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700hp AMG obliterates Cannonball Run across America

Iain Kelly
Contributing Journalist
4 Dec 2019
1 min read

Driving 4545km in just 27 hours and 25 minutes is an epic feat, involving lightning-fast pit stops, incredible engineering, and huge stamina. To do it on public roads among people who could turn you in to Johnny Law, is mind-bending. And three guys have just done such a feat, blowing the Cannonball Run record into the weeds.

The Cannonball Run, or driving as fast as possible from the Red Ball Garage in New York City, across continental America, to Los Angeles' Portofino Inn, is a concept over 50 years old. The illegal protest of federal highway speed limits has a new trio of champions in Arne Toman, Doug Tabutt and Berkley Chadwick.

You don't just hop in your mega-powered car to own a Cannonball record; the planning and car-prep is almost insane, and the 2019 crew's personal planning was military-like. But, with crowded roads and the average speed of these record runs now at 100mph, is it time for public safety to come first?

Iain Kelly
Contributing Journalist
A love of classic American and European cars drove Iain Kelly to motoring journalism straight out of high school, via the ownership of a tired 1975 HJ Holden Monaro.  For nearly 20 years he has worked on magazines and websites catering to modified late model high-performance Japanese and European tuner cars, as well as traditional hot rods, muscle cars and street machines. Some of these titles include Auto Salon, LSX Tuner, MOTOR, Forged, Freestyle Rides, Roadkill, SPEED, and Street Machine. He counts his trip to the USA to help build Mighty Car Mods’ “Subarute” along with co-authoring their recent book, The Cars of Mighty Car Mods, among his career highlights.  Iain lends his expertise to CarsGuide for a variety of advice projects, along with legitimising his automotive obsession with regular OverSteer contributions. Although his practical skills working on cars is nearly all self-taught, he still loves nothing more than spending quality time in the shed working on his project car, a 1964 Pontiac. He also admits to also having an addiction to E30 BMWs and Subaru Liberty RS Turbos, both of which he has had multiple examples of. With car choices like that, at least his mum thinks he is cool.
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