1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:05,000
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Chuck here for another Saturday Stuff you Should

2
00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:08,480
Speaker 1: Know Selects edition. This week I picked How the Cannonball

3
00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:12,520
Speaker 1: Run Worked. October two thousand nine. This was a fun one,

4
00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:15,560
Speaker 1: The Cannonball Run. We certainly talked about the movie and

5
00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:17,800
Speaker 1: the sequel. It was one of my fabes growing up,

6
00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:20,280
Speaker 1: but it was based on a real race. The Cannonball

7
00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:24,400
Speaker 1: Run is, or was, Jeez and name sure still going on.

8
00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:26,480
Speaker 1: This has been a while since we recorded this one.

9
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,040
Speaker 1: It is a a road race, a cross country road

10
00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:33,680
Speaker 1: race that seems too strange to be true that people

11
00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:35,760
Speaker 1: would actually get in their cars in the United States

12
00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:40,200
Speaker 1: and drive super fast and elude the cops all across

13
00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:43,040
Speaker 1: the country in order to win. I don't even know

14
00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:47,080
Speaker 1: if there was money involved, a trophy Bert Reynolds mustache.

15
00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:49,880
Speaker 1: Only you can find out by listening to how the

16
00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:56,880
Speaker 1: Cannonball Run worked. Right here, right now, Welcome to Stuff

17
00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:05,640
Speaker 1: you Should Know from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey,

18
00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,200
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me

19
00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:11,400
Speaker 1: as always is our good friend Charles W. Chuck Bryant,

20
00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:13,920
Speaker 1: Are you Chuck, your good friend? How are you feeling

21
00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:18,200
Speaker 1: right now? I'm find a lot. I'm sitting yeah, Chuck

22
00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:21,280
Speaker 1: is right red right now. Everybody, it's kind of weird looking.

23
00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:25,400
Speaker 1: Thank you Martin for that are super fan and Seattle,

24
00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:27,319
Speaker 1: thank you. But he's not a superman. He's a buddy.

25
00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:29,640
Speaker 1: He has be He was such a fan that he

26
00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:31,600
Speaker 1: actually became a friend. He's a friend that we haven't

27
00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:36,200
Speaker 1: met yet. Yeah, so Chuck, take us back to one

28
00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:39,880
Speaker 1: in the time machine. Yes, the way back machine. You're ready,

29
00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:43,880
Speaker 1: Here we go. Okay, all right, Josh, I'm ten years old,

30
00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:48,680
Speaker 1: knee high to a grasshopper. Disco is dead. Margaret Thatcher

31
00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:50,760
Speaker 1: is the Prime Minister of England. I take issue with

32
00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:54,080
Speaker 1: the disco being deadline. I don't know that disco ever died. Man,

33
00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:56,800
Speaker 1: you cannot make the argument that all modern R and

34
00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:01,840
Speaker 1: B pop soul is all disco. Doco is alive. Margaret

35
00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,720
Speaker 1: Thatcher is the Prime Minister of England. Ronald Reagan is

36
00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:09,120
Speaker 1: in office. Just as Jimmy Carter has exited. Walter Cronkite

37
00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,000
Speaker 1: resigned from the CBS Evening News desk. That was the

38
00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:15,360
Speaker 1: said day the first AIDS case was made public in California.

39
00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:17,560
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen in the band played on? My

40
00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:19,760
Speaker 1: brother worked on that. That was a great made for

41
00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:22,000
Speaker 1: TV movie. It really was. It was really good and

42
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,320
Speaker 1: he had a great experience working on that. So find

43
00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:28,399
Speaker 1: people in that movie. Major League Baseball has just gone

44
00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:30,920
Speaker 1: on strike in the summer for what will be the

45
00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:34,400
Speaker 1: first of eighty times over the next five years. Right,

46
00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,880
Speaker 1: so America is depressed, but not for long, No, because

47
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,560
Speaker 1: one Mr Burt Reynolds is about to dash across the

48
00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:45,200
Speaker 1: silver screen in a little movie called Cannonball Run. Great, great,

49
00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:47,760
Speaker 1: great movie. It was a great movie. I haven't seen

50
00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:49,880
Speaker 1: it in forever. I think I probably saw it in

51
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,280
Speaker 1: like n seven. It was one of the first movies

52
00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,680
Speaker 1: we rented, along with Beverly Hills, Cop, very hockey and

53
00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,760
Speaker 1: corny but still beloved. What's What's Yeah, everyone takes it

54
00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,320
Speaker 1: as a comedy because it is a comedy. But this

55
00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,200
Speaker 1: is not to say that it started out as a comedy. Actually,

56
00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,720
Speaker 1: it was supposed to be serious and Burt Reynolds part

57
00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:13,040
Speaker 1: was originally written for Steve McQueen, who died before he

58
00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:15,560
Speaker 1: could film the movie. Sadly, it was supposed to be

59
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,239
Speaker 1: a serious movie and it didn't turn out that way.

60
00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:21,640
Speaker 1: Why would anybody want the Cannonball rutten to be a

61
00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:24,880
Speaker 1: serious movie? Well, because it was in fact based on

62
00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:30,000
Speaker 1: a real race. What what true? Based on a real race?

63
00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:32,440
Speaker 1: As you know? Yeah, I I do know after reading

64
00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:34,920
Speaker 1: this article. I think I had heard that before, but

65
00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:37,680
Speaker 1: I had no idea the details. I didn't either until

66
00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:41,080
Speaker 1: I wrote it. This was really amazing, Like I have.

67
00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:43,280
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna come out and say, I have a

68
00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:46,240
Speaker 1: man crush on a seventy year old Mr brock Yates.

