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Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

jalopnik.com

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Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#31

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

coldtea wrote: post #12
dvdbloc wrote: post #8

How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. And surely they had to stop for fuel at least once unless they have some special gas tanks fitted? Seems difficult

> How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? It's national highways (kinda like "interstates") from Padua to Rome (something like Portland, Maine to New York), not some city roads. Unlike in the US, in some European countries like Italy and Germany you have very high or unlimited (Autobahn) speed limits, and roads good enough to maintain them.

In italy the highest speed is 130,no other road allows you to go faster than that.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#32

Post by cehrlich »

ce4 wrote: post #26
dvdbloc wrote: post #8

How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. And surely they had to stop for fuel at least once unless they have some special gas tanks fitted? Seems difficult

The actual average driving speed was even higher, the car must have refueled at least once ( no way they get a reach of 460km at that speed with one filling) and also the non highway parts of start/end drag the average down quickly. My guess is at +280kmh (175mph) driving speed most of the time on the highway to make up for that. In times of covid and partial lockdowns it's not unusual to have empty highways (dependi…

This seems like a reasonable estimate. I’ve done fairly long sections on the Autobahn at 230-250km/h, and this was in a slower car (Audi A6), without a siren, and without a kidney to deliver.

Even when going “just” 200-220 I often get passed by cars that are going much faster. With three lanes this is not a problem.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#33

Post by marioletto »

Nice story but it didn't take 2 hours. The italian media, reported that the trip took at least 3 hours making it a bit more reasonable. It's not possible to drive on an Italian Autostrada at the average speed claimed in the article without endangering the lives of the drivers as well as of all the other vehicles.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#34

Post by zeusk »

lostlogin wrote: post #19
connorproctor wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine there's some exaggeration here, but someone drove across the US in 25 hours averaging 110 MPH [1]. Given that, 143MPH for 2 hours doesn't seem that crazy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Run_challenge

> 1143MPH for 2 hours doesn't seem that crazy It does to me. Edit: typo corrected.

I've been in a car doing 140mph+ for over 30 mins in Wyoming, not that hard on empty roads in broad daylight.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#35

Post by ce4 »

pvarangot wrote: post #15
dvdbloc wrote: post #8

How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. And surely they had to stop for fuel at least once unless they have some special gas tanks fitted? Seems difficult

Even if it was running at something like 12mpg it would have made it on a single tank, and it was probably running at something like 15. If they were closing the roads ahead, or if the driver was like a racecar driver it's totally doable with a bit of luck. If they did both it's even like, reproducible.

I doubt that, the official mileage for that car is 16.7mpg only (and this is measured with much lower speeds). Going at 150+mph consumes a lot more gas, probably ending below 10mpg. They probably had to refill halfway in between.

Edit: the Huracan seems to have a 90L gas tank, divided by 480km they must not have exceeded 18.75L/100km in one go (= 17.33mpg). I.e. they must have refueled at least once, if not twice

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#37

Post by marioletto »

cehrlich wrote: post #32
ce4 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual average driving speed was even higher, the car must have refueled at least once ( no way they get a reach of 460km at that speed with one filling) and also the non highway parts of start/end drag the average down quickly. My guess is at +280kmh (175mph) driving speed most of the time on the highway to make up for that. In times of covid and partial lockdowns it's not unusual to have empty highways (dependi…

This seems like a reasonable estimate. I’ve done fairly long sections on the Autobahn at 230-250km/h, and this was in a slower car (Audi A6), without a siren, and without a kidney to deliver. Even when going “just” 200-220 I often get passed by cars that are going much faster. With three lanes this is not a problem.

In Italy the speed limit is 130 kmh. I believe the Autobahn has no speed limits.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#38

Post by lvturner »

Hamuko wrote: post #23
dvdbloc wrote: post #8

How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. And surely they had to stop for fuel at least once unless they have some special gas tanks fitted? Seems difficult

> Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. This isn't the US. People aren't driving on the left lane just because they can.

From experience driving in Italy, people also watch out for traffic coming up behind them at speed and move over to let them past

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#39

Post by marmaduke »

chmod775 wrote: post #27
dvdbloc wrote: post #8

How is it possible to maintain an average speed that high on public roads? Even if you had lights on, you’d come up on people so quickly they wouldn’t be able to get over fast enough. And surely they had to stop for fuel at least once unless they have some special gas tanks fitted? Seems difficult

On highways in Europe it is illegal to pass on the right, meaning that the fastest-going vehicles are supposed to be in the leftmost lane. On top of that you're supposed to switch back into the right-hand lanes if they're empty. Taken together this means that you can generally go pretty fast in the leftmost lane.

That’s the theory perhaps. The practice OTOH would disappoint.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#40

Post by simonebrunozzi »

CapriciousCptl wrote: post #29

Assuming this is real, it is absolutely reckless and just not needed for kidneys. They can stay on ice for 24 hours or longer. Nobody ever needed an emergency kidney transplant, thanks to dialysis. Even if a helipad wasn’t on the hospital any clearing would do. And if the weather was too poor you use an ambulance or special transport going at a safer speed, which would still get there with time to spare.

Well, how can I say this? Welcome to Italy, my friend. The country that gave the world Leonardo and Galileo and Michelangelo, and the country where these things happen, where a police force has a few Lamborghinis (I was overtaken by one, nearby Rome, ~15 years ago) that regularly travel well above 100mph even if it's not necessary, whose cost would cover several "normal" police cars. And a country where sometimes when there is a problem and an "Italian-style" solution, that solution is implemented. Helicopters? Kidneys can stay in ice for several hours? Who cares, the police transported a kidney at 250 km/h, and proudly tweeted about it.

I'm Italian; I am fully authorized to make some fun of my own country. But, before you say "absolutely reckless", you should know that the "autostrada" between Padova and Roma is very well built, and that the policemen driving the Lambo are really good drivers. A bit reckless? Maybe. There's worse in the world.

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