Ultimate Street Car Challenge - 8 Emissions

15 Gross Display of HorsepowerThe Ultimate Street Car Challenge is a series of objective tests that are judged against empirical norms or against the performance of the other competitors. Everyone competing knows what they have to do in order to win, whether it's a certain number they're striving toward or a carefully planned strategy determined months ahead of time.

Except in this test. We don't tell competitors what to do or how to do it. We simply open the fence to a secret, empty parking lot at the top of Willow Springs raceway and throw away the rulebooks for 30 seconds. What each team chooses to do with the blank canvas of asphalt stretched out before them is entirely up to them, though judges Neil Chirico of Motor Trend, Mark Han (SCC's publisher), and yours truly were there to watch.

It's the absolute last test of the USCC, and whether or not they're up here to win, there's a really good likelihood that each driver is ready to let loose about 47 hours of stress and competition. Sometimes what comes out naturally is better than anything that could have been pre-planned.

In proper form for a British sports car, the Lotus of Prototype Racing declined to compete in such American debauchery. The Beetle RSI was one axle short of running, and Robispec's Evo was missing a functional engine, so it was down to seven cars.

HASport must be commended for their effort with the front-drive CRX. None of us asked if reverse gear was gone for good after the backwards, gear-grinding burnout attempt ended in what sounded like a an empty oil drum tumbling down a rocky pass, and there wasn't much comment when the only remaining option was a front-wheel-drive burnout.

At the other end of the spectrum was the Crawford STI, which, as soon as it entered the parking lot, erupted into a series of all-wheel-drive pirouettes, landing the car just inches from the metal fence. The crowd went crazy.

The LS7-powered RX-7 had no problem turning its NT-01 meats into smoke-it's something the LS engine has been doing since the idea of a Japanese tuner car was a funny joke. Paul Dentice put his Skyline GT-R inches from the crowd during a drift, and Steve Mitchell made his drifting experience obvious, with flashing lights and highbeams glaring while he executed perfect dorifto slides.

We're happy to report that for the second year running, this subjective-but-fun competition had no bearing on the finishing order of the combatants.-James Tate

The Big PictureAt this point, none of us know the USCC 2006 is already over. Jay is still in the garage, tallying up points, punching in totals and calculating final scores. So like sullen, war-weary gladiators, the remaining able-bodied competitors file into our makeshift arena for the final battle. Like the days of old, it is an utterly meaningless, disturbingly perverse exercise in tire destruction and engine abuse. And yet we can't stop clapping, especially when Crawford narrowly avoids adding bumper, trunk and door panels to his list of replacement parts.

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