OK, it was an E63, but it's still a great story about the virtues of the E class
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...=pocket-newtab

 

I can't think of a better choice of auto for such an attempt.

 

I saw that. Impressive, considering they had to encounter traffic and probably scared the crap out of more than just a few in their way.

 

I can >>> diesel would save them about 2 hr from the time at fuel pumps
Such records boil to Law Enforcement on the road.
I've been doing cross-country drive every few years and in the past, going on central I-80 who has 75 mph, I could set CC to 100 mph and not disengage it for over 1 hr.
Last time I did it like 5 years ago and Nebraska cops start making radar traps
Same with NV. I frequent San Francisco -Las Vegas route for 30 years and when in the past CHP was having lot of car-mounted radars (in CA making speed traps is against the law) -Nevada never ever had radars on freeways.
Than since I moved to Vegas 3 years ago, I see radars on the freeway.

 

Than reading it again, I smell
They say 22 minutes spend on fueling total.
Rough calculation - they had to burn about 300 gallons of gas. US gas pump are limited to 10 gallons/minute, so just running the fuel would take over 30 minutes. What about pulling-in and paying?
They did not do potty stops YEEK.

 

What if they started with a full tank?

 

They added tank in the trunk, so maybe they started with 40 gallons of fuel, but than the 300 gallons for the trip is very low estimate.
Would love to hear from E63 owner what's the mpg at 160 mph.
Last time I drove E320 wagon at 130 mph, the cluster was showing like 12 mpg.

 

I think they had refuelers. No gas station stops

 

They show picture of FlyingJ fueling.
I know NASCAR cars have like 8" fuel caps with strong guy dumping fuel from special can in just few seconds, but don't think this applies here.

 

They had a total of 66 gallon fuel capacity. They only had to stop for fuel 4 times. They filled up with 2 pumps running at the same time by using the hoses from both sides of a pump. In order to speed up the fueling process, spotters would be at the gas station ahead of time to make sure pump lanes were available. On at least 1 of the fuel stops, a spotter had the pumps ready and was standing with fuel nozzles in hand when they pulled up. The driving team was able to go straight for potty breaks while the spotters pumped the gas. Think pit crew type timing.

If you are correct about the 10 gal/min pump speed, the 2 hose method would have made it possible to top off even fully empty tanks in under 4 minutes, especially when the spotters had everything ready for them. The 22 minutes would have averaged out to 5 1/2 minutes per fuel stop. Totally realistic using the planning and preparation that they had put into the run.

 

When pit crew would explain the fast fueling, it would be only fair to mention that in the article?
Than the picture shows single hose.
Bottom line, sounds like there might be hundreds of people involved in breaking the record.They should get some credits?

 

Last week, we here in Dallas were treated to helicopter coverage of a 50-minute, live chase of a tool in a maroon, Mercedes CLS500(ish). Wrong way on the interstates, several u-turns across grass Interstate medians, 80mph in subdivisions, running stop lights, skirting around stop strips, etc. At times, he slowed enough on the Interstate to stand through the sunroof to taunt the armada of police cars behind. That was special.

I couldn't wait for the cops to stop him. Luckily no one got hurt (on camera, at least).

Doesn't speak well for Mercedes drivers among people looking to throw rocks at Mercedes drivers. Cool as it might seem, nor does this Cross Country record, frankly. Of course, I'm the only one who feels that way...

 

You can look at it from several angles, but ask yourself why you don't hear about bad drivers on "no speed limits" autobahns?
I spend "some time" on autobahns and it come right away to me.
It is called natural selection.

 

Yes, I suppose I agree. But your description is of a standard configuration sedan on the highway.

All I can fathom is 66 gallons of fuel (560lbs @ 8.34lbs per gallon) plus the weight of two extra tanks (say another 60-80 lbs with mounts and plumbing), presumably in trunk and in place of rear seat. That much weight precariously balanced above and behind the rear wheels... a giant fuel tank flying along 70-75mph interstates at more than twice the allowable speed is cringe-worthy to me.

I've travelled all the roads they used from Ohio to points West. All it would take is one decent pot hole at an unseen, 160mph closure rate to lauch that bomb to who knows where.

Interesting to read, but fool-hardy if not insane.

 

"These were people who drove hundreds of miles in many cases just to scout the road ahead of the fast-moving AMG for a stretch and let the team know of any police activity or other hazards ahead."

The scouts probably looked for potholes too. Not really insane when you think about how much planning they did.

 

There is much more detail given in a few vinwiki Youtube videos. Video shows the two gas filler hoses filling the two tanks. If I recall correctly, there were 18 "spotter" crews that volunteered to assist. When it was learned that the driving team was going to make a Cannonball Run attempt, there were a lot of people across the country that volunteered to participate. The lead driver does acknowledge all the effort that these people contributed towards their success. Just because it wasn't in the single article that you glanced over doesn't mean it wasn't done.

It may be wise to take the time to more thoroughly research the run before nitpicking and casting doubt.

 

If you look into some archives, don't recall the exact years, but about 10 years ago 3 Las Vegas policemen lost their life on city streets.
-1st one was responding to domestic dispute call and flipped his cruiser at 70 mph when somebody cut him out on intersection
-2nd accident killed 2 cops when they have been driving 100 mph on city street and again -got cut off at intersection.
Like I said - natural selection does the job when you let it.

EDIT. The original article giving details can no longer be found, but here is a link to aftermath https://s3.amazonaws.com/destination...aign-final.pdf