DAVID MAHER: Got lasers.
Being jammed, being jammed.
ALEX ROY: Live and Let Drive is a road trip show.
But today, instead of a road trip, we're going to talk
about how to go on road trip.
Which is why we're here today at beautiful Monticello Motor
Club with my 2000 E-39 BMW M5, the greatest BMW ever made.
And I'm not talking about the E-39.
I'm referring to my specific BMW M5.
The world's most infamous M5, the car which I took around
the world--
Thailand, Albania, North Africa, and across country to
break the cross-country record.
New York to LA in 31 hours and four minutes.
A drive I took with my old friend David Maher, the
greatest driver I've ever met.
DAVID MAHER: Alex, good to see you, as always.
ALEX ROY: Good to see you.
DAVID MAHER: And thanks for the accolades, but clearly you
haven't met a lot of drivers if you think I'm the greatest
one you've ever met.
ALEX ROY: Eight years ago, when I first called
you, that was true.
I didn't even know how to drive myself.
But in those eight years, I've met a lot of drivers, and I've
actually gone to the track.
And were I, say, to wake up and want to break our own
record, without a doubt, you're the
only man I would call.
DAVID MAHER: And even though that would never happen--
ALEX ROY: Never.
DAVID MAHER: 'Cause that's illegal--
ALEX ROY: It's illegal.
DAVID MAHER: I would probably say yes.
And the reason is because we have two totally different
styles of driving.
You, while you're a little bit more cautious behind the
wheel, you're also very focused on all the
intangibles, whether it be the weather, the cops, the radar,
this, the lasers.
And me, having spent over a decade now doing track-driving
instructing at Porsche Club, et cetera, I think that I feel
more comfortable.
I speed behind the wheel.
ALEX ROY: Let's just say he called me a coward.
I thought he was irresponsible.
Somewhere between is the answer to safe driving.
In the last 10 years, when one ostensibly would say that I
was "racing," most of what I was doing was
actually street racing.
Street racing while on road trips.
It was very irresponsible.
But in the last 10 years, I've gone from getting tickets
fairly frequently and becoming notorious for doing so in a
humorous way.
I realized that I actually didn't care so much about
driving fast as about just driving.
In 2007, after my book came out, we went public with the
cross-country record, I began to get very weird phone calls
from the FBI, from MIT, from Stanford, from Google, asking
me to come explain how we did what we did.
They weren't interested specifically in driving fast,
but how it was we drove from A to B safely.
We spent, when we were planning to go cross-country,
hundreds of hours of preparation for every one hour
in the car.
It's a ratio that's the opposite of the average person
who gets in an accident.
The list of things one must do to drive safely from A to B at
any speed are so obvious that for us to have accomplished
what we did was not that big of a stretch over the common,
everyday things the average driver often overlooks.
Step one.
Check your tire pressure.
Five bucks.
Buy a gauge.
Any gas station.
Going on a long road trip?
Check your tire pressure.
Step two.
Check your mirrors.
Step three.
No clutter in the car, in case you have an accident.
For example, why would anyone have a bullhorn in their car?
Well, I do.
Very dangerous.
Bad idea.
This empty bottle makes me look like a meth head.
Number four.
Don't draw attention to yourself.
For example, a headlight that stops working when you hit a
bump, like mine?
Very foolish.
And then you have this.
You should know the laws of the jurisdiction in which you
reside and in which you will be driving.
For example, New York state, where I live, requires your
front plate.
My car, no front plate.
Very foolish.
Number five.
Passing.
Safe pass.
Today at Monticello Motor Club, we learned--
or at least got reminded of-- what it means to pass safely.
Monticello's one of the longest back straights in the
United States, a safe environment to learn or
relearn the lesson even I've forgotten from time to time.
Point number five.
Passing techniques.
Here, David Maher demonstrates how not to pass someone who
won't get out of the left lane, something that I did
going cross-country when I passed a busload of nuns and
almost went to jail for it.
