Geek and Gadgets Set Cross-US Speed Record 805
Brikus writes "And you thought your car had gadgets. In this story from Wired magazine, we hear about Alex Roy and his quest to break the record time for a cross-USA road trip. One of the biggest roadblocks to breaking the record: highway patrol officers, about 31,000 along the way. So Roy decked out his E39 BMW M5 with a thermal camera, radar/laser detectors, GPS devices, police scanners, and other high-tech gadgets and toys."
Team Polizei (Score:3, Interesting)
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I think there;s a better way.... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not as cool... but it'd be fastest.
The USA is far too anal about "speed". Speed isn't the problem it's moron drivers, and highway driving in SUVs with auto-everything is the best way to produce them.
In Spain we drive through the center of town at what Americans would think of as "highway" speeds and nothing happens because we're used to it.
PS: Check this vi
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</tinfoil hat>?
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Re:Team Polizei (Score:5, Insightful)
They give an 18 year old a gun, they allow him to drive (which is potentially dangerous) at 16, but he can't have a beer until he's 21. Figure that out.
It seems pretty normal to me to learn about the effects of alcohol _BEFORE_ you can get a weapon or drive a car.
Getting back to the subject at hand. I think that the US should make the drivers license exam (the practical part) a lot harder. Driving on a mountain-side road with a lot of hairpin-turns in a manual gearbox car (possibly on snow or other bad conditions), teaches one about driving more than 1000 hours on a motorway. I also think that the guy has a very serious point by doing that.
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Harder raod tests? Sure. Mountain hairpin turns? In snow? There aren't enough taxes in the state of Florida to bus everyone who wants a license to West Virginia or something.
Where I live, roads are mostly straight, mostly flat, and occasionally under water; that's what they need to test. My mom used to say she'd much rather drive in snow than rain, since the idiots thought they could drive in rain.
But regardless of driver training, nothing can prepare you for some idiot coming up behind you at twice your
Re:Team Polizei (Score:5, Interesting)
I said nothing about my inability to cope with a gap closed in two seconds; I'm worried about the guy coming up behind me. I'm pretty good at judging how quickly someone's approaching, and letting the guy who's going 80 pass me before I pull out to do 70 around the guy who's going 65.
What I'd hoped to express is that someone going 140 is completely out of the ken of the American driver. It's entirely possible that someone going 70mph faster than me is not even visible when I form the intent to pass (and first check my mirror: I was taught check, signal, then check again), or is just so far back that his speed can't be accurately judged.
And as far as biting babies' heads off: Someone roared up behind a couple I know who were passing someone else, and sat on their bumper at 75mph (in a 55mph zone) honking and flashing. As soon as they were ahead of the car they were passing, they signalled and pulled back into the center lane only to be creamed by someone coming in from the right. The asshole who'd forced them over probably never knew he'd been the effective cause of an accident behind him. Their toddler, properly strapped in the back seat, was killed by a bumper that came over the back deck. Amazingly, they're still together.
Re:American sense of "speed" (Score:5, Insightful)
Ahh, another day, another idiot who presumes that "doing 200Mph safely" has anything to do with your car.
First off, the M5 is electronically limited to 250kph, like most European vehicles that can go that fast.
Second, stopping distance is proportional to the square of speed. Your reaction time is not.
People who claim that driving at 125MPH is safe don't understand the problem. The problem is not whether or not you can control the car. The problem is what you do when something unexpected happens.
Considering that a pretty good fraction of our cars are manufactured in Korea, Japan, or Europe, I'm not sure what you mean by the "crappy suspension" that "we" put in "our cars". Wake up. Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover are owned by Ford. Until recently, Daimler owned Chrysler.
This expresses everything that's wrong with your attitude. You are driving on a public highway, putting everyone else at risk by the very nature of you being there. Good drivers cause crashes. Bad drivers cause crashes. You are not so skilled that you could not screw up. Even F1 drivers screw up.
This is the LAST place where you want to be testing the limits of your vehicle. And if you do screw up, it will be far, far worse if you are going 125MPH.
Note that this driver AVERAGED 90 MPH. Considering that he had to stop for gas and other necessities, he must have been going faster than 90 MPH for a fair portion of the trip.
I am so sick and fucking tired of these arguments. Somehow, it's always the OTHER drivers who are the problem. Somehow, YOU are "skilled" enough to drive excessively fast (note that over the limit doesn't necessarily mean excessive). Perhaps YOU have never made a mistake and caused an accident. That's not the point. Perhaps someone else will make the mistake. Perhaps you will slip up. IT HAPPENS FAR MORE OFTEN THAN YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADMIT.
We design and operate airplanes with significant safety margins, so that people don't die when mistakes or failures happen. The same logic should apply to motor vehicles.
