Road & Track - Vol. 10, Night, 2022

4 “I REMEMBER THE MULSANNE at night as a the competition in a race that saw unusually little feeling of loneliness, like you’re in a cocoon,” says bad weather. “Generally, you start to get down that Just a glance at a Porsche Le Mans car of the Seven- Derek Bell. “You’re watching the revs creeping up straight,” he recalls, “and you get into fifth gear— ties or Eighties is enough to get the engine in your fraction by fraction and just sailing into the night. assuming you want to talk about the days when ribcage pumping. To look at these cars is to marvel I used to hold the steering wheel with my knees, men were men—and then you’re on full throttle at the courage of drivers who could floor them down lift my visor to wipe the sweat out of my eyes, and for one whole minute. And you’re already travel- the Mulsanne at night. Porsche first won Le Mans check everything over. Just hearing the engine ing at 200 mph. You’re covering a lot of ground. in 1970 with the 917K. Then came the 936 and the whirring all the way back there, you feel alone, But for those wonderful moments when I was at 956. Today the marque remains the most success- but in a beautiful way.” high speed—which were most of the years, in the ful in Le Mans history, and outright speed on the best cars, in the fastest cars—we didn’t have too Mulsanne is a major reason why. The ground-effect The Brit no longer holds the title for the greatest much trouble. You were just in another world.” 956 of 1982 was indeed a game changer. number of Le Mans wins; five now puts him in joint third place. But nobody has competed through more The trickiest issue on the Mulsanne was eras or in a greater variety of sharp-end machin- weather. When it rained, “it was horrible,” Bell ery. He made his debut in a Ferrari 512S in 1970 says. “Don’t forget that it’s a major road, it’s a high- and drove for the last time there in a McLaren F1 in way. So the trucks and coaches and all the cars 1996, at age 55. His time with Porsche in the Eighties going up and down 360 days a year make grooves brought the most success, with four outright wins. in the road, and it undulates on each side. It’s got a crown and furrows, which your tires get into. In One was in a 1982 Porsche 956, launched that year the dry, that’s all right, but in the rain, it’s bloody to take full advantage of new sports-car regulations. tricky. With water in those gullies, if you have to It combined the 936’s race-proven powertrain—a move from one lane to the other, the car can be twin-turbocharged flat-six with an air-cooled block fishtailing everywhere. In the wet, it was twice and water-cooled heads—and the newly discov- as hard—and Le Mans is eight miles around, so ered black magic of ground-effect aerodynamics. it might piss down with rain while it’s dry on the The 956 developed huge downforce with minimal other side of the circuit.” drag, making it only slightly slower on the Mulsanne than the legendary 917, a car in which Bell recorded In 1982, in the new 956, Bell captured his third a calculated peak speed of 246 mph in 1971. outright Le Mans victory. And in that 50th run- ning of the 24-hour classic, Porsche claimed the Having won Le Mans in a Porsche 936 in ’81, Bell top five spots. teamed with Jacky Ickx for 1982 and manhandled 1982 Porsche 956 Engine: 2.6-liter twin-turbo flat-6 Horsepower: 635 Top speed on Mulsanne: about 230 mph

A New Era 1988 of Speed SILK CUT CRACKING 250 mph on the Mulsanne, Jaguar and Jag’s FIRST victor y XJR-9 in over 30 years. Engine: 7.0-liter V-12 5 Horsepower: 750 Top speed on Mulsanne: In the Eighties, with drivers Derek Bell, Jacky Ickx, 245 mph Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert, and Klaus Ludwig, Porsche became so dominant that the fans got bored. They turned up just to see which car would set the new speed record on the Mulsanne. And then to watch Porsche win. Enter Jaguar, which showed up in force in 1988, determined to topple the German juggernaut. “Any other track in the world, I doubt you’re ever 10 sec- onds full throttle. There, it’s a bit over 50 seconds on the M ul sa nne.” Andy WA L L AC E

R&T VOL. 10 051 IN 1988, THE FACTORY TEAMS squared off in The right-hand kink midway proved sketchy, the kink, then you go up this hill, and that’s where a not-so-friendly competition, not just to win Le Wallace recalls. “Even doing it in the light was they tell you that you want to stay on the throttle, Mans but also to see who could clock the fastest quite a challenge. You’re traveling more than 240 but with your left foot you want to graze the brakes speed on the Mulsanne. Peugeot set the mark at mph, and you can see it coming. But it’s sharp to get a little heat into them, because after you 252 mph. But Jaguar brought home the checkered enough you can’t see around it. You arrive and crest the hill, it’s heavy braking for a second-gear flag because of the reliability of the XJR-9 and the make such a small input, it’s almost like moving turn. You instantly go from the fastest to the slow- skill of the drivers. One of them was Andy Wallace, your elbow. At night all you’ve got is what passed as est spot on the track. My first time, when I hit the the Brit phenom making his debut at Le Mans that an excuse for lights, so that point when you turn in braking zone, I’m pushing the brake and push- year. He’d never raced at night. becomes really critical—much more than it would ing the brake, and the corner’s coming faster and be in the daylight. That said, I never missed it!” faster, and suddenly I slide wide past the turn. It “That was the first time,” Wallace recalls. “We was a real eye-opener because I was only at three- didn’t even do any testing in the dark or any- Specifically with the Mulsanne in mind, Jag- quarters throttle.” thing, and there was no test day that year. So it uar developed the XJR-9 for long, flat-out runs, was straight to the race and night practice. Yeah, almost like a land-speed-racing car. You can see And at night? “It’s surreal. You’re in the car, and it’s a massive shock. You can build yourself up for how chief development engineer Tony Southgate you have the lights from the tach and the switches, it, you can bicycle around the track, you can walk and his team crafted the shape to be as slippery as and you have your headlights. You jump on the around it, you can stop and look everywhere. But possible. Notice the angle of the rear wing and the straight, and you’re shifting, and you hit sixth and suddenly when you’re traveling at over 200 mph, skirts around the rear wheels. you’re clicking along. And when you come up on everything looks different. And if you’re driving for other cars, you see their taillights. Either you come one of the top teams, nobody’s going to be pleased “To me it was the best that money and technol- up on them really quick or you’re racing with them. if you drop a couple of seconds at night. If anything, ogy could put behind you as a driver,” recalls Davy The headlights back then were just whatever head- you should be faster—the tires have more grip, it’s Jones, who also debuted at Le Mans in the XJR-9 lights we had. Going down the Mulsanne at night cooler, the engine’s got more dense air to breathe. in 1988 and is the last American to win outright at that time, we were outdriving our headlights. Any other track in the world, I doubt you’re ever (in 1996). “My first time at Le Mans, going down If you’re alone, and it’s dark, it’s like you’re flying 10 seconds full throttle. There, it’s a bit over 50 the Mulsanne, it’s like you’re cooking along, sixth at night, but you’re on the ground—wide-open seconds on the Mulsanne.” gear, your first lap, you’re maybe at three-quarters throttle, for what feels like forever.” throttle, getting a feel for the thing. You go through

