WEBVTT - How the Cannonball Run Worked 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.040 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:16.319 from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.040 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always is 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.680 our good friend, Charles W. Chuck Bryant already, Chuck, your 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.200 good friend. How are you feeling right now? I'm fine, 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.200 a little hot, I'm Schwitz. Yeah, Chuck is bright red 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.159 right now. Everybody, it's kind of weird looking. Thank you, 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.839 Martin and for that are super fans. Yeah, thank you. 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:37.879 But he's not a super fan. He's a buddy. He 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:39.720 has been. He he was such a fan that he 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:41.680 actually became a friend. He's a friend that we haven't 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:47.080 met yet. Yeah, So, Chuck, take us back to in 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.960 the time machine. Yes, the way back machine. You're ready, 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.960 Here we go. Okay, all right, Josh, I'm ten years old, 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:58.760 knee high to a grasshopper. Disco is dead. Margaret Thatcher 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:00.840 is the Prime Minister of England. I take issue with 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.160 the disco being deadline. I don't know that disco ever died. Man, 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:06.920 You cannot make the argument that all modern R and 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:11.920 B pop soul is all Disco Disco is alive. Margaret 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.800 Thatcher is the Prime Minister of England. Ronald Reagan is 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:19.199 in office, just as Jimmy Carter has exited. Walter Cronkite 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.080 resigned from the CBS Evening News desk. That was a 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.440 said day. The first AIDS case was made public in California. 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:27.640 Have you ever seen in the band played on? My 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:29.880 brother worked on that. That was a great made for 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.080 TV movie. It really was. It was really good and 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:34.399 he had a great experience working on that. So find 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.520 people in that movie. Major League Baseball has just gone 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:41.039 on strike in the summer for what will be the 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.479 first of eighty times over the next five years. Right, 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:48.000 So America is depressed, but not for long, No, because 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.680 one Mr Burt Reynolds is about to dash across the 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:55.279 silver screen in a little movie called Cannonball Run. Great, great, 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.800 great movie. It was a great movie. I haven't seen 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.080 it in forever. I think I probably saw it in 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.920 like seven. It was one of the first movies we rented, 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.400 along with Beverly Hills Cop. Very hokey and corny, but 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.080 still beloved. What's What's Yeah? Everyone takes it as a 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.840 comedy because it is a comedy. But this is not 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.280 to say that it started out as a comedy. Actually, 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.799 it was supposed to be serious and Burt Reynolds part 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.120 was originally written for Steve McQueen, who died before he 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.160 could film the movie. It was supposed to be a 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.720 serious movie and it didn't turn out that way. Why 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:33.160 would anybody want The Cannonball Run to be a serious movie? Well, 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:35.680 because it was in fact based on a real race. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:40.959 What what true? Based on a real race? As you know? Yeah, 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.560 I I do know after reading this article. I think 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.160 I had heard that before, but I had no idea 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.400 the details. I didn't either until I wrote it. This 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.560 was really amazing, Like I have. I'm just gonna come 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:54.120 out and say I have a man crush on a 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.880 seventy year old Mr brock Yates. He is a cool 0:02:57.960 --> 0:02:59.800 dude who I would have loved to have hung out. 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:01.880 I bet he's still a very cool dude and hung 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.679 out with in a strictly platonic sense. Yeah, maybe a 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:08.720 little making out, but aside from that, Yeah, I bet 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.480 he's still away cool guy. I get that impression he is. 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.240 He Um, this is this is kind of what I 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.840 gathered about brock Yates. From researching this and reading your article, 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.880 go and say who he is. He was a pretty 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:27.960 much the premier automotive journalist of his age. Eventually. Yeah, 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.160 but I think he started out as a journalist and 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:35.880 something of a gonzo journalist, I take it. Um, But yeah, 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.080 he he was very well known and respected in the field. Um. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:43.120 And in the early nineteen seventies, America was at a 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.760 fork in the road, if you will speak, and brock 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:50.520 Yates represented one direction and that was the out just 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.640 go and if you die, that was your number was up. 