Baja Peninsula
Ever wanted to jump a 2,300-pound car at 70 miles per hour?
I never thought I would have the chance, but it came during about 1,200 miles of racing across the desert, with a 2.6-liter, fuel-injected Porsche motor. In my never-ending quest for status as a stuntman, I drove the famed Baja 1000 race course from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas in March.
Wide Open Adventures offers a choice of three trips. Friends and I chose the whole shebang: seven days of full-on, high-speed, off-road driving, the equivalent of ripping through Colorado’s sand dunes, tearing across the Eastern Plains and running the Pikes Peak Hill Climb all in the same day.
The driving was so intense, I didn’t catch a lot of the views. Driving the car, working the radio and the remote cameras, shooting stills when possible and looking at the GPS kept me pretty busy.
I have been to Mexico before; I know what it looks like. I chose this trip to drive and drive hard – and got more than I expected.
To show how the whole thing works, I took photos along the way.
DAY 1:The Wide Open staff picked everyone up at the San Diego Airport around noon. Beer and food were provided for the drive across the border to Ensenada. In Ensenada at the Horse Power Ranch, rooms were assigned, and the word “fun” took on a whole new meaning. Beers, margaritas and other libations loosened everyone up.
My fellow drivers, which Wide Open tries to keep at about 20 per trip, came from across the country and ranged in age from about 26 to 60-something. Everyone turns into a 16-year-old once the cars start up …
There was one woman on this trip who wasn’t driving, but it’s not uncommon to have a couple of female drivers on a Baja trip.
Having the chance to mill through the shop and see these cars for the first time was impressive. Mechanics busily prepared the vehicles for us to drive for the next six days. Some of the cars were so disassembled it was hard to believe they would be ready the next morning.
DAY 2:Up bright and early. All the cars were lined up and assigned during breakfast – there would be 12 cars driving, spaced out by about 1 to 2 miles the whole time – and a short instructional video was shown. A guide explained the radio communications, one of the most important things to learn.
Anyone can be a great driver and get by unscathed, but if you don’t communicate with the car behind you and alert the driver to a hazard, serious damage can occur.
A hazard in this case might be that you ripped off one of your front tires and are now stopped. The car behind you could come around that same corner, hit that rock and plow into you at 60 mph. Farm animals also pose a hazard. It can cost up to $5,000 if you hit a cow doing 80 mph.
Everyone was moving fast, and a lot of information was getting passed around. We needed to be very clear about what we were passing around. Remember that old grade-school game of “telephone,” where you would whisper something around the room and it would be totally different when it got to the end? It was the same thing with the cars, so everyone had to be careful to pass info on accurately.
There wasn’t a whole lot more in the way of instructions. We jumped into our cars, melding ourselves to the frame with the five-point harness, testing our radios, firing the engine up, putting the car in gear and driving like heck.
Caution on the corners was the name of the game for this and the following day.
Then it was dinner, drinks and a night on the town in San Felipe. Please be aware that drinking beer on the sidewalk is illegal. The jail isn’t so bad, but it’s quite expensive to depart from. If you do get in trouble, be polite, nod your head a lot and keep forkin’ over the cash until they let you leave.
DAY 3:After being gripped so tight to the cars, our fingers creaked and popped in the cool morning air. Breakfast ensued, with spectacular views. Back in the cars. Our confidence was still on the low side, but we pushed it a lot harder than on the first day. Water, beautiful canyons and high speeds all day. Repeat the previous night.
DAY 4:A repeat of Day 3, as well, but with more confidence. We were now driving the car almost to its potential, with the pedal full on. Getting a flat or breaking a part of the car became a secondary thought as we realized how bulletproof these babies really are. They are built to take a beating, and a beating is exactly what they got – even with a conservative driver like myself. I didn’t seek out the basketball-size boulders and hit them, but sometimes it just happened. This was the Baja, after all.
The temperatures started to warm up a bit. They had been in the upper 60s, low 70s when we started, then heated to the upper 70s. The beach when we came out of the cars was still a bit cool for my tastes, though.
Again, repeated the previous night.
DAY 5:Hmm … I started to wonder what it would feel like to speed fully floored through those 4-foot-deep drops. By this day we were so used to cactus, rocks, animals, trucks, trees and bushes flying by that we had a hard time keeping feet fully depressed on the gas pedal because we got rocked so hard.
Full-on bobblehead status set in. The nights got shorter because of a time-zone change, and tomorrow would be the longest day of them all. Repeat previous night – but much lighter.