RADAR ance System (CAS), which debuted with the C6.R worth of running was an accomplishment, but at Sebring in 2013. Naturally, it’s been featured in modern sports cars are so reliable that drivers Love all subsequent Corvette race cars. can push for the full 24 hours. “There’s at least one car from each manufacturer that’s going to have You’re a factory driver blasting down the Mul- The CAS display marks out approaching cars a fairly flawless race,” Johnson says. To get and sanne in the middle of the night in your GTE-Pro with chevrons that grow in size as the cars close in maintain a competitive edge, you have to sweat the car. Headlights appear in your rearview mirror. and generates arrows indicating which side they’re details. CAS frees up drivers to get on with what’s It could be any number of things—a competitor, a passing on. Scales indicate how far away cars are ahead, not behind. slower GT car, a much quicker prototype. Imagine in meters and seconds. In its latest iteration, the trying to figure that out . . . at 180 mph. system can track up to 40 objects. Now many sports-racing cars use CAS. Teams can purchase the latest CAS-M3 Evo for around Following a rear-end collision between an LMP1 Drivers “use it almost subconsciously at this $21,000, and Bosch also sells the radar-only car and a C6.R at Le Mans in 2010, Corvette Racing point,” says Ben Johnson, technical director for CAS-M Light, which uses lights on a compatible started trialing a rearview-camera and radar sys- Corvette Racing. “It’s in their periphery. They don’t gauge cluster instead of a monitor to show the tem hooked up to a monitor in the cockpit. Pratt need to see specifically what cars are behind them.” traffic behind. It’s one more high-tech piece of & Miller, longtime operator of Corvette Racing, gear for teams to buy, but it sure beats getting teamed up with Bosch to create the Collision Avoid- Events like Daytona and Le Mans have been rear-ended. —CHRIS PERKINS described as 24-hour sprints in the modern era. It used to be that coaxing a car home after a day’s The Collision Avoidance System frees up drivers to get on with what’s ahead, not behind.

R&T VOL. 10 053 How Joest Racing. “Tom,” Jüttner said, “would you be interested in driving at Le Mans MR. LE MANS 24 Hours?” So began the Dane’s journey from Tom Kristensen to “Mr. Le Mans.” Got His Just nine days later, Kristensen debuted First Shot in Joest’s No. 7 TWR Porsche WSC-95. How skilled was this guy? Consider that On Thursday, June 5, 1997, unemployed his rookie year at Le Mans, at night, he Danish racing driver Tom Kristensen was smashed the track record. And . . . did it playing tennis on Court 5 at a club in his again just minutes later. Kristensen went hometown of Hobro when his phone rang. on to win with co-drivers Michele Albo- He picked up his cell with its long antenna. reto and Stefan Johansson. Today he’s “This is Tom,” he answered. On the line he the most successful Le Mans driver ever, heard the voice of Ralf Jüttner, manager of with nine outright victories—a feat that’ll probably never be matched.

Lord of the Rings Audi’s DOMINANCE culminated in the R18 E-Tron, ushering in the HYBRID ERA. 6 2012 “TO BE HONEST, I’m happy I never drove with the big-balls kink when it was flat out all the way The biggest change to the Mulsanne has been the AUDI R18 down,” says Allan McNish, a three-time Le Mans arrival of two chicanes in 1990, added to reduce winner who arrived after the chicanes were added. increasingly surreal terminal speeds and satisfy E-Tron “Listening to the old guys talking about cars float- the FIA’s new stipulation that no circuit could Quattro ing through the kink gets the hairs on the back of have a straight more than two kilometers long. my neck standing up.” But don’t be fooled. It was still 200-plus on the Engine: 3.7-liter back straight. The Audi era spanned from 2000 to turbodiesel V-6 + McNish took his first win at Le Mans with Porsche 2014, with 13 victories. But behind the monolithic 2 electric motor-generators and briefly drove for Toyota in Formula 1. But the statistics were huge changes in technology and Horsepower: 710 Scot’s career is most closely associated with his complexity—exemplified by the 2012 R18 E-Tron, Top speed on Mulsanne: time as an Audi works driver in the era when the the first hybrid Le Mans winner. 205 mph automaker dominated the 24-hour race. 054 R&T VOL. 10 “When I started in the R8, there was a tiny dis- play screen with a dimmer switch to turn it up or down at night, just like in a road car,” McNish remembers. “By the time we had the R18, I think there was a total of 120 parameters we could adjust through the controls on the steering wheel. Obvi- ously, that needed a bigger screen so you could see

ALLAN McNish Laser headlamps “were a huge a huge help because they gave clarity at a distance. So you could pick up the entry point or the braking point much earlier, especially going into the first chicane or the Mulsanne cor ner at the end of the str aight.” what was going on. There was so much light in the kilometers per hour [211 mph] and hit the brakes can’t tell how hard it’s raining,” McNish says. “Your cockpit that glare was a real issue in the dark, to extremely hard at first. That produces almost 3 g, eyes deceive you. You can generally go a lot faster the point that we had special gloves for the night which is quite a physical strain. Because of the ruts, than you think you can.” with an anti-dazzle finish.” you’ve got to perfectly control your braking power when turning in because otherwise the front wheels Amazingly, even with chicanes added to the Mul- Let Tom Kristensen, the most successful Le might lock. Only after having crossed the ruts can sanne, the cars kept going faster. The R18 E-Tron Mans driver ever (nine checkered flags, seven with you brake a little harder again.” packed a turbodiesel and two electric motors into Audi), take you on a spin down the Mulsanne: “At a package weighing just 2017 pounds (dry weight), the exit of Tertre Rouge [the turn onto the Mul- Huge leaps forward in lighting technology with 627 lb-ft of torque and brain-curdling corner- sanne] it’s important to take a lot of speed into changed night driving during the Audi era, first ing abilities. “When I won Le Mans with Porsche in the first part,” Kristensen said in a 2010 interview with LEDs and later with laser technology, both of 1998, the qualifying lap—on a qualifying tire—was with the New York Times. “I usually drive on the which have since made it to road cars. “The lasers 3:38, and we were doing 220 mph on the straight,” right-hand side of the track and only switch to the were a huge help because they gave clarity at dis- McNish says. “By 2013, we were doing low 3:20s, left about halfway through the straight. Because tance,” McNish recalls. “So you could pick up the but going slower on the straights, about 205 mph, of the many ruts in the road there are just a few entry point or the braking point much earlier, espe- because the regulations had pulled us back. So places on the straight where you can change sides cially going into the first chicane or the Mulsanne all of that difference was in braking or corners.” without bottoming. corner at the end of the straight. There’s no runoff there, no Get Out of Jail Free card.” To sum it up: “It’s a cruel mistress, that place,” “At the 300-meter sign you start concentrating McNish says. “The second- and third-place trophies on the chicane. I only brake about 170 meters before And when the rain came? “When you get those I’ve got are beautiful, and they’re definitely cher- the chicane. You arrive there flying at more than 340 first drops hitting the screen at night, you really ished, but they’ve got some bittersweet memories.”