69
00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,240
Speaker 1: He's a cool dude who I would have loved to

70
00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:51,080
Speaker 1: have hung out with. I bet he's still a very

71
00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:54,240
Speaker 1: cool dude and hung out with in a strictly platonic sense. Yeah,

72
00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:58,400
Speaker 1: maybe a little makeing out, but aside from that, Yeah,

73
00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:00,360
Speaker 1: I bet he's still away cool guy. I get that

74
00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:03,760
Speaker 1: impression he is. He Um, this is this is kind

75
00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,720
Speaker 1: of what I gathered about brock Yates from researching this

76
00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:08,960
Speaker 1: and reading your article. Go and say who he is.

77
00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:13,200
Speaker 1: He was a pretty much the premier automotive journalist of

78
00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:19,480
Speaker 1: his Age magazine. Eventually. Yeah, but I think he started

79
00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,840
Speaker 1: out as a journalist and something of a gonzo journalist.

80
00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:26,480
Speaker 1: I take it, um, but yeah, he he was very

81
00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:29,480
Speaker 1: well known and respected in the field. Um, and in

82
00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:33,400
Speaker 1: the early nineteen seventies America was at a fork in

83
00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:35,640
Speaker 1: the road, if you will, so to speak, and brock

84
00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:40,640
Speaker 1: Yates represented one direction and that was the out, just go,

85
00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,520
Speaker 1: and if you die, that was your number was up.

86
00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:47,440
Speaker 1: Kind of mentality behind the wheel that is, yeah, you know,

87
00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:51,800
Speaker 1: damn the torpedoes full steam ahead. Right on the other

88
00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,120
Speaker 1: side of the road. At on the other side of

89
00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:58,359
Speaker 1: the fork was a guy named Ralph Nader who was

90
00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,680
Speaker 1: still there on that other fork. He is, um he

91
00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:03,760
Speaker 1: for those of you who don't know who Ralph Naders.

92
00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:06,400
Speaker 1: He's run for president a couple of times. Um. He

93
00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,320
Speaker 1: got George Bush elected in two thousand four. Yeah. Um.

94
00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:13,800
Speaker 1: But he's also a very dedicated consumer watchawt. He has

95
00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:17,600
Speaker 1: for many years lived in a tiny, little one room apartment.

96
00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,000
Speaker 1: He uses a hot plate. Um. He just he lives

97
00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,279
Speaker 1: his very meager life so no one can say you're

98
00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:27,359
Speaker 1: corrupt because he goes after everybody else. And in the

99
00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:30,400
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, in the early nineteen seventies, he was going

100
00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:34,239
Speaker 1: after the automotive industry, right he went after He wrote

101
00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:37,120
Speaker 1: this book called Unsafe at Any Speed and it was

102
00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:39,919
Speaker 1: basically about have you read it? I've read parts of

103
00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:43,279
Speaker 1: it through research and stuff. Yeah, Okay, um so, you

104
00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:46,280
Speaker 1: know then it was basically about how the automotive industry

105
00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:50,600
Speaker 1: was producing these incredibly dangerous vehicles right and at the time,

106
00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:53,479
Speaker 1: we didn't really have much of a speed limit. So uh,

107
00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,520
Speaker 1: as a as a result of his book, we like

108
00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:00,920
Speaker 1: seatbelts became mandatory, new safety design had to be instituted

109
00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:03,880
Speaker 1: by car manufacturer's a big deal. Um So, America's at

110
00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:06,520
Speaker 1: this fork in the road brock Yate style one and

111
00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:09,400
Speaker 1: and Ralph Nader on the other, and America went down

112
00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:14,160
Speaker 1: the Ralph Nader. I think what you're referring to is, uh,

113
00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:17,279
Speaker 1: the national speed limit. That's part of it, definitely, But

114
00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:19,200
Speaker 1: I think even more than that, it's a more of

115
00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:22,960
Speaker 1: a you know, the way you and I were raised,

116
00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:25,440
Speaker 1: where like we could do anything we put our minds to,

117
00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:28,240
Speaker 1: and we were special. I think that that came out

118
00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:31,880
Speaker 1: of that collective decision to go towards safety rather than

119
00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:37,039
Speaker 1: you know, fun at any cost, reckless, abandon exactly, devil,

120
00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:39,960
Speaker 1: make care sure. But yeah, the national speed limit was

121
00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,760
Speaker 1: definitely one part of that. Yeah, that was which was

122
00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:49,240
Speaker 1: that has since gone up quite a bit in certain areas,

123
00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:51,640
Speaker 1: of course it has, But even more than safety, do

124
00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:57,920
Speaker 1: you know why they set the speed limit at gas consumption. Yes. Yeah,

125
00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:03,160
Speaker 1: the the Arab oil embargo had just taken place. OPEC

126
00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:05,800
Speaker 1: was like, hey, US, we're not real happy with you

127
00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:08,240
Speaker 1: for siding with Israel during the Yam Kippur War, so

128
00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:11,120
Speaker 1: we're gonna cut off your oil. And they did, and

129
00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:16,120
Speaker 1: prices spiked and the US said, okay, we need to

130
00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:20,480
Speaker 1: rethink our dependence on foreign oil. Had a huge rippling effect.

131
00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:22,240
Speaker 1: But one of them was setting the speed limit at

132
00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:26,160
Speaker 1: fifty which is too slow. It is too slow, especially

133
00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:28,520
Speaker 1: in the opinion of somebody like brock Yates. I thought,

134
00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:32,800
Speaker 1: you're gonna say, Sammy Hagar, Yeah, he can't drive. He's tried,

135
00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:35,840
Speaker 1: he has, He's made a concerted effort, but it just

136
00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:38,920
Speaker 1: came out. He tried. I love that song. It wasn't

137
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:41,200
Speaker 1: I don't like to drive fifty five or I would

138
00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:45,360
Speaker 1: prefer to drive faster. It was I can't d tried

139
00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:48,320
Speaker 1: and it just doesn't happen. It was very explicit. So

140
00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:53,400
Speaker 1: Chuck um this this nineteen seventy one, brock Yates saw

141
00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:55,800
Speaker 1: the writing on the wall that the speed limit was

142
00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:58,880
Speaker 1: going to be reduced. America was becoming something of a

