SMOTY / OUSCI Has this ever happened??
 

With all the prestige that goes with building a Street Machine of the Year and all the prestige that goes with being invited to the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational, I was wondering if there has ever been a car who has won both the SMOTY and the OUSCI?

And to all the builders out there, would you rather build a top 5 contender for the Street Machine of the Year or a great 8 contender for the Riddler?

It will never happen that a Street Machine of the Year winner will ever win The Optima Shootout. They would be too heavy, They would be so nice that no one would ever push them that hard and they are built for Form over Function for the most part.

I would like to build both. To me they are no where near the same. They both present opposite challenges to win the award. Nobody ever remembers the contenders.

Yep, never happen in a million years.

Considering the past years winners of the SMOTY, do you think it will always be an over the top car that wins? Do you think it will ever come back to a well built, well designed car like Steilow's red Devil or some of the DSE builds, or has the bar already been set too high with all the custom fab work and out of control check books?

I disagree, I think it could happen.With the bar being raised higher and higher each year Its just a matter of time before somebody with very deep pockets is able to finance a car utilizing alot of composites and titanium therefore bringing the car to a competitive weight for OUSCI. It will take a ton of money and an owner thats not afraid to push it to the limit (including their checkbook!)

Not sure if it could ever happen, because the two are on different ends of the build spectrum. It sure would be fun to try!:thumbsup:

I'm sure there are alot of builders out there who would love to meet this person.:drool:

I like the way you think...

My post from the other site:

I could see it happening. Why not have a race inspired SMOTY that can perform as well? What are the criteria for a SMOTY car that would take it out of competition at OUSCI? Perhaps a lot of it is the driver. I see no real reason the RS Vette could not have been a contender in the same fashion Bruce's Cobra was. Just needed a little more power, tuning, and a skilled hand behind the wheel willing to push it. Judging by other winners of SMOTY, ground effects and wild body mods are favorable for SMOTY. Those same mods can be made to be a benefit for OUSCI. They just need to be applied to the right car in the right way. We've had the discussion on what it would take to beet the modern modern Vette's (Danny Pop) out there. This is it. Free reign to reengineer a musclecar to be competitive. Now who do we know who is an engineer by day, amateur race car driver by night, and has deep enough pockets to make this happen?

Couple things come to mind.

I have trouble seeing a car that pushes all the judges hot buttons capable of being competitive in the modern OUSCI.

Secondly, the car is going to need EXTENSIVE testing and tweaking on the race track to have any chance. Then, the owner or builder is going to need to be an extreme hot shoe. Then you have to outgun a Z06. Not easy... It all sounds great until you build the street machine of the year and get it out on the track and start beating it up. Will the owner/builder really push it to the limit that it will take to win?

Nothing is impossible.....just very unlikely.

With respect to the craft that we so much adore and relentlessly pursue and spend our life savings on, I won't say never. With more and more cars becoming lighter with carbon fiber, fiberglass, etc, weight will become less more of an issue. Take the 2nd gen Camaro ProfeSSor for instance. It wasn't considered a SMOTY, but look at all the track inspired mods it had done to it. And, it still looked beautiful enough to be right there with the best of them. So, I can see our hobby leaning towards it in the future. 20 years ago, nobody saw restoring our cars to the sum of $400k-$500k either. So, 20 years from now it's scary to see what it will be like. Guys are already working on AWD classics. So, it's coming.