From the Land of the Rising Sun Motoring on the Mulsanne in the REIGNING champion of Le Mans cars. 7 WHEN THE ARGENTINE DRIVER José María The 2021 Toyota GR010 Hybrid represents the López first landed in Europe as a kid to compete pinnacle of modern sports-car technology. Driv- The 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 89th running, in the minor leagues, he came to see Le Mans as ing this machine down the Mulsanne is a vastly was the first to feature the new top class of Hyper- a spectator. He recalls the first time he watched different experience from piloting cars of earlier car, in place of Le Mans Prototype 1. Here was a new a prototype rocket down the Mulsanne. “It was generations. But some things remain the same. “At formula giving manufacturers the opportunity to amazing,” he says. “I dreamed that one day I might Tertre Rouge, the last corner before the straight, build competition-spec versions of existing hyper- be racing here, no matter what category. Funny you can easily touch the grass,” López explains. cars rather than exclusively purpose-built, bespoke how life can change.” Right? Today López, along “So accidents sometimes happen here. Once you’re prototypes. The car you see here set the fastest lap with Mike Conway of Britain and Kamui Kobayashi on the straight, the first thing you do is look for- time in Le Mans history in qualifying last June. In of Japan, is the defending Le Mans champion. And ward for traffic.” the end it also proved that we are living through the he’ll be the first to admit that to win Le Mans, you first Le Mans dynasty of a factory team from Japan. have to take advantage of darkness. But from here the driver is barraged with mas- sive loads of data. The days when you simply ham- “We all know that the race is often decided in mered the throttle and pointed into the future are the night,” says López. “Because it is a time when gone. Today’s Le Mans cars are probably more you can gain a lot. But it is also a time when you technologically advanced than spacecraft were can lose a lot.” in the days of the GT40. 2021 Toyota GAZOO RACING GR010 Hybrid Engine: 3.5-liter twin- turbo V-6 + electric motor-generator Horsepower: 680 Top speed on Mulsanne: 211 mph

“So much is going on,” López says of time on the Mulsanne. “You’re speaking to your engineers, because this is the first place where you have time to think and speak, because you’re not as busy as you were in the first sector. We have more than 30 switches on the steering wheel, and you can set up the car, electronically speaking. You need to check the level of the battery because it’s a hybrid car. You check consumption of fuel. Then there’s brake temps, because the next braking zones are very tough. Tire temps, brake balance, differentials, traction control. People say that because cars have a lot of electronics now, it’s easier to drive. I don’t think so. Drivers today have so much information to digest. You’re using everything you can to adapt and change, to be quicker.” All of that happens on the Mulsanne straight, night and day. But nighttime is when the racing can be most critical. Today’s lighting systems are much more advanced than 20th-century head- lamps. But the cars are so quick that those lights only go so far, literally. “We can see, but not too far,” López says. “The lights do the job for 30 to 50 yards.” Tire technology has come a long way too; it gets cold at Le Mans at night, and the softer compounds are critical. Ultimately, it all comes down to what’s in a driv- er’s head, heart, and right foot. That is what brings us back to Le Mans every June. José María LÓPEZ “We all know that the race is often decided in the night. Because it is a time when you can gain a lot. But it is also a time when you can lose a lot .” R&T VOL. 10 057



HOW DO YOU MAKE HIGH-DESERT OFF-ROADING

EVEN MORE TREACHEROUS? DO IT AFTER DARK.

