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For most of us, seeing the needle get buried on our speedometer is a rare treat. Pushing the go stick to the floor on an open road, keeping one eye ahead and one eye on the mirror for the sneaky black-and-white can be quite a rush, and many of us have done it, whether we want to admit it or not.
The staging grid had some interesting cars.
While we don’t want to encourage anyone to drive over the posted speed limit on local streets, we do know of a place where you’re allowed to take your car or motorcyle to it’s limits. For about the cost of a well earned speeding ticket, you can take your car as fast as you want to, but you get to keep the car.
We were there this past weekend to see this event, and to see who could reach that magical number that netted them a special T-shirt informing everyone they went 200+ miles per hour.
The event is called the Mojave Mile, and it’s held at the Mojave Airport in Mojave, CA., in conjunction with the Mojave Air and Space Port. This event was a great success and it was held without incident either day.
Darryl and his 150mph shifter kart, and some bikes capable of getting the T-shirt.
The standing mile takes place on a smooth, 12,000 foot runway with almost a mile of shutdown area. There’s a full crew of experienced safety professionals and response teams, and a large secure paddock area for overnight attendees.
The event is held a few times a year, and they’ve already completed two sets of runs this year, with quite a few drivers and riders getting that coveted T-shirt. The latest event, called the Mojave Magnum, was held the first weekend in June and while it was quite hot in Mojave there wasn’t a single complaint about the heat.
Big Red Camaro and the crew. They went 227, but unfortunately broke down late in the afternoon.
There were quite a few motorcyclists who went over 200 mph, but the big draw this past weekend was none other than Big Red Camaro. We we just posted a detailed story about the Legendary Camaro on our site if you want to learn more about it.
Big Red was able to reach over 234 mph on Saturday, and then on Sunday they reached a run of 227 mph before being plagued with problems that had the crew pushing the car back to the pits to make repairs and adjustments. But that’s par for the course when you have a reputation for hitting over 200 mph on a regular basis.
An interesting car, the Highsmith Hemi: Dad went 190, daughter went 195. Dad was happy!
Another car in attendance that was pushing for 200 mph was the Highsmith Hemi, a 2008 Dodge Challenger with a Superbird-style kit on it. The blown 426 Hemi is driven by owner Joel Highsmith, who told us they had just gotten the car off the dyno the night before and made a run or two around the block before loading it up and taking it to Mojave. Joel drove the car to blistering speed of 190.4 mph, then his duaghter Sammi got in the car and topped his run with a 195 mph pass.
When you have the smallest vehicle in the Mojave Mile, it's only fitting to haul it with the biggest pickup truck. The Viper belongs to Darryl, too, and was signed by Carroll Shelby in 2009.
With only a handful of Corvettes and a couple other Challengers at the event, most of the passes were done by crotchrockets. We also stopped to talk to Darryl and his 150 mph Shifter Kart. Darryl told us that they ran out of gears and needed to make some changes because they hit top speed before he reached the timing gate. He was shooting for 170+, but unfortunately time and machine were keeping him limited.
Looking more like a dragonfly in-flight mating ritual, the WhiteKniteTwo entertained us mid-afternoon, there were no complaints since we shared their air field.
All in all it was a lot of fun talking with the people there and seeing the incredible speeds. The ‘half-time show’ provided everyone in attendance a very welcome change in scenery when Virgin Galactic flew the WhiteKnightTwo past us a for a few touch-and-gos. It was standing room only while we all got to stand right next to the runway and watch this remarkable plane.
