Yesterday, Alex Roy, the dude who once set a Cannonball Run record and a friend of Hooniverse, answered the question that was on my mind for some time – which car is best for setting a Cannonball Run record. His somewhat obvious answer is that a German sport sedan is the best vehicle for the task of driving nearly 3,000 miles at triple-digit speeds. And he justified really well, too.
I started brainstorming. I thought there could be a better vehicle – a modern pickup truck. Yea, I know, crazy.
Specifically, I had a modified Ford F150 Limited in mind. I threw a whole bunch of theories and justifications down and posted them below. I did some math. And then I concluded that I was dead wrong and that a pickup truck cannot possibly be used to set a Cannonball Record. Further, in doing my math I realized that how amazing the current new record is. Looking at the numbers and what it took to accomplish it, I don’t think it will be broken for some time, or for at least two years. Enjoy.
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Alex’s reasons to choose a German Q-ship:
- Inconspicuous sedan design.
- Dash space, rear seat space, and overall interior space.
- Noise levels (I never thought this would be a consideration but read his piece – it makes sense).
- Trunk space.
- Adaptive suspension.
- Designed for speed.
Those are certainly valid reasons. I wouldn’t even question them because Alex has first hand experience in this and get tired after driving for more than two hours. But…
The current Ford F-150 Limited has the Raptor EcoBoost 450-horsepower and 510-pound-feet of torque engine in it. Stock, Car and Driver says it does 0-60MPH in 5.1 seconds and clears the quarter mile in 13.7 seconds at 102MPH. While that is not slow, it’s not even as fast as a stock, nearly twenty year old E39 M5. But the Raptor engines have been modified to make over 600-horsepower and take a second off each of those times supposedly without sacrificing reliability and longevity.
Going back to Alex’s points on what makes a good Cannonball Run vehicle and how it applies to the F-150 Limited:
- Inconspicuous design – The F150 has been the best selling vehicles in United States for several decades. They are everywhere. The Limited draws much less attestation that the Raptor because it looks like an XLT with chrome door handles. Even the 22-inch wheels and Pirelli Scorpion Zero in 275/45-22 don’t look out of place on it. And from my experience, pickups don’t seem to get pulled over as frequently as other vehicles. This is as stealth as a vehicle on American roads can get.
- Interior space – doesn’t get much bigger than this. And the aftermarket offers significantly more options for mounting of the various electronic devices needed for such run and other remotely mounted equipment. Visibility is great, too.
- The rear bench seat is huge and offers more legroom and headroom than an S-class. The cabin is so huge that hopping, while not suggested at ridiculous speeds, between front and rear seats is easy even for the large-butted males. There is plenty of space for anything that would been needed on such a run.
- Noise level is one of the F150’s shortcomings, especially at speed. The frontal area is so huge that moving all the air around will make more noise than any midsize German sedan. Sound-deadening could be better even for conventional driving.
- Trunk space is the F150 has a clear advantage. Each of the record setting vehicles was outfitted with a custom fuel cell in the trunk. Alex had an additional 38-gallon fuel tank in his M5. The AMG E63 that just set the record had a 66-gallon fuel cell. The F-150 comes from the factory with a 36-gallon fuel tank, or almost three times the size of Benz tank. Aftermarket in-bed fuel tanks are quite common and can provide as much as 100-gallon of extra fuel capacity.
- Capacity and suspension: A gallon of gasoline weights about six pounds. That is lighter than water. Even with an extra 100-gallons and the weight of the tank, that’s still less than half of the Limited’s maximum payload. I have no idea what range that would yield as I have no idea what the burn rate of an F150 at speed could possibly be. Aerodynamics play a huge rule at high speeds and more power is needed to keep something so big at speed for extended period of time.
- The guys in the Benz made four stops, averaging just over 5-minutes per stop to refill. Could a modified F-150 with a huge second tank go the distance with less refuel stops? Could that make up the difference lost is some top speed section of the drive? I don’t know but this is where the F150’s clear advantage is.
- The one thing that the F150 is not, is designed for speed. It’s a huge fucking pickup truck. The F150 frontal area is significantly bigger than that of any German sedan. Aerodynamics, which at sustained speeds are much more important than weight, needed to achieve and sustain high speeds are not there. That said, a stock Limited will get rather effortlessly to triple digit speeds. Small aerodynamic improvements could make big differences but certainly not big enough to even approach the claimed top speed of 193MPH that the Benz achieved during its run.
In process of writing this post I realized some things:
- The speeds and times achieved in this latest record are insane. We can all say that some guys drove 27 hours and 25 minutes at an average speed of 104MPH. It almost rolls off the tongue.
- The fact that they achieved 193MPH on some road is just insane. For comparison, the top at the 24 Hours of Le Mans are about 205MPH.
- They made only four stops. That translates into five driving stints of over five hours each. Stints that require complete focus, where a simple mistake could mean imprisonment or death.
- The total time for those refueling stops for the Benz was 22.5 minutes. That is incredible.
- The average speed wins. The top speed of of 193MPH does not need to be achieved if the slowest sector speed is raised.
- The fuel stops eat precious time and lower the average speed.
- Nothing matters if just one thing does not go according to plan.
Some highly theoretical math:
- If the Benz guys had a 70-gallon tank (cell + OEM tank + spare) and managed 700 miles from that, they averaged about 10MPG.
- With a 150 gallons of fuel and a burn rate about 10MPG, the Ford would have a range of 1500 miles.
- If a driver change can be done at speed (yes, dumb++ but so is the whole race) even a civil speed, with the use of technology (The F150 has dynamic cruise control, lane keeping assist, and emergency braking), the average speed over that driver swap time could be, say 70MPH and not 0MPH.
- The Ford would require just one, albeit longer, fuel refill stop.
- Assuming no bathroom stops, could this give the pickup an advantage it needs to break the Cannonball Record?
Conclusion:
I conclude that there is no way anyone driving an F-150 like I suggested could set this record. No way. I seriously doubt that this thing could go, and sustain, more than 150 MPH, which is simply needed to accomplish this. Alex is right. I don’t know what other, American or Japanese, vehicle can be that fast, stealth, and spacious enough as a proper German performance sedan.
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