I feel like a bad fan-boy. The Cannonball Run is one of my all time favorite movies (stop your snickering) and I had no idea it was based on a real thing. The HowStufffWorks.com podcast came up on my iPod this morning and it was all about the Cannonball Run. It was an actual thing. They ran it five times and no one ever got hurt. The movie was originally supposed to be a drama and Burt Reynolds' part was intended for Steve McQueen. Lots of things in the movie are actually true. Racers posing as ambulance drivers rushing a sick patient across the country, racers posing as priests, a wealthy racer in a chauffeured Rolls Royce. The name of the finish line even made it into the movie intact, the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, CA.

[ Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:18:43 -0700 ]

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