2 x 1916 Hudsons in 2012 Great Race in this You Tube film

My goodness - how things have changed since a nutcase name of Brock Yates, back in the 1970's, came up with the Sea-to-Shining-Sea-Cannon-Ball-Baker-Trophy-Dash which was the forerunner of todays Great Race (tho they'll deny it to their dying breath). Yates came up with this crazy idea to protest the infamous double nickle (55) speed limit. The idea was to get from the east coast (originally the Red Ball Garage in New York City - a former Hudson garage way back when, by the way - and later Darien, CT) to the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, CA in the shortest amount of time possible. There was only one rule - and that was there were no rules. Anything with wheels was acceptable - for example in one of the four races Hemmings Motor News entered a 1937 Ford Panel truck and made the run in around 61 hours. A Mecedes-Benz did it in just under 32:59 hours in 1979; a Jaguar XJS driven by Dave Yarborough and Dave Heinz made the run in 32 hours, 51 Min. A surprising number ran the race in the 30's hour range from the aformentioned 32 up to 39 hours.
The cars were, for the most part, standard cars that you would drive every day to work - more or less!!! After all it wouldn't do to draw attention to yourself running I-80 across Ohio at better than 100 mph!!! At 2 in the morning.
There were four races in all - 1971, 1972, 1975 and 1979. By 1979 the highways were getting crowded - and the cops were getting smarter!!!!!!
Could a race like this be run today - very doubtful. There are far more cars on the interstates today and the police are better equipped. Yates did come up with on last gasp with the One Lap Around American rally - this jewel was run on highways across the top of the U S, down the West Coast, back across the southern U S and up the east coast. But it didn't really catch on. Thus came the Great Race - an extremely tame version of the original 1970's Cannonball trophy dash. I'll bet the original was a lot more exciting than todays version.
Yates wrote a book about the races - see "Cannonball - World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race". And then there was the movie CannonBall........................and it's sequel, Cannonball II. Enjoy.

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN