By Alison Fox
December 09, 2019

Traveling as fast as they could, three men claim they broke the cross-country driving record, making it from New York City to Los Angeles in only 27 hours and 25 minutes.

The three men, Arne Toman, Douglas Tabbutt, and Berkeley Chadwick, told CNN they raced across the country in what is called the “Cannonball Run,” beating the previous record by more than an hour. They reportedly drove an average speed of 103 miles per hour — and hit as high as 193.

Cross country road trip - Cannonball run record
Credit: George Clerk/Getty Images

Surprisingly, they said they didn’t get pulled over during their daring race.

"Holding the 'Cannonball' record is a lifelong dream of mine," Toman told CNN. "I have no intentions of trying to do it again. We had perfect weather, traffic, no construction, etc. I don't think you could recreate that or the good luck we had without having police interactions."

The trio first took off from the Big Apple on Nov. 11 at 12:57 a.m., according to CNN, arriving in LA just over a day later. The speed demons chose a "heavily prepared" Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG for their sprint with upgrades to the exhaust, according to CNN. The two turbochargers in the engines produced more than 800 horsepower for the ride.

They told CNN they took advantage of “every navigational aid and police counter-measure known to man,” utilizing technology like Waze and radar detectors as well as nearly 20 scouts to give police the slip.

"It was a team effort as we… have dreamt of one day holding the record,” Toman said. “Normally it's just one person's passion who has to handle everything and then has to go out and convince someone to come with."

The previous record was held by Ed Bolian and Dave Black, who did the drive in 28 hours and 50 minutes in 2013, according to Road & Track, which first reported the latest feat. And in 2016, a motorcyclist completed the race in 38 hours and 49 minutes.

While we can imagine hurtling across the country would be fun, it's important to note it's not a safe thing to do, for yourself or others on the road. The Governors Highway Safety Association criticized the effort, telling CBS News that "speeding is widely deemed culturally acceptable by the motoring public. We need to change that narrative and make speeding as socially unacceptable as drunk driving."