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Agreed on the tests-should-be-harder part, but I hate to burst your bubble here. "The US" doesn't issue driver's licenses. Each state is responsible for that. There is no federal driver's license.
Driving on a mountain-side road with a lot of hairpin-turns in a manual gearbox car (possibly on snow or other bad conditions), teaches one about driving more than 1000 hours on a motorway.
And this is why each state is responsible for its
Makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit???
Re:Makes sense (Score:5, Informative)
How about non-traffic violations? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not a huge fan of the "think about the children" type arguements, but would we be cheering this guy on if he'd hit a pedestrian, wrecked some property, or something else that may have occured had he not been lucky?
This guy's not a geek, he's just rich enough to afford some expensive toys, a fast car, and not enough common sense or respect for others.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How about non-traffic violations? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sometimes it is okay to break the law. Sometimes it is even necessary. This is neither. This is just an asshole who thinks the rules don't apply to him. He is not cool, he is not a daring rebel sticking it to the man. He's a sociopath who should be thrown in jail.
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At least they're awake. Which is more than can be said about many drivers on that road. So many killed by falling asleep that warning s are put on the highway radio stations in Nevada and California.
(*) Heck, I saw COPS doing about 120 to get to the scene of yet another SUV rollover.
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I would suggest that these devices were for the most part utilised to avoid arrest rather than protect innocent passers by.
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Re:How about non-traffic violations? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
Thing about this is... Yes, it's reckless. Yes, it's stupid. Yes, it's endangering the lives of innocents. But the article remains a damn good read. What's done is done and it made a heck of a story.
- G
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90 mph average from NY to LA? Good luck.
How to remain inconspicuous... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How to remain inconspicuous... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How to remain inconspicuous... (Score:4, Funny)
Is this guy really a geek? Sure, he likes Star Trek and gadgets, but is that really the definition of a geek? I think not. This guy has lots of money, drives fast, cool cars and did at some point have a girlfriend. That's no geek.
Re:How to remain inconspicuous... (Score:4, Insightful)
One thing the Wired article also neglected to mention and that was mentioned in one of the Jalopnik articles (that I'm too lazy to look up a link for) was that they actually crafted a cover story in classic Cannonball tradition. Their cover for their fast driving and for all of the gadgets on their car was that they were storm chasers chasing a fast moving front across the country. I find it kind of funny since, to my knowledge, most storm fronts in the US move from West to East, not East to West as they were driving.
How stupid... (Score:4, Insightful)
Congrats, Roy, I guess. Try not to drop the soap
(I woulda called the highway patrol on him too.)
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Re:How stupid... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How stupid... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://jalopnik.com/cars/gumball-3000/gumballers-nick-morley-and-matthew-mcconville-arrested-after-hit+and+run-fatality-257447.php [jalopnik.com]
Re:How stupid... (Score:5, Informative)
1) The couple the racers hit ran a stop sign and were hit by a porsche going 6 miles over the limit
2) The man had a heart atack when hit and died. His wife died a few days later (not sure why)
3) The family of the deceased pleaded with the court to let him go. And they did.
Re:How stupid... (Score:5, Interesting)
The mitigating factors you mention may bring them down from "string them up by their thumbs" to "super asshole who deserves prison", but the latter is still not a very good state.
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The world isn't your fucking playground (Score:3, Insightful)
Quit whining, and take some responsibility for your actions? You made the stupid decision to race in the third world nation, with full knowledge that racing is a risky venture.
The world isn't your fucking playground, rich boy.
You want to race on a closed racetrack? Fine, that's between you and the racetrack.
You want to race down my street? Fuck off. I'll hold you responsible for your actions.
Re:How stupid... (Score:4, Insightful)
What, no "He knew what he was doing, he was a far superior driver than mere mortals, safe and slow aren't always the same" arguments for the victims? I could make any number of hand-waving arguments in defense of the victim's reckless driving (e. g. local knowledge of how busy the intersection usually is), so why isn't the same courtesy afforded him that you afford the race participants?
What sickened me the most in the link provided were the comments, which all amounted to "Oh noes, this might affect the race!" Forget that people died, the race must go on, apparently.
Re:How stupid... (Score:5, Insightful)
Shame on slashdot for posting this shit.
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Hear, hear! I hope they jail the SOB. These people aren't rebels or pioneers, they're dangerous sociopaths. They shouldn't be on the roads.
Re:Oh, for fuck's sake. (Score:5, Insightful)
When it's putting other people at risk of death or serious injury so that you can enjoy youself. We're not talking about merely violating speed limits on an empty highway, which I've certainly been known to do myself; we're talking about weaving in and out of traffic inches from other cars, driving recklessly, hitting triple digits in downtown areas. These guys are a threat to the safety of other people, and should be locked up.
