don't live by you, and the likelihood of seeing them is low.

More broadly, reckless driving is reckless driving. Driving over 100 mph over the limit is indeed reckless regardless of the number of spotters you have. After all, your margin for error goes way down the faster you go, and force is the square of velocity......

In reply to Dave M :

Precisely. Reaction time dwindles to Nil and speed kills. 

Car and Driver states the curb weight of a 2019 E63 AMG is 4,515 lbs.  At their average speed of 103 mph that is 1,601,251 lb-ft of force. Max speed of 193 mph nets a force of 5,622,112 lb-ft. Hitting anything at that force is going to be devastating...

In reply to Dave M :

Michael Colombini died during a MRI after an oxygen tank was magnetically pulled into the machine and fractured his skull.

So far, an MRI machine is more deadly than the Cannonball Run.

And to think, I just had an MRI last Monday and I had no idea how risky that was!

In reply to ebonyandivory :

Dude, why are you so intent on arguing in this thread. We get it, you think this was a cool achievement. Others think it was a dumb and dangerous stunt. Are you expecting that if you just keep responding that you will change everyone's mind? It is ok if people have different opinions.

In reply to T.J. 
 

Ok, I'll give in and agree with you if that's what is expected of me. Is that what you'd do? Is what what we do here? And why don't you ask my "opponents" why they're arguing with me? Or are you just asking me alone only because we disagree?

Me personally? I like to offer my opposing viewpoints and have others offer theirs and then debate. If my MRI comment was too pithy I apologize.

By the way, your tag line "Only dead fish go with the flow" doesn't reflect what you're asking of me.

In reply to ebonyandivory :

Yeah I think we've beat this one to death at this point!

ebonyandivory said:

In reply to irish44j :

Literally? You sure?

Red herring? The only red herring here is members assuming these Cannonball participants are anything but EXTREMELY rare. Lightning can also kill you but I'm pretty sure you're not ranting about lightning even though it kills ~50 people per year while as far as I know zero deaths can be attributed to the Cannonball run.

 My contention is that I personally feel safer driving on a highway with these lawbreakers than the run-of-the-mill dangerous drivers today. You can argue "red herring" against how I feel all you want but it doesn't really change anything.

Everyone here who hasn't violated the law in a car in a very dangerous, ill-advised way please stand up.

Nobody is saying this one car is more dangerous than all the other stupid people on the roads.In a perfect world, I'd gladly take these guys going 200mph on the highways if I could eliminate the million stupid drivers out there. Absolutely, I totally agree with you there. The red herring is that these are alternatives to each other in the actual world. 

In reply to ebonyandivory :

I’m not telling you what to think or what you should type. Definitely not asking you to type something you don’t agree with to fit in. I’ve been in your position many times and was just trying to be helpful by letting you know that you seem to be tilting at windmills on this and I’m not sure what outcome you are expecting. 

The thread had the appearance of one that was heading to being locked. When that happens nobody wins. 

I just don't get why they have not been arrested already.   

Felony reckless endangerment with a 190mph deadly weapon.   

They have that Nevada race where they close the road and essentially let people kill themselves on it but don't put others in danger, should stick to that nonsense.

Recon1342 said:

In reply to Dave M :

Precisely. Reaction time dwindles to Nil and speed kills. 

 

Meh.  It’s all good.  The drivers were “well trained” and the car “well prepped”.  Carry on.

Yes, I'd much rather take my daily commute, with the "regular" people around me than 3 guys going insane speeds.  I could care less that two of them are "spotters".

Somehow I manage to get myself back and forth to work pretty much everyday without incident.  Even when I was commuting on my motorcycle I did it without an issue.

A dissenting opinion to most here, that correctly points out that "speed kills", is too simplistic... more frequently: "acceleration kills"

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a30210151/a-cop-who-runs-cannonballs-explains-why-speed-alone-doesnt-kill/