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.520 Kind of mentality behind the wheel that is, yeah, you know, 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.920 damn the torpedoes full steam ahead. Right on the other 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.200 side of the road. At on the other side of 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:08.440 the fork was a guy named Ralph Nader who was 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:12.520 still there on that other Um. He for those of 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:14.280 you who don't know who Ralph Nader is, he's running 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.080 for president a couple of times. Um. He got George 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.800 Bush elected in two thousand four. Yeah. Um. But he's 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.480 also a very dedicated consumer watchhot He has for many 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.040 years lived in a tiny, little one room apartment. He 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.080 uses a hot plate. Um. He just really he lives 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:33.360 his very meager life so no one can say you're 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.440 corrupt because he goes after everybody else. And in the 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.520 nineteen seventies, in the early nineteen seventies, he was going 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:44.320 after the automotive industry, right. He went after He wrote 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.200 this book called Unsafe at Any Speed and it was 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.000 basically about have you read it? I've read parts of 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.359 it through research and stuff. Yeah, okay, Um, so you 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.360 know then it was basically about how the automotive industry 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.680 was producing these incredibly dangerous vehicles and at the time, 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.279 we didn't really have much of a speed limit. So 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.599 uh as as a result of his book, we like 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:10.520 got seatbelts became mandatory, new safety designs had to be 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.839 instituted by car Manufacturer's a big deal. Um, so America's 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:15.800 at this fork in the road brock Yates, Dowle one 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.320 and and Ralph Nader on the other and America went 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.600 down the Ralph Nader I think what you're referring to is, 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.240 uh the national speed limit. That's part of it, definitely, 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.159 But I think even more than that, it's a more 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:33.040 of a you know, the way you and I were raised, 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.520 where like we could do anything we put our minds to, 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.280 and we were special. I think that that came out 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:41.960 of that collective decision to go towards safety rather than 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:47.119 you know, fun at any cost, reckless, abandoned exactly, devil 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.039 make care sure. But yeah, the national speed limit was 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:54.839 definitely one part of that. Yeah, that was which was 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.360 that has since gone up quite a bit in certain areas, 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:01.880 of course, has but even more than safety. Do you 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:03.880 know why they set the speed limit at fifty five 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:11.520 gas consumption? Yes? Yeah, the the Arab oil embargo had 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:15.120 just taken place. OPEC was like, hey, US, we're not 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.200 real happy with you for siding with Israel during the 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:19.800 Yam Kapor War, so we're gonna cut off your oil, 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:25.640 and they did, and prices spiked and the US said, okay, 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.520 we need to rethink our dependence on foreign oil. Had 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:31.640 a huge rippling effect. But one of them was setting 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:33.800 the speed limit at fifty five mile per hour, which 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.520 is too slow. It is too slow, especially in the 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.080 opinion of somebody like Brock Yates. I thought, you're gonna say, 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:44.240 Sammy Hagar, Yeah, he can't drive. He's tried, he has, 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.480 He's made a concerted effort, but it just can't out. 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:49.440 He tried. I love that song. It wasn't I don't 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.640 like to drive fifty five or I would prefer to 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.720 drive faster. It was I can't d tried and it 0:06:55.720 --> 0:07:00.320 just doesn't happen. It was very explicit. Yes, so chuck, um, 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.599 this this is nineteen seventy one. Brock Yates saw the 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.080 writing on the wall that the speed limit was going 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.320 to be reduced. America was becoming something of a mamby 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:14.640 pamby yes um. And what did he do as a result? 