BY L AW R E N C E U L R I C H PHOTOGRAPHS BY T O M F O W L K S

A B C

R&T VOL. 10 063 A. As the day turns GUNNING A FORD BRONCO through Fish Creek frame substance, with almost none of the old to twilight, we get Wash in California’s Sonoran Desert is going full compromises. a taste of the Baja mode in every sense, a fat contrail of dust mystery to come. jetting from 35-inch tires. Nothing unusual about People can debate the off-road chops of the that. Except it’s spilled-ink black outside, demand- Ford’s independent front suspension versus a Jeep B. Our guide, Marco ing a keen lookout for the truck-killer boulders as Wrangler’s beefy, better-articulating solid axle. Hernandez, tackles they suddenly loom into view. But there’s no debate on-road, where the Ford’s the desert in a V-8 suspension and rack-and-pinion steering provide Wrangler with an I wasn’t sure about any of this. Venturing off- more precise and pleasurable feedback than the astoundingly well- road after dark tends to be the sport of teens, fueled Jeep’s recirculating-ball unit. On idyllic roads en equipped camper by dares, peers, and beers. Things usually go tow- route to our meet-up in Borrego Springs, I realize trailer. truck-and-911 wrong. Already we’ve performed a I’ve driven here a dozen times. But never at night. (daytime) desert rescue that would impress the C. Airing down the French Foreign Legion. A darker near-disaster is In the dark, the good-times Montezuma Val- Bronco’s 35-inch just up ahead. ley Road turns diabolical. Dun-colored sagebrush tires in preparation skitters across the road like a bristly animal, mak- for desert sand. Our wingman, Marco Hernandez, a 4x4 builder, ing me catch my breath and reach for the brakes. author of The Overland Cook, and enthusiastic Deer- and steer-crossing signs raise my heart- explorer of nighttime trails, was right. Every beat another notch. In lumbering 4x4s of yore, driver, outdoors fan, or big-city wanderer knows this would be another scary midnight movie. But that night changes everything: a heightened, considering its go-anywhere powers, the Bronco altered state is wound into our caveman DNA, tracks smartly through a final descent, the com- triggered by perhaps-fatal danger from all the forting lights of Borrego Springs rising like embers things we cannot see. There’s a reason most hor- from the valley floor below. ror movies save the juicy stuff for after sundown. Yet night, especially for a lifelong owl like myself, Come morning, Marco guides us to Sandstone is also a beautiful thing. Canyon, part of a primeval labyrinth in the park’s Carrizo Badlands and Split Mountain areas. These “Seeing those canyon walls go bright when you are heroically scaled remains of ancient seas, turn on the lights—I think it’s exciting,” Hernan- lagoons, deltas, and lakes. Pastry layers of sedi- dez says. mentary rock have been squashed, resculpted, and whipped into soaring peaks by incursions from the We’d already cruised these badlands on a win- Gulf of California and prehistoric Sea of Cortez, ter morning in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, with further carving from river floods. California’s largest, with its wildflower super- blooms, Kumeyaay Indian pictographs, and epic The Sonoran Desert is beautiful but alien. Tour- trails for hikers and four-wheelers. At night, with ists may coo over the wildflowers, but don’t be photographer Tom Fowlks clutching the Bron- fooled: This landscape will tolerate your presence, co’s shotgun grab-bar, we feel like we’re getting but it would just as soon kill you. In June 2016, away with something: This is Junior Johnson out- Anza-Borrego saw a crispy 122-degree high, a running the law with a load of moonshine, a com- county record. mando raid, or just the closest a civilian can get to running the Baja 1000. The Bronco Wildtrak is Leaving pavement for the arroyo, we air down up for any action fantasy, especially for east-of- the Ford’s 35-inch, beadlock-capable Goodyear the-Mississippi types who rarely encounter such tires to boost traction. Time-saving valve defla- wide-open public spaces. Measured against the tors drop us to 15 psi, no futzing required. This 4x4 stagecoaches I grew up with, the Ford’s 2.7- once-suffering Boy Scout can hardly believe Mar- liter twin-turbo V-6 jolts you into modernity with co’s wish-list gear. His Patriot Camper, a roughly 330 hp and 415 lb-ft of torque (a Porsche Macan $40,000 Australian two-wheeled off-road trailer, GTS has 405 lb-ft). That engine can sound stressed has a solar panel, a 120-amp-hour battery, a gen- at full honk, but this Bronco can really scoot. It eas- erator, a water tank and heater, an air compressor, ily powers through the loose stuff. The upcoming a kitchen, and more. Bronco Raptor with 400-plus hp may demand a bigger sandbox. The Bronco’s Trail Turn Assist brakes an inside rear wheel to help pivot in tight quarters. It also From the moment I secure this two-door lets the Bronco spin, though Marco dings the fea- Bronco with an optional Sasquatch package (total: ture from his Tread Lightly perspective. My donuts $53,650), onlookers have questions. Mainly, how gouge deep ruts, which is why Rivian dropped a long did I have to wait? It’s nice to see any Detroit similarly scarring Tank Turn feature on its elec- Three car get the Tesla treatment, and it’s because tric trucks. the Bronco hits its marks so well. Beneath that winsome Tonka Beach skin—masculine yet inclu- Our inbound trip immediately goes to hell. I’ve sive, not Hummer toxic—there’s real body-on- wanted to see the park’s mud caves, but they’re a ways off. Sensing my disappointment, Marco casu- ally radios about Diablo Drop Off, an elbow-shaped

rise with views of the Vallecito Mountains. Who A wouldn’t want to see a Diablo Drop Off? Marco, piloting his SEMA-worthy Wrangler Rubicon 392 B (rooftop tent, refrigerator, you name it), decides to head up first, though we’re concerned about that trailer (1400 pounds, dry) in deep sand. “I’m going to try it,” Marco says, inscribing his last words. Marco, who documents adventures on his YouTube channel OVRLNDX, storms up the hill with panache, until a young doofus in a Toyota 4Runner decides to descend simultaneously. Marco gives up momentum and has to pull off the path. On this ever-shifting terrain, today’s sand is more like quicksand. Trailer becomes boat anchor. Even this armored-up Rubicon is soon buried to its axles. We have one winch, but it’s on Marco’s truck, facing uphill at a cockeyed angle. It takes straps and shovels, one jack, two winches, two and a half hours, three vehicles (the Bronco and a passing Jeep Gladiator), four recov- ery boards, and some Pythagorean theorem to extricate Marco’s rig and trailer and get them pointed downhill. Two orange recovery boards are still out there, sucked down near the center of the earth. In hindsight, it’s the most skin-of-teeth 4x4 rescue I’ve been part of without having to call for a $2000 tow. After that escape, anything this place throws at us is a walk in the state park. We’re free to marvel at Sandstone’s cathedral walls as they narrow to near slot width. They’re just wide enough in places to squeeze past, two wheels on a ridge tagged with tire and body scrapes. This canyon floor looks strange in places, like a walkway through a fake Disney nature park. I learn the surface is a puree of old and new granite, flushed down from moun- tains. Some sediment came all the way from the Grand Canyon, deposited after the ancient Colo- rado River carved it out. We make camp at the trail’s terminus. While Marco’s rig transforms into Glampimus Prime, we head out for a photo-and-fun run. I get a last sun- set glimpse of these stoic rock faces, a buzz-cut of cholla cactus and ocotillo on top. Headlamps alone won’t cut it out here. I flip an auxiliary toggle to fire up a Ford Performance light bar. Whoa! The scene turns so bright, I expect an announcer to call Aaron Judge to the plate. Where standard lamps pitch a roughly human- height beam, this modest row of LEDs illuminates canyon walls to their peaks. The day-for-night switch is an instant confidence boost, revealing huge swaths of peripheral terrain and eliminat- ing that spooky, disorienting tunnel effect. Night is also best for the Bronco’s unimaginative interior. It’s comfortable, but fit for a city-slicker SUV, with none of the Wrangler’s outdoorsy vibe.

