F1weekly.com Forums

In contrast with the Rental Car Rally, this isn't any sort of mildly sanctioned driving (motorsport would be too strong a word) event. It's closer to the several attempts to break 32h7m time across the US than the bush leagues version of the Gumball (et al).

That said (and I already mentioned this in passing in this forum), no small part of my interest in discussing RCR 2010 here stems from my planning to drive from Philadelphia to New Orleans for the Tales of the Cocktail 2010 bartending conference in a "get there quickly" sort of way. This is not the sort of thing that warrants a costume (let alone M. Brazier's BP suggestion): attracting attention will not be desirable.

M. Boulanger is, regrettably, unavailable due to work obligations later in the week, but he'll be providing ground support (for when AT&T's lousy rural Edge/3G data coverage renders Google Earth useless, despite the GPS feed via USB... but I get ahead of myself). In his stead, I'll have one of Philadelphia's finest bartenders navigating (he lacks a driver's license, so he's stuck with shotgun for the run) and a third party (best left anonymous, really) taking the middle driving stint (since I intend to be at a 3 pm seminar on Wednesday, so I really must get a backseat nap).

After something like 20 hours of geotegery, Google Maps/Earth puts our route at 20h15m and Garmin at 17h45m, so we're shooting for 16 hours as a baseline. (I made a late, half-hearted attempt to get some NE corridor bartenders who also give a s**t about driving interested in playing along, but one of them has a several-month-old child--so is flying in and out with the family--and the other is someone I don't really know well enough to share many details with, so I'm presuming this to be a recon run for future years when there might actually be some competition.)

I mention any of this here on the off chance that some of you folks may be interested in, or at least amused by, playing along from home, but also because I do intend to have it be a sotto voce sort of event annually (with the departure point semi-negotiable), and I'm not in a position to offer any more Prize than knowing-someone-who-knows-people might get you at Tales.

Should you care, and without exposing anything any interested party couldn't figure out on their own, but speaking from a moderate degree of experience, this sort of Drive does require:

• Paper. Maps. (Technology breaks.)
• A real GPS unit, specifically one that will accept GPX uploads. (You may also want a separate unit to provide location data via USB for Google Earth, but generally that disables the GPS's own directional output, both audio and video, so a dumb receiver is good enough.)
• A real radar detector. That means a V1. (I'm on the fence over sending mine in for the upgrades it needs: it's not clear that POP detection matters enough--I'm not driving in Ohio--and the Euro mode will be nice, but irrelevant here.)
• A real DC/AC inverter. This is mine, but you should do your own math on your wattage requirements.
• Spare gas tanks. This could go without further explication, except that fuel cells are better but complicated, at best, to install in rented vehicles.
  

Absent competitors of note, toys like LIDAR blinders and police scanners appear to be overkill, but I'll report back if my nonchalance over them results in jail time.

It is, of course, not too late to suggest that you'd like to tag along. Even without the bartenders acting badly, NOLA's always fun.

I see several of you have viewed this, although none have responded, so on the chance that some are interested, here's the current equipment collection:

What is the cream coloured box with what looks like a Heinz Baked Beans logo on?

(06-20-2010 01:25 PM)Yaaay Wrote: [ -> ]What is the cream coloured box with what looks like a Heinz Baked Beans logo on?

EZPass, for paying tolls without stopping in most of the states on the US east coast. (It's registered at the toll by way of RFID, and keeps a running ~$35 balance, increased automatically from my credit card when it dips below something like $15.)

Edit: ... and the reason that the logo looks like the Heinz baked beans logo is that the Heinz logo looks like the PA (my EZ Pass was issued in Pennsylvania, but it's good throughout the system) state turnpike road sign symbol, because Heinz is based in Pittsburgh, PA. (Click through on the image twice to view a full resolution version.)

But you are taking some Beanz with you for the trip?

(06-20-2010 03:27 PM)Yaaay Wrote: [ -> ]But you are taking some Beanz with you for the trip?

Coffee beans, yes. Baked beans, probably not.

We will, however, have this vintage coffee percolator that a couple of bartender friends (one of whom's navigating, actually) gave me:

ez pass is great, especially with the commuter plans that save hundreds of dollars. i always get a bit chipper when i encounter a 20 mph gate. i hope some day there are 70 mph gates.

(06-20-2010 04:27 PM)frankdouglason Wrote: [ -> ]ez pass is great, especially with the commuter plans that save hundreds of dollars. i always get a bit chipper when i encounter a 20 mph gate. i hope some day there are 70 mph gates.