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.040 He uh, in nineteen seventy one, he took a trip 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.360 across the country in a Dodge Van with three travel 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.480 mates and he drove from New York to Los Angeles 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.800 as a way of proving slash protesting. I believe his 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.320 quote said something like this, good drivers and good automobiles 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.600 could employ the American interstate system the same way that 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.120 the Germans were using their auto bonn Right. So he 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:41.480 wanted to prove that you can drive fast if you're safe, 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:43.480 if you're a good driver, you can get to point 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.320 a to point being a car and it's safe. Yeah, 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.640 and you you said reckless abandoned. There was definitely a 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:56.800 certain level of professionalism or um. The people who he 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.800 considered good drivers were actually good drivers like he had 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:01.760 to be good driver to drive fast. In his opinion, 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.080 it wasn't just like everybody go as fast as you can. 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:06.640 That wasn't the point, right, So he did so. He 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.640 drove a two thousand, eight hundred fifty eight miles from 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.240 New York to l A in forty hours and fifty 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.720 one minutes, which is an average of seventy miles per hour. Yeah, 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:18.720 which is pretty fast if you're talking about an average speed. Yeah, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:21.960 because that included stops. I think stops, uh you name it. 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:26.040 So um, after that happened, I think it got a 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:30.480 little bit of publicity, um, by word of mouth maybe 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.960 the racing world. And there was a famous telegram that 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.760 came I guess a month or so later. Yeah, I 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.920 love this. Can I read it? Yeah? Uh. It says 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.280 this constitutes formal entry by the Polish Racing Drivers of 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:47.800 America and the next official Cannonball Baker's Sea to Shining 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:52.520 Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. The drivers are Oscar Kovaleski, bred 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:57.320 Nementcheck and Tony Adam Awakes. If we can find California, 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.560 will beat you fair and square. So basically the gauntlet 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.319 was laid and the Cannonball run was born, although, like 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:08.559 you said, the official name has always been Cannonball Baker 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:12.560 s to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy. That right, So who's 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.680 Cannonball Baker. Cannonball Baker, Irwin G. Cannonball Baker was a 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.800 He was famous for for pushing the limits limits on 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.240 a motorcycle. Yeah. So he would drive from Canada to Mexico, 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.800 from New York to l A on an old Indian 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.560 motorcycle and we're talking starting in nineteen fourteen, right, So, 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:32.800 like the old Indian motorcycle was basically a bike with 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.440 a motor. Yea, that's exactly what it looks like, you know. Um, 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.640 he actually had a pretty well deserved reputation for like 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.280 his nickname and just the stuff he was doing, his 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:46.800 endurance level. Apparently on one ride, uh, he came around 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.920 a curve and was about to barrel into a herd 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:51.959 of cattle that was in the middle of the road 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:56.800 because it's nineteen fourteen, and um, he swerved to miss him, 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.760 hit a pothole, flew off of his bike onto the 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.240 ba back of a cow, which bucked him off and 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.040 eventually landed in a ditch, got up and drove away. 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.040 That is the stuff of legends. That's how you get 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.160 a race named after you, my friend. Uh. And he 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:13.760 went on to become the first commissioner of NASCAR, which 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.080 I thought was pretty interesting. So there you have that. 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.160 Nothing to do with Moonshine though, or did he I 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.480 don't know, maybe, ye curious? So yeah, Yates wanted to 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:27.160 pay homage to Cannonball Baker, so he named it after him, 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:31.040 although he did shorten the name. Cannon Ball was two 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.760 words for Baker, Yeah, for Baker, but he shortened it 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.960 to Cannonball to avoid any illegal mess. Right. Lawyers advised 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:39.400 him to do that. Yeah, I thought it was kind 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.600 of weird. Well, anyway, so you have the Cannonball originally 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.000 called the Cannonball Dash, uh, and then it finally became 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.760 the Cannonball Run, which is how we know it today. Right. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.880 And thanks to the Polish drivers of America who laid 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.280 down the gauntlet it was a real thing. They didn't 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.880 They weren't the only ones to participate in the first 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.360 official Cannonball. That first run he made in the van 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.800 was considered like a preliminary test ro and it wasn't 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.880 the first Cannibal because there was nobody competing with him, 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.680 so this second one. Uh. There was the Polish Racing 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:14.000 Drivers of America UM and seven other groups, including three vans. Uh. 