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Atlanta Man Shatters Coast-to-Coast Driving Record, Averaging 98MPH
New submitter The Grim Reefer sends this quote from CNN:
"[Ed] Bolian set out on a serious mission to beat the record for driving from New York to Los Angeles. The mark? Alex Roy and David Maher's cross-country record of 31 hours and 4 minutes, which they set in a modified BMW M5 in 2006. ... He went into preparation mode about 18 months ago and chose a Mercedes CL55 AMG with 115,000 miles for the journey. The Benz's gas tank was only 23 gallons, so he added two 22-gallon tanks in the trunk, upping his range to about 800 miles. ... To foil the police, he installed a switch to kill the rear lights and bought two laser jammers and three radar detectors. He commissioned a radar jammer, but it wasn't finished in time for the trek. There was also a police scanner, two GPS units and various chargers for smartphones and tablets -- not to mention snacks, iced coffee and a bedpan. ... The total time: 28 hours, 50 minutes and about 30 seconds. ... When they were moving, which, impressively, was all but 46 minutes of the trip, they were averaging around 100 mph. Their total average was 98 mph, and their top speed was 158 mph, according to an onboard tracking device."
I'm pretty sure this guy passes me every day on the way to the office.
I wonder if his insurance company will be hiking his premiums? Sounds like a risk-taker...
Clear cut case of speeding and the guy even collected his own evidence.
Why isn't this guy in jail?
.. will he plead guilty?
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
My grandfather was a leadfoot, and crossed from NC to AZ a couple times a year under 48 hours. My dad was to follow him in a second vehicle once, and ended up slowing down and going his own pace, when he saw just how irresponsibly granddad was rushing things just for the sake of rushing. Grandpa never killed anyone but I'm sure it's been very close a couple of times.
[
Driving like a fool puts everyone on the road near him in danger. He should be sitting in jail, and lose his license.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
It seems like if you can do this with a car, where there are traffic laws and speed limits, there's no good reason why a NY-LA bullet train wouldn't work.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
In the Land of the Free and the Home of the brave, They needed to add a lot of cowardly countermeasures to make sure the were not caught and imprisoned, for what was in essence a joy ride.
If there was a way to go, I am going to do this stunt, I am expected to be at these locations between these times, and make sure the police give us enough room and clear out traffic. Sure it may require a little extra money say an traditional $10k to pay for the expense of blocking off the roads for the time.
But Risk taking should be rewarded, not punished, especially if you are willing to work with the system.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
He was really just trying to get some groceries but he used Apple Maps.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
This guy ought to be ashamed of himself. IMHO he does not represent the character, integrity, or mission of Georgia Tech, it's students, alumni, faculty, staff, or administration.
There are right ways and wrong ways to do things, and this most certainly was the wrong way.
Look, we all know everyone speeds. 5-10 MPH over the speed limit is socially acceptable and tacitly condoned (it's rare to get pulled over by the cops for that, unless they want to bust you for some unrelated reason). But this is entirely different – it seems to be a clear case of reckless driving. On most interstates, you can do 75 MPH no problem, and on the better ones, 85 MPH is reasonable during the daytime if there is no inclement weather. There are a few interstates where you can safely do 90-100 MPH, but these are not all that common, and even then, extreme caution is required. I don't see any possible way that someone could safely average nearly 100 MPH on a cross-country road trip. Safety comes by going with the flow of traffic, and this driver must have been blowing past the majority of other cars during most of his trip. It's amazing that he made it there in one piece.
Sounds like he picked something that, while impressive in its stats on paper, was worn out and close to end-of-life. If he totaled it out or got it confiscated he wasn't exactly going to cry over it.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
"What are you, some kind of nut? Who do you think you are?"
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What I don't understand is the difference between someone being ticketed after posting a YouTube videos of their speeding rampages thru town and this?
Even if you don't get caught in the act when you tell the world what you did how does this not at the very least translate into a big fat fine?
What about all of your "lookouts" complicit in enabling your activities what is their risk of being held liable by some overzealous prosecutor?
If you want to do something like this I'm reckless enough not to care... going around and talking about your exploits in my opinion is crossing the line.
Hell, bust him at the federal level for use of an uncertified intentional radiator (jammers).
Toil is Stupid. Don't be Stupid.
