Two guys did a coast-to-coast ‘Cannonball Run’ in a Tesla Model S for a fresh record
On July 1st at 11:30 pm PT, two friends, Jordan Hart and Bradly D’Souza, left Redondo Beach, California, in a two thousand fifteen midnight silver Tesla Model S, and proceeded east. Fifty-one hours and forty seven minutes later, they arrived at a garage on E. 31st Street in Fresh York City, claiming to set a fresh record for the fastest transcontinental drive in an electrical vehicle. They say they bested the previous record holder by a little more than three hours.
They tweeted and posted photos to Instagram via the excursion, both to document the practice and verify locations and the route along the way. Notarized witnesses signed official arrival and departure documents at both the begin and end of the tour. Date and timestamped time-lapse movie footage was taken of the entire run, as well as timestamped photos at both locations.
That said, there were numerous challenges, such as when to stop and eat, and how use to the car’s air conditioning without draining the car’s battery. (This was especially difficult during the open up of the excursion that took them through the desert, which in direct sunlight hit temperatures of one hundred fifteen degrees Fahrenheit.)
“We were also VERY focused on our run and only stopped to eat once,” Hart told The Brink in an email. “Even then we told the staff what we were doing and were in and out of the restaurant in about fifteen minutes. The rest of the time was healthy low glycemic snacking and a stringent nap schedule for whoever wasn’t driving.”
A post collective by Jordan Hart (@record4freedom) on Jul 6, two thousand seventeen at 8:58am PDT
Hart and D’Souza were quick to note they accomplished this feat despite several disadvantages. Their vehicle, a Tesla Model S 85D, was less efficient than the Model S driven by the previous record holders, who used a newer model with improved aerodynamics, a larger battery (90 kwh), and an extra driver when they set their record in 2016.
As Tesla owners, Hart said both he and D’Souza knew how to squeeze every last drop of spectacle and efficiency out of the vehicle during the coast-to-coast run, like “when to obey or disregard the Tesla software’s recommendations when it comes to tour planning (it may tell you to stop and charge or slow down when in actuality you can go further or charge for less time).”
D’Souza added, “I believe that our skill of the limitations and preparedness to shove the boundaries whenever possible is what made the largest difference.”
The two embarked on the record-setting journey to raise awareness and donations for victims of human trafficking. They netted fifty donations for a few thousands dollars, which was a bit below their expectations. “Since we were using a smaller battery car, I think a lot of people doubted we had a chance at striking the record,” Hart said.
The concept of using electrical vehicles for coast-to-coast “Cannonball Runs” is fairly fresh, and only commenced gaining popularity when the charging infrastructure embarked to mature. Some car experts from Edmunds.com did the tour in a Model S in sixty seven hours and twenty one minutes in 2013. Two years later, a California duo hit that time by nine hours and thirty four minutes. And then last year, veteran car writer Alex Roy and his team set a fresh record in their Model S 90D: Two,877 miles in precisely fifty five hours. Roy’s team also set a record for transcontinental autonomous driving, using Tesla’s Autopilot for over ninety seven percent of their journey.
Hart and D’Souza didn’t bother with Autopilot, but they did have a few things going in their favor. “Truly luck was on our side with our tour,” Hart said, “as we hit essentially zero traffic jams, only [four] minutes of inclement weather, and arrived in NYC on a holiday to find the streets almost empty/devoid of traffic.”
Tesla used to be the only electrified car of note, but now the marketplace is getting crowded with a diversity of high-performing, battery-powered vehicles. But Hart said the choice to use a Model S for their run was never in question.
“Tesla makes the only electrified vehicle out there capable of such long distances on a charge combined with the fastest (and free to use!) supercharging network available,” he said. “There is simply no other vehicle or car company that could even come close to suggesting what Tesla does.”