C R&T VOL. 10 065 A. Thanks to Marco’s I do my best Parnelli Jones impression on the preparedness, our flats, aided by smartly tuned Bilstein shocks, and campsite held all the clamber up some rock piles. The Bronco fairly comforts of home. yawns over obstacles that 90 percent of buyers wouldn’t imagine tackling. Tom and I hop out, B. The Bronco’s LED awed by big-sky constellations that I’d forgotten light bar beamed a existed. A hat-tip here to the Ford’s screen-select- path of concentrated able, 360-degree area lights for protecting our daylight. ankles from holes, red diamond rattlesnakes, what- ever’s out here. C. Marco preparing a feast at his camper Again, we’re feeling good about our nighttime trailer’s kitchen. wheeling skills. Again, the desert has other ideas. We head back, worn out and practically smelling D. The man wrote a Marco’s cooking. But this trip is taking longer than cookbook for over- it should. Suddenly we’re hemmed in by walls that landers. We ate like aren’t pretty sandstone but a disfigured concre- desert-roaming kings. tion with warts and boils of stones. (As noted, ordi- nary things can go all Evil Dead after dark.) Yep, we’re lost in a black, featureless desert, out of radio range. We have plenty of fuel and water but little else. We double back to Fish Creek Wash. But it makes no sense. Until we remember getting out D of the truck. Somehow, after we hopped back in, we overshot our canyon. After 30 minutes of retracing, Tom spots it. A speck of a sign at the very edge of our LED- enhanced vision: Sandstone Canyon. During the day, the entrance seemed hard to miss. At night, without that fusion-bright roof bar, we might have been stuck out there till morning. Marco, a mellow Californian with three off-road- ing daughters and a white beard halfway to ZZ Top length, is relieved at our return—and ready for din- ner. The Overland Cook is filled with big-flavored dishes that are doable in the wilds. He prepares a chile de arbol salsa, roasting tomatoes, chiles, and other ingredients on a skottle, a woklike, cast-iron disc on three legs, powered by a Coleman burner. South African farmers first repurposed harrow wheels into these cookers, big enough to feed an army, yet portable and easier to clean than any grill. The surface sizzles with a fragrant mountain of carne asada, which Marco folds into fresh torti- llas and blankets with the chile de arbol and from- scratch guacamole. I uncork a lip-smacking Californian Syrah that I happened to pack (hey, we’re not animals out here). Firewood crackles on a portable pit. Our ground tent is looking welcome. After sunrise, Marco wards off a 33-degree chill with strong coffee from a Bialetti. Dawn light pours honey down canyon walls, like nature’s drive-in. But our show isn’t over. First, a winding return through the canyon, more benign in daylight. Next, a final Bronco busting before the rules and bound- aries of pavement. A hotel and a hot shower in Palm Springs. And a run to the King of the Hammers race, back into the dust from which we came.

A C B

R&T VOL. 10 067 ON A MOJAVE HILLSIDE in California’s John- ble reasons. Yet here we are. And the sheer, trans- son Valley, under a crescent moon and milky stars, gressive fun makes an average road race seem as a procession of off-roaders grinds up the rocky straitlaced as a chess tournament. horror called Chocolate Thunder. It’s one of many sadistic stabs at these 2.5-billion-year-old rocks King of the Hammers was born in 2007 at a at King of the Hammers, surely the world’s gnar- Chili’s in San Bernardino, a beer bet among local liest one-day desert race. Only these folks aren’t off-roaders to quickly negotiate trails with names competitors. Veteran Raul Gomez already took his like Jackhammer and Sledgehammer (hence, a first “Race of Kings” win after 6 hours, 57 minutes, “King of”). When roughly 60,000 fans and partic- and 13 seconds of tube-framed abuse. These peo- ipants aren’t crowding today’s grown-up event, ple are, or were, spectators. Now they’re the late Johnson Valley OHV Area lets anyone tackle its show, charging into steeply pitched gladiator bat- red-rock mountains or cruise its brushy lake tle in their own lifted, mongrel rigs. beds and sandy washes. That area stretches over 96,000 savage acres, roughly half of that shared Take away the heavy machinery, including our with the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. Ford Bronco Wildtrak, and this bleak amphitheater looks downright biblical, perfect for an impromptu Breakdowns and bad ideas are common. Ham- stoning. But this rabble is friendly and stoked, shoot- mers co-founder Dave Cole tells me the Spooners ing off low-angled fireworks, talking trash—“Back section was named after he and rescuers found up!” “Go Home!”—or whooping encouragement as two Marines spooning in a back seat, trying to stay drivers tackle Flintstones-size boulders and spin warm in single-digit night temperatures. “They up a final tantalizing ascent. Bonfires dot the hill, an had two vehicles with one axle left between them,” expectant crowd gearing up to party all night and Cole says. sleep it off in Hammertown, the sprawling motor- home city that glows on the dry lake bed below. Johnson Valley is the perfect sandbox for over- grown boys and girls to smash toys together while Victors summit about six feet from our photog- making cool motor noises. For this Ultra4 racing, rapher’s tripod and my own kneecaps. We see it think automotive biathlon. Drivers and rigs must all: buggies and beers, Wranglers and winches, excel at both Baja-fried desert cooking and rock skyscraping pickups, tube-frame Frankensteins, crawls. Especially at Hammers. With new trails, UTVs with LED whip-lights flashing though choking 227 miles, and a 14-hour time limit (a backmark- dust. One driver, spotting our camera as he crests er’s average of just 16.2 mph), these mythical rocks the peak, steers with his right hand and flashes could make Sisyphus weep. devil horns with his left. “If it were easy, we’d call it NASCAR,” Cole says, For fans of pavement motorsport, what can I as we watch mammoth-tired buggies motor past. A say? Imagine attending an F1 or NASCAR race and helicopter, one of three covering the race, promptly seeing the track thrown open to all comers—sans buzzes Cole’s Raptor pickup. helmets, safety inspections, or even license over- sight—to try their own hand as crowds egg them The go-for-broke Gomez Brothers—four driv- on. That would never happen, for a hundred sensi- ers, including Raul’s son Darian—get their freshly built 850-hp buggy onto the lake bed for only an D hour of testing before the race. Cutting it so close, the team forgets a high-speed gearset. That limits 3 INSET PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY KING OF THE HAMMERS A. At night, the Gomez to 88 mph on the flats and leaves him help- already-otherworldly less as three-time winner Jason Scherer flies past. King of the Hammers takes on a chaotic, “It was depressing,” Gomez says later. “But I postapocalyptic vibe. thought I’d run a slower pace in the desert and catch him in the rocks.” B. Raul Gomez (left) took the overall win Those obstacles reliably snare or cluster racers, in the Unlimited which end up beached sideways or flipped like run- 4400 class. amok RC cars. At Indy, they’d send the tow truck and ambulance. Here, drivers (and sometimes C. Striking scenery, fellow competitors) are their own AAA, winch- traversed at ing themselves upright or unstuck. On the last of extreme speed. three discrete course laps, 70 miles across a cli- mactic hellscape, Gomez and Ford pilot Scherer D. Purpose-built trade the lead in thrilling style. machines tackle terrain inhospitable Gomez hates winching alone, and not just for to wheeled vehicles. the exertion. Last year, he was “this close” to vic- tory when his cable broke. This time, determined to earn his team and family their first Hammers crown, he bounds up the dry waterfall ledges of

