My day at El Mirage Dry Lake

[johnnynumfiv]

Are there markers along the way to show you what kind of distance you have left?

[cmcpokey]

so you can just go out and tool around on the silt with no rules or limits basically?

pretty much, yeah. 15 bucks for a 24 hour pass, so you can go out there in the afternoon, then then next morning. they don't like when you do donuts and stuff that tears up the surface, but other than that, use at your own risk.

saw an excellent description that it was just like being on a regular lake in a boat. go as fast as you want, but you have no control over other people out there. no lanes or markers other than at the edge.

Are there markers along the way to show you what kind of distance you have left?

unfortunately no. i had my odometer, gps, iphone with google maps (amazingly has 3G coverage throught he whole place), and i have looked at it a bunch on google earth in preparation to go there.

[NSXType-R]

pretty much, yeah. 15 bucks for a 24 hour pass, so you can go out there in the afternoon, then then next morning. they don't like when you do donuts and stuff that tears up the surface, but other than that, use at your own risk.

saw an excellent description that it was just like being on a regular lake in a boat. go as fast as you want, but you have no control over other people out there. no lanes or markers other than at the edge.


unfortunately no. i had my odometer, gps, iphone with google maps (amazingly has 3G coverage throught he whole place), and i have looked at it a bunch on google earth in preparation to go there.

Wow, that's sorta scary. I mean, with everyone in triple digit speeds, a crash from another person trying to get a high speed run would be pretty scary.

[clutch-monkey]

yeah. how soft is it? like if you get the car sideways is there a chance the wheel will dig in and you'll flip the car?

[cmcpokey]

Wow, that's sorta scary. I mean, with everyone in triple digit speeds, a crash from another person trying to get a high speed run would be pretty scary.

definitely. fortunately it was sparsely populated out there... end of the season, hot day, etc. i guess when they do the races, it gets crazy busy out there.

yeah. how soft is it? like if you get the car sideways is there a chance the wheel will dig in and you'll flip the car?

its very hard packed, you don't leave footprints or anything, but it still can get soft. when there is wheel slip, it does dig the surface up a bit. at one point a dirtbike was crossing ahead of me at a range that i wasn't comfortable with while i was going over 100. i put the brakes on and turned a bit. the brakes grabbed a lot harder than i expected and the ABS came on. i decided i would focus more on turning, and let off the brakes. as i was turning i could feel the front outside tire digging in. and that had me even more unnerved than the ABS. once i scrubbed off enough speed though, it turned okay enough. but it never really felt like i wanted to do anything but go in straight lines.

[Sauc3]

and free.

Yup, allows for fantastic speed runs.

This was in the wet. I didn't quite take the picture at the peak, 243 or so.