Ya missed the part about the aftermarket exhaust tips...:lol:

Seriously Jaymz, welcome to the site and nice first post. I'm curious - and to lend cred to your comments - are you a friend of Danny's or did you work on the car? If you are a friend, tell Danny to come hang out here more often!

Side note - we're on what, 14 pages on this topic. PT managed 10 comments.

I think some of you guys are a little bit defensive, we are just having a dialog on what we each like about this event, its not an attack on your car to say I think a "street car invitational" should mean you have side windows. That doesn't mean you shouldn't defend your viewpoint that door glass is not a requirement for a street car. It doesn't mean we don't like your car or want to iron-clad no exceptions exclude it from the event. And roadsters and skeleton cars are whole 'nother issue.

I'm more bothered by having a Z06 in the event.

I guess in my mind the point of this event was "Ultimate shop built and custom cars that are street legal competition". But I am wrong because it is called "Ultimate Street Car" competition. But in that case I don't see why the whole event wouldn't eventually be dominated by late model Vipers, Vettes, and Porsches, like any fast group at your average HPDE. I understand its good to bring them in as a baseline, but should they be eligible for the competition ?

If the point is only to have the ultimate street car, then that's a different take, but the reason we at lat-g are all excited by this event is because of the unique cars. To me that's more core to this event than whether the car is daily driver vs barely street legal.

That's a whole new debate as what is factory vs custom ? Since I built most of my car from scratch I consider most of lat-g rides to be factory cars LOL !

Back to the "street car" debate I guess I will have to concede that the only reasonable and valid criteria is that the car is street legal and can survive the "torture drive", kind of like how Hot Rod runs their "street" drag car competitions. The only other thing I would add is I though street car drag racing in the early 90's was totally awesome with back halved cars with rollup windows and too much power running sketchy 8's, and became boring (to me) when they turned into pro-mod cars with license plates.

Again, nobody seems to be knocking the event or not giving a huge kudos to Optima and the competitors or sponsors, we're just discussing what we like and what gets us excited about this event.

Well we came with a car that has heat, A/C, Carpet, kickin stereo, all the glass, all the lights, and all the amenities of a brand new car.. It is a lot heavier than when it was new.. We finished it in July and has over 5000 miles of every kind of driving condition imaginable under its belt.. When we heard there was snow at the pass we figured we are from the east and we are not afraid of snow so we went for it (thought it would make good pics too :lol: ) So everyone back off!! :D We changed all the spring rates before the event and really didn't get to shake the car down and Curt had his hands full on the Autocross as the car had a lot of body roll.. We had a great time and got to meet a lot of great people.. We were lucky enough to compete last year and were honored this year when chosen again.. My only opinion is I feel EVERY car should have to make the drive.. It is the Street Car invitational after all.. If you break down then by all means load it up and trailer it and give it hell fixing it (Kudos Vinny) but to load it at SEMA and trailer it there I don't agree with.. The drive should be just as much of a segment of the competition as the others.. Just my opinion and not worth much at all! :thumbsup:

HEY!!! I tried to disqualify you in tech when I discovered the stereo amp in the trunk wasn't SFI approved..... :D :cheers:

I think this sums it up.... "what gets us excited about this event".

There is something for everybody out there... road racing - auto crossing - basically an 1/8 mile drag race with a big smokey stop tossed in.... There are new cars - pro builds - home builds - track cars - hot rods - show cars - big inch turbos - new skool - old skool - Fords - Chevys - Pontiacs - imports.... That ought to get the average car nut case interested shouldn't it?? :woot:

Your Nova is bad ass! I have a 62 Nova Conv. but it is nothing like yours (nothing is):thumbsup: . I love to see builds like yours get driven hard. Beautiful cars like yours push the limits of customizing that is both incredible to look at and function like cars should.
As far as cars not making the cruise out to the track, that is a big no no. I saw that only 38 of the 55 made it. They did not get the 10 points. If they broke, I understand the deduction and get if fixed. If they just decided not to drive because it was too far or did not want to get wet, then they should not be there.

:bow: Yes. Optima is holding the recipe for success, and they're smart enough to keep the field diverse. As long as the PT genre continues to show a ton of sexy cars SEMA, we'll most certainly keep getting the majority of the OUSCI invites.

Although they will need a "Popp" rule or there may never be another winner. :) The guy should be picking up cones in 2012.

Let me tell you guy's about Curt,and the runt.Curt drove this thing like a red headed step child at Optima.He was frickin driving the crap out of this car.It's smokin cool,Over the top build quality.I watched him at Heidt's shoot also.He beat the crap out of it there.The RPM guy's are even more fun than Jason Childress.:lol::thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Scott M.

To include us in the same sentence as Jason Childress is an insult!! Lol... GRAVE DIGGER!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the compliments.. The beating there was mild.. The car has seen a lot worse!! i can not wait until we get Gerry (the Runts owner) in the car and watch her beat the crap out of it!!!

The Runt is one of my all time favorite Chevy II builds.. I got to see it @ SEMA & Optima for the first time this year.. Also meet Curt & his crew with Gerry the owner.. She was very happy with car RPM built.. Looking forward to see the car run next year @ some of the events..

I think cup holders should be a requirement for Optima! :D