Some of you may already know about this, other’s may not. Either way, doesn’t hurt to post it again! Will Wright had his crazy days, much like everyone has had when they were young. GasPedalAddicts has a very short article with Will Wright and his “hot-rodding racing” days.
“Ha-ha! I challange you, Ha-ha!”
The U.S. Express is the successor to the great Cannonball Run, a race across the US continent that took place in the 1970’s. The Cannonball Run later had a movie created in its name, as most know, that was put together by Brock Yates; an early participant who then dropped out upon making the film. Rick Doherty, who had done the Cannonball Run with Yates, decided to get the race back together under a different name.
Will Wright ended up partnering with Doherty for the race, which they later won, placing in first with a time of 33 hours and 9 minutes. They ran the race with a small Mazda RX-7 coupe that they in turn modified in order to participate. They added a larger fuel cell canister that would disperse fuel into the original fuel tank when they were low and also added a couple radar detectors, a CB radio, a police scanner, night vision devices and a driver/co-driver communication system.
Wright claimed they tried out the night vision goggles once during the whole run and quickly discarded the idea.
“We tried driving with the lights off in the Mojave Desert, but … driving with the wheel in one hand, goggles in the other scared the crap out of me,” he says.