The Wikipedia article on Antisocial personality disorder [wikipedia.org] quotes the DSM diagnositic critera. Their actions definitely meet two of the them:
Two others may be met:
For a diagnosis of APD, though, there needs to be "evidence of conduct disorder with onset before age 15 years", and of course we don't know their childhood. (But the ICD criterea are a little looser, with conduct disorder at a young age being suportive of a diagnosis but not necessary.) But regardless of whether a clinical diagnosis is appropriate, it's certainly accurate to refer to the behavior as "sociopathic".
It's no different than if I were to take my rifle and start shooting out of a window into a crowded street - even if I were aiming at inanimate targets, even if I were an expert marksman, putting others at risk so I can get my jollies is not tolerable behavior. You take your rifle to the range to shoot, you take your car to the track to drive fast.
Re:How stupid... (Score:4, Insightful)
It occurs to me that these two probably committed a federal crime. They're clearly guilty of felony reckless driving according to the laws of many states. Crossing state lines for the purpose of committing a felony, which is exactly what they did, is a federal crime.
Somewhat dangerous, and arbitrarily illegal (Score:4, Informative)
Theoretically they could have completed this in a mini van. The obstacle was not traffic it was being caught. The rules they broke are arbitrarily set, and the parent poster is short chill-pills. IMHO, does not warrant a felony.
Many years ago in most western states the speed limit was 'reasonable and prudent.' The capabilities of the automobiles in the 50's to early 60's were just awful. 4 wheel drum brakes, bias-ply tires, and poor suspension.
Point is when the limits were highest the cars ability to brake, turn and stop were the WORST. Driving faster than the current speed limits is not harmful.
Montana defined 'Reasonable and Prudent' - now history
http://www.us-highways.com/montana/reasonable.htm [us-highways.com]
Question the law (Score:5, Insightful)
In more logical countries it is not illegal to drive fast, but it is illegal to tail-chase other cars. This has shown to reduce accidents much more than speed-limiting laws, as tail-chasing is a very dangerous behavior, but simply speeding is not.
The next time when you drive slow enough but are tail-chasing the car in front of you ask yourself if you're not a reckless driver, just because the law says so.
Alternate headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, this doesn't push any boundaries of technology or vehicle science. It tests two things: being able to stay awake, and being able to break laws and get away with it. Here they are tearing across the country in a car filled with distracting devices, sleep deprivation, fatigue, driving at unsafe speeds near vehicles filled with normal people trying to get to work or school.
Re:Alternate headline (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm with you, on this one. Risk your neck? What the heck. Risk mine? Get lost!
Besides, if you just want to cross the country quickly with a stock gasoline engine, there are seriously faster, safer, and more fun ways to do it!!! [mooney.com]
What fun is a speed limit?
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He can't go down very much if he has to average 90mph.
Re:Traveling Cross Country (Score:4, Insightful)
That's because you're bad at physics and biology. Here's a few hints:
1. Braking distance is a function of velocity squared. Same goes for kinetic energy.
2. Human reaction time is about one second, give or take a few hundred milliseconds. There's no way to get it significantly lower than that.
Re:Traveling Cross Country (Score:5, Insightful)
Or was it your perception of your reaction times that was affected? "Look at me, I'm going so fast, I'm so cool". Please.
On the highway, you are in one mode: Avoid everything.
Actually, this guy was probably in many modes. Look at GPS, look at radar detector, drink more coffee, try to stay awake. Oh, and maybe glance ahead every so often.
Assuming dry pavement
So it never rained on this whole trip? There were guaranteed to be no oil patches on the highway? No loose gravel? No glass that could cause a blowout? The highway is not a racetrack and is not maintained to the safety level of a racetrack.
That M5 likely would stop from 100 MPH in in under 200 feet
Awesome. So now he just has to make sure to stay 200ft behind any other vehicle at all times. Think he actually did that? Nah, me neither.
Speed doesn't kill. Bad decisions do.
People make bad decisions every day. Everyone does. When it comes to driving, speed invariably makes the results of those bad decisions much worse. He wants to throw his ass around a racetrack at high speed he's got my blessing, but stay the hell off the roads my kids are on.
Re:Alternate headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Alternate headline (Score:5, Insightful)
That's who kills more people than people like this... he's generally safer because he's actually aware he's fighting the odds, the daily commuters and soccer moms are the real danger because they have completely forgotten they are driving a killing machine.
What happened that we are so afraid to test our boundaries? Guess what, no matter how safe you try to be, people will die.
And yes, I've lost very close loved ones to traffic accidents. Raging against everyone that drives a little fast is not how you remember them. Life is dangerous.
