WEBVTT - Cannonball Endurance Driver Alex Roy Talks Record Run, EV Future 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.000 I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:04.680 hot pursuit. 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:17.360 All right, we have a pretty interesting guest today who 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:18.960 has won a Cannonball Run. 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.280 Yeah, I'm mystery Man of the Car World, if you will. 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.120 By the way, someone who's been around forever. 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:28.319 I gotta say, I'm I think I'm older than you. 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:30.840 But when I was a kid, Cannonball Run was the 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.120 first movies. I'm sorry, sorry, I'm just saying because of 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:36.839 the date right when Cannonball Run came out, the original 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.120 with Burt Reynolds, which was a long long time ago, 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.960 that's one of the first movies I saw that really 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.720 got me kind of obsessed with cars. 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:46.959 I'm gonna google it right. 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:48.600 Now to see you exactly when it came His guest 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.440 is Alex Roy. I mean, why why delay? This is 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:55.280 Alex Roy, who kind of is like this international Man 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:59.760 of Mystery slash world's most interesting car guy. I was 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.280 reading his Wikipedia page and we should ask him about this. 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:05.760 It said that in two thousand and four he won 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.440 a British reality TV series called The Ultimate Playboy, which 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.440 I was not aware of. We should definitely ask him 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.200 about He has the look, so I feel like I 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:18.320 should give some context here because basically I called Alex 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.160 I don't know, six weeks ago because I was doing 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:26.160 a story about rallies and especially about Millimelia coming to 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:29.679 the US, and the number one person I know who 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:34.800 has done car rallies and cannonball style runs is Alex Roy. 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.800 So we when we got to talking, it was just like, Wow, 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:43.840 this is somebody who really has been in cars a 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:47.200 long time and also really knows the underground side of it. 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.440 So like after we got off the phone, Alex I 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:52.720 told Matt like we got to have him on because, 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:57.720 especially in light of electric vehicles and autonomous driving, I 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.720 just want to hear your thoughts on every everything about 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:06.040 where we are now with people who love cars and 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.320 compared to twenty years ago. This isn't really a question. 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:10.880 It's kind of a setup. Matt. 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:11.280 I don't know. 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:12.680 Well, I want to ask. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:14.480 You, but I think it's weird that I've never that 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.400 we've never actually met in person to my knowledge, because 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.600 I've been obsessed with cars and covering like the business 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.119 side for Bloomberg for twenty years. But I've been following 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:29.359 you from Afar throughout all of your antics and I mean, 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:34.680 and also you give a lot of legit like important reporting, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:40.079 you know for journalists on self driving stuff and on Tesla. 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.000 But I'm more interested in like the Canniball Run in 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:43.760 the Morgan. 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.040 Happy to talk about all of it. I mean, actually, Hannah, 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.800 our conversation win that direction because there's car reporting and 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:56.000 then there's like luxury goods reporting, like rob report. But 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:02.239 Hannah a complement, is the only journalist who covers automotive 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:08.560 who has her own fashion language and can actually justify 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.079 getting into some of these cars as like a not 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:13.720 just as a driver, but as the kind of person 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:15.960 who would own one. And because most people who buy 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.000 these cars have no taste at all, and like they 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:19.840 don't in any way reflect the brands that they are 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.160 driving around. They hope the brands reflect on them, but 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:23.880 they do not reflect the brands in least. 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:25.519 That's a very nice that point. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:27.080 Yeah, that's what set me off. 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.720 Well, where should we start? Then? Should we start? 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:32.639 We were talking about the Cannibal Run movie. I was 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.160 saying that it was like the first thing that I 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.520 watched that got me into cars. I was born at 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:39.200 the end of seventy three, and it came out in 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.560 eighty one, So I was like eight years old or 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:44.520 I was seven turning eight when I saw it? 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:49.200 And was that based on anything real? 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:49.440 Like? 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.160 Had there been a true cannonball run before that? Or 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.440 is the race that the record that you set based 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:56.080 on the movie? 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.040 How's that whole story play out? 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.640 Okay? So the answer is that, yes, there was a 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.080 real cannonball run race that ran from nineteen seventy one 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:11.160 to nineteen seventy nine. Brock Yates was the progenitor of that. 