143
00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:04,000
Speaker 1: mamby pamby us um and what did he do as

144
00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:07,720
Speaker 1: a result, He uh, in V one, he took a

145
00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:10,679
Speaker 1: trip across the country in a Dodge Van with three

146
00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:13,840
Speaker 1: travel mates and he drove from New York to Los

147
00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:18,600
Speaker 1: Angeles as a way of proving slash protesting. I believe

148
00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,560
Speaker 1: his quote said something like this, good drivers and good

149
00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:25,240
Speaker 1: automobiles could employ the American interstate system the same way

150
00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:28,880
Speaker 1: that the Germans were using their auto bonn Right, So

151
00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:30,960
Speaker 1: he wanted to prove that you can drive fast if

152
00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:32,960
Speaker 1: you're safe, if you're a good driver, you can get

153
00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,200
Speaker 1: to point A to point being a car and it's safe. Yeah,

154
00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:40,560
Speaker 1: and you you said reckless abandoned. There was definitely a

155
00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:46,720
Speaker 1: certain level of professionalism or um. The people who he

156
00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:49,719
Speaker 1: considered good drivers were actually good drivers. Like he had

157
00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:51,679
Speaker 1: to be a good driver to drive fast in his opinion.

158
00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:53,960
Speaker 1: It wasn't just like everybody go as fast as you can.

159
00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:56,560
Speaker 1: That wasn't the point, right, So he did so. He

160
00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:59,520
Speaker 1: drove a two thousand, eight hundred fifty eight miles from

161
00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:02,160
Speaker 1: New York to l A in forty hours and fifty

162
00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:05,640
Speaker 1: one minutes, which is an average of seventy miles per hour. Yeah,

163
00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:08,600
Speaker 1: which is pretty fast if you're talking about an average speed. Yeah,

164
00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:11,880
Speaker 1: because that included stops. I think stops. Uh you name it?

165
00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:15,920
Speaker 1: So Um, after that happened, I think it got a

166
00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:20,360
Speaker 1: little bit of publicity, um, by word of mouth maybe

167
00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:23,880
Speaker 1: the racing world. And there was a famous telegram that

168
00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:27,680
Speaker 1: came I guess a month or so later. Yeah, I

169
00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:30,240
Speaker 1: love this. Can I read it? Yeah? Yeah, it's awesome. Uh.

170
00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:33,680
Speaker 1: It says this constitutes formal entry by the Polish Racing

171
00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:37,160
Speaker 1: Drivers of America and the next official Cannonball Baker Sea

172
00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:41,800
Speaker 1: to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. The drivers are Oscar Kovaleski,

173
00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:46,320
Speaker 1: Brad Nement Check and Tony Adam Awicks. If we can

174
00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:49,840
Speaker 1: find California, will beat you fair and square. So basically

175
00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:53,360
Speaker 1: the gauntlet was laid and the Cannonball Run was born,

176
00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:57,439
Speaker 1: although like you said, the official name has always been

177
00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:01,360
Speaker 1: Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy. That right,

178
00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:06,160
Speaker 1: So who's Cannonball Baker. Cannonball Baker Irwin G. Cannonball Baker

179
00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:09,760
Speaker 1: was a He was famous for for pushing the limits

180
00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:13,000
Speaker 1: limits on a motorcycle. Yeah, so he would drive from

181
00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:15,800
Speaker 1: Canada to Mexico, from New York to l a on

182
00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:20,319
Speaker 1: an old Indian motorcycle. And we're talking starting in nineteen fourteen, right,

183
00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:22,560
Speaker 1: So like the old Indian motorcycle was basically a bike

184
00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:24,840
Speaker 1: with a motor. Yeah, that's exactly what it looks like,

185
00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:28,400
Speaker 1: you know. Um. He actually had a pretty well deserved

186
00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:31,680
Speaker 1: reputation for like his nickname and just the stuff he

187
00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:35,840
Speaker 1: was doing, his endurance level. Apparently on one ride, uh,

188
00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,080
Speaker 1: he came around a curve and was about a barrel

189
00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:41,440
Speaker 1: into a herd of cattle that was in the middle

190
00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:45,280
Speaker 1: of the road because it's nineteen fourteen, and um, he

191
00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:48,520
Speaker 1: swerved to miss him, hit a pothole, flew off of

192
00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:51,640
Speaker 1: his bike onto the back of a cow, which bucked

193
00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:55,040
Speaker 1: him off and eventually landed in a ditch, got up

194
00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:57,400
Speaker 1: and drove away. That is the stuff of legends. That's

195
00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:00,640
Speaker 1: how you get a race named after you, my friend, exactly. Uh.

196
00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:03,439
Speaker 1: And he went on to become the first commissioner of NASCAR,

197
00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:06,000
Speaker 1: which I thought was pretty interesting. So there you have that.

198
00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:10,080
Speaker 1: Nothing to do with Moonshine though, or did he I

199
00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:34,040
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe, yeah, curious. So yeah, Yates wanted to

200
00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:37,720
Speaker 1: pay homage to Cannonball Baker, so he named it after him,

201
00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:41,600
Speaker 1: although he did shorten the name. Cannon Ball was two

202
00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:45,320
Speaker 1: words for Baker, Yeah, for Baker, but he shortened it

203
00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:48,760
Speaker 1: to Cannonball to avoid any illegal mess. Lawyers advised him

204
00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:51,160
Speaker 1: to do that. Yeah, I thought it's kind of weird. Yeah. Well, anyway,

205
00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:55,320
Speaker 1: so you have the Cannonball originally called the Cannonball Dash, uh,

206
00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:58,160
Speaker 1: and then it finally became the Cannonball Run, which is

207
00:11:58,200 --> 00:11:59,920
Speaker 1: how we know it today. Right, And thanks to the

208
00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:03,280
Speaker 1: Polish Drivers of America who laid down the gauntlet. It

209
00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:05,520
Speaker 1: was a real thing. They didn't They weren't the only

