A Cadillac Broke The Coast-To-Coast Record With Help From The Team It Beat
A 2022 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing just crossed the US from Jacksonville Beach, Florida, to Dog Beach in San Diego in 22 hours and 38 minutes. The illegal, unsanctioned run started with the tires in the Atlantic sand and ended in the Pacific sand, at an overall average of 104 mph.
That time beat the previous coast-to-coast record by 57 minutes. The crew says much of that margin came from outside help, some of it from the last people you would expect to lend a hand. The run itself began as a far smaller plan than a record attempt.
A Solo Drive Turned Into A Run At The Coast-To-Coast Record
Tommy Thomas had just ended a relationship of more than three years, and like a lot of car guys, he decided to go for a drive. He planned a solo run in his Cadillac from Florida to California and asked Mason, who helps keep the lists that track these runs, to follow along on a tracking app to verify it. Mason bought plane tickets and joined him in the car instead, which turned a quiet drive into a full record attempt.
The car was Thomas’s 2022 CT4-V Blackwing, whose twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter V6 makes 472 hp and 445 lb-ft, and Cadillac fits a six-speed manual as standard. Thomas says the engine is bone stock and that the car has already handled several earlier cross-country runs, so he knew exactly what it would do.
For this run, fuel capacity was raised to 54 gallons to cut down on stops. Inside, the car carried laser jammers, a police scanner that Mason reprogrammed at their Airbnb before the start, and screens running JBV1, Highway Radar and Waze.
The target was a time of 23 hours and 35 minutes, set in 2024 by the team that held the record. Beating it meant averaging just over 100 mph from coast to coast, including every fuel stop.
The Team Who Held The Record Spent The Run Helping Beat It
The team that held the record was Bronson Justice, Rob Spectre and Christopher Michaels, who set their time on August 18, 2024, in a 2017 Chevrolet SS. Instead of sitting this one out, all three helped the Cadillac chase their own mark.
Rob ran Overwatch and mission control for the entire run, using traffic cams to call out clear stretches of road and police waiting at specific exits. When Thomas’s planned gas stops fell through, Rob found new ones on the fly. Thomas said Rob’s updates made him far more relaxed at speed.
Bronson spotted for the Cadillac from Louisiana into Texas, driving ahead to check for police. He also found them a gas station close to the Texas border, and when the Cadillac pulled in, he was standing there holding the pump. He paid for their fuel, sent them on their way, and went back out to spot the road ahead.
Christopher called the crew at the finish and spent 15 to 20 minutes congratulating them. Thomas told VINwiki that safety and camaraderie are what these runs are really about, and that every record is meant to be beaten eventually.
Local enthusiasts also spotted across Texas and California, including Thomas’s son, Steven, who ran ahead of the Cadillac through heavy rain in San Antonio. A friend who had just bought an old Mercedes from Thomas lined up the California spotters.
22 Hours, 38 Minutes, And Barely 22 Minutes Standing Still
The Cadillac covered 2,362.1 miles, hit a top speed of 180 mph, and held a 106 mph moving average. Across the whole run, the crew spent only 21 minutes and 43 seconds stopped, including every fuel stop.
The biggest delay came in Texas, where the Cadillac got stuck behind a DPS trooper for around 80 miles. The team said that watching the average speed fall from 108 mph to around 101 mph was the hardest mental part of the drive.
The new time beats the 24-hour run set in 2018 by Arne Toman, Doug Tabbutt and David Simpson in a Mercedes-AMG E63 S by 1 hour and 22 minutes. It still isn’t a Cannonball record, since that route runs about 2,800 miles from Manhattan to Redondo Beach and its benchmark stands at 25 hours and 39 minutes.
Thomas says the record stands “for now,” because other drivers are already asking him about the route.
Source: VinWiki via Youtube
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