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:15.400 It ran four times. Right after it ended seventy nine, 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.360 a bunch of cannonball drivers and fans who wanted to 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.839 keep going decided to put on what they considered a 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.039 more professional event with no media coverage, no movie at all, 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:31.120 called the US Express. That race ran four times and 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:33.400 the last one was in the nineteen eighty three and 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:35.919 after that that was pretty much the end of the 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:40.320 classic era of cannonballing. But the most interesting thing about 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.279 the Cannonball Run and even its name, isn't the race 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:49.160 from the seventies. It's where the name came from. And 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.960 for all the people who think that the cannonball is illegal, dangerous, foolish, 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.320 and silly, the name came from a guy named Irwin 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:02.000 Baker whose nickname was Cannonball. Hundred years ago. He was 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.840 a motorcycle racer. So in the early twentieth century he 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:11.280 was hired by the first generation of car companies, stutz 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.920 Gardner Cadillac to drive their cars from New York to 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.840 LA before the interstate Highway system existed, to prove that 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:24.640 cars were intermi combustion cars were reliable, affordable, efficient, and 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.599 polluted less than horses and trains, and were the best 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:31.160 way for anyone of any income level to get around. 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:35.680 And so it was at one point front page news 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:37.360 when people went and did this, and it was for 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.400 many years, and so that was the person after whom 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.080 the current illegal races was named. 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:49.720 That's very cool. So how did you conceive this idea 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.560 to attack and attempt a cannon ball run? 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.680 And by the way, to state I think the obvious 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:02.560 the cannonball run, the US expressed they're not legal races, right, they're. 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.120 All not regulated. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.719 Well, there you have to break the speed limit in 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.719 order to win, like by a substantial amount for a 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:11.159 very long period of time. 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.839 Totally illegal for anyone who wants to set a record. 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.719 But anyone can go. There's no organizing body, there's no 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.200 rules other than same car stays on the ground and 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.760 at least one person in the whole way, although that 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.599 might not be true in the future of autonomous records. 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:31.200 The you know, I got into it the way almost 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.159 everyone has ever gotten into it. They saw the movie 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.240 as a kid. My father talked about it. He wanted 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:40.839 to go, he didn't do it. And so in the 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.160 late nineties, I wanted into a nightclub in New York 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.839 called Void Now Gone, and they were playing a film 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.960 called Rendezvous, which was the famous French nine minute film 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.320 Nowhere where Claude, Yeah, Claude de Luche, the French director, 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:56.599 you know, put a camera in the front of a 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.839 car and drove across Paris in nine minutes and change. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.240 And after that, I'm like, I'm going to do that someday. 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.000 And so I put that in the hat alongside cannonball 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.440 and anything else I can think of, and I'm like, 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:11.720 I'm going to do that eventually. When I had the 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:13.840 time and money in my thirties, I'm like, I did 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:20.280 do it. But the thing is cannonball a word like 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:24.800 the as entered into like kind of the English vernacular. 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.239 As a word to just do dangerous stuff in a car. 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.240 So it's been bastardized and conflated with so many other things, 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:38.120 sometimes by people with good intentions, but often by people 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:40.360 who want to bask in the glory of the real 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.200 thing without actually doing it. And so that is, in 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:50.320 my opinion, where most modern rallies come from, because when 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:53.280 people talk about the cannonball they call it interchangeably a 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.520 race or a rally. But in the classic definition, a 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:02.640 rally is on a public road, timed from point to point. 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.280 It's legal, it's sanctioned, there's a governing body and their 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.400 entrance who are serious people, generally in vintage cars. And 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:15.920 in nineteen ninety nine, all of these ideas, the conflation, 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.520 the confusion, the glory, the desire to drive the fund 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:21.800 was all thrown together by a guy named Maximilian Cooper 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:27.360 out of London, who decided to put on an event 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:30.720 inspired He says, it's inspired by the Gumball Rally movie. 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.719 For the Gumball Rally movie itself was inspired by the 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.440 Cannonball Run race and so to put the timeline together, 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:41.360 Cannonball Run Race Gumball Rally Movie comes out in seventy 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.040 six Canniball Run movie comes out in eighty one, and 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:48.600 then seventeen years later, this Englishman shows up and says, 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.840 let me put on an event, a rally call the 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.320 Gumball that basts in the glow of the cannonball legend. 