KnightDriveTV

Was scanning over the USCA website for the Optimate Ultimate Street Car competition. I am at SEMA just about every year and love the Corvette presence...ain't gonna lie. I was looking over the class rules for 2017 and came upon the highlighted area shown below:

**USCA will be capturing data regarding all C5/C6 Corvettes during the 2017 season and
evaluating that data to determine their impact on the long term health of the series. This data
will be used to make rules changes in 2018 that may affect the class/weight rules for C5/C6
Corvettes.

Lots of good cars sold out there in the world, but I think the overall winner has been determined, as far as what the ultimate street car probably is, all things considered....Corvette. Be interesting to see what they do to "level" the playing field in the future to stop Corvettes from running the show. LSx motor in a lightweight and capable chassis..kinda hard to beat.

Thoughts?

rabrooks

Obviously, the governing body are Ford fans. If you can't beat'em, kick'em out. They need to build a car that's competitive or quit selling the Mustangs to Patsy's LOL.

Just kidding Ladies.

I know this is the land of the OFFENDED. Its just a joke

For what its worth, my 6th gen SS Camaro handles better than my c6z. Although I haven't had the Camaro on the track

BrianCunningham

Scooter70

Their logo says "Search for the ultimate street car". If no other car can win I guess the Corvette is crowned the ultimate and the series is done. They found the answer so no reason to go on.

Chad-1stgen

Nothing mentioned about a ban. I'm an active participant in the series who runs the GTV class I haven't anywhere the near the skill to contest for the Ultimate Street Car Title.

I think its just a precaution against the worry that each OUSCI becomes dominated only by C5 Vetttes. The series needs diversity and a wide participation group to survive. I think there was some worry when long time competitors who won their classes or won OUSCI previously began switching to the C5Z.

Catch 22 for them. Maybe it's better to not let the same driver/car win back to back? Popp is a hard man to beat. There are realistically less than 10 (maybe 5?) people in the whole series that have a chance of beating him no matter how good their car is.

KnightDriveTV

I definitely don't see a "ban" happening, but I sure hope they don't develop a Corvette only class. Imposing hp limitations would be the path I'd assume. Either way...the moment you add penalty to a car to keep it from winning...you've pretty much identified the ultimate street car...lol.

analyte

I'm of the opinion Danny would be competitive and successful regardless of what he's driving. His cars are prepped that good and he's got the skills behind the wheel.

Cap'n Pete

It's like when Wile E. Coyote finally gets the Roadrunner .....

..... then he has nothing left to live for!

Lawdogg

The criteria they use to determine the "ultimate street car" is as lame as it is arbitrary. Jmho

SouthernSon

True words. Not only is Danny a superb driver but he may be the original 'vette whisperer'. I don't know of anyone that can beat him in setting up a vette for track. Of course, the C5 is the vehicle of choice for him.

93Rubie

From what I have seen from the "Muscle Car Crowd" regarding Optima or whatever similar event you want to mention. Most have a TON of money in their cars and not a whole lot of driving talent. When a B Street class C4 can whoop up many of them in raw time....its not the car.....their driving leaves a LOT to be desired.

KnightDriveTV

^ Definitely true, driving is certainly a factor. I think, in that respect, it also represents a lot of real enthusiasts though...real people in their car, all in. End of day, the competition is very serious, it just shows that Corvettes are today track killer...lots of them at HPDE's, lots at autocross...it's still Americas sports car and pretty much IS the ultimate street car for a competitive/affordable/*** kicking environment.

Bluefire

I just walked into my garage and hugged my C5.
It's truly a beautiful beast.

MatthewMiller

All of this sounds a lot like the 450lb weight penalty for Corvettes and Vipers in SCCA's CAM-S class.

Mjolitor 68

I find the whole USCA sort of goofy. If you're on a race track why not mandate everybody wear a HANS and have a roll cage?

The cars are ok but they should just make a real race series out of instead of wanna be racing.

KnightDriveTV

Well, essentially that'd be like saying everyone who does an HPDE should have a Hans and a roll cage. These guys don't race wheel to wheel, they race against the clock, so the inherent risk is much less. HANS should definitely be in place for anyone that adds a big weight to their head, but the cage...don't agree with that one. I do think HPDE's should mandate a HANS though.

