Over at Wired, they have a really neat article discussing how SimCity/The Sims designer Will Wright competed and won the 'U.S. Express' race across America in 1980, making it from Brooklyn to Santa Monica in first place after "...33 hours and 9 minutes of nonstop driving."

The race, which is the subject of a new documentary called 32 Hours 7 Minutes (the time of the all-time record holder in a subsequent year!), was held for the first time in that year, and the article explains that Wright and co-driver Rick Doherty "...made sure they were well prepared for the journey, outfitting the Mazda [RX-7] with a roll cage and a larger fuel tank, as well as bringing along night vision goggles, radar detectors and a fridge."

Although "...Wright tried the night vision once, but quickly abandoned the idea", the duo still won, and apparently: "Wright competed only once in the race. He's very low-key about it, talking about it with a kind of "hey, that was neat" attitude. "Cars are my life," he says by way of explanation." The Wired article page has a couple of videos of Wright discussing his victory today, and showing off his car gadgets then, and it's entirely entertaining.