Cannonball! World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race Book

Car-guy extraordinaire Brock Yates organized and participated in five Cannonball Runs in the 1970s.

What's a Cannonball ? it is a race against the clock, but you just may see some of your competitors along the way, from New York City to Los Angeles.

Of course the idea is to -go fast- so it may be likely you would chose a sporty car, like an exotic Ferrari Daytona, or muscly Dodge Challenger, but since law enforcement will not be smiling upon you, you may try the less sleek, but stealthy transportation of a Cadillac limousine, pickup truck, or Ambulance.

Just like the race, author Yates organizes and participates in his book; he writes the intro to each chapter, one for each race and then the various other participants contribute a page or two on their perspective of getting lost or arrested or dealing with different parts of their cars not working or falling off.

It reads like a fun magazine article, which parts of it are. Your enjoyment will be based on your interest in the wild side of autos and their drivers, but it is not nuts and bolts of engines etc and there are plenty of fun photos.

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Yates and the various racers often exclaim what a wild, crazy and outlaw thing they are doing ! I was in my teens and 20s during the 70s and though I was not aware of any Cannonballs going on, like any young man with the urge to drive I had my own goals, which I accomplished with my 2 seat '68 AMX 343ci, 280hp, Red, complete with white racing stripes, yes a powerful police magnet.

One fine day I drove around all of Lake Erie, with stops in Toronto and Niagara Falls, as my girlfriend and I were too young to stay overnight together. On a solo adventure, I drove to California quickly, but with touristy stops along the way, but then I returned cross-country as fast as I could go, stops only for petrol and there better be a burger doodle nearby. Now I wasn't doing 130mph (972kph) like some of the folks in Cannonball, but the speed limit was the painful 55mph during some of those years so for me and the possibility of an expensive traffic ticket, doing 75 or 85mph was daring ! Now that I write that, ok maybe it was all wild and crazy, and now over 40 years later, I still own that car.