068 R&T VOL. 10 A Wrecking Ball and takes the most epic path down, B only to end up high-centered on a boulder, wheels dangling six feet in the air. “There’d be no speculation that I went around this thing,” he says, even if the ballsy move cost him dearly. With Scherer coming up behind, Gomez has to hop out twice, wrap a cable around a hefty boul- der, and extricate his rig. He takes the checkered flag well before sundown, with a 15-minute lead. “It was a crazy race of attrition for sure, the hardest Hammers course I’ve ever run,” Gomez says. “Cole always told me, if you just toned it down to 70 percent, you’d actually win races.” How hard was this year’s course? Only 26 of 101 racers complete it. Gomez averages 32.5 mph throughout. Others aren’t so lucky. Dozens of driv- ers are still out there, struggling to finish, as the Mojave goes black. Gomez commiserates. “I’ve had to finish this course at night a few times,” he says. “You kind of zone out, tune out the danger. But you also don’t see the scary stuff at night, so it might be easier, not seeing that big ol’ dropoff on one side.” As dirt-caked machines straggle into dark- ened pits, I meet Paul Ashworth, mechanic with MWAK (Monkey with a Knife) Racing. This crew was all about road racing—from longtime Spec Miata driver Brian Reid to IMSA and ALMS—until falling in love with grassroots off-road competi- tion, its passion and camaraderie. Ashworth says the fledgling team’s Chevy LS3-powered, 600-hp buggy has moved from 74th place to 33rd, but it’s tough out there. “Our main goal was just to finish this year,” Ash- worth says wearily. “They’re just trying to bring it home.” As for Ultra4 and its steep learning curve, Ash- worth says, “It’s awesome, but it is pretty intense. It’s not like learning how to trail-brake or hit an apex. You can’t really bring someone to a 16-foot rock and say, ‘Do this.’” With bats flying, I score driving tips from Ford factory driver Vaughn Gittin Jr. The drift champion turned 4x4 man finishes sixth in the main event in a tube-frame, Bronco-esque monster whose front portal axle and nitrogen jounce bumpers alone cost about $20,000. Gittin also led Ford’s impressive podium sweep the previous day in a production-based class, driving a new Bronco with a mostly stock chassis and modest 35-inch tires. Credit where due: In part, the Bronco and Rap- tor earned off-road credibility (and thus popular- ity) via Ford’s gung-ho involvement in relatively obscure Ultra4, virtually alone among automakers. That includes Ford’s road-sensing Live Valve tech- nology on Fox shocks, with ongoing input from drivers and teams at Hammers.

RIGHT PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY KING OF THE HAMMERS C A. Vaughn Gittin Jr. nabbed sixth place driving this tube- frame monster. B. Spectators get close enough to fist-bump competitors as they roar by. C. Thousands of RVs and campers make up the impromptu Hammertown, arranged on a grid with little over- arching logic. Between darkness and dust, “you’re going to be blind at some point, so you try to read trees or brush, any reference you can get,” Gittin says. “And you don’t want to drift much, because if you go sideways, you’ll hit a tire sidewall.” And going through the rocks at night is miser- able. “You can’t see your lines; it’s getting cold,” he says. “It’s much scarier.” A co-driver with notes and GPS helps, as does great lighting. But right now, Gittin’s stadium- power LED bar dazzles the airborne schmutz and makes things worse. It’s so dusty that when I hop into my Bronco and head to Chocolate Thunder, we get lost in surreal fog. I crawl through Hammertown, which is start- ing to resemble a scene from Mad Max. Hitting a dead end of RVs, I practically run over a group of young men tending an aggressively tall fire. One gestures to me to roll down my window. “Are you maybe in the wrong camp?” he asks sternly, eyeing the Bronco. “Yes,” I reply with emphasis, drawing a chuckle. No worries: Matt, our suddenly cheery host, points through wildfire-level haze to guide us to Chocolate Thunder. Apparently worried about dehydrated old dudes, Matt passes us Bud Light and water and urges us to pin their camp location and check out the punk and metal bands on the nighttime stage. We’re soon atop Chocolate Thunder, enjoying those sweet, rocky-road amateur assaults. But the madness isn’t over. A morning text from Ash- worth informs me that a decommissioned Black Hawk helicopter is plucking the poor MWAK entry from Jackhammer, where it spent a lonely night. No reports on spooning.



PHOTOGRAPHS BY A N D R E W T I P P I N G FAST TIMES SHROUDED IN MYSTERY AND RULED BY SAMURAI CODE, TEAM MID NIGHT DOMINATED JAPAN’S STREET-RACING SCENE FOR TWO DECADES. BY B R E N DA N M c A L E E R

in Japanese-language magazines and wild rumors. A Then they were suddenly gone. Unfounded specu- lation about who they were and what they did made A. In 1994, this Mid an excellent smokescreen. Dig through the mis- Night RX-7 did 182 information and you’ll find small nuggets of truth. mph at Yatabe circuit. For the most part, however, the story of Team Mid Its street record Night remains pure conjecture. was even higher. (The Porsche crest is But some things are known. The first is that they a cheeky joke.) actually never went away. EVERY SUNDAY the Daikoku Parking Area ON NEW YEAR’S DAY 1985, a heavily modified becomes a church. On an island in the Tokyo Bay Nissan 280ZX completed the Shuto Expressway just offshore from Yokohama’s docks, a broad loop in a claimed sub-five-minute lap. At normal swath of pavement sits at the bottom of a spiral nighttime speeds, the inner loop of Japan’s capital- of ramps leading north, south, and east to arrow- city highway will run you past both Tokyo Tower straight toll roads and the elevated highways that and the Imperial Palace in about a half hour. In the branch across the megacity. The cars roll up in middle of the day, gridlock has most commuters packs: exotics, classics, tuner specials. You never parked. Team Mid Night hurtled through the night- know what you might see. time heart of Tokyo like it was the Nürburgring. Today a youngster in a blister-fender RWB Sold in the U.S. as a Datsun in the late Seventies, Porsche 911 Turbo carefully backs his machine the 280ZX was more personal luxury coupe than into a space. The car is slammed, caged, and sport- performance car. This version, painted red and ing a biplane wing. It barks its arrival with max- bearing the club’s name on its windshield, had imum show, exhaust crackling and front air dam roughly triple the factory power thanks to a pair scraping. Nearby, a group of middle-aged Japanese of IHI turbochargers feeding a stroked L28 engine. men look unimpressed. They chat quietly, clus- tered around a different 911 Turbo, this one black In the same year, a Porsche 930 from Mid Night and wearing a discreet silver sticker no more than stormed up the eight-and-a half-mile Hakone Turn- a few inches long. It’s a badge that speaks softly pike mountain road in a little over six minutes. but carries weight. Along with the high-speed runs that made the team famous, illicit hill climbs were a major Mid The angled silver tag reads “Mid Night Car Night activity. The most dedicated members were Speciall.” It indicates that one of the soberly known to prepare the route, clearing any treach- dressed figures in this group is a member of erous leaves from corners by hand with a broom. Japan’s most notorious street-racing team. In the days when the Lamborghini Countach adorned Racing Team Mid Night was founded in 1982, every teenager’s wall, this shadowy group ruled after one of the original members left an associ- Japan’s highways at night, at speeds beyond what ation called the American Car Club. During the Sant’Agata’s finest could touch. They had their Seventies, Japanese cars had yet to become high- own warrior’s code, an emphasis on secrecy, and tech, turbocharged monsters, and highway drag a reputation for never backing down. racers often turned to imported V-8 muscle. The police did too: At the time, the Tochigi highway Racing Team Mid Night was everywhere in the patrol fielded a Mustang Mach 1 as a high-speed Eighties and Nineties, often the focus of features pursuit vehicle. In the early days of Mid Night, members were barely into their early twenties. Along with the 280ZX, there were Mid Night Camaros, RX-7s, and even a Pontiac Trans Am sporting both screaming- chicken and Mid Night decals. Increasingly, however, the team focused on the Porsche 930. As a foreign import, the Porsche 072 R&T VOL. 10