210
00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:08,800
Speaker 1: ones to participate in the first official Cannibal. That first

211
00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:12,240
Speaker 1: running made in the van was considered like a preliminary

212
00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:14,760
Speaker 1: test run. It wasn't their first Cannibal because there was

213
00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:18,319
Speaker 1: nobody competing with him. So this second one, Uh, there

214
00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:21,960
Speaker 1: was the Polish Racing Drivers of America UM and seven

215
00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:25,760
Speaker 1: other groups including three vans. Uh. There was a huge

216
00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:29,599
Speaker 1: motor home. There was an American Motors, a m x

217
00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:34,559
Speaker 1: an MGBGT and a Cadillac Sadandaville. And this is probably

218
00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:38,080
Speaker 1: the coolest part of this entire story. Yeah, I love it,

219
00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:41,960
Speaker 1: tell him. Uh. This Cadillac was UM owned by an

220
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:44,760
Speaker 1: old gentleman in New York, in Boston, in Boston, and

221
00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:47,920
Speaker 1: he wanted to And this happened back then it may

222
00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:50,480
Speaker 1: still happen now, where you would contract someone to drive

223
00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:52,080
Speaker 1: your car from one place to the other case you

224
00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:54,800
Speaker 1: didn't get it there. Richard Pryor contracted Dana Carvey and

225
00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:58,320
Speaker 1: moving really great movie. Dude. I didn't see that one.

226
00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:00,000
Speaker 1: I thought it was a stinker. No, it was good.

227
00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:02,360
Speaker 1: It was a good. So this old man put out

228
00:13:02,360 --> 00:13:04,240
Speaker 1: an ad in the paper, and I need to get

229
00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:06,720
Speaker 1: my car to Los Angeles. And these guys answered it

230
00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,480
Speaker 1: and said, we'll get your car to Los Angeles, and

231
00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:12,240
Speaker 1: unbeknownst to him it was it was one of the entries.

232
00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:14,960
Speaker 1: And um, I think one of the stipulations was the

233
00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:18,480
Speaker 1: car not be driven faster than seventy five miles per

234
00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:21,000
Speaker 1: hour at anytime or in the dark. Oh is that

235
00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:23,800
Speaker 1: the other one? And clearly they broke both of these

236
00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:27,040
Speaker 1: because the Cadillac averaged seventy nine miles per hour, right,

237
00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:28,920
Speaker 1: which means they were driving a heck of a lot

238
00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:31,840
Speaker 1: faster than that. I think they came in third too, yeah,

239
00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:33,959
Speaker 1: third place, Yeah, not not too bad. But I think

240
00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:36,640
Speaker 1: they got the car there in one piece and so

241
00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:40,800
Speaker 1: good for them, right, They're like, here are the keys, so, uh,

242
00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:42,840
Speaker 1: go ahead and start with the first race. Where did

243
00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:44,760
Speaker 1: it start? Where did it end? Well? It started in

244
00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:47,760
Speaker 1: New York at the Red Ball Garage at midnight, I

245
00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:50,800
Speaker 1: believe is when all of them started. Yeah, um. And

246
00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:56,800
Speaker 1: this was what okay, November beieve uh And the ending

247
00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:00,839
Speaker 1: place was a hotel in Redondo Beach what is it

248
00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:04,679
Speaker 1: the Portofino in right, okay, which is from pictures I saw.

249
00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:08,720
Speaker 1: It was a pretty lux little hotel. Um. And you

250
00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:11,040
Speaker 1: didn't have to follow any specific route. You just got

251
00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:15,280
Speaker 1: there any way you could, right. Basically the only rules were, uh,

252
00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:17,079
Speaker 1: you could have as many drivers as long as the

253
00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:20,320
Speaker 1: only one car, and you could leave at any point

254
00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:23,520
Speaker 1: within the twenty four hour window. It wasn't like everyone

255
00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:25,960
Speaker 1: started at the start line like a typical race, just

256
00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:28,120
Speaker 1: like in the movie. You would punch a time clock

257
00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:30,440
Speaker 1: for when you're starting time was, and then punch it

258
00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:33,880
Speaker 1: again for when you arrived. And whoever won one and

259
00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:36,080
Speaker 1: I believe there was no trophy at the time. It

260
00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:38,000
Speaker 1: was only a fifty dollar entry fee and then they

261
00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:41,080
Speaker 1: donated two hundred apiece to charity. Yeah, I thought that

262
00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:44,600
Speaker 1: was pretty cool? Why not? So apparently two days before

263
00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:48,480
Speaker 1: the race, Brock Yates had managed to finagle a Ferrari

264
00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:51,560
Speaker 1: daytona brand new Ferrari Daytona a loner out of a

265
00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:54,920
Speaker 1: out of an auto dealer. Um. And he had the car,

266
00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,000
Speaker 1: but he only had himself. He didn't have a co

267
00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:59,760
Speaker 1: pilot or a driver. Uh. And apparently he sent out

268
00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,360
Speaker 1: all the his invitations and a lot of two race

269
00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,560
Speaker 1: car drivers, like legitimate race car drivers, and they were like,

270
00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,160
Speaker 1: you know something, if somebody dies or something, that's gonna

271
00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:10,160
Speaker 1: look really bad for the sport of racing. And I

272
00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:12,680
Speaker 1: don't want to do that. And then uh, one guy

273
00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:15,320
Speaker 1: he had invited, Dan Gurney, who was a professional race

274
00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:20,920
Speaker 1: car driver, had declined initially UM. But he apparently Um

275
00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:24,200
Speaker 1: was told by his wife that his dying father in

276
00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:26,720
Speaker 1: law said you should go do this. Life is short.

277
00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:31,040
Speaker 1: So Gurney contacts um Yates the day before the race

278
00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:35,520
Speaker 1: and says, hey, can I still come? And Yates said heck, yeah, yeah.

