Cannonball races

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cannonball , in the narrower sense the English name for a cannonball , is as a cannonball race also a synonym for illegal car races across the USA from New York to Los Angeles . These were carried out by the US magazine Car & Driver in the 1970s and later made known to a wider public through several Hollywood films.

The role model

In 1914, a motorcyclist named Erwin George Baker made headlines in the United States by crossing the country from coast to coast in 11 days and then reporting on "paths like freshly plowed fields". With the rise of mass traffic, many roads were built, and calls for a continuous connection to the west coast, which was separated from the rest of the country by the Rocky Mountain range and deserts , were also loud . The advances in technology and road construction were also documented by more than 100 advertising and record drives by Baker, who u. a. competed against express trains and was soon known under the name Cannonball . Baker also took part in regular races, such as the Indianapolis 500 in 1922 . He was also one of the founders of the touring car racing series NASCAR .

The important east-west connection to Los Angeles was then designated as Route 66 in 1926 . In 1933 Erwin drove “Cannonball” Baker u. a. on this new road with a " Graham-Paige " from New York to Los Angeles in the time of 53 hours, i. H. at an average speed of almost 100 km / h, although the route still led through towns and was not paved throughout. This “record” lasted for around four decades.

They run"

By the early 1970s, the US interstate highway system was already well developed. With the introduction of the speed limit of 55 mph or 88 km / h, the maximum speed on these expressways was limited to a lower value than Baker achieved as an average speed of several days under much worse conditions before the war.

Brock Yates , an editor of the auto magazine Car & Driver , drove across the country with his son and employees Steve Smith and Jim Williams in 40 hours and 51 minutes in a Dodge Sportsman van in May 1971 . From the magazine article about it, the idea developed to repeat the trip together with or against various acquaintances as a mixture of the joy of driving and civil disobedience to the speed limit.

Inspired by Baker's earlier journeys and the line of text “from coast to shimmering coast” from the anthem America the Beautiful , eight vehicles started shortly after midnight in New York on November 15, 1971 for the first Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash .

The Polish racing driver trio Koveleski / Adamowicz / Niemcek claimed pole position for their 3.5-ton Chevrolet Sportvan, which is loaded with 1,128 liters of fuel in petrol barrels and equipped with special tires and a facility for refilling engine oil while driving . Other vehicles included a brand new Cadillac DeVille , a British MGB GT , a 1969 AMX , two other vans and even a Travco RV. The favorite, however, was the Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 Daytona with Brock Yates and ex-Formula 1 racing driver Dan Gurney at the wheel. The new Cadillac only came to participate by chance - the three amateurs from Cambridge, Massachusetts , who were interested in the race, did not have a suitable vehicle and accepted a businessman's order to transport the new car from New York to Los Angeles. The order was: to only drive during the day and never faster than 120 km / h. The vehicle was "tuned" with a radar detector attached to the rearview mirror .

The night start enabled the participants to avoid rush hour traffic on the east coast and, on the other hand, to arrive in Los Angeles during the day. The Ferrari was actually the first to arrive after 4,628 km and 35 hours and 54 minutes. The cut, even without the breaks of a good hour in total, corresponded to the German recommended motorway speed of 130 km / h. In addition, the 12-cylinder Ferrari had the lowest consumption with 19 liters per 100 km. The trio of Polish racing drivers, who ultimately lacked 220 liters of fuel and had to refuel once (seven minutes lost), needed 53 minutes more. The Cadillac needed nine more minutes. Although it drove faster at 136 km / h and thus became the speed winner, due to the higher consumption it was also parked fifteen times at gas stations and thus had six more fuel stops than the Ferrari. The five "problems" with the police (with one of the winners and none of the Poles) probably contributed to his loss of time due to stops of over three hours.

Five other teams also made it under 40 hours. Only the British MG suffered a defect after about 1000 km, while the motorhome took over two days and also had the only "accident" with spilled lasagna.

The accompanying humorous report was not published until months later in March 1972.

The “race” was repeated a year later, and again in April 1975 and 1979 after the 1973 oil crisis . The 32 hours and 51 minutes that a Jaguar XJS drove at an average speed of 140 km / h in 1979 were considered to be the “eternal record”, not least thanks to the now closed motorway gaps . This record was improved to 32 hours and 7 minutes with a Ferrari 308 in 1983 , but is not listed in many sources because it was set at the US Express Run .

The "all time record" was finally broken in October 2006. Alex Roy and his co-driver Dave Maher completed the route in a BMW M5 in 31 hours and 4 minutes. This corresponds to an average of approx. 145 km / h.

In 2013, Ed Bolian, together with his co-drivers David Black and Dan Huang, set the best time of 28 hours and 50 minutes in a Mercedes CL 55 AMG .

In 2019, the record was broken with 27 hours and 25 minutes on a converted Mercedes-AMG E 63 (built in 2015). The crew consisted of driver Arne Toman, co-driver and co-pilot Doug Tabbutt and the navigator and spotter Berkeley Chadwick. The record was broken again on April 4, 2020 - on an Audi A8 L with previously unknown drivers. Travel time: 26 hours and 38 minutes.

The movies

At the latest through a report in Time magazine, Cannonball became a controversial term among the broad American public. Later a series of films followed, including:

See also

Web links

credentials

  1. ↑ GTSpirit.com
  2. ^ Spiegel Online
  3. ↑ a b Jan Götze: Special E 63 cracks Cannonball record. Three Americans set a new cannonball record. Your car: a specially converted Mercedes-AMG E 63 with 700 hp! In: Autobild .de. Axel Springer SE , December 6, 2019, accessed on December 6, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Jens Meiners: A new cannonball record. In: GTspirit. April 11, 2020, accessed on April 11, 2020 (German).
  5. ↑ IMDB
  6. ↑ IMDB
  7. ↑ IMDB
  8. ↑ IMDB
  9. ↑ IMDB