0:08:56.000 --> 0:09:00.720 And yeah, that event, the Gumball three thousand launching Night 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:06.839 ninety nine, is the modern uh you know, it's called 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:08.720 I don't want to say inhertorys it's not a race, 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:13.400 but it is the event that changed and utterly the 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.400 landscape of modern car rallies, because prior to that they 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.800 were vintage cars and an older demographic, and suddenly had 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:23.200 all these people going in their supercars, stickered up on 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.520 public roads and acting egregiously. I was one of them, 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:33.559 and so I went thinking that the Gumball three thousand 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.680 was kind of a clearinghouse or unofficial proven ground for 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.240 people who wanted to do a real cannonball to meet 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:42.440 each other, and that eventually they would go do that. 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.480 And I got there and there was no one who 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:50.480 wanted to go coast to coast NonStop illegally. Everybody wanted 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.880 to go to a party, however, and everybody interchangeably called 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:59.040 it cannonballing, and so that is really how I got 0:09:59.080 --> 0:09:59.480 into this. 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:05.600 So tell us about your your first attempt and how 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.360 you set it up because it must take a lot 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.560 of planning. I imagine you're going to want to either 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.920 have extra gas tanks or like four radar detectors or 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:17.600 a spotter or I don't know, but like what do 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:22.560 you do to because you you achieved the fastest crossing 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:24.199 right what from New York to LA. 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.880 So, yeah, we did set the record in two thousand 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:32.360 and six, and we were the first team to successfully 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:35.400 break it in I think twenty five or twenty six years. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.040 What car in a BMW five two thousand and thirty 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.040 nine five Our record has been broken anytime since. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:46.840 And you did it in about thirty four thirty four hours. 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.600 Thirty one thirty one. So the record in nineteen eighty 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.680 three in the last US Express unsanctioned full on race 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.719 was thirty two hours of seven minutes. We broke it 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:59.920 by a little bit over an hour the way we did, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.600 and it was really made possible by going on the 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.360 Gumball three thousand rally and other rallies is one called 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.280 the bull Run was one I did so many of 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:12.360 them I forget, and on those rallies, you're in a 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:15.719 stickered car and you're in a group of fifty to 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:19.680 one hundred other cars going city to city with the 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.920 police generally waiting for you, and so on those events 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.840 from two thousand and three to two thousand and five, 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:30.720 I figured out what hardware you needed and what equipment 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.160 was necessary, and so everyone knows you need a radar detector. 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.840 And at that time, laser jammers were just coming into 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.960 use and laser was becoming more popular among police. But 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:46.679 what we had done is we'd studied the teams from 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.040 nineteen eighty three and one of them had a spotter 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:53.360 plane which flew overhead in the daytime stretch. So, using 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:57.240 everything I knew from tech startup world, we put in 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:03.160 the car triple redundant sell communications, one phone from every 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:07.160 network at the time. I forget how many GPS we had. 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.960 There were probably four GPS displays in the vehicle, one 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.800 for navigation, two for speed, two more in the back. 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:15.839 Every one of them had their own antenta on the roof. 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.400 Because of the spotter plane, we put a partially a 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.839 semi reflective white stripe pair on the roof of the 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.440 plane could see us in low light conditions, rear brake 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.600 light cutoff switches, rear running light cutoff switches, thermal cameras 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.679 who could drive it out with no headlights, a fourteen 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:35.840 gallon fuel tank, redundant replacement parts for anything we could 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.560 fix on the move, and some things quickly on the ground, 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.520 and so everything that had ever been done historically ever 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.640 had been installed in that car at that time, and 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:50.560 we tested all of it except the plane on the 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.080 Gumball three thousand. The most important lesson from the Gumball 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.480 was that if you have a highly stickered car in 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.840 a group of stickered cars, you're running a lottery because 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.040 it's basically how many police cars have been vectored to 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.240 a group of speeding vehicles. And if you are early 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.840 in the speeding pack, you will get away, take the 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.800 stickers off. With all the skills you learned, it becomes 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.760 actually pretty easy to speed and not get caught. The 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.240 hard part is there's no cars running scrimmage for you, 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.520 so you've got to get really tactical. I know it 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.920 sounds crazy about safety, and the hardest part is not 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.959 the car. It's not the driving, it's the research into 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:33.959 the road conditions, and volume of traffic on the road, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.880 so you can pick a date for maximum safety and 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:41.599 risk mitigation. And that was a lot of trial, expensive 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.920 and time consuming trial and error because the best driver 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:45.160 in the world, in the best car or the best 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:49.760 equipment cannot be safe rolling through packs of pedestrians and traffic. 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:50.520 It's not possible. 