Just feed the receiver with the right frequency to tell it how fast you want it to read. Imagine the look on the cop's face when you scream by at 100+ and the gun reads "55".
They don't need the radar gun reading to ticket you for speeding - if you ever go to court, you'll find that all police claim to be "trained in visual speed observation", and will back up the radar evidence with their professional judgement of how fast you were going. And the judge will accept their estimate because they have the training to show that they can make accurate estimates.
OK, this guy plotted and planned in excrutiating detail for 18 months, works in the automobile industry, yet seems utterly fearless about the legal ramifications about admitting average speeds in excess of all posted limits in the country? The article I saw had a damning amount detail, including what sound like many admissions that he knows what he's doing is illegal (e.g. the comment about the vented trunk fumes while stopped by a cop).
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
To get an idea how much faster you could get around if the US had proper no speed limit highways like the German Autobahn.
(That said I don't condone reckless driving on roads that aren't built for that speed.)
Yeah, great he minimized the risk to himself while endangering every other road user. What a jackass.
I just want to know how he got past all those idiots plodding along in the left lane.
fuckin' politicians - worst enemy causing the most harm to our country in existence. I believe at least 3/5 of congress is on the take (taking bribes for their votes, in case you don't understand)
Its more than that. In canada, they cant just sit there speed gunning everyone (dragnet style). They have to say they made a sight check first, and judged you to be speeding, before they deployed their gun as a confirmation. The law is written in such a way as the police must visually estimate your speed before deploying the gun.
I am not sure how exactly the AC would defeat a radar gun, as the way I understand that they work, they take several distance measurements milliseconds apart and then deduce what speed you are going based on the change.
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
I visualized his arm automatically going up in a palm out salute towards the end of his rant.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Moving at those kinds of speeds, people don't have time to accurately judge merging time, lane changes, etc. You can be 1/4 mile away and be on someone traveling the speed limit before they've even finished changing lanes. Record or not "top-gun" dick moves belong on the race track, not public highways.
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Sounds to me like he "drove like a genius" instead of a fool, because he made it _literally_ from one end of our vast nation to the other at top speed without hurting himself or anyone else AND he didn't get caught while obviously breaking the law. Not exactly the kind of "fool" you hear of on those Dumb Crook News segments in the media
Do you drive dangerously, or just speed? Autobahnpolizei are known to ignore the guy going fast but safe in favor of catching the guys passing on the right, tailgating, weaving through traffic, and camping out in the middle lane.
In the US we ticket for speed, since it's the easiest to prove and carries the highest fines. The cops don't care so much about actual unsafe driving. Yes, it's screwed up.
My father (gone now, former KY state police) always said . . . "I could see he was going 10 miles over the limit . . ." never stood up in court.
But even a farmer out in a field can look up and say about distant driver "he was just going too fast to make that turn" (placing blame for an accident squarely on the driver) . . . usually was upheld.
This guy . . . will never be convicted. Without explicitly being caught . . . he'll pass under the same reasoning drug dealers do. (If 1 in 100 that take cocaine die from it, and you've just sold 100lbs . . . then . . . you're "defacto" guilty of murder. Its that "defacto" and not "nameable person" that makes all the difference.)
So, its an impressive feat . . . but still incredibly careless and stupid.
No, I don't remember your name. But the memory mapped screen on a TRS80 from 1977 is from 15360 to 16383 if that helps.
But do you have evidence he was speeding in every state - he could have been speeding in some states but not others and still averaged the same.
Can't the person be cited for speeding since they specifically have an upper bound on how much time it took the person to travel a known distance? It would seem that if he is going to claim that he really did this, he necessarily needs to admit to speeding, and the amount should be based on the average amount he would have needed to go over the speed limit to have travelled that distance in the specified time. Of course, if he says that he didn't really do this, and is just bragging about something he didn't really do, then he can't really claim to have broken a record either... Or do speeding tickets not work that way in the USA, and they must be either clocked specifically by radar or paced manually with a police vehicle, instead of using clocks at start and end points?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It could have been much worse. He could have invented an annoying dance to a mindless-yet-catchy pop tune.
Speed doesn't kill it's suddenly becoming stationery that's the problem.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
I was actually thinking even older, although that era's Ford LTD and the like were generally not very save through any kind of twisty roads. Soft, sloppy suspension and way too much roll. The brakes were pretty sad for a car that heavy as well.
