Yep, and some cars had to be shut off to be put into reverse and then restarted..

Every year the rules change a bit and the racers read the rules to see what they can get away with.. just like any racing.

Fun to watch and one of the best events out there. And thanks for coming out to volunteer.. the event couldn't happen without you guys (yes, even Greg) ;)

Hard fought competition between friends controlled by a stopwatch. The variety of cars was nice to see. A lot of great points discussed.

The event has really evolved over the years. It's great to see some of the same cars getting faster from year to year. To me that is what this is all about. Competing within yourself to get better and see where you stand among peers. We all know there is no such thing as the Ultimate car.

Congrats to all that participated, without you the event doesn't happen. I'm hopeful the pro touring community keeps being represented and people don't start passing on the event because they feel they can't compete.

Thanks to all the optima crew and volunteers even Greg.

I couldn't agree more! I love this car. :thumbsup:

Of the responses I've read for this thread, this is one of the best. A build can take many twists and turns but in the end, it should be what's envisioned by the owner. Owners and builders look to competition and performance of parts to get their ideas and OUSCI provides that venue very nicely. It's easy to fall into that trap of building something event-specific and once you start down that path, it's a long, long road to the finish.

Regarding "race" vs "Street," this year's OUSCI definitely had "track/race" cars in the field that were extremely well driven and very well prepared. Did they comply with OUSCI rules and could they be driven on public roadways? Yes and as such, were allowed to compete. That said, were some of these cars ones I'd like to drive as confirmed and compliant "street" rides? Uhh ... no and the reason is they're not built with that as a key focal point. It's a personal observation ...

Contrary to hopes and dreams, OUSCI isn't for the Average Joe. Your "Joe built" car isn't going to win OUSCI or even place high and no matter how good you are on the jungle bars, that top bar's going to be just out of reach. I can almost guarantee you that Danny and Co. will get that Z06 a bit prettier, a tad less "race car," and get as many of those Style & Design points as possible for next year's rodeo. Danny Popp did an outstanding job and set a new "OUSCI Fast Lap" never having driven that track before last Saturday and took us all to school on the Autocross course. He's a worthy Champion!!

Chris ... build your car your way as you want to enjoy it for years to come!!

Mary Pozzi

Well said Mary.And Congrat's on your sucsess at SEMA/Optima.:thumbsup: Scott M.

Yep, you nailed it Mary. No wonder you are making the big bucks writing for Camaro Performers. :D

After finally returning home home after the 11 day treck to the OUSCI and back. I have had plenty of time to reflect on the event and what it takes to get there and what it means to compete in this event. Was it worth the 12 days away from family and work, several thousands of dollars in fuel and expenses, driving through the rockies in a blizzard and everything else...HELL YES!! This event is the pinnacle of what we all do. It is very well run (thanks Jimi and all the volunteers) and as with any event it will continue to evolve. Being a participant in the event I realized very early on that I need to focus on individual accomplishments like building an 1100 hp real street car that survived over an hour on Las Vegas Blvd in a friday night traffic jamb and then driving over 100 miles to pahrump in freezing weather, rather than how to compete with more purpose built cars and professional drivers. With only 3 autocross laps and under 10 laps on a road course prior to OUSCI I had a better change of hitting the jackpot at MGM than beating the legends like Mary, Mark, Kyle and now Danny. Like I explained to my wife it is like an average guy getting to play in the Super Bowl! There is absolutely nothing wrong with it and it is awesome just to be one of the 55 that gets that opportunity. I think if everyone wants to change this event with more rules and fully prepped race cars it will loose some of its luster. We already have SCCA, Formula One, Nascar and many more full of rules and usually won by the team with the best funding (so they can bring heaters and tire warmers of course!) This event needs to continue to let the average Joe have the opportunity to run street cars at a competitive event, even on a limited budget. By the way I would drive Brian's car and many others on the street and love every minute of it! I never drive a car like this in the snow or with the windows up and the A/C on! They are all weekend toys and should be built and driven exactly how the owner wants them to. I do agree that an overall winner is needed, but it would be great to have other awards without getting carried away like import, modern, and pro-touring. You could also run a professional and amatuer driver class because it comes down more to this than the cars. All the cars at this years event were capable of at least being competitive, all the drivers were not. Congratulations to everyone that had the opportunity to compete in this event and remember you are at the top of your game just for being there. Remember all of these events were put together for us weekend warriors to go out and beat on our cars and drive on a real track and learn from the pros! Other than that it is about showcasing what these average cars can do with talented builders and awesome aftermarket parts. This is really what its all about, building awareness for the industry and putting the real muscle in musclecars! If you want 100% real street cars maybe a Prius should run next year it gets great fuel milage and is totally reliable!:lol: What fun would that be???