Most of the ones entering the NJ turnpike (Edit: from PA or NYC) are 45 mph already, Frank... also a few around the Baltimore and DC beltways.

nice! this is progress i can believe in. send some of that tech over to western new york.

(06-20-2010 04:30 PM)frankdouglason Wrote: [ -> ]nice! this is progress i can believe in. send some of that tech over to western new york.

You might have to start paying NJ-scale real estate taxes to get it...

no, no, no. no more money. we have a special government agency in new york state for the thruway, which was supposed to stop collecting tolls in 1998, but still collects (and raises) tolls for upkeep, despite the thruway being in no better condition than any other major highway in the area. they can use all that slush money to upgrade the ez pass gates.

(06-20-2010 04:27 PM)frankdouglason Wrote: [ -> ]i always get a bit chipper when i encounter a 20 mph gate.

Are you turning into a Cockney?

(06-20-2010 05:14 PM)Yaaay Wrote: [ -> ]

(06-20-2010 04:27 PM)frankdouglason Wrote: [ -> ]i always get a bit chipper when i encounter a 20 mph gate.

Are you turning into a Cockney?

right-o, gov'na!

(06-20-2010 04:28 PM)gr Wrote: [ -> ]

(06-20-2010 04:27 PM)frankdouglason Wrote: [ -> ]ez pass is great, especially with the commuter plans that save hundreds of dollars. i always get a bit chipper when i encounter a 20 mph gate. i hope some day there are 70 mph gates.

Most of the ones entering the NJ turnpike (Edit: from PA or NYC) are 45 mph already, Frank... also a few around the Baltimore and DC beltways.

Ah. That explains what that funny grey plastic box stuck to the windscreen of our rental Toyota hybrid was last month.

(Incidentally, we were blown away by the fuel economy of that thing. We hired a basic petrol Intermediate a few days later and really noticed the difference - it also says something about the rise in fuel costs in the US, I guess.
Welcome to the Real World, folks)

Welcome to the world of Hybrids, not all marketing and bluff.

my mom has a prius, and i am not a fan by any means, but the mileage is legitimately in the mid- to high-40s.

(06-20-2010 07:26 PM)frankdouglason Wrote: [ -> ]my mom has a prius, and i am not a fan by any means, but the mileage is legitimately in the mid- to high-40s.

Not at interesting speeds it isn't. (Trust me, I've been there.)

the prius isn't capable of anything interesting.

Somewhere on Top Gear (UK) there's a comparison between the Prius and the latest BMW 520i.

As I recall, in real-like driving the BMW was almost as economical, 2s faster to 60mph, had a 20mph higher top speed, was a lot roomier, was very much nicer to drive, is around the same price, has around the same resale value, and has a vastly sharper image (i.e. no-one thinks you're a tofu-eating, sandal-with-sock-wearing muppet: as a BMW owner I've already made the down payments on the image issues that some of the uninformed associate with the marque, so f##k off Mr Brazier!). Also you don't have the environmental risk that someone might not have figured out how to dispose safely of all those kilogrammes of nasty, toxic batteries in 15 years time when they've died.

I rest my case (not that I've checked any of these facts, of course).

no, that test was a silly top gear comparison, just because they hate the prius (and really, who doesn't?), not a real comparison. they had one person drive the prius as fast as he could, and another person drive the bmw just fast enough to stay with the prius. under those conditions, the prius is less economical because it was getting flogged and bmw was just slightly sporting around.

---

they made the point that how you drive is as important as what you drive, so if you're going to drive for fun, the prius isn't doing you any favors.

Hey!, All I'm doing is nurturing a stereotype. I didn't create it.

As for the batteries, I haven't kept any hybrid more than two years. I don't think the batteries will last more then 5 years.

(06-21-2010 04:20 PM)frankdouglason Wrote: [ -> ]the prius is less economical because it was getting flogged and bmw was just slightly sporting around.

---

they made the point that how you drive is as important as what you drive, so if you're going to drive for fun, the prius isn't doing you any favors.

Yes, that is rather my point.

no, that was not your point. you were talking about real life driving. in real life driving, the prius gets mid-40s mpg, while an average car gets 30 and an average suv/truck gets 25.

top gear was demonstrating track day driving, and anybody who takes a prius to a track day should be bludgeoned.

Well I'll probably give you that on the absolute mpg figures (although we haven't actually compared real-life Prius and 520i results and a lot'll depend on just how one drives) but there are a lot of other points in the Beemer's favour!

oh, the bmw is without a doubt the superior car. the prius is a one trick pony, and it's a trick that is not high on my priority list, but it does that trick well. i'd take the bmw in a heartbeat, and i don't even like bmws.