Because the jammers were for infrared. That band isn't regulated.
He'll have to get a new tattoo... "Second Best..."
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
American drivers are unsafe at any speed. They don't understand concepts like the passing lane, only passing on the left, traffic flow speed, shoulder checks and turn signals. They also have unsafe cars; safety inspection is up to the state and it's not mandatory.
Sounds like he picked something that, while impressive in its stats on paper, was worn out and close to end-of-life. If he totaled it out or got it confiscated he wasn't exactly going to cry over it.
It was a CL55 AMG with 115,000 miles on it. That's barely broken in. It doesn't specify what he did to it, but said he spent $9K to "trick it out". The picture of him standing in front of it shows it is a 2nd generation. So it is no older than 1999. Not exactly a worn out beater.
... journeys are probably on average considerably shorter. Plus germany has decent public transport so I suspect - I have no proof - that incompetants who would be tempted behind the wheel if they had no choice tend to use the train instead.
Just feed the receiver with the right frequency to tell it how fast you want it to read. Imagine the look on the cop's face when you scream by at 100+ and the gun reads "55".
I think they did that on Knight Rider once.
Who gives a shit about this "speed record"?? This asshole Ed Bolian was willing to risk the lives of everyone else on the road for some silly high score bullshit. There's no difference between this careless fuck and the asshole who killed a mother and her three children while street racing in Philly. http://articles.philly.com/2013-10-31/news/43530258_1_roosevelt-boulevard-khusen-akhmedov-ahmen-holloman
This is not a fucking game. If you want to break speed records, use a track where you'll only risk the lives of those who knowingly expose themselves to this level of danger, rather than innocent people who are just trying to go about their lives. Fuck every last fucking one of these coast to coast 'racers'.
Calling someone a nazi for telling the truth. lol never change america.
Not exactly the kind of "fool" you hear of on those Dumb Crook News segments in the media
Except for the segments where the Dumb Crook was found out because he admitted his crime.
Dammit Victor. I don't wanna talk about HIM!
A man named Elbert Ostrander drove Long Beach Ca. to Midland Mi in 28 hours just no way to prove it. Big Bad Bert USN is no more for this world.
Some of us can drive, is my real point. My vehicles are not in good enough shape for daily 100+MPH speeds, but I do maintain above 75 regularly and all the while obeying the important road rules like use of turn signals, minimum safe braking distance, proper lane usage (keep right unless passing and no faster cars are approaching in the left etc).
It is true that an unfortunate amount of people don't obey the basic road rules because there are no license re-tests and they forgot how all the important details work with regard to the symbols and orders years ago. But that's just a symptom of general ignorance. A lot of these same ignorant people also drive too slow.
Recently photos were taken of Billy Ray Cyrus letting his 13 year-old drive on public roads. The police said they couldn't do anything since the police themselves didn't see it. Maybe that applies here.
http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-drove-across-the-u-s-in-a-record-28-h-1454092837
Yeah, NINETY-EIGHT MPH average speed. With two extra fuel tanks in the trunk for 800 miles range (the thing reeked of gasoline), and the spare tire was on the back seat next to the third guy (spotter/navigator). They didn't just break the previous record, they shattered it.
http://kinja.roadandtrack.com/new-cross-country-record-forget-the-glamor-bring-the-1456737864/@matthardigree
One word: bedpans.
http://jalopnik.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-afroducks-fastest-ma-1256425384
Afroduck is a perfect example of why most people who do this stuff wait a year for statute of limitations reasons. These guys may have been foolish to announce so soon; we shall see what kind of heat they get for it.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
the stupid (probably blue) LEDs on the chargers.
29 hours over 4 time zones... that's another way to get jet lagged.
Except he didn't have the radar jammer, it wasn't ready in time. I suspect it would be a lot more difficult to enforce such rules against light emitting devices (a LIDAR jammer).
Actually, the kid from Georgia tech was just a passenger. He signed on less than two weeks before they left. He was just a lookout.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
115000 Miles is only about half what that car should be able to run. Even more if well maintained.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
This: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/09/27/motorcycle-driver-clocked-200-kilometres-deerfoot-trail_n_1919126.html
At least Pennsylvania and Nebraska courts require more than just a visual speed estimate. A quick search hasn't turned up a comprehensive list.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Depends, the guys in the video cars prefer taking out unsafe drivers. Mobile speed traps are the main thing to worry about.
