One of the auto world’s craziest and most sought-after records, the Cannonball Run has been broken. The infamous New-York-to-Los-Angeles run that has been the obsession of a subculture of gear heads for more than 50 years now has a new record time, and it was broken by three guys — Arne Toman, Doug Tabbutt, and Berkeley Chadwick — who managed to accomplish the run while driving a heavily modified 2015 Mercedes-AMG E 63, doing so in a staggering time of 27 hours and 25 minutes. That time eclipsed the previous record of 30 hours that was set only six years ago.

A New Cannonball Run Record Has Been Set

For someone to actually break the existing Cannonball Run, he would have to be aware of all the road rules he’d break, not to mention subject himself from the dangers of driving too fast. But the Cannonball Run is made up of a fraternity of lunatics who are more than ready to throw caution to the wind in the name of breaking the six-year, 30-hour record.

This, of course, brings us to Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt, who, along with Berkeley Chadwick, managed to do the unthinkable. They didn’t just break the record, folks. They obliterated it, and in the process, raising the stakes for future automotive lunatics who may want to surpass the recently set record.

The trio used a heavily modified version Mercedes-AMG E63 Sedan that was tweaked to produce 700 horsepower. It also came with a 40-gallon fuel cell that allowed the trio to go longer distances before they had to make the necessary pit stops. To stay on top of highway cruisers, the trio also fitted the AMG E 63 with an array of police-repellent equipment, including radar detectors, laser jammers, radios, and navigation systems. They even installed a night-vision setup for reasons that I can only imagine as being the ability to drive at night without any lights on. Does anybody ever say doing the Cannonball Run isn’t dangerous? Ultimately, Tomman and Tabbutt took turns behind the wheel of the AMG E 63 while Chadwick was in charge of monitoring all the police-repellent equipment in the car.

To set the time that they did covering that distance, their average speed would have to be around 101.8 mph. Mind you, this would have been the numbers if they took the most straightforward route possible. But where's the fun in doing that, right?

The Actual Run

If you’re interested to know the actual route the trio took, here’s the breakdown. Toman, Tabbutt, and Chadwick left the Red Ball garage on the east side of Manhattan at 12:57 a.m. on November 10. The trio took the northern route first, going west on I-80 through Nebraska. From there, they transferred to the I-76 down to Denver before moving to I-70 right toward the middle of Utah and then switching to the I-15 down into Los Angeles’ maze of interstates. Do the same numbers crunch and you’ll discover that the trio managed to maintain an average overall speed of around 103 mph throughout the run. Stops for fuel — a total of 22.5 minutes — were included in the total time. Considering that they drove on interstate highways with speed limits of 70 mph, I’d say that all the spotting equipment they bought with them proved very useful.

History of the Cannonball Run

It’s not a sanctioned race of any sort, but it has become an obsessive quest among automotive nuts who remain enthralled at the idea of breaking the non-sanctioned Cannonball record of 30 hours that was set back in 2013.

Tracing the actual history of the Cannonball Run is trickier. Baker continued to do the run over the years, culminating in 1933 when he drove a Graham-Paige model 57 Blue Streak 8 from New York to Los Angeles in just 53.5 hours. That record stood for nearly 40 years until the 1970s when Car & Driver scribe Brock Yates revived the event. scribe Brock Yates revived the event. }}

Since then, countless drivers have attempted to make the drive, even if the shorter records have made it difficult, if not impossible, to complete a decent time without breaking multiple traffic laws along the way.