DAY 6:Today was a long one. We were in the groove but realized the driving part of the trip was coming to an end. Only one more day to go all out. We pushed it harder and harder, until a canyon opened up wide – and there we slowed down.
Falling off the side of the canyon could be fatal. When I say slow, though, I mean slow like twice as fast as driving in an SUV in Colorado through Glenwood Canyon.
Way too tired to party like a rock star tonight. To bed early, as tomorrow would be the last day of driving.
DAY 7:It was a moseying start. This was one of the shortest days of the trip, but also one of the most fun. It was the day we learned the arrows and fluorescent tape actually meant something as we ripped through one of the courses.
Hey, look at that: Two down arrows means a big hazard is coming. Yup, a good 6-foot drop into a wash. That would certainly cost a few bucks if I grenaded the entire front end. How do the trophy trucks do this at 100 to 120 mph with no lead car? Skill, skill, skill.
Before we knew it, we were out of our cars at the Cabo San Lucas track, piled into a van and on our way to the hotel with a beer in hand.
At this point Wide Open Adventures was no longer responsible for us. They turned us over to the wild nights of Cabo San Lucas. The room bill was covered for the night, then we were on our own. Next time I might consider staying a few extra days and running a few laps around the Cabo test track – now that I know how to drive.
DAY 8:Headed home and immediately started planning the next trip. About three hours into the conversation, I bagged the idea of going on the tour again and started planning to run the Baja 1000 race.
I called Wide Open the next day and realized $80,000 is a bargain for the experience. If I line up seven willing participants, including myself, running the 1000 race would be roughly $10,000 or a bit more, including the pre-running.
Anyone out there interested?
Staff photographer Eric Lutzens can be reached at 303-820-1321 or elutzens@denverpost.com.
INSIDER’S GUIDE
Here’s a list of basics you will need for this trip:
Pack for dirt, dust and water. Take old clothes.
Pack light. You will pack and unpack every day.
Motocross pants; newer ones zip off for shorts.
Comfortable shoes, such as a good walking shoe like those made by Keen or Merrell.
Gloves are almost a must – motocross gloves work great.
A lightweight jacket for wind and dirt.
A lot of small U.S. bills. American money is taken most places, and the exchange rate can vary widely. Change will be in pesos.
Small camera that can fit in a shirt pocket.
Sunscreen, mainly for arms and tops of knees.
Sunglasses. Try to find a pair that is as comfortable as possible behind the ear. Your helmet will push on your ear.
Have the proper documentation required to exit and re-enter the country, which until Dec. 31, 2006, means a driver’s license for Mexico for air and sea crossings. The new law for air and sea crossings will go into effect the next day, requiring a passport. On Jan. 1, 2008, land crossings into Mexico also will require a passport.
Don’t party too hard in the evenings. Whoop-de-dos at 60 mph are brutal with a hangover.
Wide Open staff will have stomach medications, but it doesn’t hurt to bring your own Imodium AD.
Rent a satellite phone to communicate with the United States. Your cellphone will cost roughly the same, but it will fade in and out.
A multi tool in your pocket comes in handy.
An extra-large zipper-lock bag or Hefty bag to throw your dirty clothes in after each day. Some days they will be wet and nasty, other days they will be dry and dusty.
CAR STATISTICS
Total number of Baja Challenge cars: 33
Cost of each car: $125,000
Weight of car: 2,300 pounds
Fabrication: Orange County and Ensenada facilities
Time to build each car: three to four months
Tires: BF Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO – 285/75/16 (33-inch tires)
Wheel travel: Almost 2 feet
Frame: Chromoly steel
Shocks: Blistein
Race springs: Eibach
Motor: 2.6 L fuel-injected Porsche
Transmission: Fully synchronized custom four-speed
Brakes: Four-wheel disc
GPS: Lowrance Globalmap
Miles per gallon: Approximately five
Top speed: 80 to 90 mph, depending on surface
Maintenance: Rebuilt each year for the Baja 1000
THE BAJA COURSE INFORMATION
The four-day trips run year-round and are loops from Ensenada, Calif. Six times a year, the Baja 1000 trip goes for seven days from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas. For dates, call Wide Open Baja Adventures at 888-788-BAJA or visit wideopenbaja.com. The Ensenada loop trips cost $4,175 per person; the Baja Peninsula drive is $7,595 per person. To race the Baja 1000 race costs $80,000 per car.
If you run the Ensenada-Cabo trip, you are responsible for your own airfare back from Cabo. A shuttle from the hotel to the Cabo airport runs about $15. One-way airfare to Denver on Mexicana, US Airways, Frontier Airlines and American airlines starts around $260.