Btw, camping out in the middle lane is legal as long as there's *any* traffic on the right lane that's more than 8kph slower than you. So as long as there's always a semi in view in the right lane, you can bumble along at 100kph in the middle lane all day.
You're absolutely right. He picked a junker of a supercar. According to this article, the AMG CL55 is one of the fastest-depreciating automobiles available. Its starting price tag is $120,000, but with 115,000 miles on the clock, it probably cost less than $10,000 for the initial purchase.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
At least Pennsylvania and Nebraska courts require more than just a visual speed estimate. A quick search hasn't turned up a comprehensive list.
It's been upheld in Ohio:
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/06/police_officers_visual_estimat.html
But even in PA and NE:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/06/visual_speed_estimates_by_poli.html
The number of states that use that standard could not be determined Wednesday. Pennsylvania and Nebraska require more than just a visual speed estimate, though officers in those states have leeway to say a vehicle was traveling at an unsafe speed.
So they may not get you for "speeding", but instead "traveling at an unsafe speed".
I presume that you also consider 5 out of 6 people who play Russian roulette to be "geniuses" as well.
On an autobahnpolizei cop show they pulled over and ticketed a few girls cruising in the middle lane on an empty road. There wasn't a truck in sight.
Speed limits on interstates are set to road conditions and what is safe for the average, or below average, driver driving an average car based on a formula from 20 or more years ago and includes a formula to reduce gas consumption. While driver skills haven't changed all that much, cars have become much safer due to technology. In addition, you can drive safely at higher speeds in a car with race car engineering due to the added down-force, braking, less weight, etc. There is also a big difference between driving fast and driving dangerously, though most people equate one with the other.
I'm willing to bet that the first image that most have in their mind when they read this is the guy weaving in and out of heavy traffic at high rates of speed and cutting everyone off. However, there is no way that he could achieve this speed with any amount of traffic on the road.
The article says that they left NY at 9:55pm on a Saturday night. My guess is that the majority of their driving in urban areas (i.e. NY, etc.) was late at night and into the early morning hours, a time when the Interstates are largely empty. He spent Sunday morning crossing Missouri, Oklahoma, New Mexico etc. Net exactly major transportation hubs. He had a co-driver to switch off when they got tired and he had a pilot car running in front of him keeping eyes on the road conditions, traffic, etc.
I'm not saying that I agree with what he did. It was illegal and relatively unsafe. But, in my opinion, it wasn't quite as reckless as people make it out to be. For my money, I prefer people who know how to drive and drive fast to people who drive drunk, while texting, while taking on the phone without a hands-free device, tailgate, switch lanes without looking or using a signal light, weave in and out of traffic, etc....
I don't think he can be arrested for this. He has plenty of evidence that he broke many laws, but if he was arrested, he could plead the 5th if the court asked him to turn over evidence incriminating himself. Additionally, he could call the veracity of the evidence into question, and plead the 5th again if the DA attempted to directly ask him if the data was fabricated.
Mind you, I think that he should probably be arrested and lose his license forever. This sort of stunt seems cool, but one screw up on his part around other people, and a family out on a Sunday drive is dead. This guy just effectively preformed 1st degree reckless endangerment for 30 hours. He knew what he was doing, and just didn't care. Fuck him.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
"We don't know when, we don't know where, but we know you did it!" doesn't hold up very well in court.
A collegue of mine in the UK got a speeding ticking on the motorway (A4 or M4) on-ramp, and got another speeding ticket near London 1 hour later. Because of the speed he was going (about 30mph over the limit), he got a summons to appear in traffic court. In court, they looked at the two tickets and he was issued another citation based on the time difference between the two stops and the distance between the two cities (~100 miles). Being the UK, I think all he had to do was pay a fine (apparently he didn't have too many penalty points on his licence at that time).
The joke he always liked to tell was he probably should have told them he stopped for quick lunch along the way (as anyone will tell you there is no such thing as a quick lunch in any town between Bristol and London so this would be a perfect alibi).
Superheterodyne radar detectors would interfere with each other and lessen the sensitivity.
Competition Good, Monopoly Bad.
I believe when I read the story about the 2006 run that six months was the longest statute at that time. Not sure if it is the same now, although I'd imagine it isn't longer based on this tone of this story.