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:18.520 There was a huge motor home. There was an American Motors, 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:22.680 a m x an MGB G T and a Cadillac Sadanderville. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:27.120 And this is probably the coolest part of this entire story. Yeah, 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.280 I love it. Uh. This Cadillac was UM owned by 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.920 an old gentleman in New York in Boston, in Boston 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.240 and he wanted to And this happened back then it 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:39.680 may still happen now, where you would contract someone to 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:41.400 drive your car from one place to the other case 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.160 you can't get it there. Richard Pryor contracted Dana Carvey 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.760 and moving really great movie. Dude, I didn't see that one. 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:49.559 I thought it was a stinker. It was good. It 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.079 was good. So this old man put out an ad 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:54.000 in the paper and I need to get my car 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.720 to Los Angeles. And these guys answered it and said, 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.920 we'll get your car to Los Angeles. And unbeknownst to 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.200 him it was it was one of the entries. And UM, 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.000 I think one of the stipulations was the car not 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.160 be driven faster than seventy five miles per hour at 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.080 anytime or in the dark. Oh is that the other one? 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.120 And clearly they broke both of these because the Cadillac 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.280 averaged seventy nine miles per hour, right, which means they 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:19.040 were driving out a heck of a lot faster than that. 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.160 I think they came in third to third place. Yeah, 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:23.800 not not too bad, but I think they got the 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.680 car there in one piece, and so good for them. 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.560 They're like, here are the keys, pal, so, uh, go 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:32.679 ahead and start with the first race? Where did it start? 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:34.760 Where did it in? Well, it started in New York 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.760 at the Red Ball Garage at midnight, I believe is 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:40.560 when all of them started. Yeah, um, and this is 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:47.760 what okay, novembeve uh And the ending place was a 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:52.560 hotel in Redondo Beach what is it the Portofino in right, okay, 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:54.760 which is from pictures I saw. It was a pretty 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:58.959 lux little hotel. Um. And you didn't have to follow 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.880 any specific route. He just got there any way you could, right. 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:05.360 Basically the only rules were, uh, you could have as 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.320 many drivers as long as the only one car, and 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:10.719 you could leave at any point within the twenty four 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.800 hour window. It wasn't like everyone started at the start 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.079 line like a typical race, just like in the movie. 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:18.480 You would punch a time clock for when you're starting 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:20.920 time was, and then punch it again for when you arrived. 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.080 And whoever won one and I believe there was no 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.480 trophy at the time. It was only a fifty dollar 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:30.160 entry fee. And then they donated two hundred apiece to charity. Yeah, 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.719 I thought that was pretty cool. Why not? So apparently 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.920 two days before the race, brock Yates had managed to 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.840 finagle a Ferrari daytona brand new Ferrari daytona loner out 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.680 of a out of an auto dealer. Um. And he 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.160 had the car, but he only had himself. He didn't 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:48.760 have a co pilot or a driver. Uh. And apparently 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:50.760 he sent out all these invitations and a lot of 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.200 two race car drivers, like legitimate race car drivers, and 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.120 they were like, you know something, if somebody dies or something, 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.320 that's gonna look really bad for the sport of racing, 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.640 and I don't want to do that. And then, uh, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.000 one guy he had invited, Dan Gurney, who was a 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:08.400 professional race car driver, had declined initially. UM. But he 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:13.160 apparently UM was told by his wife that his dying 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.760 father in law said you should go do this. Life 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:20.120 is short. So Gurney contacts um Yates the day before 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.240 the race and says, hey, can I still come? And 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.880 Yates said heck yeah yeah, And that proved to be 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.760 fortuitous because they won. They did can run, Yeah they did. 