Two cents from North of the Boarder LOL....

First off personally I have to say "Brian" you built a way cool car... It meets your needs (and this event) in my opinion,, really sweet car bud...

Now as for the rules, Jimi and the gang at Optima are doing there best.. They have constantly created a fun and exciting event to showcase our rides and the up coming builds (along with some here that are being changed during mid-build) as a testament to just that... Helping to organize and being around a few events we all find areas for improvement in anyone's event,,, but that's because the perfect event left on the last train to Hell a week prior to any individual event LOL....

These people spend a lot of time & money trying to make the best Dam event possible happen so lets celebrate their efforts even more than we do currently as a possible area for improvement....

Safety matters, Heck we're all three times seven gang,,,, a rule shouldn't be the motivating factor here... If your car needs it, if the event warrants it,, you should know already because things happen way fast in the game we all playing in.... Some organizers won't and can't respond or set rules because it immediately opens the doors to personal legal liability and no one trying to create fun for you and I should have to be put in that position (Insert Dam lawyers joke here LOL)...

Personally I was reluctant to place cages in my street cars because it's next to impossible to get insurance up here in Ontario if they see it in the appraisal photos of the car.... Now here is the common sense side,,, I bent the rules (like everyone's talking about and decided to hide it as a blind cage).... It's not perfect, but sure makes a lot of sense given the events we are enjoying... I had Kevin drive my car in the Optima and I wanted to make sure he had extra safety measures that included a fire system on board,,,, I sure didn't need a rule to tell me that....

The 2011 Optima was AWESOME!!! and these threads are great as we share the experience together too....

Danny Congrats,,, well done indeed bud.

All the participants (and board members) can thankfully say wow we just, yet again, experienced one of the most exciting car guys dream events.... A special thanks Cam, Jimi, Bill and all the great people that make this happen.

Love you Albert! LOL


Well said.... very well said.

There seems to be alot of people thinking that Danny Popp won becuase the Z06 is a "racecar with license plates". The car in question is 2006 Z06 with a camshaft and headers, stock heads and bottom end. I has different leaf springs, shocks and bushings. Nothing custom just a bunch of off the shelf parts that Danny has put on other customers cars and knows that the "system" works. This car still has AC, power windows, NAV, etc. It's far from a racecar than most think. This car still uses the stock suspension mounting points, stock tranny and rear end.

Sure it has some aero pieces (splitter and wing) but that alone does not make it a racecar.

This car was just put together and did well, becuase of the guy driving. He could of done the same thing in many of the other cars that were there.

In my mind a true racecar is a car that is build from a pile of tube steel and carbon fiber (think GT1 type cars), not a mass produced street car like the white Z06 that he drove.

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

In my eyes, the road ralley doesn't test these cars. It may be a good litmus test for a drag car, not for a road racer. You could drive a sprint cup car from Vegas to Pahrump if it had a full tank. Road racers can take extreme temperature and torture. I don't think it should be done away with, I just don't think it's a way to sift out the race cars. If they want to do that, they will need to come up with standards that each car must meet. If you can get it registered at the DMV, it's hard for me to say it's not a street car regardless.

We should be happy there is a show to put our pony in...... Whatever rules they make is a OK with me. I will go back and say that it's unlikely any vintage car will take out a modern Z06, Viper, Porsche with a reasonable driver. It is the Ulimtate street car, not, lets handicap it so a muscle car can win. I always like to compare myself to modern cars when I race. It's fun to take down a viper, vette, gtr, etc...

I've been reading this thread and all I've got to say is that I'm still kicking myself in the ass for having two tickets and not making it out there this year. :lolhit:

I am a friend on Danny's and have seen the Z06 up close. I have seen that car from it's first time on the track as bone stock as GM made it to what it is today.

I just wanted to clear the air on the Z06. It's not much more than a modded street car and could be replicated in a couple of weeks with another stock car and about 25k in parts + labor. It would seem that the intent of SEMA is to showcase aftermarket parts. This car is exactly that. There is not one part on this car that can not be ordered by telephone today.

I do see the point of the newer cars vs old older cars in the same competition. I do not have the answer on how that can be equalled. Maybe there needs to be a split class by year? Older that 1985 go to the historic class, newer than 1986 run in the modern class. Also make the modern class open. No restrictions as far as tires, body, etc.