Inquiring minds want to know!
German drivers are accustomed to driving 241.402~321.869 Km/h?
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Just feed the receiver with the right frequency to tell it how fast you want it to read. Imagine the look on the cop's face when you scream by at 100+ and the gun reads "55".
They don't need the radar gun reading to ticket you for speeding - if you ever go to court, you'll find that all police claim to be "trained in visual speed observation", and will back up the radar evidence with their professional judgement of how fast you were going. And the judge will accept their estimate because they have the training to show that they can make accurate estimates.
absolutely not true.
The courts (at least some courts) disagree:
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/06/police_officers_visual_estimat.html
I learned this from first hand experience when I tried to fight my first ticket. I read all of the books (this predated the modern internet) and came up with a perfect defense to impinge the accuracy of the radar unit in heavy traffic, along with pictures and other visual aids to show how the radar gun likely picked up the much bigger target of the car in the other lane rather than my motorcycle.
The somewhat bemused judge listened to my whole spiel and he congratulated me on putting together such a fine defense, but said "The officer testified that he visually ascertained your speed to be 65mph, so even if the radar's 67mph reading was inaccurate, I accept the officer's sworn testimony". But he ended up charging me 64mph to save me some money and points.
The most amusing thing about it now is that this was in a small southern town and the judge was exactly like the judge portrayed by Fred Gwynne (aka Herman Munster) in My Cousin Vinny
Hah, I remember that happening around Pittsburgh. It was on the news. They eventually ticketed a lawyer and that put an end to it- Appeals court said no.
I believe they ended up refunding the ticket monies.
I've seen people drive that fast around here. I've driven past them as they lay at the side of the road upside down (never actually seen one flip in person, though).
That's humorous that you associate a single post on Slashdot with all of America. Not to mention the handle is 'paiute' which is an Indian tribe :)
[John]
Shit better not happen!
in that case you would presume incorrectly. Gun safety is not a gray area of risk, like speeding is.
I believe at least 3/5 of congress is on the take
Well, aren't you quite the optimist...!
That I'm right, and you don't like it, doesn't mean I'm a troll.
I need to see "vanishing point" again.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I don't really know what cars (and roads) you're talking about, but most Europeean cars are perfectly fine at Autobahn speeds, 180km/h... (Legal.)
Even the old Opel Astra 1.4 liter diesel was fine at 170km/h, even if it took a while to get there.
The Mercedes he used would be very, very fine at much, much higher speeds than that. It's *built* to overtake anything on the Autobahn. It's basically the idea of that model... (Mind, last time I were anywhere near the Mercedes plant in Stuttgart, that Autobahn was jammed most of the time, so I presume they do their testing somewhere else.)
You don't have to be "trained in visual speed observation" to tell someone is speeding when they are doing 90+ in a 65.
Judge/lawyer: How fast was he going?
You: F***ING!!!
...Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and you would not have been informed.
I agree. And furthermore, I find it disturbing that a major news outlet seems to be celebrating this criminal. What happens if someone else attempts to break this record and hits a child on a bike because they were going too fast around a curve? Will that just be an "accident"? This is no different than someone running around in public with a loaded shotgun. Would CNN be celebrating that action?
Driving 150 MPH in a 75 MPH zone in not a goddamned "gray area", Einstein.
If those people were able to rig the game in their favour, sure. But I guess you're too simple to think of issues like that.
Oh I see. If you find a revolver with seven chambers, then you're a genius!
Because it's so much worse for the bodies inside a car getting hit by another traveling 105 MPH than 55.
No, it's that when the American driving at 55 puts down his cheeseburger, big gulp & cell phone and notices something he has more time to stop than the American does who is driving 105 while eating Doritos and changing tracks on his iPod.
Judging from what I get to experience pretty much every time I have to drive over a German Autobahn, I'd say yes.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This is what we can look forward to with autonomous vehicles. In fact they should be able to average even faster speeds than that, en masse.
Better known as 318230.
Because it's so much worse for the bodies inside a car getting hit by another traveling 105 MPH than 55.
Yes. Yes it is. It's quadruple the energy for starters.
For another you've immediately given everyone else less reaction time, since they are logically expecting cars at a maximum of 10 mph over the speed limit.