The difference between someone calling you an asshole and
calling the police and saying, this asshole just passed me,
depends completely on how you execute the pass.
And if and when they do move, give them space to move out of
the way and feel comfortable that you're not going to do
something that makes them feel in additional danger.
Six.
Know your tools.
Don't assume that because you have a radar detector, a laser
jammer, a police scanner, better tires, bigger brakes,
or a great car, that you are as good as any of the devices.
A tool is only as effective as the user's knowledge of it.
We'll now demonstrate the correct way
to go over a crest.
Coming up at illegal speeds, not that we
would ever do that.
Maher, would you?
No.
DAVID MAHER: Of course not, but as you're coming up, then
I'd say, damn, right now you're
getting your radar signal.
And then there he is.
Now you have your visual, the cop.
ALEX ROY: And there he is.
We've got him.
Has he got us?
I don't know, because we slowed down before the crest
to the speed limit.
A radar gun can hit you a quarter- to a half-mile away,
but frequently is the employed to hit you at
a few hundred feet.
You really should not be using a detector or a jammer to
drive at any speed unless you understand how they work.
DAVID MAHER: So Alex, what you're saying is with a radar,
since it's through the airwaves, your detector can
pick that up without being line-of-sight, whereas with a
laser, you need to have a direct point at you before it
gets picked up?
ALEX ROY: Correct.
Radar signals bounce and reflect like radio.
So over a hill, you'll pick up radar.
But laser, you won't pick until he's hit you.
Your only shot is to have a pair of jammers or slow down
before he hits you.
Let's see if that works this time.
[LASER ALARM BEEPING]
ALEX ROY: I've got lasers.
DAVID MAHER: Being jammed, being jammed.
Looks like we had a full jam that time.
The jammers fully worked.
MALE SPEAKER ON RADIO: No read at all.
DAVID MAHER: So the cop got no read on us, which meant that
the jammers worked up until and past the point where we
went by the cop.
ALEX ROY: Most people derive a false sense of security from
everything that they buy.
Because you can afford it doesn't mean you know it.
MALE SPEAKER: [BLEEP]
weird.
ALEX ROY: Why?
It worked?
MALE SPEAKER: I'm always getting the rear of your car.
Just not the front.
ALEX ROY: Because the front's covered with anti-laser paint.
MALE SPEAKER: That's what I was thinking, yeah.
ALEX ROY: Appendix point number four.
Although it will cause your headlights to be a little
dimmer, and therefore make it less safe to drive at night,
Laser VEIL anti-laser coating does appear to have quite a
mitigating effect on the effectiveness of--
effect, effectiveness--
of laser guns.
I may not have gotten a ticket in a long time, but I deserved
almost every ticket I ever got.
But I would go absolutely bonkers if I, like many people
today, received a ticket I didn't deserve.
It's obvious that this happens all the time.
In New Jersey, today, if you get a ticket, you can pay a
double fine to avoid getting points, which is like the most
transparent proof of the absolutely outrageous thing
that speeding tickets has become.
Follow these basic tips.
Drive more safely at any speed.
And in another episode, we'll get into exactly how to use a
radar detector and laser jammer in order to avoid other
problems with the law.
Not that I would ever suggest that.
Ever.
Would I?
[TIRES SQUEALING]
MALE SPEAKER: That's enough.
Let him go.
MALE SPEAKER: Telltale signs for the cops to know you've
been speeding.
ALEX ROY: Seriously.
DAVID MAHER: So get up to where you wanted to
do the first one.
Put the clutch in, rev the engine, cut the clutch.
[TIRES SQUEALING]
ALEX ROY: Totally awesome!
[LAUGHS]
Wow.
It's so easy, I should have been doing this all my life.
Never did a doughnut before.
MALE SPEAKER: That's good.
Have fun?
DAVID MAHER: Isn't that fun?
Enjoy that?
ALEX ROY: This now will be my drift car.
[ALL LAUGH]
ALEX ROY: I will make you my drift--