WHILE LESS CONSCIENTIOUS THIS PAGE: PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MEMBERS OF RACING TEAM MID NIGHT STREET RACERS WOVE THROUGH TRAFFIC, MID NIGHT CHOSE A TIME WHEN ROADS WERE EMPTY. AB A. The most famous of all Mid Night cars: the Yoshida Specials 911 Turbo. B. When the R32 Sky- line GT-R arrived in 1989, it quickly became a Mid Night favorite. C. Daikoku Parking Area, as seen by a Mid Night passenger. D. The Mid Night 280ZX (a.k.a. Fairlady) that ruled the streets. E. The club embraced the Porsche 930, as seen at this track day. F. Team Mid Might members drove a wide variety of C D domestic and foreign metal. EF

skirted the 112-mph speed limiter installed at the Getting caught could mean jail time, ostracism Wangan factory on home-market Japanese cars. More from society, and termination from a career in Midnight important, it was turbocharged, opening up the pos- any large company. Even so, they took the risk. sibility of squeezing out ever more power and speed. Racing Team Mid Night Some effort was made to reduce the danger. eventually became so Easily the most famous of the Mid Night 911s Despite the apparent daredevil nature of their well-known that they was the 1979 Turbo that came to be known as the activities, Mid Night applied a layer of profes- inspired a series of Yoshida Specials 930. In the year of Mid Night’s sionalism to their operations.. First, joining was comics. The Japanese founding, this car cracked 185 mph at the now- not easy. You couldn’t just show up with a fast car manga Wangan Midnight defunct Yatabe circuit in Ibaraki prefecture, 40 and gain membership. The expectation was that appeared in the early miles northwest of Tokyo. It was, at the time, the drivers had the machinery and the mettle to han- Nineties, its focus on fastest Porsche in Japan and was twice shipped to dle speeds in excess of 155 mph. An apprentice- high-speed street racing Porsche’s Stuttgart headquarters for engine tear- ship was required, and as the team’s reputation clearly a tribute to the downs and performance upgrades. spread, the wait grew to years. Anyone showing a underground exploits of tendency toward recklessness was barred. At first, Mid Night. Yatabe circuit was key to the ambition of nearly the whole team had to approve any new member, everyone in Japan’s nascent tuning industry. Top- but later a hierarchy formed, and Mid Night exec- If the title weren’t speed numbers provided maximum bragging rights. utives chose new prospects. enough of a giveaway, Just as Ferrari and Porsche tussled over superiority the cars involved are. with the F40 and the 959, Japanese tuners sought Secondly, Mid Night was careful to maintain The central protagonist to prove themselves with peak figures. a layer of anonymity. Over the years, exaggera- drives a blue Fairlady tions of this secrecy extended to tales of meetings 240Z with a 3.1-liter Yatabe Test Circuit had been built in the Six- announced via coded newspaper classifieds, but twin-turbocharged ties for shaking down regular production vehi- in reality it was simply discretion. Some members stroked L28. It’s essen- cles. In 1966, Toyota broke 13 FIA speed records spoke to Japanese media they felt they could trust, tially a copy of the there with the then-new 2000GT. The circuit was a and well-known tuner magazines occasionally fea- real-life powerplant in heavily banked oval, which made top-speed joust- tured Mid Night cars. Other members remained the Mid Night 280ZX, ing somewhat more dangerous than the open salt entirely in the shadows. though here the car is flats of Bonneville. dubbed Devil Z and They were doctors, businessmen, body-shop possesses some vague The banking made the tail-heavy handling of a owners, and, in at least one case, a company man supernatural elements. Porsche 911 particularly prominent, and much brav- who later made his way into the highest echelons ery was required to blast out of corners on surging of the corporate world. According to team sources, Chief rival to the turbocharged power. Magazines often sponsored Racing Team Mid Night had approximately 100 full Devil Z is the Blackbird, shootout days atYatabe, and the place gained a rep- members over the decades. In later years, many a black Porsche 911 utation as a coliseum of top-speed rivalries, only eager pretenders claimed membership. The team Turbo, a twin of the barely on the right side of the law. eventually went so far as to put a trademark on Yoshida Specials 930. their silver stickers. While the real-life Mid TEAM MID NIGHT MADE regular appearances Night team didn’t foster at Yatabe, yet their reputation was forged on the The actual racing revolved around a gasoline- an internal rivalry street. The dangers should not be glossed over or fueled idea of Bushido, the moral code of the samu- between the two, in the glamorized. Running door to door at high speed rai. Civilians were to be respected and avoided. manga, the 911 and the on darkened highways, no matter how empty they While less conscientious street racers wove Z are constantly jousting are, is incredibly risky—for participants, specta- through traffic, Mid Night chose a time when the for superiority. tors, and bystanders alike. roads were empty. Team members tested one another, but internal club rivalries were friendly Wangan Midnight It was also particularly shocking by Japanese and deeply respectful. Just as in high-level pro- didn’t see the cultural standards. Western society has long lionized the fessional racing, a level of trust and predictabil- crossover of the drifting- outlaw, from dusty wandering gunfighters to a crew ity was required. Beyond the group’s close-knit based Initial D, but of street racers improbably taking on a nuclear sub- nature, Mid Night went to mind-boggling lengths it did spin off a host of marine. But on Japan’s crowded islands and in its in pursuit of speed and honor. animated movies, sardine-packed cities, citizens are expected to be arcade games, and even unfailingly polite and law-abiding. Though Japanese highways seem smooth sur- a few PlayStation titles. faced, they are not designed like German auto- The fourth series of the While the speed battles at Yatabe brewed con- bahns. Expansion joints, dips, and ripples are a manga is still being troversy, the highway racing was flat-out illegal. published. Even today, decades after the real Team Mid Night cur- tailed their highway racing, young people in Japan are still reading about the battle between the Devil Z and the Blackbird. R&T VOL. 10 075