And don't give me that crap about how "they should be ready for anything." That doesn't give you license to be the anything and generate the risky situation.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Presumably you're assuming a 6 chamber gun with one bullet and "therefore" a 1-in-6 chance of getting shot.
However... due to the weight of the bullet, when you spin the chamber prior to firing, the bullet will tend (due to gravity) to end up in one of the lower vs the highest (firing) positions, so the average chance of getting shot should actually be somewhat less than 1-in-6.
Actually reckless driving is a matter of law, not opinion. You don't look in a simple dictionary for legal definitions. For example, in my state the traffic code specifically declares that three acts which constitute moving violations during a single continuous act of driving is an act of reckless driving.
Legally, you're probably right. I have a dim memory that in California (or was it Arizona?) any speeding over a certain speed (100 mph?) was automatically considered reckless by law, for instance.
Previous poster had followed "this is clear cut reckless driving" with the ridiculous homily "speed limits are posted to keep the public safe", which led me to believe that "this is clear cut reckless driving" is a personal, emotional judgement and not speaking directly to the law. That being the premise, I was trying to address "reckless" from the standpoint of whether this could emotionally be judged to be reckless, or not. I'd still make the argument in court, especially were it a jury trial.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
The summary talks a lot about gas tanks in the trunk, but If they were driving for all but 46 minutes of the trip, I'm guessing they had some storage tanks for other fluids up in the passenger compartment...
Once again, Slashdot demonstrates that they are largely the same as every other group of wingnuts with their pet interest (Slashdot's being Internet/tech and often intersecting topics). You'll defend it to the hills, hypothesize about chilling effects on liberty, have Internet arguments until your fingers bleed and claim that it's important to everybody (or that it should be) Yet, when taken outside of your box, suddenly you become the same as every other idiot group demanding to sell your liberty to buy some safety.
"But it's illegal!"
Yeah, so? I thought most of us were above such petulant arguments. The CFAA practically makes surfing the web illegal and you already commit three felonies a day.
Look: just because you're a clumsy, uncoordinated, risk-averting, thrill-fearing nerd doesn't mean everyone else is. I like you guys, but when it comes to any story involving cars or driving, you show your true colors and disappoint me.
Because you most definitely did not read the article (on Slashdot? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!), I'll give you the cliff's notes. This wasn't just some unskilled lunatic pushing down the "go faster" pedal in a pickup truck, this guy is a dedicated enthusiast who spent a year and a half preparing, installing additional equipment to ensure his high-performance vehicle would be up the task, finding co and lead drivers to avoid traffic and construction zones and spending almost ten grand on maintenance. I doubt many of us have spent much more than that on an entire car.
Since Slashdot is a mainly US site, you could be forgiven for thinking that all cars are shitbuckets that spontaneously explode the second they breach 70mph. Car manufacturers from places that aren't 'Muricuh actually rework an entire vehicle -- chassis, suspension, brakes, anything that's necessary to handle additional power, and more -- when they soup up an engine because they're not for redneck motor "sports."
The car he was driving is a very German, very expensive and very performance-oriented Mercedes Benz. This is a vehicle designed to be very stable and manageable at much higher speeds than anything you've likely driven. Since I have, let me tell you what it's like: highway speed feels like walking pace. Cars like this barely need to make an effort to reach and maintain it. Even at double the speed, it's still hardly trying -- it hardly needs to. By comparison, a Ford Mustang, for example, feels pretty damn scary at half of highway speed because it's chassis, suspension and brakes are shit. Same factor, different hardware. Think of how a low-grade ARM processor would perform benchmarking AES calculation versus an i7 with an AES instruction set. Same factor, different hardware.
To everyone calling for extreme traffic laws and enforcement, try coming to Canada and see how you like it. BC is downright condescending and oppressive, Manitoba is not far behind, Ontario... I don't even want to know. In many places here, they take away your license, pile on debt for decades and destroy your life for the horrific act of ... uh, your tires chirped. I shit you not, this happens.
Oh, and I haven't even told you how many provinces have government-run insurance monopolies ("crown corporations") who are in bed with the cops. Just the other day, there was story in the paper praising how my province's auto insurance provider paid for the local police department's overtime to nail drivers doing barely over the limit. This is not an expenditure for the company, this is an investment: pay some overtime wages now, get the kickbacks in ticket amounts, obscene licensing costs and insurance rates for years to come. Yet, no one will write in to point out this blatant corruption because OMG!! Safety!!
