FedEx Jet vs Bentley Continental GTC

If anyone is an expert on illicit, high-speed, long-distance driving, it's Alex. Not only a perennial front-of-the-pack finisher in the Gumball and Bullrun rallies, Alex is a student of the history of cross-country blitzes. He's also a producer of the upcoming documentary32 Hours, 7 Minutes, so named for the fastest recognized trip from New York to Los Angeles, set in 1983 during the underground U.S. Express race. And, perhaps most important when you're going to spend 1300 miles in the car with someone, Alex has a good sense of humor. For the 2004 Gumball rally, he wore a Canadian Mountie uniform, but for this job, we agree on a sartorial theme consistent with our role as high-end deliverymen: tuxedos. Here's one other thing about Alex Roy: He's a little bit fanatical about preparation. In rsum-speak, he's what you call detail-oriented. He plots the fastest route on Mapsource software. He identifies all the construction zones, as well as the known radar traps and the criminal speeding thresholds for each state. He prints out the latest weather report for the entire East Coast. He programs his police scanner with state and local frequencies for the nine states we'll pass through. He loads waypoints and ETAs along the route into dual Garmin GPS units, so we'll know if we're hitting our target speed or if we need to pick up the pace. And then there are the countermeasures. In my normal, non-cross-country-racing life, I don't even own a radar detector. I rely on my eyes. Therefore, I hate speeding at night. "One of the biggest misconceptions about driving fast over long distances is that you should maximize daylight driving," Alex says. "You actually need to maximize nighttime driving to avoid traffic, particularly somewhere like I-95." To go fast at night, you need electronic help, so we ship the GTC to AI Design in Tuckahoe, New York. The next morning, I feel very James Bond as AI Design's Kenneth Karasinski walks me through the added equipment. Here I am, wearing a tuxedo while I receive instructions on how to work the laser jammers on my Bentley. Very good, Q. The laser jammers--Blinder M-20s, if you're curious--are mounted just under the front bumper, and they're supposedly legal (although I'm not asking too many tough questions on that front). If they're actively jamming police radar, an LED on the dash will turn from green to red. We also have a Valentine One radar detector with a remote display, the aforementioned police scanner, and a CB radio. The CB's magnetic whip antenna is mounted to the fuel door, because that's the only nonaluminum piece of metal AI can find on the Bentley's bodywork.