---
title: Cannonball Run
slug: cannonball-run
description: Today I learned that the Cannonball record was broke again during Covid.
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  - name: David Windham
    title: Something Else
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tags: [movies]
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---

Today I learned that the Cannonball record was broke again during Covid. 

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The dive started with a conversation about analog vs. digital dashboards in cars which got me to thinking about Jackie Chan's Subaru and Mitsubushi in _The Cannonball Run_ movies. The first thing I noticed is that both movies have almost exactly the same intro so I laid em on top of one another. 

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I remember doing a bit of a dive on the race after watching a documentary on Will Wright, _The SIMs_ game designer who previously held the record. I also watched the doc on the fellas who broke it again in the early 2000s, but yesterday I learned that it was broken several more times during COVID because of the lack of traffic. Needless to say, there is a seemingly endless supply of trivia related to _The Cannonball Run_ movies[^1] and[^2] the race[^3]. 

Here's a quick list of other factoids on em:

- _Enter the Dragon_ company produced it
- producer of _The Godfather_ is in it
- directed by _Smokey and the Bandit_ writer
- fella who invented the race wrote the movie
- final appearance of The Rat Pack
- stars Terry Bradshaw, Joe Theismann, and Sid Ceasar?
- features Peter Fonda wearing the same outfit as _Easy Rider_
- the list here is pretty fairly endless

We talked about it a bit last night and it's just fun movies. I can just imagine the fellas sitting around a table in New York guessing how fast they could make it to Los Angeles and then throwing down bets on it. Likely more art imitating real life than we'll ever know. 


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[^1]: _The Cannonball Run_ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cannonball_Run
[^2]: _Cannonball Run II_ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Run_II
[^3]: Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Baker_Sea-to-Shining-Sea_Memorial_Trophy_Dash