279
00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:38,880
Speaker 1: And that proved to be fortuitous because they won. They

280
00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:41,600
Speaker 1: did Cannibal run, Yeah, they did. They're winning time Josh

281
00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:44,800
Speaker 1: was thirty five hours and fifty four minutes, not bad

282
00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:48,040
Speaker 1: cross country, not bad at all, and not Atlanta to

283
00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:50,080
Speaker 1: l A, New York l A, which is further Yeah,

284
00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:52,080
Speaker 1: because I've made it in thirty three hours from Atlanta

285
00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:54,640
Speaker 1: to l A. Have you. Yeah, that's way I've always

286
00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:56,840
Speaker 1: done it. Three eleven hour days is how I schedule

287
00:15:56,880 --> 00:15:59,400
Speaker 1: it out. I never time myself, but you know, I

288
00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:02,160
Speaker 1: went drove around the West for several weeks and lived

289
00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:03,800
Speaker 1: in a van with the dogs and all that chair

290
00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:07,560
Speaker 1: and um, I would drive like I think the longest

291
00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:11,280
Speaker 1: I drove is a twelve hour stretch. Um, that's about

292
00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:13,880
Speaker 1: all I can mustard. Yeah, that's enough for me. Yeah,

293
00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:17,520
Speaker 1: depending on how much coffee I drank or whatever, you know,

294
00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:21,040
Speaker 1: then that I could drive you know, six hours or

295
00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:23,520
Speaker 1: twelve hours or whatever. But it's amazing the toll that

296
00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:26,000
Speaker 1: just sitting in a car with your foot on the

297
00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:30,640
Speaker 1: gas has on you, especially when you're driving that fast. Uh.

298
00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:32,720
Speaker 1: Should we talk about some of the some of the

299
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:37,360
Speaker 1: things they preferred to do on the on the first race, please?

300
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:40,120
Speaker 1: They One of the common tactics that seemed like was

301
00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:44,200
Speaker 1: to keep it slow. In the eastern seaboard. Um, I

302
00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:48,080
Speaker 1: think New Jersey and Connecticut, in Ohio and Pennsylvania. These

303
00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:53,080
Speaker 1: states are notorious for for having some pretty hardcore highway patrolman.

304
00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:55,800
Speaker 1: Yeah still do. Yeah, like you'll get pulled over for

305
00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:59,720
Speaker 1: doing sixty? Isn't that nuts to you? Nuts? I can't

306
00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:02,200
Speaker 1: image are for getting pulled over for anything less than

307
00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:07,760
Speaker 1: seventy two seventy five. In Georgia, by the way, everyone flies, Yeah,

308
00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:09,560
Speaker 1: as fast as you can, as fast as you can

309
00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:11,800
Speaker 1: get away with us. How fast you drive generally. Yeah.

310
00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:13,920
Speaker 1: Even my my friend Derek used to say that the

311
00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:16,680
Speaker 1: deal with Atlanta Rush hour is everyone drives as fast

312
00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:19,040
Speaker 1: as they can till somebody recks and then there's a

313
00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:22,520
Speaker 1: big stops. Yeah, it's pretty funny to think about them.

314
00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:25,600
Speaker 1: So the trick was to kind of keep it slow

315
00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:29,120
Speaker 1: on the Eastern Seaboard and in the Midwest, and then

316
00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:31,199
Speaker 1: once you got to the Great Plains is when you

317
00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:35,640
Speaker 1: really opened up, yeah, and made up some serious serious time. Yeah.

318
00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:38,159
Speaker 1: They got it up to a hundred and seventy two,

319
00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:40,840
Speaker 1: I think, is how how fast they found out the

320
00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:44,200
Speaker 1: Ferrari would go. Yeah. I think twelve speeding tickets total

321
00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:47,440
Speaker 1: between all of the all the competitors, Yeah, between four

322
00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:49,520
Speaker 1: of the competitors. Four of them didn't get a ticket

323
00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:52,600
Speaker 1: at all. So four of them split twelve tickets. And

324
00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:54,960
Speaker 1: the famous quote l A Times it is like kind

325
00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,520
Speaker 1: of a blurb of an article from Dan Gurney, Right yeah,

326
00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:00,000
Speaker 1: Dan Gurney famously said, at no time did we exceed

327
00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:04,800
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy. They came close. Pretty cool. Yeah, so, Chuck,

328
00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:09,199
Speaker 1: that was the first one, and as with all cool things, uh,

329
00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:13,400
Speaker 1: that also began its co option. News got out, word

330
00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:18,560
Speaker 1: got out by little Yeah, the Sports Illustrated covered it, uh,

331
00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:22,760
Speaker 1: and so did the Los Angeles Times. Um. And so

332
00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:25,560
Speaker 1: when there was a second one, I think the following year,

333
00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:28,840
Speaker 1: there were a lot more competitors, right, yeah, they had

334
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:32,919
Speaker 1: um twenty five entries a second year, and Brock Yates

335
00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:36,960
Speaker 1: finished second place, this time in a Cadillac UM. The

336
00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:39,760
Speaker 1: third race they skipped a couple of years, and it

337
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,040
Speaker 1: was in ninety five, and they moved it to springtime

338
00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:46,960
Speaker 1: this time. And if Ferrari won the third race with

339
00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:49,080
Speaker 1: Yates and Gurney behind the wheel once again. But I

340
00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:51,359
Speaker 1: didn't know they won the third one, yes, oh no, no no, no,

341
00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:53,960
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. They beat Yates and Gurney's record time the

342
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:56,720
Speaker 1: third year, Yeah, by a one minute, right, but it

343
00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:59,920
Speaker 1: was not in them. You're correct, so by five, which

344
00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:03,480
Speaker 1: but the third one, fourth, one third one was okay,

345
00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:07,680
Speaker 1: by five, it's officially co opted. There's actually corporate sponsorship.

