Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational 2009
 

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This weekend I volunteered to work at the 2nd Annual Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. This event is meant to take (primarily) SEMA show cars on to the track to prove that they're more than just show. The event has grown and 52 cars were entered this year with even more variety than before. 4 different competitions make up the event:

Road Course:

Each car gets a warmup lap followed by 3 timed laps, and a cool down lap. The slowest timed lap is thrown out while the better two are counted. Dropping two wheels off at any point immediately results in a 3:00 time. This was to prevent any corner hopping or time consuming track cleanup.


Autocross:

Like the road course, each car would get 3 timed runs with the slowest run thrown out.


0-60-0:

As one would guess, this was a simple acceleration and braking trial. Everyone used the same timing equipment which would trigger a light to let the driver know when the car hit 60. Unfortunately, some cars had issues with the light not functioning properly. As a result, their runs were not nearly as good.


Design:

This is the sillier subjective part of the competition. No, this isn't about theoretical performance. Instead, it is only about aesthetic appearance and unique customization . . . The idea was that anything performance related would sort themselves out in the other 3 events. I disagree given that not all cars had been sorted out on a track, outfitted with competitive R compound tires, and driven well.


Here are a few pictures. I'll update this after I get a couple of tests and projects out of the way.

Go, Penny, Go!
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The Ridetech Camaro, Velocity, looked like it had some sort of rubbing issue when it tried to put the power down through a corner.
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MotiV8r Camaro road course laps

MotiV8r Camaro at the Optima Batteries 2009 Ultimate Street Car Invitational. - YouTube

MotiV8r Camaro at the Optima Batteries 2009 Ultimate Street Car Invitational. - YouTube

Jackass 0-60 mph braketest.

Optima Jack Ass 60-0 Brake test - YouTube

Optima Jack Ass 60-0 Brake test - YouTube

:-):thumbup:

what a lovely sound :-) V8 plus turbos = :thumbup:
I gotta earn more money so i can by that fastback mustang :-P

You can get one for 10-12k USD in Michigan.... with no real issues

With all these American track day posts you do, you should just move to the US. And then maybe someone will post a video of you in one of these threads.

Do you have more pics? I suppose working at trackside doesn't actually give you much opportunity to take pictures.

Yes, I have lots more for pictures, and some decent video. I won't have a chance to do much with them until I get past tomorrow . . . two tests and one project down right now, two more projects due tomorrow then standard weekly assignments due thursday plus a lab.

what a sound 8-)

a couple more:



Granatelli cars (the S197 Mustang was not in the event, whereas the GT-R and '10 Camaro both competed)
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Inside one of the garages at the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch facility: some of the driving school cars
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. . . and while I'm too busy/lazy to upload my own videos of the event, I'll post a few others.

Here's Steven Rupp man-handling his 1968 Camaro, Bad Penny, around the autocross course. He lost powersteering, so the really tight low speed corners were not easy for him.



and after a trip to the local Autozone for a new power steering pump Rupp went and ran the autocross once more, though it being his 4th run, would not count towards the competition. With power steering, Penny ran in the 42's about 2 seconds quicker than before.




Lastly, here's David Pozzi piloting Penny around the road course

Despite running on all 8 cylinders (as opposed to 5 like last year) and having better tires (40 treadwear BFG R1's as opposed to last year's 100 treadwear Toyo R888's) Penny ran pretty much the exact same time (and yes, it was the same track configuration.) Pozzi feels he should have stuck to his own line and may not been aggressive enough in braking zones this year, while also questioning some of his gear selections through corners. Nevertheless, David's a great driver. It'll be fun to see how Penny compares next year.

Road course section
Lunati - In car footage of Project Bad Penny '68 Camaro


2010 camaro on auto x course and road course

Get your stuff together, man. That video is from the 2008 event. Notice that it was posted in May 2009 . . . before this weekend. And Penny is running on 5 cylinders in that video.

Here's a cool video that sort of previews the event:

and we have official results

*note: After apparently reading up on much of the controversy or maybe just triple checking their math, the Optima guys changed the results.

http://www.optimainvitational.com/media/results.html

http://www.optimainvitational.com/media/results.pdf



At the event, Steven Rupp driving the 1968 Bad Penny Camaro was announced as the overall winner. This surprised everyone as the '66 Cobra won every single dynamic event. Now, the Cobra is shown as the winner.

Ok will do