Re:Alternate headline (Score:4, Insightful)
...and smoking kills more people annually than people pointing a gun at their own temples and pulling the trigger. Your point is?
Re:Alternate headline (Score:4, Insightful)
This guy might be aware that he's doing something dangerous, and he might try to prepare for any outcome. He even accepts that there are unknown elements and resigned once the goal became unrealistic. Okay. Good. But these factors do not make it any safer or less selfish - you said it yourself - what about the soccer mum? The roads and freeways are totally unpredictable. Soccer mum has as much right to use the freeways as does any licensed driver. This guy's experience and preparation DOES NOT GIVE HIM THE RIGHT to put innocent lives at risk.
Life can be dangerous. As a surfer, former bicycle courier, skater and road racing cyclist, believe me, I know (check my id). But I would never purposefully risk anyone else's life. I believe this guy's antics are selfish and stupid.
Re:Alternate headline (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, the risk is probably rather lower than someone driving like a bat out of hell across the country but I don't think anyone who drives should be as sanctimonious as to say i would never purposefully risk anyone else's life because it's just not true - you do every time you drive.
Re:Alternate headline (Score:5, Insightful)
There are million times more daily commuters and soccer moms than assholes like this guy, and they drive their commutes daily. That's why they have more accidents, not because they're more dangerous.
Don't test your boundaries where failing will get other people hurt. Test them where the only possible victim will be you. And if you do insist on risking other people's lives, don't be surprised when they defend themselves by locking you up.
Why not ? It seems to me that if sociopathic behavior gets someone killed, the best possible way to remember them is to get the guilty punished as cruelly as possible and then crushing said sociopathic behavior.
Life would be a lot less dangerous if cretins like this didn't insist on doing stupid shit in public.
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A friend of mine once took me up to 120mph on a relatively deserted highway. It was one of those things where somebody says "watch this" and proceeds to do something which is extremely stupid and embarrassing. I was not impressed. If he were given to this kind of inconsiderate behavior, he would be no friend of mine. But he'd saved up until he could buy this car that cost over a year's salary; I suppose he was itching to show
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When I lived in Kansas City, the local Audi dealership included free membership to the Audi Club North America with the purchase of a car. The local chapter of the club organized many high performance driving schools/events at tracks around the midwest and it was a great way for people to learn the limits of their car and their own driving abi
Re:Alternate headline (Score:5, Insightful)
I did, but some asshole ran over it with a car.
No. What this is is some asshole endangering everyone using public roads and then being proud of it.
Of course. He's a SAFE driver, rather than an ordinary guy. How foolish of us not to realize that.
Since the amount of mayhem caused in the case of an accident, the braking distance, and the reaction distance all go up as the speed of the car goes up, and the former two squared at that, I'd say that you are very wrong. Driving faster is more dangerous than driving slower, both to yourself and to everyone else on the road.
No, anymore than it goes with the territory of owning a house that someone might decide to bar the doors and set it on fire because they happen to like watching the flames while you're sleeping on your bed.
Driving isn't a game. Driving is using a public utility - roads - to get from point A to point B. Drivers who can't get it through their heads that endangering others isn't okay should had their licenses and cars taken away.
Which, I hope, will happen to these particular morons now that they've made their little trip public.
Re:Alternate headline (Score:4, Insightful)
What he is is a SELFISH driver because he is relying on everyone else following the rules, so that he can ignore them. His safety is entirely reliant on being able to predict everyone around him following the rules of the road, a courtesy he's not prepared return.
All we can hope for is that one day he'll meet as "fast but SAFE" a driver as himself on an otherwise empty road. Then he'll see what happens when the guy he's overtaking in the wrong lane has as little regard for the regulations as he has.
Re:Alternate headline (Score:5, Insightful)
The article is full of incidents that are just outright dangerous stupidity, using the hard shoulder as an overtaking lane, undertaking 18 wheelers and so and so on. The bloke comes across as being a complete wanker, he's inherited a load of money from his folks so he never has to work and decides to be a great novelist. That doesn't work so he decides to become an irresponsible maniac driver without even having any sort of proper instruction and simply uses his inherited wealth to pay off any fines he gets along the way. He's not some kind of hero he's an overpriviledged muppet and if he carries on like this he will one day kill someone.
Irresponsible (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Irresponsible (Score:5, Informative)
Well some speed limit fines are based on income, at least in some parts of Europe. I remember [cnn.com] a few years back when a top Nokia executive was fined the equivalent of US$103,000 for speeding on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, because in Finland, traffic tickets are based on violator's income.
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You have 10 minutes to move your car.
Your car has been impounded.
Your car has been crushed into a cube.
