Triple Coution! Loose Surface!Flying Finish!

摘要

With its 13O miles of twisty mountain trails, the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area is the promised land for southern California's off-roaders. On a crisp but cloudless spring morning, it is crawling with stumpy four-wheelers and spindly motocross bikes; the angry, annoying buzz of two-stroke engines―think amplified mosquitoes―fills the park. A ratty pickup truck with gigantic wheels and two audibly flat tires trundles to a stop in front of a service area that's been fashioned from a fleet of big rigs, a couple of E-Z UP portable shelters and some heavy-duty tarps. Here, a team of mechanics swarms over a pair of be-winged red-and-silver rally cars that pack enough electronics to put a man on the Moon. "Hey," the pickup's driver calls out his window, "can you guys spare some air?" The question hangs there incongruously. Picture a duffer trying to borrow a five-iron from Tiger Woods or a kid asking Chuck Yeager to fly a remote-control model airplane. Primitive environs notwithstanding, the mechanics are part of a full-on, factory-supported race team. Each of the Mitsubishis they're wrenching on cost $240,000 to build. Nearly two dozen people have been flown in from Vermont and the U.K. for a test session two weeks before the Rim of the World Rally in nearby Palmdale. The only reason Subaru, which plays Godzilla to Mitsubishi's Mothra, isn't testing today is that its own team of British mercenaries is still building two brand-new cars, both of them even more exotic than the Mitsubishis.