The Cannonball Run: the last race for freedom

From New York to Los Angeles, with no rules, no stopping and no fear. This is the story of the Cannonball Run, the illegal race that became a cult and inspired one of the most iconic films among motoring enthusiasts of the 1980s.
In May 1971, when America was bowing to the oil crisis and the federal government was imposing a national limit of 55 miles per hour, one man decided to say no. His name was Brock Yates, a Car and Driver journalist who believed that crisis was more political than real, a symptom of government interference in an attempt to limit individual freedom. His act of protest? To devise the craziest race in modern history: the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, in honour of Erwin “Cannonball” Baker, who in the 1930s crossed America coast-to-coast without stopping.