On Sunday October 20th, Ed Bolian set a new record for driving across the United States of America, in, wait for it, 28 hours and 50 minutes!  Bolian, his co-driver and support passenger, piled into a 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG in mid-town Manhattan and drove at an average speed of 98 mph and a moving average of 100 mph. They stopped for a total of 46 mins along the way and arrived in Redondo Beach, California a little over a day later.

Ed Bolian and co-driver Dave Black

Their vehicle, a CL55, had two extra gas tanks fitted that could hold a total of 67 gallons (400 lbs worth) of gas in the vehicle.  This allowed them to travel 800 miles between fill ups (they stopped only three times for gas during the whole journey). They also never took a bathroom break (although one would think the co-driver may have been tempted to sneak one in during the refueling break). Additional equipment in the vehicle included police scanners, CB radios, two GPS units, two iPhones running traffic (and speed trap-related) apps and two laser jammers.

On route

The sub-30 hour mark beats the previous record set by Alex Roy in 31 hours and 17 minutes in 2006.

Read all about the preparation and the journey on Ed Bolain’s blog and over at Jalopnik.

Source: Ed Bolian.com, Jalopnik.com