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Car vs train across the United States

A modern, decidedly Top Gear homage to the great Blue Train races: a head-to-head between Amtrak and a Bentley Continental...

Posted: 19 Dec 2012

According to my - admittedly sketchy - notes, after 53hrs 40mins, 2,541 miles, nine fuel stops, 16 cans of Red Bull, four jumbo packets of trail mix, three hours' sleep in a bed and seven fairly major arguments, the Bentley GTC V8 beat the train into Emeryville station by 7mins 40secs.

I watch the man in the pith helmet disembark the train, rested, refreshed and ready for the day ahead, and know that the California Zephyr is an awesome thing. But as I sit in the car park, leaning back against the front bumper of my Bentley and hallucinating with fatigue, I look up at the sky and swear I can see the face of Woolf ‘Babe' Barnato outlined in the clouds. And he's smiling.

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