Still not convinced? Look up "MPI VIU." This is the (government-run) insurance company colluding with the cops to
I'm not sure if you were going for the funny mod or just being obtuse, because that is in no way a comparison.
Russian roulette is purely chance. By definition, you don't know which chamber contains the bullet and you have no way of gaming it or improving your odds.
This guy did not achieve this feat by chance; he took immense precautions. If you actually read TFA (yeah, right), you'll see that he spent a year and half, a ton of money and a huge effort in preparation. Yes, chance obviously still plays a part, but he made every possible effort to mitigate it.
There is no way in hell that he could control for a grandpa driving a minivan full of grandkids from pulling into the left lane from ahead of an 18-wheeler, while this joker is bearing down at 130 mph.
But I'd bet you'd blame the grandpa because he wasn't expecting the car 100 feet behind him in the mirror was a reckless jackass trying to pull off some idiotic stunt.
Speed limits have virtually nothing to do with the quality of the road surface. It's about hidden driveways, pedestrians, wildlife, oversized vehicles, bends, trees, sun glare, ect. These problems are summarised in statistics about accidents that are used to set rules aimed at lowering the road toll. This is not to say everywhere works like it does here in Oz, but for the most places around the world the rules are enforced for good reason, not just revenue raising.
As part of your registration here in Oz you have to also pay for third party insurance, the insurance company is a monopoly owned by the state. It is responsible for paying for anyone who is injured, it's also responsible for public awareness campaigns to cut the road toll. It is in their interest to reduce the road toll, a low road toll is their "profit". In my state the toll has dropped from around 600yr to 250yr in the 20yrs the scheme has been operating, random booze buses and seat belts had previously halved the toll from around 1200/yr in the early 70's. All that while the number of cars in my state has increase 10 fold since the early 70's.
So while the authorities may be "unfairly" force drivers slow down in specific circumstances, it's certainly not because they are short of a dime. There will never be a zero road toll as long as there are humans, the question is, and always will be - what is an acceptable toll, where do we stop and say that's as good as it gets?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Read the subject line.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
"Reckless" means you are endangering other drivers. You had no proof that he did so.
Driving over 100MPH in many high-end modern cars is not at all inherently dangerous, only so if very slow drivers are present.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A more parsimonious explanation would be that these guys simply made the whole thing up. Someone willing to break the law to that degree certainly wouldn't have any qualms about lying.
There is no way in hell that he could control for a grandpa driving a minivan full of grandkids from pulling into the left lane from ahead of an 18-wheeler
Yes there is. It's called anticipation. If you see a car behind an 18-wheeler you assume it will pull out and drive slow enough that you can easily break if they do that, yet still maintain as much speed as you can.
In a modern performance sedan on a 75MPH highway, 100MPH is slow enough that you can easily break in time if Grandpa suddenly shifts.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Except that he's already made a public confession and documented publicly as well.
He also said he had a co-driver. So in any given state how can you prove who was driving? You can't.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Warning: Psychotic asshole on the road.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I learned this physics lesson quite well when I hyrdroplaned at 55 MPH in July 2013 and hit the leading edge of a guardrail rear first. Thankfully the impact pushed me INTO my seat, and I was alone in the car (an hour earlier I had my children with me). The sheer force of spinning and rapidly decelerating knocked me the fuck out. I remember a loud "metal grinding" sound that was my rear bumper folding up and demolishing 20 feet of guardrail, and I remember spinning. Then I woke up at the bottom of a ditch.
Ever since I have been more careful (not not a pussy) while driving in the rain. I measure my tires' tread depth on a regular basis. That is one experience I never want to repeat again. And that was at 55 MPH (in a 70 zone). If I were hit by an assclown going twice my speed even on dry pavement? That is four times the force. Four times the pain, four times the brain scrambling in a spin. I may write software for a living, but I respect physics.
24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
Yeah, well, had he wrecked or hurt anyone else, I seriously doubt we'd hear about the attempt at all.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
Why would someone do this and knowingly endanger the lives of other drivers on the road? My whole family including my wife, my five year old daughter and 9 month old son were murdered by an ass like this piece of shit, who thought speed limits and no passing zones were a fun challenge. Sick!
upping his range to about 800 miles. ... To foil the police, he installed a switch to kill the rear lights and bought two laser jammers and three radar detectors. He commissioned a radar jammer, but it wasn't finished in time for the trek. There was also a police scanner,
Tickets coming in the mail from many states; with article cited as evidence..... be prepared for huge fines!