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.000 So you did your run around Christmas time. 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.120 Oh that's awesome, right, yeah. 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:00.840 We're kind of we're speechless. You've run us speechless. But 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.839 this was around Christmas, right if I remember right. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:09.040 So well, we broke the record on October seventh, eighth 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.240 ninth of two thousand and six, which is very specifically 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:16.520 chosen Columbus Day weekend because you don't you can't drag 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.560 go in the summer because road traffic is three to 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:24.520 four x higher than other times a year, and police 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.320 patrols are three x higher any other time of year, 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.800 so it won't work. You need a holiday weekend, preferably 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:35.880 that is a low traffic weekend, and ideally tornadoes because 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.880 most law enforcement and first responders are diverted to deal 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:43.480 with tornado issues. So that meant Columbus Day was the 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:48.040 perfect weekend, and so we had mapped it out, and 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.360 I looked at like twenty years of data from the 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.120 Federal Dot on traffic and weather determined that was it. 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.640 And it turned out that was the right day. However, Hannah, 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:02.000 you are correct, Christmas Day would be if it was 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.160 not snowing and there was minimal to no ice, maybe 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:07.360 the best day of the year. 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:08.560 Interesting. 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:10.560 We considered it. We considered it. 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:15.440 So physically, how did you prepare? What types of food, 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:21.160 food and beverages and stimulation did you plan for yourself 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:22.960 along with and how many people. 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:24.040 Were how many people were in the car? 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:27.880 Three people in the car My co driver Dave Maher, 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.400 who did slightly more driving than I did, and it 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.040 is a better driver than I am. He was an 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.120 essential choice. And in the back we had Corey Wells, 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:38.200 who's a documentary filmmaker who was shooting at the documentary 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:40.880 which we made about the run, which came out a 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.400 few years later called APEX The Secret Race across America. 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.920 And she was really essential because she had been making 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.160 a documentary about the US Express for years and had 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.760 not yet completed it when we met, and so the 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.400 availability of the veteran drivers from that time and her 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:01.720 knowledge was invaluable. I was physically better shape than than 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.080 I am now. I smoked at the time, and I 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.880 was allowed to smoke a cigarette anytime we saw a 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:13.640 police car. Nice and which ended up being three times 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:18.000 the whole way, But that was it, because you cannot 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.560 stop to go to the bathroom. You can only go 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.720 when you stop for gas, which is and a maximum 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.400 five minute stop. One person's got to stay at the car, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.480 so it means one person go in, so you really can't. 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:36.960 There are no luxuries or convenience, so minimal flavor. I 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.760 tested diapers in advance, very uncomfortable, and I have also 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:47.880 used tubes in the past on other events, but I 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.520 learned that if you have a tube running down through 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:54.240 the bottom of the car, it leaks in both directions 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:58.080 or there comes out oh no, yeah, and it's very awkward. 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.800 And so we settled on something that was the least 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:06.360 bad of all bad choices, a device called a portagon 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:11.080 or something. Oh it's basically it's a thing that could 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:12.880 be used by a man or a woman. 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.600 Or a woman. I've seen for a woman that. 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.159 You don't want to use. And we each tried it 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.960 and decided we would bring them and tried not to 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:24.800 use them and we did not use them. It was 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:27.240 you have to be good friends. And even the then 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:28.639 it's not the best. 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.080 How did you I can't believe you only saw three 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.280 cops going from New York to la if I have 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:40.240 the direction correct? And did you have any legal problems? 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.360 Like afterwards because you publicized it, So did any cops 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.159 say like, well, we know you broke the speed lim 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:46.840 in our state, so. 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:48.800 We're going to arrest you, like retroactive. 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:49.920 Yeah. 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:54.520 So, because no one had done this successfully for you know, 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.720 twenty five year or twenty seven years prior, I had 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:01.480 no roadmap and was absolutely terrified of the consequences the 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:03.800 you know, Brockiates wrote a book publish in two thousand 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.720 and two called Cannonball It which he states the end 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.800 that no car would ever cross the United States in 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:13.720 less than thirty eight hours ever, and the canniball record 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:15.600 at that when he did the last ran, the race 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.520 was like thirty two point fifty one I think in 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.040 the last Cannibal and then thirty two to seven the 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.159 last Express and so he here he is, you know, 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:25.679 twenty years later, saying can't be done. Thirty eight is 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:30.040 the floor. And so I called my lawyer, I've got 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.800 a question, and he's like, that'll be an expensive answer. 