So here’s the deal. For the last five years Team Polizei’s web presence - not including social networking pages - has been comprised of this blog (gumball144.com), Team Polizei’s portal and the Polizei 144 clothing store. Not any more.
As of this weekend, this is going to change. Why? Firstly, since our gumball144.com blog is our most popular site, we want to move away from being identified off the cuff as a representative or employee of the Gumball, which we never were, and are not. In the next 24 hours the gumball144.com URL will be re-directed to our new blog, featuring a new and faster server, more content, improved search and commenting, and all archives dating back to our humble beginnings 5+ years ago.
Here’s a snippet from the one-page of rules and guidelines that was given to each of the participants in the 1981 U.S. Express. Almost jokingly - and perhaps for the sake of laibility - drivers were encouraged to comply with the laws of the state through which they travelled (speed limits excluded?). For the entire sheet, clck here.
Adam, assistant editor of 32:07, gives us a brief update on the post-production process. Cory and the edting team believe it’ll be around six weeks before they find out whether or not it was accepted. During the waiting period, Cory says they’ll be going over footage to put together a trailer.
32 Hours 7 Minutes is done. Locked. Well, almost. The music is almost done. But I’ve seen it. All 98 minutes, and, amazingly, Cory Welles somehow managed to include about 90 minutes of fantastic footage I’d never seen before, which is hard to believe…since I’ve watched a three hour rough cut about 200 times in the last year.
"This is designed to be the best software to defeat that 32:07 record that now stands." Isn’t the record 31:04? In this video Mark Nicholson of EyePatch Films, introduces a software package that integrates essentially all the systems that were used in 144A, with some new additions, in an attempt to break the Roy/Maher NY-LA record by using a ‘07 BMW Z4 M Coupe. We’re not sure it’s particularly wise to announce that you’re going to break the record lest you want to invite surveillance by numerous law enforcement agencies. We’re waiting for the record-breaking announcement and the data and the toll receipts and the witnesses, etc.. BTW, Alex doesn’t believe any of this is real.
It’s hard to believe seven years have passed. I’ve no more wisdom or insight now than that Tuesday, at least none other than that passed on by my father. He, one of his family’s few Holocaust survivors, returned to Europe with the U.S. Army in 1944…and was shot and injured when his unit approached one of the first camps to be liberated. When asked about the war, he’d look at me sternly - and say nothing. Mere days before he died I asked him once again, and his words have guided me since the day I stood - a year and a half later - at the intersection of Liberty & Nassau streets.
144B suffered a setback courtesy of I-40 in New Mexico. Just east of Tucumcari around 4am Mountain, the M5 lost pressure in a rear tire. Given that the spare in the car was for the front and wouldn’t clear the rear Brembo caliper, Alex, Liz and Andrea had no choice but to call for a flatbed to haul the Interceptor into Amarillo, Texas for a tire change. We’ll update you as soon as they’re back on the highway. In the meantime, are they brave enough to tackle the 72-oz. steak?
UPDATE: As of 13:27 CDT, the crew was back on the road, across the Texas Panhandle and headed for Oklahoma City.
At 12:41 PM today, Alex, Liz Moses of the "80-in-40" campaign and Gumball 2007 veteran Andrea Zurek set off from the Standard Hotel on the Fabulous Sunset Strip in 144B. Their destination? The World Class Driving event in French Lick, Indiana, home of Larry Bird and former location of the Pluto Water bottling plant. Celtics, laxatives and the Polizei? Oh my!
Here’s Edmunds’ take on the WCD experience, and here’s Motor Trend’s. Ours, of course, will follow shortly. Only 2030 miles to go as of 14:07 PDT!
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