You have 10 minutes to move your cube.
Re:Irresponsible (Score:5, Insightful)
Karma to burn, so I bite the bullet.
You suggest that speed limits are there for a reason, then provide the reason: quick cash for the municipalities.
Some limits are ridiculous low in some cases: I have a 30 km/h sign right in front of my window - and my condo is in front of a freeway! Often they are just a trick to further tax car owners, without resorting to the politically unpopular word "tax".
Here (Italy) there's a huge scandal about similar behavior by the police enforcers, and one that is quickly making some heads roll.
At some specific, usually not dangerous crossroads, the traffic lights have been reprogrammed to have a very short "yellow" time - around two seconds. It has been documented in a broadcast inquire on TV, with actual videos and SMPTE'd times. With two seconds from green to red, it's materially impossible to slow down and stop at the crossroad, even sticking to the very low speed limit.
So you WILL cross the crossroad with a red. And of course, that crossroad has this new CCTV system to recognize plates and automatically issue tickets in case of crossing with red. There was an outburst of enraged citizens against this practice: in a two weeks period, they received in excess of 13'000 tickets, all at the same crossroad. In a town with around 50'000 people, not a major city either...
Speed limits and absurd, often intentional, road laws are demonstrably used to sanate local administrations' budgets and balances. Disguised as "think of the children" policies, they are just another way to transfer resources from citizens to public administrators.
Re:Irresponsible (Score:5, Insightful)
Neither do I understand an arbitrary speed limit of 55 mph which exists pretty much across the whole USA. Yes, it might have made sense in the 50s when cars could often go not much more than 55, and more often than not 55 was already a rather unsafe speed in said cars. We're now half a century further down the road and cars got heaps safer. At much higher speeds. Even my old and quite quirky Mazda 626 could easily handle the 130 (kph, around 80mph) speed limit without falling apart.
Still, there are speed limits that make sense. I wouldn't want to be a road worker trying to repair damages when right behind me cars zip by at 100 kph. Observing a speed limit of 70 would have saved me a car, right behind that limit was a rater narrow corner.
But one thing is true (and that last example illustrates it perfectly), when speed limits are imposed arbitrarily, as they are today more often than not, people start ignoring them. It's like with any laws, when you learn that a law makes no sense in 90% of the time, you start ignoring it in 100% of the time.
The roads would be much safer if speed limits existed only where they make sense. People would observe them because they would understand their need to exist.
Re:Irresponsible (Score:5, Informative)
Neither do I understand an arbitrary speed limit of 55 mph which exists pretty much across the whole USA. Yes, it might have made sense in the 50s when cars could often go not much more than 55, and more often than not 55 was already a rather unsafe speed in said cars.
Actually, the 55 mph national speed limit was put in place in 1974, and for fuel efficiency reasons, not safety.
The speed limits in the 50s (in many places) were still determined by the old 80% average method, IIRC. Let a bunch of people drive on the road with no speed limit, cut out the top 10% and bottom 10%, and average the speed of the remaining, and there's your speed limit. It makes sense, because that's the speed most people feel comfortable at.
Nowadays, most of the states I've seen just make a state version of the old national speed limit. Here in Oklahoma it's 65 on two lane highways, 70 on some four lane highways, and 75 on turnpikes. The speed limit on some of the county roads have gone up in response, which helps matters (some small towns are only accessible via county roads), but I still feel the old 80% system made more sense.
Bear in mind though, many cars manufactured between 1974 and 1995 were made for 55 and 65 mph speed limits. Going faster than that is exceeding the design limits of the vehicle. Sure, they'll do it, but engineers didn't have to take into account states like Montana where you could go as fast as you like and still be legal. So while those cars may have had better safety features, in theory they weren't designed for today's speed limits. There's still a lot of those cars on the road today.
Re: Irresponsible (Score:3, Informative)
Have you considered that the sign is there directly for your benfit? Or would you rather have the traffic noise from a freeway full of cars doing 120km/h???
The biggest problem with the speed debates is that most people only consider them from the selfish point of view of the driver (being as most people who get upset are speed obsessed drivers), speed limits take a number of factors into account a large number of wh
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How does it benefit anyone to crush a car? You just end up with a pile of mostly unrecyclable car parts, a waste of resources and possibly the destruction of an item of historical interest. Sounds like jealousy of the rich. You'd get a lot more benefit to society if the cars were auctioned.
Re:They tried that in holland, impound the car (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's see: It's very spectacular, quite a bit of a deterrent, and it makes it clear that it is an actual punishment and not just an attempt at adding more money to the citys coffers.
Sounds like jealousy of the rich.
Well, in theory, the law should be the same for everyone ? So if you speed in your <$1000 rustbucket, it'll get crushed too.
