Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

jalopnik.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 102 posts

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

#91

Post by zenexer »

Scoundreller wrote: post #83
tomcooks wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a PR stunt. Roads are almost empty due to lockdown, it's the police and everyone in front will move far away, it's a fast highway track. Numbers have clearly been cooked so that both Lamborghini and the Police get media exposure. If they wanted to do it fast they'd have done it at night and without cameras.

> it's the police and everyone in front will move far away I’ve found in Europe (Germany, France, Croatia and Slovenia), drivers stay to the right unless passing. So the fast lanes will be fairly empty. Contract that with US/Canada where cars will merge from the on-ramp, switch 3 lanes to the left and camp in the fast lane at the speed limit. All without anything in front of them to warrant such action.

American driving is nothing compared to Italian driving. It’s a complete mess. The very first time I went to Italy, my cab driver got into an accident before we ever even left the airport. He was trying to do a crazy maneuver to avoid a fee and rear-ended another cab driver who was doing the same thing, but who apparently wasn’t doing it fast enough. They got out of their cars, yelled at each other for 15 seconds, then continued on their way.

It was downhill from there.

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

#92

Post by Beldin »

ce4 wrote: post #35
pvarangot wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

About 1 L per 5 km doesn't seem that much of a stretch... it's rather extremely gas-guzzling.

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

#94

Post by CapriciousCptl »

xyzal wrote: post #70
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.

Sorry, there is correlation between graft function post-transplant and length of the so called "cold ischaemia time". https://www.kidney-international.org/article/S0085-2538(15)3...

Did you actually read that article? It supports what I said-- we're talking 16+ hours before studies notice any difference at all, and even that difference is disputed. In fact, here's a quote from the article, "The risk of graft failure was small when CIT was shorter than 36h." Simply put, the difference in CIT between 2 hours and 5 hours isn't outweighed by driving 150mph on a public road for 2 hours.

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

#95

Post by jdsully »

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.

It’s illegal in much of the US and Canada as well. It’s just rarely enforced.

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

#96

Post by snypher »

rasz wrote: post #59
tutfbhuf wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what would be the maximum distance where a Lamborghini is actually faster than a helicopter (assuming there's almost no traffic e.g. at night).

For most helicopters its around as far as it takes Lambo to accelerate for 20 seconds.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here.

Lambo average speed ~150mph. Eurocopter EC145 cruise speed ~150mph.

Even the never-exceed speed of the 145 is ~170mph, which the Lambo should be more than capable of (~200mph).

It surely comes down to a matter of fuel capacity and straight-line travel.

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

#97

Post by dTal »

Ichthypresbyter wrote: post #67

While a Rover SD1 3500 isn't a Lamborghini, this video is still worth a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTN5X4JZFjU 27 miles in 30 minutes into and through Central London (they drive past Buckingham Palace) on a Friday afternoon to deliver a liver for transplant. As for why they used cars- at the time London had no helicopter ambulance service, and the police helicopters were grounded for investigation followi…

Wow, that was a smashing watch! Historically interesting for 1987 Central London, as well as tense and exciting.

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

#98

Post by simonebrunozzi »

LeCow wrote: post #47
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 whe…

Sir, this is the internet police. We will need to see your "full authorization documents" to prove that you're permitted to make fun of Italy. I mean Italy is really easy to make fun of either way, you only have to take a look at the government and history to realise that.

Yep :)

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

#99

Post by marioletto »

leobakerhytch wrote: post #46
marioletto wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I can assure you 130km/h is treated as merely advisory. That is, you are advised to go at least 130.

Huum. I'm italian and no, does't work that way anymore. Maybe 20 years ago. Now aside from Autovelox for instant speed readings, they even have checkpoints and they average your speed. So yes, you can go superfast between two checkpoints but then you have to stop to lower your average speed before passing the next checkpoint. They call the system "Tutor". you can see the list of checkpoints here: http://www.autostrade.it/documents/10279/13188512/TUTOR_2016... and there are plenty of said checkpoints on the path took by the police car.

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

#100

Post by rasz »

snypher wrote: post #96
rasz wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most helicopters its around as far as it takes Lambo to accelerate for 20 seconds.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. Lambo average speed ~150mph. Eurocopter EC145 cruise speed ~150mph. Even the never-exceed speed of the 145 is ~170mph, which the Lambo should be more than capable of (~200mph). It surely comes down to a matter of fuel capacity and straight-line travel.

I read the question wrong, minimum, not maximum. So the minimum is whatever the distance Lambo covers in 20 seconds, as thats the time it takes to accelerate past EC145 top speed of 167 mph. Max would depend on road availability and refueling speed.
Post reply on HN