I think the "show" portion of the event is very biased toward the older cars. Is the scoring for this section public knowledge?

I mostly wanted to say thanks to a bunch of people for allowing me to beat my car mercilessly, but I have to chime in on a couple items I see here.

I am extremely grateful to even be considered of the caliber to be involved in this event. I volunteered two years ago and see that it has grown significantly more competitive since then. These cars are built to be monsters on the street and the track so making a set of rules to govern such a diverse group of cars will be very difficult.

I really liked the road rally and was disappointed that some people blew it off. I was even more disappointed it had such a low point value. It seems that the usability of the car would be a prominent feature of a "street car". It ought to be a bigger part of the competition.

I absolutely had a blast on the road course. I think the warm up laps and seperate three timed laps are a great way to rank the field. I was still learning the course on the third lap, but if I wished to be more competitive I should have scheduled a track day. The only gripe I could offer is track temp and condition. Cold tracks suck. People who ran in the afternoon had a stickier track to run on. I don't think there is a fix for that. That is part of racing.

The autocross was fantastic. The design was magnificent. I've had several dreams since then with the throttle pegged and smoke pouring off the 335's on the 180. The morning guys had to deal with puddles. Again probably no way to fix it.

The design challenge is another area to seperate the street stuff from the race stuff. Maybe we should offer points for street accessories like cup holders, real seats with lumbar and recline features, audio/video systems and garage door openers. Cars with change in the ash tray get 100 points. Starbucks receipts crumpled under the seats 50 points. French fries stuck in seatbelt receptacle 20 points.

I was bested in overall rank by cars that did not compete in all facets of the competition. That should not happen.

My thanks list in no particular order: Mike and Wilwood for finding a set of brakes for my pig and making it possible for me to be at SEMA, Cam and Optima for giving me a chance to play with the big boys at OUSCI, Jimi and FM3 for such a kick ass event, Kris at Sierra NV paint for getting a fresh coat on with two days to spare and all my dudes at ivmotorsports for helping me deal with all the normal issues that happen right before trying to race.

Can we get a link to your car ?

He's got the killer fat fendered AKA: Widebody VOLVO.... Which was so much fun to watch out there!

A little info on the winning vette;

http://powersource.optimabatteries.c...ning-corvette/

Awesome car, awesome driver. Hard to beat combo!

From that article: "Danny’s driving ability is certainly on par with that of any of his fellow OUSCI competitors.."

Only on par? :lol:

I'm not really understanding the new vs. old debate with this competition. Are people really upset that a late model Z06 won the event, beating out '69 Camaros with clean-sheet modern suspensions, ZR-1 engines and brakes, ABS, and whatever else the builder is capable of building? In my mind, there is no new vs. old in this competition. You could bring an IMSA GT2-chassied '69 Camaro if you were so inclined. I'm not debating that it's difficult to engineer and build a car that's more capable than a modern factory-engineered supercar. But this is a competition with very little rules or structure on what's allowed. The best driver with the best tool wins. Period.

Neil, it comes down to pyhsics. You can rework a Camaro forever and it will NEVER out perform modern engineering. It's simply to top heavy, nose heavy, and heavy. :unibrow:

Dude -- Get yourself some balsa wood and do a cored laminate floor next time... some lexan windshield and back glass... take them stupid windows out of the doors... and the headliner while you're at it... Dump the A/C -- you won't need that with no side windows... Can't hear the stereo with those big dumps, so it can go... and nobody is climbing in over the roll cage to the back seat - so you can dump that too....

EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA


Oh wait -- I just went out and looked at the track car.... seems somebody already thought about all that! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


On a serious note -- the drag coefficient of the Corvette has to be about HALF of what some of those cars were pushing...

I've been saying ever since wheeling them around Bondurant and Spring Mountain --- "that Corvette is about the best car a guy could buy - it's a BARGAIN given what we spend to make our cars HALF as fast or brake half as well...." All that and the A/C blows cold!

One way to beat a modern Corvette is to do like my car... and my car weighs almost 3200 lbs. I do have 200 lbs of lead added to the rear for balance and the minimum weight for SCCA autocross. I have been kicking myself since Sunday. Danny and Mark had 80 points to my 72. If I would have gone just .5 seconds faster on the road course and improved my brake challenge by .2 seconds, I would have won. The woulda shoulda coulda can be played all day long. I did not my best at the time and I know what to do next time. I am sure everyone else could say the same thing also. But my point is, the Raybestos Performance Design Challenge does make up a lot of ground. I got 18 points for 4th place and Danny got 0. Next year, he will have to make some major changes to get those points. He probably will do something.

