Driving from New York to LA in 32 Hours or Less | Hacker News Reader

Driving from New York to LA in 32 Hours or Less

wired.com

46 pointskarzeem9 comments

>>>> ""I'm calling it," Roy sighs, "that's it." And so, at 4:20 in the morning, some 70 miles shy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Roy puts his turn signal on like some average commuter and once again stops, 2,160 miles short of his dream."<<<<

I found it interesting that they decided to call it quits so soon; in Indiana, of all places, for rationalizing the lack of ability to catch up on average speed. (On this particular attempt) Indiana isn't very far at all from the border of NY state.

The Northeast has extreme population density, slower posted speed limits, etc. It seems to me that after completing that initial leg of the journey, they could easily catch up for lost time going across the more-or-less desolate midwest, even given their slower than desired avg MPH start.

So they technically completed only 635 miles of the trip (2795-2160). . . a mere 22.7 percent of the total miles to be traveled. I think if it were me, I'd wait until at least the halfway point before calculating averages and deciding whether or not to throw in the towel of defeat.

I definitely think that if there were anywhere to make up for lost time, it would definitely be across parts of the midwest.

Thats some gear list:

Randolph highway patrol sunglasses, 20-gallon reserve fuel tank, Tasco 8 x 40 binoculars fitted with a Kenyon KS-2 gyro stabilizer, military spec Steiner 7 x 50 binoculars, Hummer H1-style bumper-mounted L-3 Raytheon NightDriver thermal camera and LCD dashboard screens, front-and-rear-mounted sensors for a Valentine One radar/laser detector, flush bumper-mount Blinder M40 laser jammers, redundant Garmin StreetPilot 2650 GPS units, preprogrammed Uniden police radio scanners, ceiling-mount Uniden CB radio with high-gain whip antenna. Check. Check. Check.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxRLyiBs3XA

I'm surprised the stock M5 alternator can supply enough current to drive all of those electronics. That is just totally ridiculous..

I was thinking the same thing.. he must have left out some power modifications/extra batteries

This is a fun article; I love living vicariously through articles about reckless disregard for the law.

Yeah, articles like this are almost enough by themselves to justify the concept of a statute of limitations.

But they're only going 90MPH on average! I used to have a manager who claimed to drive from the Netherlands to the south of France at 120MPH all the way. With his wife and 3 children...

Seriously, "For occasional spurts, 90MPH is not uncommon on the highway," I mean, that's below the average speed on French or German highways!

Why the enormous difference? Deer?

PS: I realize that their biggest challenge by far is to evade law enforcement.

In the US, most motorists are going 55-65, swerving across lanes in tractors with tinted windows, and have never heard of leaving the left lane to faster moving traffic. Also, the way most of America is laid out, every trip, even 'local' ones, has a freeway leg, so there is constant merging on or off. Without blinking, of course. In Continental Europe, freeway traffic is much more predictable.

Another thing is, Amsterdam to Nice can be driven overnight, on mostly empty freeways.

And last, your manager was likely exaggerating grossly. Amsterdam to Nice at 120 avg., would take only about 7hrs 30 minutes door to door (Or Sea to Shining Sea). With 3 kids, that's more like the time spent at rest stops along the way.

These guys are seriously crazy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com