Matt arrived with Christian, a German physics grad student at the University of Denver, who had a Wolfsburg Edition Turbo Volkswagen Golf. It had a redline of 8500 rpm, and a tremendous amount of horsepower for its light weight.

When they picked me up, they already drove about 4 hours from Denver to Aspen. When we took the "tour route" along the Colorado River into Utah, they were ready for sleep, and I took over driving. This was around midnight.

With two asleep passengers and no viable navigator, I pushed that VW Golf to the max along the Colorado river route into Utah and down to Arizona. I found out that the car topped out handily at 135 mph, cruised on straightaways at 115mph, but still handled well on level corners up to about 95mph. We made time like you would not believe.

As we entered Arizona, we were greeted by the rising sun on the left to the east, with a setting full moon to the right on the west, at exactly the same time. I stopped the fast car in the middle of the desert to watch the simultaneous event, and everyone woke up and saw it, and then Matt and Christian went back to sleep right after that. 

Matt and Christian woke up again in the northern Arizona desert at a landmark that I forget, and I told them where we were. Matt looked at the map and said, "We're about 2 hours ahead of schedule!" I said, "Yes, at 115 mph we are making really good time indeed."

He said, "One hundred fifteen? That can't be legal."

He asked about the oil temperature, and I showed him that the temp was elevated but normal.

Eventually, I burned out, and I handed over the VW to Christian and he drove it into Phoenix Metro. End of story.