constant hazard at very high speed. And sustained AS THE JAPANESE economic bubble burst, an end A high speed is what set Mid Night apart. In the early to the street racing loomed. One popular rumor days, the team raced on the Tōmei Expressway, was that Mid Night disbanded after a crash involv- C and when the new Bayshore Route opened, Mid ing a rival team and injured bystanders. The story Night found its preferred battleground. Route B, played up the Mid Night warrior’s code, suggesting A. Team Mid Night known as Wangan-sen, is a series of toll roads with that the team dissolved itself because innocents prowls one of numerous straight sections around the northwest had been hurt. Tokyo’s innumerable perimeter of Tokyo Bay. During Mid Night’s hey- highway tunnels. day, it was principally bathed in the orange glow That tale was only speculation filling a vac- of sodium lamps. uum. In reality, Mid Night members had simply B. The subtle angled stepped back from any media contact. Speed cam- decal indicates The popularized image of street racing in the eras became more commonplace, and enforcement full membership in West is two cars lining up for a drag race, sprint- was up. The eventual ubiquity of digital cameras this elite group. ing over a straight quarter-mile. Team Mid Night’s and cellphones made staying in the shadows ever type of late-night racing extended to driving at more difficult. Some members had families now C. Team Mid Night built peak speeds for minutes at a time. Racers would and reassessed the risks. Further, the pursuit of cars for sustained burn through several tanks of fuel in an evening; top speeds had become less of a focus for Japa- high-speed runs. tires would rarely last a month. Think several Mul- nese enthusiast publications. Drifting was the new Effective cooling sanne straights joined together. national obsession, both at the track and on nar- was a priority. row mountain roads. Because of the uneven road surfaces and the D. Steady speeds above need for sustained top speed, suspension and Mid Night didn’t collapse, it reoriented. Many 150 mph meant engine tuning was at the highest level. The Yoshida members maintained their interest in performance frequent fuel stops. Specials 930, for instance, sported a KKK turbo by shifting to circuit racing. Mid Night stickers similar to what was on Porsche’s 934 and 935 Le could now be found on cars contesting lap times Mans racers, with supporting modifications. It had at Tsukuba Circuit instead of Yatabe. the 350-km/h speedometer from a 959 and a host of other, mostly hidden, upgrades. The engine blew Today Japan is one of the most difficult places more than once while contesting speed records, for ordinary enthusiasts to own a car. Space is at a aiming to best the Ruf CTR-1. Eventually, the car premium, punitive road taxes add another layer of produced north of 600 hp. expense, and there have been recent crackdowns on modified cars. By the mid-Nineties, Mid Night was a more seri- ous crew than the youths who began it in the Eight- Team Mid Night now sees its duty as inspiring ies. It became more secret than ever as members a new generation and preserving the legacy of the grew their daytime careers. Joining was harder, past. They are public in rebuking those who put and the cars were ever faster. There now was also a counterfeit Mid Night stickers on vehicles. The mild internal rivalry regarding the cars themselves. only way to receive the silver tag is as a mark of respect from a team member, and there are very Porsches were still favored, but the arrival of few real stickers out there. the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R in 1989 introduced a new challenger. Like the 930, the GT-R’s turbo- Racing Team Mid Night is a phenomenon that charged engine was just waiting to be massaged really couldn’t have occurred at any other time. It for big power. But compared with the aging 911, the marked the apogee of tuning culture. It was a stag- all-wheel-drive front-engine GT-R had an easier gering act of illegal daring in an age before mass time getting big power to the ground. surveillance. It blended speed with an anonymity incomprehensibleinthemodernseaof socialmedia. By the end of the Nineties, Mid Night R33 GT-Rs and 964 Porsche 911 Turbos had cracked the 200- Above the Daikoku Parking Area, the elevated mph barrier at Yatabe. They were not the only cars Wangan stretches out across the water. The traf- the team used: A third-generation twin-turbo fic flows smoothly on a weekend afternoon. But Mazda RX-7 joined Toyota Supras, a modified after midnight, in the dark, keep your ears open Acura NSX, and a handful of exotic cars, includ- for the piercing banshee wail of a turbocharged ing a white Testarossa and a Countach. engine. The old days are gone. But Mid Night is still out there. 076 R&T VOL. 10

B D

































THE

NIGHT R&T VOL. 10 095

T SHIFT 096 R&T VOL. 10

After sunset, the road belongs to the profes- sionals. Delivering precious cargo, keeping the interstates safe, feeding the criminal under- world—it all takes place at night. We travel across America to ride alongside the folks who ply their trades on the dark, desolate road.

A. Hot pizzas, groceries, PIZZA people—Sidthisak DELIVERY “Sid” Kaybounthome transports them all BY K Y L E K I N A R D through two months of frigid darkness in THE FIRST THING TO KNOW about Barrow, his trusty Honda CR-V. Alaska, is the airport is named for a plane crash. In 1935, American humorist Will Rogers and avi- 098 R&T VOL. 10 ator Wiley Post’s plane nosed into a river outside town. Both men died. Flying is still the only way into Barrow. Rogers might’ve found that funny. I land at Wiley Post–Will Rogers Memorial Air- port to find my phone bricked. Zero bars. COVID protocols have halted the hotel shuttle. Dismayed, I stuff one pair of insulated gloves into another, zip my down jacket up to my throat, and set out to hail a ride. Outside, late-model pickups idle, unattended. A Honda CR-V sits 50 yards upwind, “Polar Cab” on its doors. I gasp against the cold and scuttle over. That’s where I meet Sidthisak Kaybounthome, Arctic outpost pizza-delivery guy. “Kyle? I was looking for you!” he says. “Call me Sid. Easier for you to pronounce.” He grins. Finding Sid feels like a small mira- cle in a miraculous town. Utqiagvik is the city’s Indigenous—and, since 2016, official—name, but everyone I meet still calls it Barrow. One of the most remote settlements on earth, it sits 3000 miles north of Los Angeles, closer to Tokyo than to Washington, D.C. There are mind-boggling hurdles to deliver- ing pizza here. Temperatures hover at 15 below in January. Ice glosses every surface—roads, stop signs, power lines—like some celestial modeler went ape with the flocking. There are no paved roads, only rutted gravel packed on permafrost. The sun doesn’t rise above the horizon for two months straight. Then there’s the polar bears. “Sometimes I might have to drive around them,” Sid says, straight-faced. We stop at the takeout-only East Coast Pizze- ria, pack several pies into warming bags, then set out into the Arctic chill. Our first stop is a make- shift box of a building with portholes for windows, painted white with sleet. “You have to watch for the dogs, too. They’re worse than the bears,” Sid remarks. Dogs? “Yes. If I don’t call ahead, sometimes they forget to bring in the dogs. They attack you.” PHOTOGRAPHS BY I A N A L L E N