Heads up for those attending OPTIMA

[GregWeld]

Personally --- And I'm 100% positive that neither Jimi or Cam care what I think --- I'd like to see the STYLING points go away -- in favor of a vote for "Which car would you like to drive daily".


Oh -- that would separate this into a "race car" vs Street Car shootout in a big hurry.

[Ron Sutton]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Personally --- And I'm 100% positive that neither Jimi or Cam care what I think --- I'd like to see the STYLING points go away -- in favor of a vote for "Which car would you like to drive daily".


Oh -- that would separate this into a "race car" vs Street Car shootout in a big hurry.

[SSLance]

In my personal experience with this, I was parked next to and judged one right after the other a car of the same vintage as mine. Both cars are very capable street cars and are driven regularly on the road. Both cars performed almost exactly the same on all three performance elements at the event. One was on a stock chassis, with a nice factory appearing exterior and interior. The other was on an aftermarket chassis with a nicely done LS swap and a host of other bolt on goodies. One scored 19.767 points in the D&E portion, the other scored 21.433 points, 23rd and 13th respectively...out of 30 entries. 1.666 points difference. I ended up finishing 1.256 points behind the other car overall at the event (18th and 20th overall).

I'm not sure what I could do to my car to make up those 10 spots in this element, I didn't have any deductions for missing "street car" attributes, I just didn't have all of the bling showing under the skin that the other car had. I don't know whether you call that "styling points" or "Design and Engineering" or whatever. I understand why that part of the competition is there and I think it should remain to punish the full blown race cars with headlights somewhat. But in my case I may have been punished a bit because of it as well, and my car doesn't get any more street car than any other car that was there that weekend.

Maybe I'd like to see the D&E judging to be done last, and have the results of all of the other competitions be considered in the D&E portion. Kind of a verification to see if all of the bolt on bling really does help the car perform better or not.

[Panteracer]

Last year at Optima we left Sema and drove 6 miles down
Las Vegas Blvd at 4:30 friday in bumper to bumper traffic.. then turned
around and went 7 miles back to the Freeway before we headed
to Shelby.. only one car broke.. I heard the rear end let go
The ride tech sponsered truck was wondering if he had enough fuel...
850 hp small block with about 3 miles per gallon

Show cars vs race or drivers
I also think there is too much value on the show cars
Yes they are awesome and can be driven but most
of them only scored points in the Design and engineering

A little bird told me that first and second place were only one point
apart two years back when 2nd place won two out of the three driving events...
seems a little off to me but it is an points system and that
is what they do.. actually love the fact they have opened this
event up all over the country.. way cool for everyone

Panteracer