‘Boring Looking’ Audi S6 Made for a Perfect Cannonball Car

The latest Cannonball Run record was set with an Audi S6 brilliantly disguised to look like a cop car.

Attempting a Cannonball Run record is controversial, to put it mildly. The object, for those are unaware, is to make it from the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach, California, as fast as possible. Other the starting and finishing points, there are no rules, and along with a fast car, a flagrant disregard for traffic laws is a requirement. So if unrepentant vehicular hooliganism isn’t your cup of tea? You should probably stop reading now.

Now, before the pandemic hit the United States, the record was held by Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt, who made the trip in an impressive 27 hours and 25 minutes, using a Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG. But during COVID-19 crisis, the empty roads inspired not one, but two challengers. One unnamed team used an Audi A8 to make the trip in 26 hours and 38 minutes, while a man named Fred Ashmore managed to do it in 25 hours and 55 minutes, using a rented sixth-gen Mustang. In an amusing turn of events, some newly pious Cannonball fans actually cried foul, and said those records shouldn’t count, since the empty roads gave an unfair advantage.

Both Toman and Tabbutt thought the runs were fair game however, and set out to take back their record. But since the big Benz had been recently rear-ended, they needed a car — and an Audi S6 proved just the ticket.