Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Across the country in less than 29 hours
No doubt by now, you have heard about how this guy shattered the record in a used Mercedes CL. I'm really conflicted about this. No question, this is an incredible achievement. But the blatant law breaking, for nearly 29 hours straight, put dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent people's lives at risk. I read Alex Roy's book about his drive across the country in an M5, and I felt very uncomfortable about even supporting the guy by buying his book. What say you?
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3 comments:
Surely there are other drivers doing worse things on a daily basis.
I'm of the opinion that speed itself is not inherently dangerous... Lack of suitable driver's education, too many distractions and/or a general lack of respect for operating a machine is where the danger really lies.
To do that time he most likely stuck to the interstate system which under good driving conditions has the ability to safely sustain speed limits much higher than those that are imposed.
There was an Evo article where they retraced a trip Gilles Villeneuve made from London (I believe) to Maranello in a 512BB in some unbelievably fast time. They used a 575M I believe and even with averaging 100+ the whole way they were still off by hours. They concluded he must've been passing on the shoulder and driving head on at opposing traffic much of the time while averaging 120+.
Anyway, yeah, mixed feelings about this on my end as well. For starters they could've picked a better car. F1Outsider makes some great points on which I agree with under normal circumstances, but to average that kind of speed for 29 hours must have involved at least some degree of risk.
On the Autobahn, in Germany, there is no speed limit. The accidents are horrific, but no worse then on normal restricted highways.
I also supose they did it on motorways, and having 4-6 eyes watching the road is for sure better then 2. The Merc was for sure in great mechanical conditions, and this afternoon i worked out that the weight of the car was very well distributed on the car's wheelprint.
Its friggin dangerous, but this record was very well planned.
I am divided on being in favour and against. Being overtaken by three loons in a Merc at 156 miles an hour is not funny, but they must fly past you in nanoseconds if you respect USA speed limits.
Crazy, but a very, very entertaining read.
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