2006 Ultimate Street Car Challenge

Acceleration
Cracking off a rapid quarter-mile run at Los Angeles County Raceway really is a one-in-a-million chance. Not a year has gone by without complaint about the Martian track surface or the scalding heat. This year we've added yet another aspect for everyone to complain about: no VHT. We've forgone the traction-enhancing coating because it wears off throughout the day, which means those who run earlier would have stickier runs. With or without the VHT, though, the biggest challenge of the event is pulling off an acceptable run in just three tries.

The good news, particularly for those without the luxury of all-wheel drive, is that we're also clocking the 20-100mph time of each car, which is less dependent on traction. I say less dependent because we all watched, jaws agape, as Mike Schaezler's LS7-powered RX-7 lost traction at about 90mph and nearly spun into the wall, before a miraculous recovery saw the car aimed toward the left side of the track. After painting the inside of his pants brown (we imagine), Mike babied the car to a very traction-limited 15.02-second run at 95.75mph. Only at LACR can 510 wheel-hp equal that kind of ET.

Prototype Racing's Elise was another car that became squirrely about halfway down the track, despite its relative lack of torque. The little Lotus still managed to finish in 13.55 seconds, with a 20-100mph time of just over 11 seconds.

Predictably, it was a nightmare for the guys at HASport to get a clean run out of their front-wheel-drive CRX, but in the end they saw a respectable 14.28-second run at 108mph and nobody feared for their lives.

The giant T51 KAI turbo on Paul Dentice's Skyline was all but made for the quarter-mile, and when the car dug in and rocketed off, it didn't let go until the run was over... in just over 11 seconds and just under 130mph. The car also blitzed the 20-100mph test in six seconds. Dentice was so confident he'd won, he simply cruised through the two remaining runs, like a batter walking casually to first.
-James Tate

The Big Picture
Day Two started off with Dentice banging out an 11-second run on his first pass. It ended with Marcel Horn's head in the Beetle's left front wheel well. On their second pass, HPA sheared off the flange on their left front driveshaft, and the damage was serious. Not only was the replacement part not easily sourced (even in remote Palmdale, CA, go figure), repairing it required special tools. But we didn't know how bad things were until Horn called information for the local Home Depot.

While HPA struggles to hold on, Dentice takes the bragging rights and Crawford and Young stay in the hunt.