2006 Ultimate Street Car Challenge

When was it really over?
It's hard to pin down, and impossible to say for sure, but most of us agree that the turning point for this year's USCC happened on Day Two, during HPA's second acceleration run.

Until then, Danny Young and HPA had separated themselves from the field using different strategies. On the first day, Young's NSX managed impressive wins on the dyno, at the guru panel and in the car show. HPA kept pace with a solid string of high finishes, and owner Marcel Horn casually intimated that the Beetle's true potential would be unleashed at the track.

But that was not to be. After ripping off an impressive 12.19-second ET on their first cautionary quarter-mile pass, HPA's all-wheel-drive, 429 wheel-hp Beetle sheared the flange off the front left driveshaft, something Horn had never seen before in all his years of high performance competition. Despite last-minute MacGuyver-type heroics, the competition was essentially done for HPA. All they could do was limp through the rest of the tests on three wheels and take a pass on Gross Display of Horsepower. And yet they managed to take third place, beating out Paul Dentice's Skyline GT-R by a mere 20 points. That's right, a Beetle beat a GT-R; a fact made more shocking when you realize that while Dentice took home all the impressive hardware (four wins in horsepower, power delivery, quarter-mile, and 20-100mph), HPA won only two.

HPA's woes left the door wide open for Quirt Crawford's silver bullet. Like HPA, Crawford Performance's STI had been quietly stalking the NSX since the competition began. With a top-five finish in every category on Day One, including a win in Fuel Economy, Crawford took advantage of HPA's trouble and stepped the game up to finish in the top three in nearly every category on Day Two, including a win in Gross Display of Horsepower.

The problem is, they were often finishing behind Young's NSX, which took first on the track and second in 20-100mph and braking. Were it not for relatively poor finishes in the Skidpad and Gross Display, Young might have walked away with the largest winning margin in USCC history. Instead, it was a classic battle to the end.

Sure, it's easy to think about what might have been. What if VW had decided on a less exotic way to attach wheel to driveshaft? What if Crawford Performance hadn't grenaded their 2.7-liter engine the night before the competition? What if we had given Joe McCarthy of Prototype Racing more than six days to get his Elise together?

What if nothing. The USCC is true to its name, it is the ultimate challenge. To win, you have to finish. And to do that you need a bulletproof car, a well-thought-out game plan, and contingencies for every eventuality. Even then there's no guarantee you'll win. This year, the title, trophy, and bragging rights go to Danny Young and his turbocharged NSX.
-Edward Loh