Cannonball Run Record Shattered: Man Drives Coast-To-Coast In 29 Hours
The Cannonball Run record was shattered this week by three guys and a Mercedes CL 55.
Ed Bolian and his team drove 2,813 miles from new York to Los Angeles in under 29 hours. They broke the record for the “Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash,” which is better known as the Cannonball Run, by nearly three hours.
According to ABC, the previous cannonball run record of 31 hours and 4 minutes was set in 2006. Bolian and his team did the run in 28 hours and 50 minutes.
Bolian said: “Honestly, I was so shocked at how much we had beat our target and previous record… It was just unbelievable. It was cathartic and amazing. But mostly, I was just shocked.”
Bolian said that he was able to break the Cannonball Run record thanks to a few modifications to his Mercedes CL 55. The 27-year-old added two 22-gallon auxillary fuel drums (giving the car 67 gallons of fuel space), a radar detector, a police scanner, a CB radio and a laser jammer.
Bolian also outfited the car with mobile internet and two GPS systems so that he could navigate weather and traffic.
Bolian, who made the trip with co-pilots Dave Black and Dan Huang, said that the car hit 158 mph at one point. On average, the car was traveling just below 100 mph.
Bolian said: “We were unfathomably fortunate… We had no accidents, no traffic, no weather, no major construction. We wanted this to be a benign use of highway. We didn’t want to hurt anyone, we didn’t want to get hurt and we didn’t want to get arrested.”