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.280 They're winning time Josh was thirty five hours and fifty 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.880 four minutes. Not bad cross country, not bad at all, 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:38.480 and not Atlanta to l A, New York l A, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:40.560 which is further Yeah, because I've made it in thirty 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.320 three hours from Atlanta to l A, have you. Yeah, 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:45.320 that's way I've always done it. Three eleven hour days 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.960 is how I schedule it out. I never time myself, 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.440 but you know, I went and drove around the West 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:52.240 for several weeks and lived in a van with the 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.560 dogs and all that, and um, I would drive, like 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.720 I think the longest I drove is a twelve hour stretch. 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.680 Um that's about all I can mustard. Yeah, that's enough 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.320 for me. Yeah, depending on how much coffee I drank 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.680 or whatever, you know, then I could drive you know, 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.200 six hours or twelve hours or whatever. But it's amazing 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:14.960 the toll that just sitting in a car with your 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.600 foot on the gas has on you, especially when you're 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:21.280 driving that fast. Uh. Should we talk about some of 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.160 the some of the things they preferred to do on 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:28.000 the on the first race, please? They One of the 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:31.040 common tactics that seemed like was to keep it slow 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.320 in the Eastern Seaboard. Um, I think New Jersey and Connecticut, 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:39.400 in Ohio and Pennsylvania. These states are notorious for for 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:44.160 having some pretty hardcore highway patrolman. Yeah, still do. Yeah, 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.240 Like you'll get pulled over for doing sixty five? Isn't 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.520 that nuts to you? That is nuts. I can't imagine 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.520 if you're getting pulled over for anything less than seventy 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.720 two seventy five. In Georgia, by the way, everyone flies 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.040 as fast as you can, as fast as you can 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.240 get away with us. How fast two drives generally. Yeah. 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.280 Even my my friend Derek used to say that the 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.120 deal with Atlanta rush hour is everyone drives as fast 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.480 as they can till somebody recks and then there's a 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.320 been just stops. Yeah, it's pretty funny to think about that. 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.040 So the trick was to kind of keep it slow 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.560 on the Eastern Seaboard and in the Midwest, and then 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.640 once you got to the Great Plains is when you 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:25.080 really opened up, yeah, and made up some serious serious time. Yeah, 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.640 they got it up to a hundred and seventy two. 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:30.280 I think is how how fast they found out the 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.640 Ferrari would go. Yeah. I think twelve speeding tickets total 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:36.880 between all of the all the competitors. Yeah, between four 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.280 the competitors. Four of them didn't get a ticket at all, 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.760 So four of them split twelve tickets. And the famous 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:44.600 quote l A Times it is like kind of a 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.160 blurb of an article from Dan Gurney, Right, Yeah, Dan 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.360 Gurney famously said, at no time did we exceed a 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:54.240 hundred and seventy five, which is pretty cool. Yeah, So Chuck, 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:58.640 that was the first one. And as with all cool things, uh, 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.840 that also began. It's co option. News got out, word 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:08.000 got out by little Yeah, the Sports Illustrated covered it, uh, 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:12.200 and so did the Los Angeles Times. UM. And so 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:14.720 when there was a second one, I think the following 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:18.040 year there were a lot more competitors, right, Yeah, they 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.920 had um twenty five entries a second year, and brock 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:26.280 Yates finished second place, this time in a Cadillac Um. 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.880 The third race, they skipped a couple of years, and 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.800 it was in nineteen seventy five, and they moved it 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.800 to springtime this time, and if Ferrari won the third 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.240 race with Yates and Gurney behind the wheel once again. 