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.560 So he started digging around, looking into I had a 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:37.879 book deal at the time for the record we not 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:42.040 yet set, and so he said, well, in worst case scenario, 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.399 you could maybe get hit under Rico statutes because you're 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:49.120 committing fel any crimes across state lines, all of them, 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.199 you could, and you're profiting from it, so maybe an 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:55.640 angry prosecutor could come. And of course there's the felony 0:18:55.680 --> 0:19:00.560 spinning charges themselves. So I had him prepare a document. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:04.080 It's a wonderful spreadsheet. I should send you, Hannah, color 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:09.200 coded document with the state by state the severity color 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:13.800 coded of the likely charges want to receive based on speed. 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.960 Some states have an arbitrary felony charge trigger based on speed. 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.400 My book tour I knew would go to some states 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.400 and not others, so I gave the states I knew 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:27.680 I would not ever want to go to to Dave 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.080 Maher to drive, so when I showed up a year 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.760 later or two years later, I wouldn't be charged because 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.399 I wouldn't be going there. So Dave he's like, great, 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:42.560 I'll take them. And I also learned that everyone's familiar 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:44.920 with the idea of statue limitations, but they also think 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.480 called a tolling law. So if you commit a crime 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.439 and a state and you leave that state, the statue 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.720 limitations clock is frozen until you set footnet state again. 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.600 So take Oklahoma. Yeah, so leaving the state does not 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.440 protect you necessarily because if you don't let spend say 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.480 the full twelve months in that state, you can go 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:07.320 back for a minute and they can just grab you 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.640 if they want to. So my attorney advised me that 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:12.600 a very cranky prosecutor could just make it his mission 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:15.200 to take down that Roy guy. And I need to 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.320 be very careful about this. So we went and did it, 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:24.800 and we were successful. However, before we succeeded, we did 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:27.879 have a failed drive at it was meant to be 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:30.080 the real drive in April two thousand and six, and 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:36.159 we broke down halfway in Oklahoma City. And this is 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:40.280 a story I rarely tell. My teammates left the state 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.320 and I had the being able to be picked up 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.240 and taken to the local dealership, and then I went 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:48.560 to the airport and I told the dealership hold the car, 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:51.479 I'll call you in like six hours. So at the airport. 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.560 I called my girlfriend, my mother, my attorney and told 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.560 them what happened. And then I flew to uh forget 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.879 tell some other city to stop over. And it was 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:08.600 a message from the dealership that the state police, Oklahoma 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.280 State Police were already there looking for me. Hours later. Yeah, 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:18.240 And so it turned out that behind me in line 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:22.000 at the Oaklahoma City airport was the Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma, 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:24.520 and he had overheard my entire conversation with my lawyer 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.879 where I said, now, BMW, we escaped. They didn't catch us, 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:33.320 They can't catch us, and he they deployed the entire 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:35.359 state police academy to go find the guy in the 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.600 blue BMW. They thought I was a drug dealer whose 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:42.000 car broke it down, and a judge ordered the vehicle 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:44.840 held for several days as they figured out what was 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:48.240 going on. And on, like the second day the car 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:52.320 was being held at BMW, an off duty district attorney 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:55.359 who had no idea about the investigation, happened to be 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:59.359 shopping for cars and spotted my blue BMW, which he 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.399 recognized from Gumball three thousand videos, and got in the 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:06.040 car and turned on the police lights and started playing 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:09.399 with the systems, and as a result, I got my 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.439 attorney to contact the court to declare evidence had been 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.679 tampered with, get the car released returned to me, and 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.320 six months later we went back and that attorney, that 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:21.840 district attorney, years later became my friend and we're friends 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:24.840 to this day. And I'm also great friends with the 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:31.000 now retired Oklahoma state trooper led the investigation and to 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:35.359 whom I sold my second BMW five stickred as a 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:36.160 German police car. 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:38.880 Can you go back to Oklahoma now? Are you banned 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:39.360 from the city? 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:44.360 Absolutely? No, No, I'm fully welcome because the da who 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.160 was there, who found the car is his family's very 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:49.680 close with I think the current governor. So I went 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:52.200 back more than once and had dinner with a bunch 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:54.399