You'd get a lot more benefit to society if the cars were auctioned.
Yeah, and you'd have all the sports car drivers whining how speed limits are only put there to transfer their money to the local government.
No, let's just crush the thing and avoid that discussion altogether.
Re:Irresponsible (Score:4, Insightful)
Have you ever driven across country in the USA? Seriously, this is anything but "a rare state".
Most of this country, despite what many believe, is wide open space with low population and even less traffic. It's not difficult to do 120 mph for several hours without ever seeing another car. (I've done it though closer to 105 mph--I've only gone 120 once and it scared the crap out of me.) Populous areas are actually quite spread out until you get to the coastal states. If you avoid those and shoot straight across the middle of the country, it's very easy to "hit the open road" and avoid most traffic issues.
I'm not saying what this guy did is smart, but it's far from automatically being as reckless as most of the comments suggest. Yes, generally speaking it was a stupid thing to do for a "record" that really isn't all that hard (it certainly didn't require all the ridiculous gadgets he added to his car) to attain. Stupid is a relative term though, and can be easily moderated to be far less stupid or even more stupid. I'd dare say he did make some effort to minimize the stupidity of his actions, if for no other reason than making the task easier by avoiding traffic, though I don't know that for sure.
This doesn't make sense (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This doesn't make sense (Score:5, Funny)
What an ass (Score:4, Interesting)
I have done my share of speeding on U.S. highways and have gotten my share of tickets too. But I don't claim to be anything other than an ass myself when it comes to driving. At least I did it mostly on a motorcycle and likely would only take myself out, which somehow to me seems a little more considerate.
If he really wants to break the record he should do it on a motorcycle. You can bypass any traffic situation entirely with ease. You can even split through traffic going 75+ at 90 if you want to, which I did on a long straight hot boring trip down highway 5 in northern CA on the way back from Oregon. Of course I got a speeding ticket too, from a rather irate cop who couldn't catch me for miles because I kept splitting through traffic (even though I wasn't trying to outrun him, I didn't even know he was there). Like I said, I am an ass too. And I know when when I see one. And that dude is an ass.
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Re:What an ass (Score:4, Informative)
1. In my experience you get about twice the mileage in a bike as a car (obviously depends alot on the type of car and type of bike, but considering the guy is driving an M5, it wouldn't be hard to get twice the mileage on even a very powerful bike), but have 1/4 the tank size, so you end up with about half the range with the bike.
2. You can add an extra tank to both vehicles, but the bike gets twice the mileage out of each additional pound of fuel added. I think in the end the bike will end up getting a bit more advantage out of the extra tank, but still the range of the bike will only end up being a bit better than half the range of the car.
3. You can refuel a bike much faster than a car. You don't even have to get off. This buys you maybe 30 seconds per refuel. Probably still not enough to make back the difference given the extra stops you have to make, but it will help.
Re:What an ass (Score:5, Insightful)
3000 miles on a motorcycle would add a whole new dimension to the word "torture". I'm not sure there is a person alive that could sustain those speeds that long. Riding a bike is much more fatiguing and requires loads more concentration.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
They have 24 hour endurance races on motorcycles and they split it between three riders so each only has to do 8 hours. One hour on, two hours rest. Then again, those guys are driving 120 - 150 mph on twisty race tracks and pushing i
What about 10,000 in ten days or so? (Score:4, Informative)
See http://www.ironbutt.com/about/default.cfm [ironbutt.com] for a big pack of loonies (yes I ride).
They do coast to coast in 50 hours which still isn't relying on doing the speed limit or getting all that much rest. There are coast to coast times two (going there and coming back)
Sheriff Rosco Purvis Coltrane says ... (Score:2)
What a bastard. (Score:5, Insightful)
To call him a geek is an insult to me and all other geeks i know of.
To endanger other people's lives like this is utterly despicable.
Obviously, he doesn't care if he kills someone along the way. If he did, he wouldn't do this.
Or what, is he a superhumanly safe driver is some non-imaginative way? Not fucking likely.
Put that asshole in jail(it would be OK to lose the key) right now, for showing that he has the obvious intent to go out try to kill people.
And why Slashdot sinks to the depths of publishing such a positively toned article about this psycho is far beyond me.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
To call him a geek is an insult to me and all other geeks i know of ... To endanger other people's lives like this is utterly despicable.
Don't apply your arbitrary moral standards to the rest of us. Being a "geek" has nothing to do with submitting to a particular moral philosophy.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It has everything to do with it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Being a geek (in the sense of the word we use it here) is more about values than anything else:
I should point out this point includes ethical constraints: it's a greater accomplishment to do something better than anybody else, whilst doing it ethically. In fact, making intelligent decisions about which constraints matter and which ones don't is central to being a geek. When I was a young, rule-breaking hacker at MIT, we had a rule -- or rather a sense of style -- that demanded we do dangerous things safely and illegal things responsibly. If we were some place we didn't belong, we didn't interfere with the legitimate users' activities. Leave the place better than you found it, or at least no worse.
