How One Woman Built America’s Longest Driveway And Made Racing History

If you were driving done nan Mojave Desert and spotted a cracked, four-mile agelong of sun-bleached pavement, you astir apt wouldn’t deliberation doubly astir it. It looks for illustration immoderate different forgotten roadworthy successful nan mediate of nowhere. But this one’s different. Once upon a time, it was nan longest driveway successful America.

Not only that—it was built by 1 woman’s stubborn guidance to nan national authorities and later utilized for high-octane, 200 mph velocity tests by car magazines. That agelong of asphalt was Bonnie Orcutt’s driveway.

Bonnie Orcutt didn’t group retired to make history. In fact, she conscionable didn’t want nan authorities moving a road done her land. After her hubby passed successful 1953, she moved westbound to a small location successful Newberry Springs, California.

However, years later, she learned that nan Interstate 40 description would trim consecutive done her property. Officials tried to bargain her retired but Bonnie said no. Then she started penning letters. Lots of them.

Stories say she wrote them to President Lyndon Johnson, First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, and nan politician of California. Eventually, her persistence paid off, and successful 1965, nan authorities agreed to walk $100,000 to build her a caller driveway—four afloat miles of pavement starring from her location to nan nearest nationalist road.

No twists. No turns. Just a straight, level agelong done nan desert. A constituent for Bonnie, and 1 very agelong driveway for nan history books.

Years later, reporters from Car and Driver mag stumbled crossed what would go known arsenic America’s longest driveway while looking for a spot to push cars to their limits. Racetracks were excessively short. Public roads? Not an option. But Bonnie’s aged driveway was perfect.

With nary postulation and nary interruptions, they could easy deed 200 mph, trial caller capacity upgrades, and pursuit top-speed dreams successful complete isolation. There were stories of lipid spills, blown tires, and moreover fireballs stretching 50 feet. For a brief, chaotic time, America’s longest driveway doubled arsenic 1 of its astir daring trial tracks.

Sadly, nan spot fell into disrepair aft Bonnie passed distant successful 1986. Time, heat, and upwind person turned nan once-pristine agelong of roadworthy into a crumbling way of potholes and faded glory. But moreover successful its ruined state, America’s longest driveway remains a unsocial section successful some automotive history and individual defiance.

America’s longest driveway wasn’t built for cars. It was built for principle. And by sheer chance—and a small spot of car civilization magic—it ended up hosting immoderate of nan fastest cars successful nan country. America is afloat of historical locations for illustration this—including the concealed laboratory wherever nan US tested atomic bombs, and nan most atomic contaminated spot successful America.