Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert played a key role in the early history of hot rodding and land speed racing. Located in Southern California, its wide-open, dry lake beds, like Muroc, Rosamond, and El Mirage, offered ideal terrain for young rodders in the 1930s and 1940s to test their cars at high speeds. Far from city streets and police, the desert became a proving ground for innovation and competition. It was here that the roots of organized racing began to take hold, eventually leading to the formation of the SCTA. The Mojave remains a sacred landscape in the story of American speed.