Looking for something new, we checked out the fall round of The Mojave Mile. And if you’re looking for a new automotive parlor game, miling just might be it. Anything can run, judging from the go-kart to semi-streamliners on hand, and daily driver enthusiast cars are especially welcome.
The event is dead simple and resembles a mile-long drag race against the clock. Vehicles time trial one at a time and the only thing measured is speed through the last 132 ft of the mile. All starts are standing (no push starts ala Bonneville), and the Mojave Air and Space Port’s 12,000 ft runway provides ample length, width and traction. While acceleration is not measured, clearly some of the more specialized high-powered machines require a bit of technique to get maximum benefit from what traction they have.
With a little over 100 participants everyone had got in plenty of runs, especially Eric Anderson who made an adrenalin-draining 31 laps on his 182 mph Kawasaki.
In practice we found a cluster of daily driver street cars, some racers, then a surprisingly large and fast contingent of motorcycles, and finally, the odd balls. Miling is perfect for tinkers—hence Darryl Weflen in the 151 mph go kart—and for the bored with an old race car under a tarp. That explained Lance Smith’s vintage big-block Chevy Monza circle tracker.
Of course, we were bound to run into someone we knew, in this case open road race specialist John Barr and his spanking new silver 2012 Mustang GT. Like most of the unmodified late-model stockers it would consistently run on its speed limiter; 145 mph in the Mustang’s case.
Other popular entries were ZO6 Corvettes in the mid-170 mph range, and some nicely prepped turbocharged Ford GTs dueling at 213 to 215 mph.
But if nothing else Mojave is where Suzuki Hayabusas go to play. These over-achieving two-wheel rockets off-handedly turned 180 mph, with many well over 200 mph. Top dog in all categories was Bill Warner, all the way out from Wimauma, Florida. His heavily-faired blue Hayabusa is claimed to be the fastest swing-your-leg-over-it motorcycle, and at 274 mph whose to argue? Watching it run was like seeing God step on a watermelon seed.
Pretty much at the other end of the lazar timing gear was Deen Hylton’s sporting 139 mph in a PT Cruiser. Representing the free-thinkers, Ronald Waters went 165 mph in a 1955 Plymouth Belvedere, while the luxury set championed Justin Padilla’s Lexus IS-F at 163.3 mph.
If you’ve got the need for speed, The Mojave Mile runs once in the spring and fall, with dates to be announced at MojaveMile.com.
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