What is this?
This is another one of Jim's bad ideas coming to life. For a bachelor party, instead of the typical night of drinking, Jim suggested a Cannonball Run - a nonstop drive across the country as depicted in the 1981 classic of the same name.
Steve and Craig agreed.
This is our story.
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We decided that we were probably not going to be setting any overall records, so instead we should have a little fun. We purchased a 1995 Rolls Royce Flying Spur. If you're going to be in a car for over 30 hours straight, it might as well be comfortable, right?
Go!
The concept of a Cannonball is to start at the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan NYC and drive to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach CA in as short a time as possible.​​​
Don't Stop
There are many different approaches one can research on YouTube, Wikipedia, likely the Dark Web, or whatever your choice is. Our strategy was to just make it there in an old Rolls.
The biggest time loss - aside from common sense and/or law enforcement - comes from having to stop to get gas. In order to minimize that, we added a second gas tank in the trunk, which is a common approach among those who take their fun seriously. We added a selector valve that can be toggled in the cabin to change which tank the car will use. The auxiliary tank holds something like 67 gallons and the main Rolls-Royce tank that came with the car is 22, giving the car a total capacity of 89 gallons of gas, and potential range of over 1,500 miles without stopping. But probably more like 900 miles. Or hopefully 950 miles so we only have to stop twice between NY and LA.
Prepare
We performed a lot of routine and preventative maintenance on the car. We've changed the belts, many of the coolant hoses, all of the fuel lines, fuel pump, spark plugs, brake fluid, very unusual "suspension spheres," and the list goes on. It turns out working on a Rolls Royce six and three quarters (engine is 6.75 liters) has been a large source of frustration. Occasionally we have been surprised at how easy some jobs are. On the whole, maybe more profanity than our usual work on Toyotas and Porsches?
Tires
You might think that getting tires for a car would be an easy afternoon chore. But you'd be very, very wrong if you own a Flying Spur -- and utterly as shocked as we were. It turns out that Rolls-Royce made a custom size tire (speed rating, etc.) for this car. The wheels are different than anything else they made as well. Tires in the correct size are now unobtanium. Literally. So Jim bought a set of Bentley wheels (5 including a spare), which didn't fit. So he bought another set of Bentley wheels that ended up fitting, but would only allow for slightly smaller tires. For those uninitiated into the world of low volume, British luxury cars, do your research first. Or make sure you have a wad of cash. But actually, both. Side note, if you or anyone you know, is interested in a set of Bentley wheels for an early 2000's Arnage (including a beat to crap, spray painted spare), operators will be standing by ready to negotiate.
Unicorn
This is a special car. Behold the 1995 Rolls Royce Flying Spur. The "base" model of the era is the Silver Spirit. Graceful luxury. Add 4" of rear leg room, tray tables for your Grey Poupon and other perks and they call it the Silver Spur. Slap on the engine goodies a from a Bentley Turbo R and even MORE wood to the interior, and behold the Flying Spur. $225,000 in 1995 dollars. WAAAAAY less as a used car in 2025.
Rolls-Royce only made Flying Spurs for one year. And only 134 worldwide, 50 of which came to the US. Ours is #48.
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It's in extremely nice condition so we did not hack up the car with any of our modifications. Everything is reversible.
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The car's hydraulic suspension levels out beautifully - even with the additional weight in the trunk from the auxiliary tank.
Sponsors
We'd like to give a big thanks to our sponsors on this project:
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Heavy D’s Shadetree Garage, Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Land Cruiser Emporium (special shout out to Charley, the shop manager)