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N0KFQ > TODAY 11.10.14 17:05l 44 Lines 1893 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 37884_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 11
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 141011/1500Z 37884@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Oct 11, 2008:
Blind driver breaks land-speed record
On this day in 2008, a man from Belgium named Luc Costermans sets
a new world speed record for blind drivers: 192 mph. Costermans
set the record in a borrowed Lamborghini Gallardo on a long,
straight stretch of airstrip near Marseilles, France. He was
accompanied by a carload of sophisticated navigational equipment
as well as a human co-pilot, who gave directions from the
Lamborghini's passenger seat.
The record Costermans broke had been set exactly three years
before by the British driver Mike Newman. On that day, Newman had
coaxed his 507-horsepower BMW M5 to a top speed of 178.5 mph.
(Over a measured mile, Newman's speed averaged 167.32 mph.) For
his part, Newman had smashed a 2-year-old record_144.7 mph_that
he had set himself in a borrowed Jaguar, just three days after he
learned to drive. Unlike Costermans, Newman did not race with a
co-pilot or a navigator. Instead, he got his father-in-law to
zoom around the track behind him, shouting directions over the
radio.
Both of these blind record-setters were all-around daredevils who
raced all sorts of vehicles. In 2001, for example, Newman became
the fastest blind motorcycle driver in the world (his record
speed was 89 mph) just four days after learning to ride; five
years later, Costermans flew a small airplane all around France.
(He was joined by an instructor and a navigator.) Another
record-setter, an Englishman named Steve Cunningham, had set the
land-speed record himself in 1999 (147 mph, while driving a
£70,000 Chrysler Viper) at the same time that he held the
sea-speed record for a blind sailor. In 2004, guided by
sophisticated talking navigational software, Cunningham became
the first blind pilot to circumnavigate the United Kingdom by
air.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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