346
00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:12,320
Speaker 1: The Right Bra company placed three ladies in Pink in

347
00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:16,600
Speaker 1: a limousine and apparently the driver fell asleep in Texas

348
00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:19,000
Speaker 1: and rolled the thing and I guess rolled into a

349
00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:23,719
Speaker 1: porta potty which tipped over and drenched the um the

350
00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:29,520
Speaker 1: ladies inside with its contents and where exactly so by

351
00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:31,800
Speaker 1: this time now you can see why Burt Reynolds would

352
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,240
Speaker 1: have chosen more of a comedic route than a Sharky's

353
00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:38,359
Speaker 1: machine route. Yeah, well it wasn't Burt's choice. Let's should

354
00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:41,639
Speaker 1: we move to the final year. Yeah. What happened was

355
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:44,080
Speaker 1: brock Yates was pretty much finished with it, and he said,

356
00:19:44,119 --> 00:19:46,119
Speaker 1: you know, it's run its course. He said he was

357
00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:49,040
Speaker 1: worried that somebody was gonna die, although no one ever

358
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:51,959
Speaker 1: got hurt. No, but the the the roads in the

359
00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:56,080
Speaker 1: last eight years had become much more congested. Um. He

360
00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:58,119
Speaker 1: was ready to scrapped the whole thing, but he had

361
00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:01,920
Speaker 1: a friend direct your stunt man. Hell need him? How

362
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,240
Speaker 1: need him? Or is it need him? No, it's need

363
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:06,920
Speaker 1: him and he was. He was famous for a lot

364
00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:10,439
Speaker 1: of the early Burt Reynolds movies. He did them Hooper,

365
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:12,360
Speaker 1: which is a great movie. Is it? I even seen

366
00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:15,560
Speaker 1: that one? Are you kidding me? I kid you not, dude.

367
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:18,000
Speaker 1: I gotta get Hooper. That was the one about stuntman.

368
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:20,320
Speaker 1: You have to see My Blue Heaven though. All right,

369
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:22,919
Speaker 1: we'll get to that later. So he did Hooper, and

370
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:25,399
Speaker 1: he did Um the Cannonball Run and a couple of

371
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:27,920
Speaker 1: other of the Burt Reynolds films. Yeah, they did a

372
00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:32,360
Speaker 1: Smokey and the Bandit to Gates wrote that I'm sorry, okay,

373
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,120
Speaker 1: so how over the place today we are? How need

374
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,600
Speaker 1: him says, you know what, Brock, I want to make

375
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,480
Speaker 1: a movie about the Cannonball Run, and so I think

376
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,520
Speaker 1: the best way to do this is if we stage

377
00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:47,240
Speaker 1: another one and I participate with you as my partner.

378
00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:50,879
Speaker 1: So they did. They did that nine and they had

379
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:54,680
Speaker 1: a record forty six entries this time, and a lot

380
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:56,560
Speaker 1: of what happened in this race actually ended up in

381
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,800
Speaker 1: the movie. Yeah, there's some zany madcap stuff that was

382
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,720
Speaker 1: going on. Let's hear it. Well, brock Yates uh and

383
00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:08,160
Speaker 1: hel Needham Uh actually had an ambulance and Yates's wife, Pamela,

384
00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:11,840
Speaker 1: posed as a woman suffering from a lung condition and

385
00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:15,160
Speaker 1: as a result, couldn't fly because of the pressurized cabin,

386
00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:18,439
Speaker 1: so she had to be zoomed across the country at

387
00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:20,520
Speaker 1: a hundred miles in the back of an ambulance that

388
00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:25,240
Speaker 1: was their vehicle of choice, UM and definite. They they

389
00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:30,280
Speaker 1: modified the engine, uh and it killed the transmission, so

390
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,560
Speaker 1: I had to be eventually towed across the finish line,

391
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:34,399
Speaker 1: which I thought was pretty cool. Right, And in the

392
00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:37,359
Speaker 1: film that actually happened. Burt Reynolds and Dom Deloise were

393
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:41,560
Speaker 1: the Needham Yates characters, and fair Faucet was the was

394
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:46,360
Speaker 1: the wife. Didn't didn't what else happened that was real?

395
00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 1: Three drivers actually did pose his priests. I remember in

396
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:53,960
Speaker 1: the movie. It was awesomely it was Sammy Davis Jr.

397
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:58,560
Speaker 1: And Dean Martin drunk priest in the movie. But I

398
00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:01,920
Speaker 1: don't know that they were posing. They really were drunk.

399
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:07,200
Speaker 1: Part they were probably hammered. What else, Josh, I don't know.

400
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:08,840
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the movie in a really long time.

401
00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:10,680
Speaker 1: All right, well, I got it for you. Then there

402
00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:15,480
Speaker 1: were in fact, um scantily clad, skin tight jumpsuits on

403
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 1: a couple of ladies in a sports car. I read

404
00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:21,320
Speaker 1: the opposite. I read that that was the right broad

405
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:26,240
Speaker 1: company that inspired that part. I read the opposite. We'll

406
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:28,080
Speaker 1: have to check that, all right, we'll do it. And

407
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:32,639
Speaker 1: then there was a wealthy entrant that had his chauffeur

408
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:35,240
Speaker 1: drive him in a Rolls Royce. And in the movie

409
00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 1: that was Jamie Farr played a middle Eastern chic that's right, Clinger. Yeah,

410
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 1: you know, he and I are from the same hometown,

411
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:45,879
Speaker 1: Talita Talita. Is that why he always wore the Talita

412
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:47,920
Speaker 1: mud hints hat and mash Yeah, And we talked about

413
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:50,320
Speaker 1: it incessantly. He really was not Talo. Yeah. And Tony

414
00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:52,440
Speaker 1: Paco's hot dogs that he talks about all the time,

415
00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 1: real place, best hot dogs on the planet, really had

416
00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:58,480
Speaker 1: no idea. So those are just a few of the

417
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:02,080
Speaker 1: things that actually happened. The final cannonball run that ended

418
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,719
Speaker 1: up in the film Um and a Jaguar driven by

419
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:08,600
Speaker 1: Dave Hines and Dave Yarborough one that year and they

420
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 1: obliterated the time period with thirty two and fifty one

421
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:17,640
Speaker 1: minute seven mile per hour average fifty speeding tickets. That year, well,

422
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 1: there were forty two contestants. Yeah, so that was the

423
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,119
Speaker 1: last one, and it has spawned imitators over the years.

