Alex Roy was just recognized as the record holder for driving from NY to Santa Monica pier in 31 hours and 4 minutes, besting the time set by David Diem and Doug Turner, who were clocked in a Ferrari 308 during the 1983 US Express run of 32 hours and seven minutes. That's a sustained 89MPH for over 31 hours. What's made me especially proud is that Alex wrote about automotive laser jammers and radio scanners for Gizmodo under a previous regime. The seven-time world rally champ avoided cops and found his way with a dash full of gadgets, including multiple scanners, jammers, detectors and other mods on his BMW M5. Equipment is documented in the video above, but one thing not emphasized is that the guy had a plane spotting police activity en route.


The actual time was verified by gas station timestamps on credit card receipts and by Jalopnik editors, who witnessed the start and finishes, but Guinness won't have anything to do with verifying illegal acts. The actual race happened a little over a year ago, but Alex couldn't tell anyone of his exploits until the statute of limitations was up in all states he drove through. Congrats to Alex for his spectacular performance. For all the details, there's more at Jalopnik [Departure, Finish, the Record and Gear]


P.S. Ray Wert, editor at Jalopnik, ends the coverage on a sober note, wondering how many more times this record can be beaten before people start dying.