RichieRichZ06

I am an avid competitor in this series and I love it. Just like any series, especially one with national TV coverage, they are constantly needing to adjust rules based on what people build/race. I also understand that USCA and Optima are both businesses and keeping the series moving forward is the ultimate goal. If newbies to the series think the only car that can win is a Corvette than it might keep them from trying.

In the last couple years a lot of drivers have started to drive or are actively building C5/C6 vehicles. I agree that it's due to the relatively good bang for the buck you get from these cars. Some of it is also due to people seeing a few of the top cars being Corvettes and thinking "hey, I can do that."

What people don't realize is the amount of good parts, setup and costs associated with building a top 5 car for this series. I know how much we've put into my car and how long it took to dial it in. Chasing Danny, mixing it up with Mike DuSold and other top drivers and constantly improving my driving have allowed me to be one of those cars that can give Danny a run for the money.

I don't know what the captured data will change for next year, but I assume that either we (all Corvettes) will all have to meet a minimum weight or we might all be in one class together.

We all add and move weight to our cars so taking a car like Danny's or mine and adding weight isn't going to change much. When that doesn't do anything to even the field, we will likely face different rules for 2019.

We are getting to the point that going much faster will require a different chassis. Mid engine, AWD, light weight and other factors will start to play in and the Corvettes will no longer be at the top of this series. I know of a couple builds going on that will alter the standings and show that creativity, thinking outside the box, using good parts and starting with a decent size budget will create the new Ultimate Street Car.

Until then, we all get to chase Danny and the Blue Rocket.

- Rich Willhoff

OptimaJim

Hello, it's always great to see folks talking about the series, whether they love it or hate it. I think the section K.I.T.T. referenced in his initial post is a good example of how we do our best to stay in constant communication with the competitors in our series and those who are thinking about competing. I always encourage folks who are contemplating serious modifications or a dedicated build, to reach out to our series director, Jimi Day and talk to him about it. He might be able to give them some insight that could help them make key decisions regarding their participation.

A good example is our GTC Class, for shorter wheelbase, compact cars. Until this year, those cars were forced to compete in the Holley EFI GTL Class for lightweight cars, where guys like Rich Willhoff and Danny Popp hang out. As a series looking to encourage participation, we realized that could be a dis-incentive for people driving S2000s, Miatas and Mini Coopers. Some may have still wanted to run those cars and might've gone to extreme lengths in an effort to be competitive. Talking to Jimi Day about their plans would've led to the revelation that they'd have their own class in 2017 and wouldn't need to go crazy to try to hang with near-stock C5s.

The series is constantly evaluating all vehicles, including C5s and C6s, to see if any changes are warranted. Those cars happen to be somewhat unusual in that they can add or drop weight relatively-easily and run in either the Holley EFI GTL Class or RECARO GTS Class. Post-1989 Fox-body Mustangs might be the only other somewhat common vehicle in competition that can do that.

There have been a lot of top competitors in the series, who have acquired/entered C5s/C6s, including Jake Rozelle, who won the GTV Class last season, 2014 regular season champion Ken Thwaits, Karl Dunn, Feras Qartoumy and Randy Johnson, just to name a few. They have all run other cars, but seem to be gravitating toward C5s and C6s, so we're closely observing how that shift impacts the series and the entries in various classes.

It would be very premature to make any assumptions about the series rules for 2018, especially any that would be extremely difficult to police- Dynojet is not coming on as a sponsor as of right now and short of having an on-site dyno, I don't know how we'd police horsepower or why we'd want to do that. I'm also not sure we'd want to mimic the non safety-related rules of other series. We've been doing our own thing for ten years now and we're not looking to poach competitors from other series, some of which OPTIMA also sponsors.

Danny Popp has already proven himself to be extremely competitive and successful in the Lingenfelter Camaro, but our series is not for race cars (or street-legal race cars) and does not involve wheel to wheel competition. We're not going to discourage people from installing roll cages and many do and we won't penalize them for such safety-related modifications. Many competitors participate in our events for fun and do it in cars they like enjoying on the street. They aren't putting down lap times anywhere near what someone like Rich Willhoff does and don't want to sacrifice daily functionality and ergonomics. We do require neck restraints for all our competitors, but we haven't required a specific type of neck restraint and many of our competitors do use HANS devices.