424
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:27,720
Speaker 1: Before the before Cannonball Run the movie came out, there

425
00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:30,639
Speaker 1: were already imitators. Really, yeah, there was one movie that

426
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:32,360
Speaker 1: came out in seventy five and two that came out

427
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,680
Speaker 1: in seventy six. You want to hear the weird thing

428
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,760
Speaker 1: about it. David Carriden was in two of them. Really.

429
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:42,360
Speaker 1: He was in uh, let's see uh Deathmatch two thousand,

430
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:45,880
Speaker 1: Death Death Race two thousand, which was set in the future.

431
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:49,879
Speaker 1: But he was also in Cannonball exclamation Point, which is

432
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 1: a farctical take on the Cannonball Run. And there was

433
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,200
Speaker 1: a second one that had Gary Busey in it, or

434
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:56,879
Speaker 1: third one that had Gary Busey, and it called the

435
00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:00,040
Speaker 1: Gumball Rally, right, and that's that's a real one. And

436
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 1: the Gunball three thousand is still in existence. Is that

437
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:05,560
Speaker 1: European or in America? Well, they do both, and they're

438
00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:07,359
Speaker 1: quick to say that it's not a race, it's more

439
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:12,240
Speaker 1: like an adventurous road trip. And then the lame tell him, yeah,

440
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:14,480
Speaker 1: tell him about the European person of the Cannonball runs.

441
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,879
Speaker 1: Actually to you know why because they call it the

442
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,399
Speaker 1: Cannonball Run. They use that name, and this thing is

443
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:24,120
Speaker 1: not even a race. The goal of the Cannonball Run

444
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:27,440
Speaker 1: Europe is to stay as close to a sixty one

445
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 1: mile per hour average as you can. And in two

446
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:35,439
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, a frigging smart car one. Oh so,

447
00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:38,080
Speaker 1: talk about a slap in the face where brock Gates

448
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,040
Speaker 1: Steady would have rolled over in his grave. Yeah, he's

449
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:42,399
Speaker 1: rolling over in his Instead he rolled over a smart

450
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,439
Speaker 1: car with his bare hand. If anybody could do it,

451
00:24:45,560 --> 00:25:21,440
Speaker 1: Mr brock Gates could, my friend? I think? So that's

452
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,680
Speaker 1: cannonball Runney. That's how fast have you driven? What's the

453
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,119
Speaker 1: fastest you've ever driven? Oh? I don't know. A hundred

454
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:28,840
Speaker 1: and ten. I actually once got a speeding ticket. Or no,

455
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 1: you want to hear a weird story. Let's here. I

456
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 1: don't know if this will make the final cut or

457
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 1: not because it's kind of long, but get this. So,

458
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:37,720
Speaker 1: my friend and I were driving from Atlanta to Charleston

459
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 1: in my old Toyota Corolla. It was an eight six

460
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:44,960
Speaker 1: Champagne colored Toyota Corolla UM and I was doing a

461
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,600
Speaker 1: hundred and ten on I twenty during a stretch where

462
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:50,400
Speaker 1: the speed limit. I was doing twice the speed limit.

463
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,040
Speaker 1: I get pulled over by this guy in this car

464
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 1: um with a little dash headlight on it, spinning around

465
00:25:57,640 --> 00:25:59,720
Speaker 1: and I pull over and this guy is dressed like

466
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,160
Speaker 1: a paramilitary cop and he's like, you're so dead. You're

467
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,480
Speaker 1: going to jail forever, right, And he goes back to

468
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,880
Speaker 1: his car and calls somebody, and this other guy comes

469
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:11,400
Speaker 1: out and he comes back. He's like, you're at least

470
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: gonna lose your license. And he goes back and talks

471
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,160
Speaker 1: to the guy, who he said later was the sergeant

472
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: on duty. And he comes back and he goes, you're

473
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:22,560
Speaker 1: gonna get a ticket of some sort. And he goes

474
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 1: back and talks to the guy again, and he goes,

475
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,119
Speaker 1: here's your license back. You guys drive safely now, and

476
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:31,199
Speaker 1: let's just go. You're free to go. Exactly. So my

477
00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: friend and I are looking at each other like what

478
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:38,720
Speaker 1: just happened? But it was so surreal, and to this day,

479
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,159
Speaker 1: I wonder, have you seen pulp fiction? Of course you have,

480
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 1: remember Zed? Yeah, I have the distinct impression that these

481
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 1: guys were into ZED like affairs, and something else was

482
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,359
Speaker 1: took precedent. I I think my friend was. He's not

483
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: a good looking guy. So I'm thinking maybe they're like,

484
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:59,280
Speaker 1: we'll pass on these two. Oh yeah, So they were

485
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 1: going to get you back the police station. And I

486
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:04,280
Speaker 1: don't think they were cops. Okay, what cop would not

487
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:06,880
Speaker 1: give you a ticket when you're driving twice the speed limit?

488
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:09,760
Speaker 1: I got you. Yeah, I got a story. Let's hear it.

489
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:12,640
Speaker 1: About four years ago, me and my buddy Scotty were

490
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: doing it was actually the last TV commercial job ever did.

491
00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: It was a six Flags job and six Flags Massachusetts.

492
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:21,600
Speaker 1: Whatever that one's called six Flags over in Massachusetts? Is it?

493
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 1: I think it's a great America anyway. So we go

494
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: up there to do this job, and um, what kind

495
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,160
Speaker 1: of it was New Jersey? But we have to drive

496
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 1: hit Yeah, we we we we drive. At one point

497
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 1: my friend we had like two days off while we

498
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 1: were up there and had a friend in Vermont and

499
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: the third Star Wars prequel was being released that friday.

