Toadster

First, we should address the term "broken." When I think of a record that's been "broken," I imagine beating something by a second, or a minute, or maybe a few RBIs. If what Ed says is true, the record wasn't broken: it was shattered. In 2006, Alex and company completed the transcontinental journey in 31 hours and 4 minutes. Two weeks ago, Ed and his crew say they managed to do the deed in 28 hours and 50 minutes. Google says it takes 40 and a half.



That's right: Alex Roy's familiar cross-country driving record, set in his now-famous LeMans Blue 2000 BMW M5 during the fall of 2006, no longer stands. It was allegedly broken by a three-man team consisting of Ed, a co-driver, and a passenger, in a 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG.

justinwrock

Hell yeah!

Car is completely stealth, right on down to the dirty/brake dusty front wheels!

ArmoE55

My math brain isn't working today.

If Google says 40 1/2 hours and they did it in 12 hours less (I'm assuming Google uses 60mph as their speed?), how fast, on average, would they have to be traveling in order to do this?

Toadster

HeissRod

Does it really count if they switched out drivers? Why isn't the co-driver getting half the fame?

ArmoE55

Averaging almost 100mph. He's lucky he's not in jail ... or worse.

Natibeastcat

DANG!! that's impressive.

Yacht Master

I think the real record is like 26 hrs + by a 930.
But like any claim "no Proof"

Toadster

this is pretty good proof if you ask me?



if you click the image in the first post, it takes you to the article

biggking

Alex didnt have aux tanks in trunk, did he?

Toadster

Let's start with the fuel tanks. There are two of them, both 22 gallons – and that's in addition to the 23-gallon tank Mercedes installed at the factory. The result is a constant, pervasive gas smell when you're standing anywhere in the car's vicinity. But it also means the car can hold 67 gallons of fuel – or, put another way, over 400 pounds of gasoline. Hence the active suspension.



"pervasive gas smell when you're standing anywhere in the car's vicinity"

probably a leaking unit

AndreNY

im proud to Own a CL55

RedBullJnky

That had to have been fun

C_DirtyTwo

bad. as.s. just read the whole article. great stuff

CharlestonN

Grand Tourer indeed, now that's what this car was built for!

KMS11

I love it. My personal best was in a Porsche 928S4, one co driver (female) and that car would go 400 miles on a tank. At fuel ups I left the engine running and I would drive two tanks to her one. Rolled out of Venice Beach,CA at 8pm on a Friday and into Bethesda, Maryland around noon Sunday. No tickets...and no proof except for fuel receipts. I would love to attempt the trip again at this guys level.

ManuelCarrillo3

Fascinating story. I said on the homepage post that this run should be adapted into a screenplay --> feature film.

Mantooth

ManuelCarrillo3

I think it would have been cool to have been a part of that cross-country run, but the chance of the car's interior going up in flames like a Christmas tree in July does not appease me.

aeroman

meh 100 wont get you jail in a lot of states

samaritrey

I wish I had the time and money to do that

ArmoE55

Where did I say 100mph would?

I said AVERAGE, which means he had to have been traveling in excess of 120+ at times. 120+ is easily jail time, in every state.

KMS11

Whenever a cool story like this comes out there's always at least one Debbie Downer on the thread.

While, 100+ is easy jail time in many states, with the many precautions and counter measures this team had at their disposal, getting caught was very, very unlikely. I've done those speeds with less gear, just a CB radio and one radar detector.

As for getting caught at 120mph, I've been there too. On the 405 in California in a 92 500E, 7AM on a Sunday morning. The CHP officer who caught me was feeling very generous that morning and let me go with a 95mph ticket. I thought I was going to jail, even gave my ATM card to the passenger for bail out but I wasn't a dick and the officer chasing me for 8 miles actually said, "maybe I was catching you, maybe I wasn't. Thanks for pulling over". All that time, I simply didn't see him so when I did glance up into the rear view mirror and saw him way, way, waaaay back there...I promptly pulled over, dropped all the windows, engine off, the works. The only ahole going that fast was me and it probably took him 30 seconds or so to pull up behind me.

Shadow5501

It's hard to believe such a feat is possible. Some quick math. He says it took 15 minutes to get out of Manhattan. If you assume it also took 15 minutes to get into LA, then he covered 2800 miles in, let's say, 27.5 hours. (Check the GPS photo - the moving time is 28:04, stopped time 46 minutes.) That is an average rolling pace on the highway (not city streets) of 102MPH. When you figure a fair bit of time stuck at 60-70MPH behind traffic, that means an equal amount of time at 130+ to achieve a 102 average. It's difficult to believe you can spend that much time at 130 given the reality of traffic and drivers in the USA.

The other thing that struck me from the article was the fuel economy. He said "high thirteens." Now I don't know about you, but my 55K car will barely touch 20MPG at a steady 70MPH. This car was obviously driven at WOT every time the road was clear ahead. A trip figure of 14MPG does not sound very realistic under those conditions.

Anyone ever taken an aggressive road trip and care to share your trip MPG?

From the trunk photo I notice the fillers for the aux tanks are underneath the parcel shelf. Doesn't look very easy to get a filler nozzle in there.

KMS11

I did the trip in an 88 928S4 (normally aspirated V8 320 or hp) which has a 22 gallon tank. Typically while cruising at 80-85mph the car will give me 18-20mpg range depending on terrain which was about 400 miles or so and fill ups taking in 21 gallons. I'd drive two tanks and my co driver one tank. I took the southern route out of CA and along the 40 then swung up through Tennessee to get into Bethesda Maryland. In those Tennessee mountains, between this downgrades and drafting many an 18 wheeler doing incredible speeds in the dead of night, I saw 450 on 21 or so gallons of fuel. My co driver was female and instructions for her was to keep it at 80mph and on my stints I was generally above 90mph with occasional prolonged bursts into triple digits. If memory serves I was seeing 350 miles or so on a tank. You can indeed hold high speeds for a long time on cross country trips. I did that run back in Dec of 2001.