These values are not a moral philosophy in themselves, but they can inform whatever moral philosophy you subscribe to. Insofar as it is easy (observe the note of contempt here) to reconcile being a geek with being an ethical egoist, the particular stunt being done can be called a geek stunt. But it is not a hack.
Eluding the authorities whilst doing a hack can add to its stature, but only if what you are doing is strictly reasonable. Otherwise there is a good chance that you're not a hacker, you're just a scofflaw. Scofflaws use technology to avoid the authorities too. It's not much of an accomplishment.
Now, setting the record for crossing the country with the requirement that you don't exceed the speed limit even once -- that would not only be a hack, it would be an epic one. Naturally, you'd have to develop a technological method for documenting your feat, one that would convince a skeptical rival. That would be a hack too.
Re:What a bastard. (Score:5, Insightful)
Calm down and get some perspective for a minute there, Captain Moral Outrage.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think so. To me, it's an invitation to consider whether he was just lucky or if perhaps we shouldn't apply the same standards to him as we would the "average driver". It's like Bayes' theorem. Since we know the outcome, we have more information about what went into it. The fact that he didn't have any accidents means there is a good chance that he is a highly skilled driver.
One event does not constitute a statistically useful sample, and knowing the outcome of one event does not tell you anything about *why* it occurred. Nonetheless, the drivers are almost certainly very skilled, based on the article. It said that the main driver established a reputation as a fast but safe driver while doing legal races, and both have participated in several such races.
The article also noted the meticulousness of the racers in planning their course and having an airplane spotter for potential
Red shift (Score:5, Funny)
It's 106 miles to Chicago... (Score:5, Funny)
Commence acceleration.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Hand in your geek license. That's "engage".
An obvious point... (Score:3, Funny)
Except for the part where he stickered up his car like a boy-racer with OCD, making him STAND OUT to people looking for things that stand out - like police.
I mean, even not counting the reckless endangerment charge he'll hopefully be facing in at least a dozen states following his loverly confession.
Or not, who knows the vagaries of local law enforcement. It sounds like at least one officer picked him up on radar and pursued him, so the confession will be accompanied by at least one officer's sworn testimony.
Don't get me wrong, I love fast cars and fast driving - but not in traffic. That's just stupid.
This may not even be the most efficient way (Score:4, Interesting)
My probably fractured memory is that one particularly decisive win was not by a supercar, but by a Japanese king cab mini pickup. The drivers filled the be with a fuel tank and were able to drive straight through without ever stopping or breaking the speed limit. IIRC the win margin was tremendous.
The man is trying to be cute and generate publicity by using a method which might be intended to be viewed as "cool", but if he was really going for time this very well might not the right way to do it.
As a side note, Family legend has it that as a teenager my grandmother once participated in the north south trans U.S. speed record. IRC the average speed was something like 15mph and change. My father was born in 1925, So I'm suspecting this was around 1920 or so. High quality 20's vehicles such as Cords and Auburns could still comfortably do 70 or 80mph so I suspect the pickup method has merit.
nice (Score:3, Insightful)
Hoorah! (Score:3, Insightful)
So please stop whining about the "danger" to society. There are many countries with faster speed limits (or little or no enforcement which equals the same thing). And by the way, in this country if he were to have had an accident, he would have been sued into bankruptcy. But fact of the matter is who cares he did it safely!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I hope you know how much German Autobahns do not compare to US interstates. The list starts at "road condition" (applying Autobahn standards, much of the US interstate network would have to be closed down for maintenance completely right now.) and doesn't even end at the minimum requirements as far as the condition of the vehicle goes in order to be allowed on the road (US: "can move at a certain minimum speed under its own power
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Interstate Speeding and reciprocity (Score:5, Informative)
There are a few states that treat speeding very harshly such as Virginia (automatic reckless driving over 80 mph or greater than 20 over the limit), North Carolina (over 80 mph or greater than 15 over the limit earns a form of license suspension) to name a few.
Assuming Alex has a NY driver's license, he would not to worry too much especially if he has an attorney to plead down major charges. I myself have a CO license and have a share of out of state tickets but not doing something like 120 mph but doing something like up to 25 mph over the limit. In fact my last two speeding tickets were something like 10 mph over the limit in Missouri and Indiana. I have family back in the midwest such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois so usually my tickets are received between CO and Ohio. We even got pulled over in Ohio for tinted windows.
