THERE'S NO TEMPERATURE GAUGE.
That broke several thousand desert miles ago. But you can smell trouble coming, whiffs of radiator fluid slipping in the draft at the front of the engine doghouse. That's when you know it's time to stop. This doesn't happen often. The 318 likes to run hot, but climbing mountains with a 12,000-pound RV on your back will eventually make any small block engine overheat.
I start looking for a place to pull over. There's nothing. The left side of the road is a sheer cut of rock, quartzite, phyllite, and limestone laid bare by dynamite. To the east, as far as I can see, the barren rocky foothills of the White Mountains bubble and scrape their way toward a desert valley floor, dust-swept and brown. Dotted here and there are clumps of creosote and sagebrush, interrupted occasionally by splashes of yellow rabbitbrush. It's a stark but beautiful landscape. Without a pullout. But it doesn't matter, we haven't seen another car in at least an hour of driving. We are on Highway 168 somewhere in Eastern California, between the Nevada ghost town where we camped last night and the top of the White Mountains. So I stop right in the middle of the road.
This story is from the May 2023 edition of WIRED.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 2023 edition of WIRED.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
DeLorean vs DeLorean
Decades after her dad's iconic sports car time-traveled into movie history, Kat DeLorean wants to build a modern remake. There's just one problem: Someone else owns the trademark on her name.
THE BEHIND THE SCENES TECHNO-WIZARDRY OF ARATI PRABHAKAR
She has the ear of the US president and a massive mission: help manage AI, revive the semiconductor industry, and pull off a cancer moonshot.
11,196 YEARS IN PRISON
Faruk Özer made crypto seem like the sation to decades of economic dysimction. Then he became Turkey's most wanted-and hated-man.
THE FORENSIC EMPIRE OF ELIOT HIGGINS
As fakes and deceptions proliferate at record speeds, one guy has maintained a miraculous nose for the truth-the founder of Bellingcat, the world's biggest citizen-run intelligence agency.
THE COMMUNIST & THE CELEBRITY
CHINA MIÉVILLE WRITES A NOVEL WITH THE INTERNET'S BOYFRIEND.
DESIRED
WIRED's visit to the intersection of luxury and technology.
SCREEN SAVER
There are still nice things on the internet.
FIXER UPPER
Maybe you think they're majestic. Maybe you think they're an eyesore. No matter how you feel about wind turbines, there'll be a lot more of them in coming years.
DO THE MATH
Learn you a Haskell-the spooky, esoteric cult classic of programming languages
PRETTY IN PINK
Why did scientists put tangerine DNA in a pineapple-and can this Frankenfruit help change public opinion toward bioengineered foods?