Coast-to-coast in under 33 hours? Apex: The Secret Race Across America

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  Roy and Maher used a BMW M5 as their continent-crusher. [credit: Apex ]

There’s a joke that the first motor race was held shortly after the second automobile was built. Humans (some of us, at least) are like that; we see someone going somewhere, and some urge—a voice deep down inside you—says, “I think we need to get there first.” This urge predates the car—Romans were partial to chariots—and it will survive into a post-automobile, mobility future. It’s a broad church of a sport, encompassing everything from big-factory racing programs to like-minded people hanging out at weekends, often in the middle of nowhere, frequently with beer afterward.

And then there’s the unofficial side. Like the people who race from coast to coast, just to see who can do it faster. That’s the subject of Apex: The Secret Race Across America.

We’ve delved into the world of coast-to-coast speed runs before. Earlier this year, Gareth Jones tried to set a new record across England and Scotland in an electric vehicle. And a few years back, we told you the tale of Alex Roy reaching Los Angeles from New York in record time in a Tesla. This record has since been broken three times by Model 3s; once by Roy and co., then twice on the same day.