As dominant as Danny has been in winning the OUSCI, his victories have not come in dominating fashion. When Popp first won in 2011, if Pete Callaway hadn't loaned Danny the master cylinder off his Corvette, Danny wouldn't have been able to lay down a fast enough time to beat Pete for the win.

The outcome has always been close and in some years, some of the Evo drivers ended up beating each other up in the finishing order and spreading the points out enough that Danny was able to hang on. In other years, Danny needed help on the road course from other competitors to create enough space in finishing positions, that he could hold onto his lead. Last year, Ken Thwaits would've won in his Evo, if he could've laid down a top-8 lap time on the road course (which he is easily capable of doing). He ended up hurting his engine before his first hot lap, rented an engine from another competitor, but couldn't finish higher than 17th on the road course and Danny hung on to win again.

93Rubie, a lot of our competitors do have a lot invested in their cars, but as you've suggested, that isn't needed to be competitive in our series. A good driver in a well-prepared car can be competitive in our series and some are with a relatively-minimal investment in their car. However, we are searching for the Ultimate Street Car, not the Ultimate Street Car Driver. A driver's ability obviously plays into the outcome, but we try to mitigate that to some degree, by prohibiting professional drivers from competing in the series. We also have other requirements of drivers to help prevent hired ringers from jumping into someone else's car.

Our series is also the only one that displays all vehicles that have qualified for the finals (OUSCI) at the SEMA Show. Keeping that in mind, we do place some value on street cars that are very well-built, regardless of how they perform on the track. We also penalize vehicles that are clearly purpose-built to be raced, but could still meet the technical definition of being street-legal. That doesn't mean a blinged-out show car will be able to qualify for the OUSCI or a street-legal race car won't be able to qualify, but neither would likely be very competitive in the OUSCI, if they did make it that far.

As a result, it's not a series we expect will appeal to everyone and we're ok with that. We're thankful for the folks like Rich and Chad, who do run with us and hopeful others will give us a try.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
www.DriveOPTIMA.com

micjester

I believe the same type of thing happened a few years ago with the no more wing rule. Seems like that one was more aimed at the evo crowd though.

"What people don't realize is the amount of good parts, setup and costs associated with building a top 5 car for this series. I know how much we've put into my car and how long it took to dial it in. Chasing Danny, mixing it up with Mike DuSold and other top drivers and constantly improving my driving have allowed me to be one of those cars that can give Danny a run for the money"

The cost part of this series skyrocketed with D&E having much more of an impact on the scoring. Ultimately, the top performing drivers would be competitive regardless of the platform they drive.

OptimaJim

There were a couple of reasons for the aero restrictions. The first was that this is a series for street cars and some of the wings people were showing up with were no longer anywhere near the blurred area between street car and race car. It wasn't any specific make or model that was doing this as we saw Import and Euro examples, but probably far more domestic examples. As people realized the wings were more effective in clean air, they started showing up with bigger and taller wings.

Even though the OUSCI had been around for several years, the qualifying series was in it's infancy and we didn't want it to start off with potential competitors and fans looking at the cars and seeing race cars with license plates. A lot of the objective D&E points (which is more than 2/3 of someone's D&E score) also help address this and focus on establishing our definition of a street car, versus a race car with license plates- full interior, functioning horn, headlights, wipers, radio, HVAC, etc...

There's also a significant expense involved in adding aero modifications, as I see ads for the used wings that are prohibited in our series being listed at over $2,000. The competitive nature of people will push them in a lot of directions and we won't be able to control all of their spending (and won't want to), but that was one area that seemed obvious and easy to wrangle in. The result was that a lot of the competitors in our series went from dropping a couple grand on wings to making their own.

If someone wants to compete for a regular season championship or the OUSCI title, it won't be a cheap endeavor and we make no apologies for that. We have "Ultimate" in the title of these events, because we're looking for those ultimate cars. However, as others have mentioned, you need to be a really good driver as well.

Even with all that, we have a guy in John Lazorack III, headed to Road America in a few weeks, who has already won $1000 in contingency money in two events and stands to make another $2500 if he wins his class at Road America, regardless of what Danny and the other fast guys do. He built his car himself and did it all for far less than what most people spend on a new Corvette. In fact, the first year he ran in the OUSCI, he had less than $10,000 into his car. Last month at Auto Club Speedway, he finished second in his class and second overall in D&E with a car he built in a one-car garage.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
www.DriveOPTIMA.com