Living, working on the road, and driving across the beautiful, endless, empty miles of highways of New Mexico and the Western states of the USA for the last 40 years in dozens of cars, to the extent of approximately 80,000 miles per year, I can identify with this driver. Years ago the rural highway patrol went home after about 2 AM. That knowledge and every type of electronic countermeasure available, enabled me to use the full potential of every car of the day. The tires were the biggest worry. High speed rated Michlins were the best. The 'open range' horses, cattle and Deer, standing or running across the road in the darkness called for very large, high candle power, driving lights. Many 200 mile runs were made in quite a bit less than 2 hours. Remember this was the average speed between two major towns on curved and twisty roads with many hills. The biggest danger is getting 'Velocitised' as the man mentioned. Anything less than 70 miles per hour, seemed like walking speed. Unforeseen 'Events'...were numerous and survived by the Grace of God. Un marked highway construction with earth moving machines left on the highways, across the 'Indian Reservation' was common. Coyotes were numerous and the hits were astounding at speeds far in excess of one hundred mph. The various 'muscle' cars and high horsepower touring cars, with few exceptions, were amazing in the ability to run wide open throttle for over an hour at a time. The turbo powered engines overheated at high 'boost' during extended high speed runs during the Hundred degree plus days across 'The Bisti' desert, in North Western NM. Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Texas were often in the 'loop' with the extreme heat having a detrimental effect. Motorcycles were far too tiring to ride in that manner for any extended time so were used very sparingly. These days a Motor Home is the chosen way for my travels. Read about these much slower adventures on my blog.
http://daflikkers.blogspot.com/
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