New cross country record.

[CincinnatiFiero]

In a Benz, naturally.

Some of you have probably already seen this but its a short read and pretty cool

http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-dr ... 1454092837

[Aaron]

Pretty good read, I enjoyed it.

Although, I can't help but think I could do it faster. I know everyone and their brother probably says this, and I probably never would, but it'd be fun to try. Not that I could afford to.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Really cool article and really cool story.

The amount of preparation that goes into those records is impressive.

The previous record in the Ferrari 308 in the '90's is darned impressive... no GPS, no Waze, etc...

*AVERAGING* 98 mph for 28 hours is no joke. Just try getting a long term average over 60 next time you're on a road trip...

[Aaron]

*AVERAGING* 98 mph for 28 hours is no joke. Just try getting a long term average over 60 next time you're on a road trip...

I'm not arguing that, the main thing slowing me down would be law enforcement and fuel stops. And while LE is less of a slow down for them, the equipment and communication they have helped that, the gas stops are still, despite having two pumps, and at the speeds they have to run traffic becomes an issue. I just think if I had the resources and time, it'd be fun to try and with enough effort put into doing it, I don't see it being too difficult to beat. But an M5 cruising at 160 doesn't exactly do well on gas.

[The Dark Side of Will]

As mentioned in the article, with 67 gallons of fuel and approximately 13 mpg, he could go more than 800 miles between fillups.

The planning is obviously pretty intense. The article mentioned that he had helpers "sweep" some sections the route for police and other problems prior to his passing through. I'm sure he knew exactly where he was going to stop for fuel before he left for NYC and probably had used Google maps/street view to pick out the station with the most direct interstate access in the vicinity of where he would need to stop. I'm sure someone in the car was running Waze to crowd source speed trap warnings.

That record's going to be tough to break, but I predict that when it is broken, it will be by a high performance diesel of the 335d, E350 CDI or A6 TDi ilk...

Heck, maybe a Duramax Caprice/Impala SS could do it.

With 80 gallons of fuel and 20 mpg, you'd only need to stop for fuel ONCE in a cross country trip.

[Aaron]

The diesel wouldn't be a bad idea, I hadn't really thought of that. But their fuel mileage probably gets pretty low when on boost the entire trip, and every one of those diesels would need to be boosting pretty hard to hold 160mph and still have power on tap.

[CincinnatiFiero]

My friends and I were talking about this and we were thinking a chipped E350 bluetec or similar. My old diesels actually do okay at big speeds, going to Florida I drive 90-110 as much as possible and my non-overdrive '87 still averaged around 27mpg. I'm positive my average wasn't 98mph, but turning 4000rpms I was still getting 20mpg+. With a modern more efficient diesel with 6 or 7 gears to keep the RPMs low at big speed, I think you could easily see over 20mpg.