2006 Ultimate Street Car Challenge

7 Driveability
With the 'Grandma Test' banished to the jokes-that-have-run-their-course dustbin, the major source of hilarity left during the 2006 USCC competition is watching the old, fat guy get in and out of cars equipped with Habitrail roll cages and anorexic teen rally driver seats. Scott Oldham and Josh Jacquot are long gone, but Ed Loh recognized a comic tradition worth preserving and once again put me in charge of the Driveability evaluations. Hey, I'm grateful for the work and as the photos here prove, my dignity can be bought for a modest day rate.

In an Ultimate Race Car Competition, a car's ability to idle in traffic without spewing coolant wouldn't matter. Who'd care if it was so loud that it knocks masonry off buildings as it drives by? All that matters in a race car is speed.

What matters in an Ultimate Street Car Competition, on the other hand, is a machine's ability to wed epic performance with at least some utility. My job here wasn't to evaluate whether the entrants could haul ass, but whether they'd be reasonably comfortable while hauling my ass through the mundane task of daily living. Here, then, are the highlights:

The class of this wonderfully classy field is the Robispec Evo, which has a steering wheel that flips up for easy entry and exit, seats that are comfortable, and an engine that runs just as well at part-throttle as it does with the pedal mashed hard to the floor.

Sure there are rattles, the ride is stiff, and the rear wing and roll cage pretty much obliterate rearward visibility, but this an amazingly easy-going car. And the air-conditioning blows nice and cold.

The two Subies are equally pleasant
driving machines, though the APR's nose is too low for most driveways and the Crawford car's exhaust note sounds a bit like it's gargling. Both have sweet steering and the ride quality in either never threatens to shatter vertebrae.

Stay out of the turbos and Danny Young's NSX may as well be a new TSX-except for a rear end that chatters around corners and reflections from the exotic engine bay that eliminate the view behind.

The Prototype Racing Elise is similarly accommodating, though the supercharger sounds like an impact wrench stuck in your ear. And, if you were wondering, there's even less utility in an Elise than there is in an NSX.

The XS Engineering/M-Works 350Z makes no pretense at civility: no rear-view mirror, no wipers, no rear insulation, narrow seats, an interior that could actually be improved with duct tape, and a lightweight clutch that judders every time a gear is engaged. It's a track car that knows it's a track car. But it's a pain on the street.

With this out of the way, I now have a full 12 months to lose some weight and move on to some other aspect of USCC judging. They can get a manatee to do this job next year.-John Pearley Huffman

The Big Picture
The photos are easy to laugh at, but the truth of the matter is John is an incredibly good sport and a very experienced driver, having driven nearly every car sold in this country in the last 20 years.

The top three are all different in this test, but it's still a tight race. Most of the cars were easy to drive, so the points total stayed relatively close. Good news for the leaders, bad news for the pack.

Joe McCarthy has no cellphone and there's no one picking up at his shop. Is he and his Elise on the way, or stuck by the side of the road?