Illegal Record Smashed by V8 Holden Commodore

A Texan man has smashed the unofficial – and illegal – coast-to-coast record in the USA, completing the task in an Australian-made Holden.

Sold as the 2017 Chevrolet SS, the V8-powered sedan was chosen by Bronson Justice to complete the trip, after considering a Chevrolet Caprice ex-police car – also built by Holden – he told the VinWiki YouTube channel.

The “unicorn” Chevrolet with a manual transmission was rebadged back to a Holden to help confuse passers-by, with Justice heading a small team to make the run from the East Coast to the West Coast of the US.

While the Chevrolet SS came out with a 6.2-litre naturally-aspirated V8 produced in excess of 300kW and 570Nm, Justice replaced a damaged camshaft with an aftermarket item to increase performance prior to the attempt.

Rather than the traditional ‘Cannonball Run’ from New York City to Redondo Beach in Los Angeles, the team instead left from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Diego, California – known as the ‘Southern Run’ or the ‘Spanish Trail’.

Using radar detectors, Waze crowd-sourced satellite navigation, and other high-tech gadgets – along with an additional 83-litre auxiliary fuel tank – Justice and his two associates did the trip in less than 24 hours, marking a new record.

The team also had someone on the ground back home helping the crew, which they referred to as ‘Mission Control’, as well as spotters along the route relaying information back.

“I said, it’s now or never. Somebody is going to do it before I get a chance to do it,” Justice said in the interview.

“We just had to trust our equipment, trust mission control and go for it.

“We were the first team to cross the country in one day under 24 hours. It’s been a dream of mine to get it done for two or three years. We accomplished it.”

Despite encountering police along the way – and dealing with a delaminated tyre – a screenshot of a GPS smartphone app shows the average speed over a distance of 565 kilometres as being 188km/h.

While Justice claims the coast-to-coast record, the coveted Cannonball Run record remains with Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt, who completed the trip in late 2020 in an Audi S6 – clocking a time of 25 hours and 39 minutes at an average speed of 180km/h.