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All technical write-ups, reviews, event coverage, and anything else.

The Ultimate Street Car. The end is really only the beginning.

Over 50 people travelled nearly 2000 miles for this event.  To help, to spectate, and to support.  We are extremely thankful to all friends, family, supporters, and sponsors.  No way in hell could we do this without you all!

 

Now, onto the trip, which really started a long time ago, but we’ll start it on Wednesday, which is when I flew into Las Vegas.  We arrived late in the day, so we didn’t have much time to do anything.  It was cool to walk into the Stratosphere and immediately see a bunch of people wearing the RSMotors T-Shirts.

Thursday morning we walk to SEMA.  SEMA is HUGE!!!  If you ever have the chance to check it out, I strongly recommend it.  There is SO much to see its mind blowing.  Most of today was spent checking stuff out, getting registered, few interviews, and then a nice evening of dinner with the Race Ramps crew.  Following dinner, we found a crazy Limo driver that took us to all the best places.  We even found Ron’s favorite casino game.  We found ourselves crawling into bed around 3am.

Friday- Late morning.  Get breakfast, and head back over to SEMA for the Optima press conference.  Walked around some more, met with the awesome QuickTrick people, then geared up for the SEMA cruise to the after party, SEMA Ignited.  Thousands of people watched as all the SEMA cars left the show.

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And a few pics from SEMA Ignited:

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After the after-party, we went back to the hotel to get a good nights rest.  Well some of us did.

Saturday- The competition begins!  We were split up into 2 groups.  One half does the Speed-Stop challenge while the other half does the autocross.  Halfway through the day we flip-flop.  I wont go into the details for all of us, that’s too much typing.  If you want all the details, you’ll just have to join us next time.

Pictures from Saturday’s Autocross and Speed-Stop.

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After Saturday, came Sunday, which is Road Course day.  We got 4 sessions to put down our single quickest lap.

All in all, this experience was awesome.  Cant wait for next year.

 

Full Results: http://www.optimabatteries.com/index.php?cID=2952

 

 

In-Car video of the Road Course:

Support the people that support us!

RSMotors
RaceRamps.com
Ground-Control Suspension
QuickTrick Alignment Products
Sign Pro of Plover WI
AEM Intake
BoostedFilms.com

Optima’s Search for the Ultimate Street Car- Prepping the S2000 for battle.

Few months ago Ronnie from RS Motors talked me into going to the Michigan USCA event with my dented up, daily driven Honda S2000.  I ran out of excuses so I signed up for the event.  At this time, the S2000 was stock with just an intake and a bigger front sway bar.  I gave it my hell and with a little bit of luck I managed to win and obtain the invite to the Las Vegas Invitational event which takes place immediately after SEMA.  Part of the USCA rules states the car must be on display in the Optima Alley at SEMA (Yes SEMA, the largest automotive convention in the US).

Ok, so now what???   The work begins.

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Phase 1- Handling.
I cant thank Ground-Control enough for stepping in and helping my efforts.  I’m pretty sure Honda setup the AP1 to be a drift car, because that’s all that car wanted to do.  With the new GC setup, the balance of this car become much more ideal.  I was able to break into the 1:11’s at USAIR in Shawano, faster than any other RWD car to date.   Small tweaks to the alignment, removed the rear sway bar entirely, and some fresh tires also made noticeable differences.

Phase 2- POWA.
How do you make significantly more power with a small 4-cylinder that is already making over 100hp per liter?  You Supercharge it!  With the help of RS Motors in Burnsville MN, the small 4-cylinder now produces 360whp.  Compared to the rest of the USCA field, this is still low, but every bit of this HP will be put to good use.

Phase 3- SEMA.
You may have seen pictures of this beat up S2000 before.  This car was used for 2 seasons of Ice Racing and was also the official 365Racing driver enhancement car.  Its plowed through more snow banks than a plow truck.  This car also has 190k miles on it, so to say this thing was SEMA ready was a joke.  So with the help from Kurt at SignPro in Plover WI, the beat up S2k got a major makeover.

Before:

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After:

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I owe a big thanks to so many people that have helped.  So lucky to have so many people willing to help out.

RaceRamps.com

RS Motors

Sign Pro of Plover WI.

Ground-Control Suspension

Boosted Films

Quicktrick Alignment Products

and of course the 365Racing Crew

 

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Next Stop-  LAS VEGAS.

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