Somehow I ran across this video of the 2003 Gumball 3000, which is a 3000-mile international race that happens on public roads:
Made me think of this classic 80’s movie, which was a giant middle finger extended to Tricky Dick’s 55MPH speed limit, along with a desire to leave the malaise of President Peanut behind:
For those who know the movie, I’ve always thought of our opponents as reminding of Mr. Arthur J. Foyt.
Gumball Rally was still the best.
http://www.amazon.com/Gumball-Rally-Michael-Sarrazin/dp/B0009PVZBO/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1309035631&sr=1-1
“First rule of Italian driving…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjGXn249Fc0
The national 55MPH speed limit came into being in 1974. The president then was Richard “Not a Crook” Nixon.
You should read Yate’s book on the actual Cannonball runs that the movie was based on – many of the gags in the first movie, while certainly played up for film, happened during the 4 Cannonball runs.
My mistake… my memory is a little foggy from back then since I was six when Carter left office.
Team Polizei leader Alex Roy was written about in this Wired Magazine article about his attempt to do the Cannonball Run in 32 hours.
http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_cannonballrun?currentPage=all
You sure you didn’t mean Anthony J. Foyt? The guy who won Indy 4 times, stole his dad’s midget racecar while just a boy and took it to a race track to practice, got Linda (the original Miss Hurst Shifter girl) to lift her top for a cop (hey that rhymes!) to get AJ out of a speeding ticket, and absolutely ruled the dirt tracks in sprint cars in the late 1950s and early 60s. And then proceded to punch one of them there ferign drivers what wrecked his driver in his later years as a car owner, is that who you meant? Those flics, along with Smokey and the Bandit, are classic comedies for us old car guys.
No… the character in the movie was Arthur, the fact that his initials were still A.J. Foyt was part of the joke.
165 MPH? No way. In my irresponsible youth I did 120 MPH on the PA Turnpike (which was designed to be a US Autobahn) and it was way more frightening than that. It was like driving through a supermarket parking lot at 40+ MPH. Those guys were passing minivans at what looks like no more than 20 MPH.