JOHNSON VALLEY, California — Sixty miles north of Palm Springs, Johnson Valley is synonymous with Ultra4 racing — America's most demanding off-road competition. Every February, 75,000 people descend on this 96,000-acre desert pasture to watch insane, all-wheel-drive 1,000-horsepower dune buggies on 'roids vie for the King of the Hammers crown over high-speed flats, mountain passes and extreme rock-choked trails.
Incredibly, this alien landscape is also the natural habitat of the Ford Bronco Raptor.
Like tackling Road Atlanta — one of America's greatest race tracks — last July in a production Porsche 911 GT3, I assaulted the Hammers course with a production Bronco Raptor. In extreme 116-degree temperatures, Raptor not only survived — it thrived.