They don't need the radar gun reading to ticket you for speeding - if you ever go to court, you'll find that all police claim to be "trained in visual speed observation", and will back up the radar evidence with their professional judgement of how fast you were going.
This is where you need to bring in some basic scientific facts about physics, about measurement errors, about the unlikelihood of highly accurate estimates, and in particular, the likelihood of high estimation errors as well, even by experts.
And the psychological issue of an erroneous radar reading affecting human judgement about the actual speed, AND affecting human memory regarding their recollection of what their estimate was.
For example: their undocumented estimate suddenly increases by 20% after looking at the radar reading, because they had not committed it to paper yet, before looking at the radar, they are subject to a post-estimate correction bias; where their recollection of what their estimate was changes, as soon as they see the radar reading, but before the details are committed in writing.
Criminal does dozens of car-related crimes while doing some stupid illegal race and putting people in danger.
And this is news for nerds how exactly? Because he uses a radio or escapes a laser?
Shouldn't this not be in the 'Redneck Rodeo News' or something like that?
I was impressed, but then I realised I had mis-read MPH as MPG...that *would* be impressive.
Max.
Road rules are developed for the lowest common denominator
That's correct, the road is filled with behaviors like you mentioned.
And those things were all there to deal with during this stunt. Except this idiot had to deal with those things using half the reaction time, four times the kinetic energy, a car full of bootleg gas tanks, and no sleep for more than 24 hours.
If you can't see what's wrong with that, you're not qualified to drive on public roads yourself.
consider 5 out of 6 people who play Russian roulette
After driving for 12 years over a 40,000 sq mi territory doing hardware tech, I would often speed without any accidents. It's a result of planning, equipment, and keeping sharp behind the wheel. Limited access highways are perfectly safe to around 90 mph traffic permitting. I would only attempt speeds over 100 mph on clear sunny days with little traffic and between cities. Although night or early dawn bambi might jump a fence and surprise you.
I cannot be that lucky.
They can have my command prompt when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
I am a genius
http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1980-present/206184-7-shot-revolvers.html
I may write software for a living, but I respect physics.
But do you actually know math? IF you were in a head on collision with someone doing twice your speed (assuming you are doing 55) things will be bad, but things would be bad if you were in a head on collision with someone doing the same speed as you.
But it is difficult to get into a head on collision on a freeway. So someone hitting you at twice your speed would be much like you hitting that guardrail at 55... In fact it would be better, as the impact would be spread over more of the vehicle, than when you hit the guard rail.
I wouldn't want to get into an accident, but if I had a choice I'd choose hitting another vehicle, going in the same direction, if if they were going faster, than hitting a stationary object.
It was my understanding that the Federally mandated US 55 mph speed limit had very little to do with safety margins, and was more to do with the national consumption of Oil, and the dependence on foreign sources. This came about during the big oil crisis in the 70's when OPEC put the squeeze on everyone. On the fuel consumption curve driving faster than 90km/h significantly increases the amount consumed.
It has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with trying to curtail personal fuel consumption of individuals at a national level.
I could be wrong, but somehow I doubt I am just making this stuff up...
We are not a hive mind. We have different opinions on things.
I think there are a lot of things that are currently illegal, that shouldn't be (owning items that might conceivably be used in a crime, but not actually using them in a crime). There are other things that are currently illegal across the board, that should be more nuanced (like speed limits). Then there are things that are currently illegal and certainly should be, too.
Driving a hundred miles an hour on standard highways should probably be illegal. Driving 150 miles an hour definitely should be. Yes, even in a car specifically designed for it. Leave that for the speedway.
Driving 70 should definitely be legal on the freeway. Driving 80 probably should still be. 90? Maybe not. 150? No way.
Yes, we all know police use tickets as revenue generators rather than to increase safety, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be *any* safety measures.
Only those whom use a gun with a cylinder as opposed to a clip.
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know when your gonna get food poisoning.
Roger Zelazny wrote a novella about hauling ass cross country too. Dunno about its film adaptation. Did read somewhere it was supposed to be the blockbuster SF flick of 1977.