HAHAHAHAHA Oh man, Brian! Now you're getting to be like Mark Stielow! He spent a bunch of time just working on the StopTech challenge = back when it was set up to use the G meters(?) -- you had a speed to reach before you could hit the brakes..... So he worked on all manor of stuff to get that down --- THEN they changed the event! :lol:

Add some ABS to the car..... That seems to really really work well for that type of event!

if you would have won you'd really be catching a shiz storm for not having windows!:D

Oh, I know. :yes: That would have been the reason I won. :unibrow:

Danny and Mark were the class of the competition. We will see if I get a rematch.

Windows Shmindows!!

I'm pretty darn sure you are going to make a point of getting a rematch and who the hell would not want to see you run again anyways!!

Your car belongs at these events!!

I must say though, big props to Mark for running a 3600 lb car as well as he did.

I helped Mark wrench on Devil at VIR, when he had some problems. The thing that really suprized me about the car is how mild manored, and stock it seems. Starts, idles, and drives like a new car, but yet its a beast. Shows you how well engineered it is, and what a good driver Mark really is. Ron

Hell Mark, Danny, Brian, Mary or Brian,,,,, they all did a great job out there and all their cars where awesome... This is kind of fun splitting hairs on who did what,,, all 51 cars where pretty much exceptional and the drivers & cars at the top of the pack are truly awesome see ... Congrats to you all...

Wow 16 pages on OUSCI!!
Not surprisingly, an impressive response
RideTech has been a sponsor of the OUSCI since its inception in 2008. I’ve been a hotrodder since around 1976. My opinions here are both professional and personal [and some are the same!]
Professionally:
RideTech builds suspension systems and components for street cars whose owners want to drive in an aggressive manner and feel as comfortable as if they were driving a new corvette. I consider the C5 and C6 Corvette to be a feasible benchmark to shoot for when evaluating the success of our suspension components. The OUSCI [as well as the RTT events and the Goodguys event is where we get to publicly and tangibly demonstrate our wares.
I think we’ve succeeded.
We’ve ALWAYS brought cars that were built with off the shelf parts, in a manner that MOST of our customers could subscribe to. The Warpig 66 Chevelle, The Velocity 68 Camaro, and now the 48 Hour Camaro had all run well and represented our company and our suspension systems well. I LOVE being able to directly compare our cars to the state of the art vehicles in any genre…tuner, exotic, late model, racecar or not. I can go down that list and mentally compare each car and it’s build level to our stuff and decide if we have succeeded or not. I believe that MOST customers are doing the same thing. They understand that a 67 Camaro with an OEM subframe and a 550 hp motor with an amateur driver of medium talent probably will not be able to beat a nicely prepped Z06 with a VERY talented driver on a road course. They get it. AND they respond by buying enough of our products to allow us to do this all over again next year. THAT is why RideTech continues to sponsor, promote, and participate in OUSCI, and all the rest of the dynamic driving events throughout the year.

Personally:
As a hotrodder…man I want to WIN this thing someday! I went 5 seconds faster this year than last year on the road course and dropped from 9th to 22nd! So, what am I going to do?
Build a faster car, of course!
Beyond that…re-read my professional comments above. I can’t think of a better overall event than OUSCI. The fact that there are 16 pages of commentary on this event shows that is has rung a bell with everybody regardless of position or opinion. There wasn’t one car there that I thought was out of place. I LOVE seeing how my junk stacks up against the various “exotica” and crave the opportunity to do so again next year.

Some people don’t think much of the “design” portion of the event…they think a “car show” element doesn’t belong in a “race”. Two things to remember about that: Beyond the fact that this is not a real race, If it weren’t for the design portion of the event it would have become overrun with racecars immediately. The second thing is that recalculating the scores without the design element didn’t change a whole lot. I guess my definition of “a whole lot” might be different from someone who might have moved up in the standings more than I would have, but since this is my rant I have not bothered to consider anyone else’s definition

One element I would like to add for next year: The fastest road course driver gets to take the design judge’s car around the track for 3 laps.

Here is one serious thing I would like to see for 2012: Spectators. Can you imagine playing the superbowl in an empty stadium? Spring Mountain is NOT very conducive to spectators, but there are a lot of venues that are. I’d sure like to explore that avenue. If a NASCAR race can bring in 150,000 people to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, couldn’t OUSCI bring in 10% of that?
OK...on to next year!