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.200 But I didn't know they won the third one. Yes, 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:42.359 oh no, no no, no, I'm sorry. They beat Yates and 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.439 Gurney's record time the third year. Yeah, by a one minute, right, 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.000 but it was not in them, you're correct. So by 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.080 seventy five, which is what the third one fourth one 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.200 third one was invent? Okay, by nineteen seventy five, it's 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.159 officially co opted. There's actually corporate sponsorship. The Right Bra 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:03.920 Company placed three ladies in Pink in a limousine and 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:06.639 apparently the driver fell asleep in Texas and rolled the 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.880 thing and I guess rolled into a porter potty which 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:14.560 tipped over and drenched the um the ladies inside with 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:19.640 its contents and where exactly So by this time now 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:21.920 you can see why Burt Reynolds would have chosen more 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.760 of a comedic route than the Sharky's machine route. Yeah, 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:28.199 well it wasn't Burt's choice. Let's should we move to 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.840 the final year. Yeah, what happened was Brock Yates was 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:33.720 pretty much finished with it, and he said, you know, 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.080 it's run its course. He said he was worried that 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.119 somebody was gonna die, although no one ever got hurt. No, 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.959 but the the the roads in the last eight years 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.119 had become much more congested. Um. He was ready to 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:50.160 scrapped the whole thing. But he had a friend, director Stuntman. 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.199 Hell need him, Hell need him? Or is it needed him? No, 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:55.760 it's need him. And he was. He was famous for 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.080 a lot of the early Burt Reynolds movies. He hid 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:01.399 them Hooper, which is a great movie. Is it? I 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.120 even seen that one? Are you kidding me? I kid 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.520 you not, dude. I gotta get Hooper. That was the 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.640 one about stunt Mean, you have to see My Blue 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.320 Heaven though, all right, we'll get to that later. So 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.200 he did Hooper, and he did um, the Cannonball Run 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.600 and a couple of other of the Burt Renold's films. Yeah, 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.480 they did a Smokey and the Bandit too. Brock Yates 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:24.320 wrote that I'm sorry so uh over the place today 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.639 we are how Needham says, you know what, Brock, I 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:29.800 want to make a movie about the Cannonball Run, And 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:32.720 so I think the best way to do this is 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.000 if we stage another one and I participate with you 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.520 as my partner, and they did. They did that in 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.200 nine and they had a record forty six entries this time. 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:45.560 And a lot of what happened in this race actually 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:48.640 ended up in the movie. Yeah, there's some zany madcap 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.119 stuff that was going on. Let's hear it. Well, Brock 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.919 Yates UH and Hew need Him UH actually had an 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:59.440 ambulance and Yates's wife, Pamela posed as a woman suffering 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.439 from a condition and as a result, couldn't fly because 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:06.520 of the pressurized cabin, so she had to be zoomed 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.080 across the country at a hundred miles in the back 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.200 of an ambulance that was their vehicle of choice. UM. 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:18.359 And definitely they modified the engine UH and it killed 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.359 the transmission, so I had to be eventually towed across 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:23.439 the finish line, which I thought was pretty cool, right, 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:25.720 And in the film that actually happened. Burt Reynolds and 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:30.000 Don Deloise were the Needham Yates characters, and fair Fawcet 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:35.399 was the was the wife. Didn't didn't what else happened 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.640 that was real? Three drivers actually did pose his priests. 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.320 I remember in the movie. It was awesomely it was 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:46.920 Sammy Davis Jr. And Dean Martin drunk priest in the movie. 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.800 But I don't know that they were posing. They really were. 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:56.639 They were probably hammered. What else, Josh, I don't know. 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:58.280 I haven't seen the movie in a really long time. 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:00.000 All right, well, I got it for you. Then, Uh, 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.840 there were in fact um scantily clad skin tight jumpsuits 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.560 on a couple of ladies in a sports car. I 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.440 read the opposite. I read that that was the right 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:15.480 broad company that inspired that part. I read the opposite. 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:17.119 We'll have to check that. All right, we'll do it. 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.639 And then there was a wealthy entrant that had his 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.359 chauffeur drive him in a Rolls Royce. And in the 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.399 movie that was Jamie Farr played a middle Eastern chic. 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:31.439 That's right, Clinger. Yeah, you know he and I are 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.520 from the same hometown, Talita Tala. Is that why he 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:36.560 always wore the Talita mud hints had and match. Yeah, 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.360 and well he talked about it incessantly. He really was not. Yeah, 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:41.600 and Tony Paco's hot dogs that he talks about all 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:44.600