The Battle of Rome continues. Last week we released Part 1. Here’s Part 2.
You may read the full story in the most infamous chapter of “The Driver“…
…for neither video tells the full story.
I retired from such events years ago, with good reason.
See you at Lemons. Or Grand Am. Or Targa. Or Dakar.
Or…somewhere up North.
Far up north.
Or east…
(@ Autoblog’s Zach Bowman: Thanks for the link love.)
The Battle of Rome.
Team Polizei’s finest (and most infamous) hour.
The epic 100+ mile race through Italy at 120+ miles per hour, as described in The Driver.
Polizei M5 144A vs. a Porsche 996 Turbo X50.
Only now, five years after the expiration of the last relevant European legal statutes, we can finally make public the video of our heretofore unseen battle against Spencer Bourne, a legend among both UK Porsche Club racers & the Gumball 3000′s inner circle of veterans. And yes – for them – it was a race.
Those days may be over, but the story of what did occur on the Gumball between 2003 and 2007 has yet to be told.
Until now.
Behold…The Battle of Rome.
Part 1.
Alex Roy & Josh Vietze depart from Mission Control in NYC, piloting the legendary Polizei Interceptor 144A to Daytona Raceway in Florida. After 1 Amtrak Autotrain Suite, 1 Amtrak open bar, 1 Amtrak cheese buffet, 6 hours of Civilization IV: Warlords, 5 hours sleep, 32 coffees, 1 traffic stop, 1 police warning, 25 law enforcement sightings, countless Black & Mild Wood Tips, 24 hours in Daytona, 1 missed Autotrain home, 1 snowstorm and too many photos to count, we bring you this video.
Alex Roy, J.F. Musial, and Josh Vietze depart from Mission Control in NYC, piloting the legendary Polizei Interceptor 144A to Homestead Raceway in Miami. After 22 leisurely hours, 14 coffees, 67 law enforcement sightings, countless Black & Mild Wood Tips, 2 Waffle House Aprons, and 4,435 photos, we bring you this video.
TURN UP THE VOLUME & watch in HD if you can.
THIS is IT.
THIS is what all of the videos we’ve posted in recent months…yes…THOSE videos which had no apparent purpose or explanation…THIS is what they’ve all been leading up to:
Behold. Polizei Interceptor 144P in ALL its tentacled glory.
Watch as Rene Villeneuve takes her around Infineon Raceway for the first time as we prep for our debut at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Sunday May 17th.
I couldn’t be more proud than to see Villeneuve & Henri Richard pilot 144P in Polizei livery starting this Sunday.
I wish them the best of luck.
THE world’s most infamous Audi R8 – codenamed “Blackbird” – is for sale by one very discreet owner. If I could afford it, it’s availability would never have been made public, as the owner was kind enough to call me before putting it on the market. Without a doubt, the Blackbird is one of only three cars Team Polizei is aware of that matches or surpasses our own Polizei M5 144A or B. With aftermarket work – both mechanical and electronic – installed by our very own good friends at AI Design, anyone interested in owning something with very unique and rare capabilities should contact the owner at agentr8@gmail.com.
The full gallery can be seen here.
The infamous video of my first inspection of the car is here:
Trapster, Trapster, Trapster…We made it…and owe part of our success to Trapster. Don’t use it? Download it now. It’s free, and if you have an IPhone and like to drive…utterly indispensible. Of course, I use it on a Dash Express GPS as well…
…and today I’m off in Polizei 144B to visit Trapster HQ to learn its secrets straight from the source.
Team Polizei is on the move. Again. With neue piloten.
We’re packing up Polizei 144B and setting off on a cross-country jaunt with race driver and veteran Skip Barber/Audi Driving Experience instructor Rene Villeneuve and the vaunted Tim Ferriss, noted blogger, kickboxer (sport of the future!) and author of the New York Times bestseller The 4-Hour Work Week.
Polizei 144B has once again been freshly, er, refreshed by the Polizei stalwarts at Ai Design, Roy and Johnson are fueled on a cocktail of caffeine, their trademark manic banter and the Mission of Burma DLC for Rock Band (“That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” being a deceptively tough track.) We’ll be overnighting in Oklahoma City with 2008 Gumball US champion Jack Wheeler, meeting up with Rene and then setting off for Los Angeles.
Why, you ask? Along the way, we’ll be testing numerous cutting edge GPS/logging/tracking hardware & software, starting with some very interesting gear from Team Polizei’s new allies over at EveryTrail.com, along with a lot of new and as-yet unrevealed gear and tactics.
We’re just on vacation, of course, and we’ll be sharing much more in the hours to come. Tonight. Live tracking. Video. Real-time logging and content. Trapster. Convoys….
More to follow…
“First has a quality all its own,” at least according to Polizei Master Pilot Michael Ross.
Recognize that image? How about the map? Yes, the infamous Gumball ALK CoPilot live GPS track which inspired Polizei 144 uber-kreator Josh Vietze to create our first new shirt design in two years. (Hint: Here’s the back-story.)
In production and weeks away, now you too can pre-order the commemorative Athens-Tirana GeoTrack T-Shirt by clicking through to the Polizei 144 store…
I’ve left New York. What started as a ten-day trip to hammer out some business with Alex turned into five weeks of sleeping on his blue velour sectional, plenty of brainstorming, a ton of new friends and adventures the wooly world of startups that I couldn’t conceive of when I boarded that eastbound redeye in Sacramento over 4th of July weekend. But come to an end it has. We’re off to Monterey in 144B. We’ve enlisted the talents of Autoblog‘s resident Northern California boy, Damon Lavrinc, to handle additional driving duties. We’re also attempting to warp the poor man’s brain. We’ve never attempted a driveplan that involved meeting an airline flight before, but that’s exactly what we’ll be attempting this time when we pick up Liz Moses.
She claims that she’ll bring some much-needed sense to the proceedings, but we’re a bit curious as to how much sense anyone who hitches a ride in a fake German police car crewed by a bald man, a bearded man and a blogging man could possibly have. Nevertheless, we intend to make our trek a memorable one. We’ll be broadcasting live video from Seero, as well as putting together one of our signature maps. We’ll be ruminating on the nature of driving in today’s America, passing through hamlets large and small as we travel the entire length of Interstate 80 — from the George Washington Bridge in New York to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, then tooling down 101 through Silicon Valley and south to Steinbeck Country — where we’ll take in the goings on during what’s internationally recognized as the most fantastic collection of automotive events in one weekend. If you call yourself a car guy and haven’t made it to Monterey, mark your calendars. And once you experience it, you’ll want to come back every year.
We’ll see you on the shores of the Pacific. Meanwhile, consider 80 in 40: NY/SF a go.
