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The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

whichcar.com.au

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Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#71

Post by hamburglar »

randallsquared wrote: post #60
Ididntdothis wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it. They are getting a kick out of breaking rules. Otherwise they would do real racing.

Speaking as someone who doesn't race or watch racing, it seems like the fun has been taken out of racing, in order to quite deliberately make it a game of human skill, eking out tiny gains against a pointless ceiling.

As someone who enjoys driving fast on a racetrack and occasionally watching racing, this comment is entirely nonsensical to me. How is "deliberately making it a game of human skill" in any way "taking the fun out of it?"

Every sport ends up with its elite participants taking it very seriously and eking out tiny gains to win. That's just the nature of competition. This is orthogonal to it being fun.

Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#72

Post by hamburglar »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #8
smokelegend wrote: post #4

The open road is open once more... Note, if you get caught at these high speeds on public roads, you will be arrested and vehicle impounded. Most of the time police officers will draw their weapons when making vehicle stops of this nature. Most state laws have a zero tolerance policy for vehicles exceeding 90mph on public roads. But if you got bail money, GODSPEED

>Note, if you get caught at these high speeds on public roads, you will be arrested and vehicle impounded. Being white and polite (and generally having a bunch of things about you that scream the opposite of "criminal scum") counts for a lot. In most states officers have discretion to choose between the civil and criminal version of whatever the state's "ludicrous speed" violation is.

Indeed. I've had the privilege (see what I did there) of getting off easy when I got caught going 101mph on US-101 in central coast CA (where it was a 55 limit). The cop pulled me over and said "you know I could take you to jail for this, right?" I kept my hands on the wheel, used "yes, ma'am" / "no, ma'am" type answers, and was let go with a very pricy ticket rather than having my life turned upside down or getting shot.

Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#73

Post by randallsquared »

hamburglar wrote: post #71
randallsquared wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as someone who doesn't race or watch racing, it seems like the fun has been taken out of racing, in order to quite deliberately make it a game of human skill, eking out tiny gains against a pointless ceiling.

As someone who enjoys driving fast on a racetrack and occasionally watching racing, this comment is entirely nonsensical to me. How is "deliberately making it a game of human skill" in any way "taking the fun out of it?" Every sport ends up with its elite participants taking it very seriously and eking out tiny gains to win. That's just the nature of competition. This is orthogonal to it being fun.

There was a time when the competition was about who could build a better car. Eventually this was turned into yet another game of depending on the human element. With limits on engine output or other mechanical improvements, there's no way to have impressive gains, any more. It's just another way to pit one person's reflex against another's. You'll never see anything surprising from Nascar, because they literally ruled it out.

Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#74

Post by perl4ever »

blunte wrote: post #14
fragmede wrote: post #6

Semi-relatedly, the California Highway Patrol reported an 87% increase in speeding tickets for > 100pmh as compared to 2019. https://twitter.com/CHP_HQ/status/1253087393567014912

For much of my younger life, my morning commutes in Texas were in the 100-125mph range. If you knew where to look, and you didn't accidentally pass a cop. you were fine. So basically, if you get caught by a human, it's because you took a risk by running through a blind area at high speed. You don't do that more than one time in your life unless you are stupid or have the right contacts to help you keep your license.

Have you considered the effect of an out of state license plate?

Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#75

Post by perl4ever »

ethbro wrote: post #62
RickJWagner wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I get it. For us oldsters, there is a little cool-ness associated with the CannonBall Run from an old (but popular) movie. But it is a stupid thing, for sure.

Static speed limits that apply to all drivers identically are a joke. Because not all drivers are identically skilled. So either you recognize the absurdity inherent in our speed laws, or you think the system is reasonable. The Cannonball Run isn't for the latter.

The party line among "reasonable" people (particularly back in the days of 55 everywhere) used to be that it isn't speed that kills, but speed differentials. I mean, I think this was the sort of thing I would read in Car & Driver, from people like Brock Yates. Doesn't seem compatible with your opinion though.

Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#76

Post by perl4ever »

grecy wrote: post #61
protomyth wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would bet that most traffic on I-90 in South Dakota is at or over 90mph given the speed limit is now 80mph. Heck, North Dakota, not exactly a bastion of enforcement, decided against going higher specifically because of South Dakota. Idaho, Wyoming and Utah have 80mph limits and Texas has road at 85mph. A lot of plain states are not hyper about speed limits. 120mph is going to get you in trouble, badly, but 90 might…

A buddy drives back and forth across Utah multiple times per year. He sets his cruise on 95 in the 80 zones, and has passed and been passed by many police without issue.

I vaguely remember driving west through Utah as a teenager, where there was a long stretch that was desolate and scenic and straight, somewhat downhill, maybe I-40? ...and my car did more mph than it had hp.

Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#77

Post by perl4ever »

jpmoral wrote: post #12
joncrane wrote: post #5

I think it's interesting that the community which supports and follows the Cannonball Run appeared to be mostly against the first 26 hour run (the Audi pictured in the article). At least the most vocal part. My question is, do you actually PREFER that people reach reckless speeds in more crowded conditions?

How about not driving at reckless (your word) speeds on public roads? I'd be happy to see sanctioned events but I doubt that would happen.

"The fastest road race in the world is the Silver State Classic Challenge held on Nevada's Route 318, with a record average race speed of 353.48 km/h"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_State_Classic_Challenge

Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#78

Post by perl4ever »

alwayseasy wrote: post #9
joncrane wrote: post #5

I think it's interesting that the community which supports and follows the Cannonball Run appeared to be mostly against the first 26 hour run (the Audi pictured in the article). At least the most vocal part. My question is, do you actually PREFER that people reach reckless speeds in more crowded conditions?

The risks are different. This type of drive can divert law enforcement ressources when the country is fighting a pandemic.

It seems doubtful that it does. I mean, the people driving at high speed can't be making up for, numerically, the people who aren't driving?

Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#79

Post by DrScump »

klenwell wrote: post #48
fragmede wrote: post #6

Semi-relatedly, the California Highway Patrol reported an 87% increase in speeding tickets for > 100pmh as compared to 2019. https://twitter.com/CHP_HQ/status/1253087393567014912

Isn't that a felony? Years ago when I was in college I talked to a post-doc or visiting professor from Germany who got am aerial speeding ticket for going really fast on some desolate part of the I5 on his way from San Diego to San Francisco. He said it turned out to be much more serious than he expected (coming from the Land of Chocolate and the Autobahn) and it was a pain in the ass to sort out.

  Isn't that a felony?
If it's "just" speeding, in CA, Exhibition of Speed is a misdemeanor. Slower than that is an infraction.

Re: The Cannonball Run record has been broken seven times in five weeks

#80

Post by DrScump »

sandworm101 wrote: post #40
echelon wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could flag the most egregious violators in real time and send a police interceptor. That would enable us to shift more highway patrol into other roles.

>> and send a police interceptor. Lol. No police car could 'catch' anything at these speeds. Even if they could match the raw speed, catching up would take hours. You could organize a roadblock ahead but US cops, the local boys doing highway patrol in the dead of night, aren't going to deploy all those resources to maybe catch a speeder. This happened to a friend of mine on a motorcyle. He was doing over 250KM/hour a…

  No police car could 'catch' anything at these speeds.
"Nothin' outruns my Motorola."
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