On the reciprocity part especially with today's computers, if you get your license suspended in a different state, more than likely, you will get suspended at home. Your name will be posted on the National Driving Registry/Problem Driver Pointer System (NDR/PDPS) if you get suspended by your home state or a differnt state. The NDR/PDPS would be a tool to prevent you from getting a license in a different state. For myself, I have points in Missouri for a ticket I got more than a year ago (May 2006). Some states in addition to reporting the ticket to your home state will also open up a point file on you as well. This can snare poeple like out of state college students. Ohio does this as well. My brother went to school in Ohio, held an Indiana license back in the early 1980's. Ohio at the time didn't report tickets to other states. He was a ticket away from being suspended in Ohio but he had a clean record in Indiana. I got a speeding ticket myself in Ohio back in 1986 right before Ohio joined the compact.
Coming down the pipe unfortunately and the Real ID Act [wikipedia.org] has something to do with this is the requirement that states communicate with each other - share databases. Don't know how extensive this will be yet since it is still being worked out. Another item is the Driver License Compact (DLC) [wikipedia.org] and Non-Resident Violator Compact (NRVC) [wikipedia.org] will be replaced by the Driver License Agreement (DLA) [wikipedia.org] which is more harsher. The DLA will require states to share their whole databases not only with other US juridictions but also must share with Canadian and Mexican jurisdictions as well. In addition, there are no loopholes for blowing off parking violations unlike today with the NRVC. The sharing with foreign countries combined with identity theft was why the DLA was the most controversial element of the Real ID Act. The mandate for states to sign the DLA was removed from the final bill that was signed into law. Connecticut has signed the DLA and they will pull your license for blowing off an out of state parking ticket. In addition, some states don't like tinted windows
I have beaten this several times. (Score:3, Interesting)
I grew up in New Jersey just 14 Miles from NYC. But have lived in California since I turned 18.
One thing I have alway found is anything above 120 Mph and the cops would turn on their lights and just disappear into the distance behind me.
When I was in High School in New Jersey we used to do this regularly to mess with the cops on Interstate 80, We would even pelt them with eggs as we passed them doing over 120Mph.
Just in case we had also taken some other measures such as the ability to monitor and jam police radio's.
I also had a US WW2 surplus Super high power flash tube designed for night airial photography.
This was capable of igniting a news paper near by, we placed in the rear window, fortunately never got to try it in traffic, but at the top of Garret Mountain facing New York City we could make the whole skyline light up. Let's not mention the bowling balls, super balls, and oh yea and the rail road flairs.
Ok, So maybe I/we were a bit out of control..
After I moved to CA, every year I used to take I-80 the whole distance to NY and back, to visit my parents. Always flat out pedal to the metal.
On my first trip I easily beat this record with a 30 hour driver using a beater. 1979 Mercury Montego Station Wagon with a souped up engine in 1987. I was hitting a top speed of over 150 Mph. The started motor didn't work, so I couldn't even turn off the engine because we'd never get the car started again.
I had stopped to rest with the engine idling a few times so some time was lost there.
In Nevada I was ticked for doing 130Mph, The same cop had chased me from Elko to the CA boarder, when I made the mistake of slowing down to 40 to appreciate the incredible view just before the California Boarder. I had even stopped in Reno to get some gas.
Photo from that trip right after cop ticketed me. http://www.dnull.com/~sokol/images3/welcome.jpg [dnull.com]
My best time was 28 hours from Redwood City California to New York City around 3000 Miles in a 1990 Nissan Sentra in 1992, while listening to Ozzy's Mama I'm Comin Home. My wife has just left me and went back to NJ and I was a tad upset at the time.
The other big trick is to pick times that avoid rush hour when passing through larger cities.
Re:Wow, so many people bitching (Score:4, Insightful)
If you want to do something gutsy, go skyjumping, base jumping, downhill mountain-biking. Something that doesn't run the risk of injuring or killing innocent bystanders who want nothing to do with you.
Re:And yet will all those gadgets... (Score:4, Insightful)
Apparantly you own and/or maintain neither.
Despite all this rhetoric, he did it.
As somebody who has a stable of oldish German cars, one of them being a BMW (633Csi) and one of them having 700,000 kms on the clock that can still top 120mph (300SD) I'd argue vehemently that they are built for all day high speed runs. Not Italian cars and certainly not British cars. The Autobahn is partly the reason for this. German enginerring is another. They are meant for this sort of flogging, it's desinged in.
Given the attention to detail in the rest of the trip, my uninformed guess is the car was in as perfect a mechnaical condition as possible, quite possibly better than "factory new".
And as I said, the proof was in the pudding. He made it.
Re:wow. (Score:4, Insightful)