500
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: So I said, hey, man, let's go up and see

501
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:46,240
Speaker 1: Johnny Pendell and uh rent a car and drive up

502
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:47,720
Speaker 1: there because we had a camera truck. He said, sure

503
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,119
Speaker 1: less do it. So we ran. We rented a like

504
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 1: a little geometro whatever the cheapest little four stroke engine

505
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,399
Speaker 1: car you could get. And we have a time limit

506
00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 1: because we have to make the movie. It's like a

507
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,439
Speaker 1: six pm showing. And so we're speeding through Vermont, like

508
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:04,000
Speaker 1: the hills of Vermont's lovely, and this little engine is

509
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:08,120
Speaker 1: like and we top this hill and we see one

510
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 1: of those signs that say your current speed, and it

511
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:13,680
Speaker 1: said your current speed and it blinked and went one

512
00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:17,080
Speaker 1: oh two. And I've never seen a triple digit on

513
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:19,920
Speaker 1: one of those signs. So we just laughed and blaze

514
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:24,040
Speaker 1: right through it and made the movie. It's like, call

515
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 1: the police, and we literally we made it right as

516
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:28,480
Speaker 1: the movie was starting, and you know, the engine was

517
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: like it was like ticking, it was red hot. And

518
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:34,439
Speaker 1: that that's my fast story. Well, if you have a

519
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: fast story, we'd actually like to hear it. Here's the caveat.

520
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:40,640
Speaker 1: Don't go out and commit any kind of crime or

521
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 1: act that includes fastness. If it's already happened, then we'll

522
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,400
Speaker 1: hear about it. We'll tell you the email right after

523
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 1: we get to listener mail, right, Chuck, Yes, Josh, all right,

524
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 1: let's go, Josh. I'm gonna call this, uh second, the

525
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: only time we've ever read a listener mail from the

526
00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: same dude. Oh, I don't know about this, chuck, we

527
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: have to This is the hackster, Ryan Hack my buddy.

528
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:07,040
Speaker 1: Uh listen to the house history podcasts, and I have

529
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 1: a creepy story. One of the houses I grew up

530
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 1: in as a kid had a hidden door. As you

531
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 1: go to the basement, it's more or less just blended

532
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: into the wood paneling. As you walk through the door,

533
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 1: you came to an open area with some shelving and

534
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,479
Speaker 1: a workbench. There are a couple of old bike tires

535
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:23,320
Speaker 1: and some random parts still lying around and a guy

536
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 1: names it and a guy names it. Every once in

537
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: a while we'd hear what sounded like people working on

538
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 1: their bikes and chit chatting, pounding metal, gears dropping, laughing,

539
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: chains turning. Every time we'd go into the room, there

540
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 1: was nothing weird. Weird. Later on we found out the

541
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,360
Speaker 1: history of the house. Turns out one of the previous

542
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 1: owners was a couple that enjoyed biking and they died

543
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 1: in a biking accident and forgot to get them memo.

544
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:51,760
Speaker 1: So just thinking about it gives me chills. And this

545
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 1: is from Ryan, and I'm gonna just go ahead and

546
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 1: say that Ryan Hack has inspired me to exercise because

547
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: he has a blog call Hacks First five k dot

548
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: blogspot dot com where he started running in Lost Weight

549
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 1: and is into it now. And he got me listening

550
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 1: to another podcast called two Gomer's Run a Marathon. I

551
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:16,000
Speaker 1: don't know that I'm entirely okay with you leading this

552
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,719
Speaker 1: extra life that I'm unaware of until you read a

553
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: listener mail. I know. But two Gomers Run a Marathon

554
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:24,080
Speaker 1: is actually a really funny podcast. These two guys that

555
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 1: say they're Gomer's kind of nerdy and they're they're completely unathletic,

556
00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 1: yet they want to run a marathon. So their podcast

557
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 1: goes through their trials and travails and it's really funny.

558
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 1: They get a website called two Gomers dot com. Well,

559
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 1: Ryan Hacks, since you got all those plugs and because

560
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:45,959
Speaker 1: you had to two listener mails read on there, you

561
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 1: have to go contribute twenty five bucks to Keeva dot

562
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 1: org on Stuff you should Know Team Chuck. You want

563
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 1: to tell everybody else about that Kiva dot org. Go

564
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 1: to the click on community and search stuff you should

565
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 1: know Team join our team, and twenty five dollars to

566
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 1: a to as someone in need. You can now donate

567
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:07,480
Speaker 1: to Americans. Yes, I've heard. If you're a nationalistic or

568
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 1: an isolationist you can still donate. But right now, as

569
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:15,120
Speaker 1: a press time, we have raised more than in about

570
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 1: ten days. And uh, who has seventy Chuck? Uh, the

571
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 1: lousy cheap fans of the cold Bear quote unquote Nation.

572
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 1: You know, it's sad that guy's got way more fans

573
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 1: than we do, right, way more hundred and ten members

574
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 1: on his team. We got a hundred and eighties so

575
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 1: far already. Yeah, So way to go those of you

576
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 1: and the stuff you should know Nation who supported kiva

577
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: dot org so far. For those of you who want

578
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:42,000
Speaker 1: to get on the trolley, you can go to www.

579
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 1: Dot kiva dot org slash team slash stuff you should know,

580
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 1: and you can become a member, and like Chuck said,

581
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: you can contribute as little as twenty five bucks and

582
00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:55,160
Speaker 1: you actually get that back if you want, sure you

583
00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 1: can roll it over again or whatever. Yeah, yeah, so Chuck,

584
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:00,720
Speaker 1: that's it, right, that's it. If you have a cool

585
00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 1: high speed story, Chuck, and I want to hear about it. Uh,

586
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 1: if you have a great unicorn story, you know, we

587
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 1: always want to hear about that sending in an email

588
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:16,840
Speaker 1: to stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For

589
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,520
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how

590
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check

591
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 1: out our blogs on the how stuff works dot com

592
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 1: home page