Optima Ultimate street Car challenge

[brsvo]

Just going through my DVR and saw an SVO in the opening of Optima USCC mid season recap. Japolina red on Thunder hill raceway I believe. No other reference to it though. Anyone know who it was? Looks like a fun series but they criss cross the country over and over, would need time and serious backing to do that as a series.

[Laredo]

9181

[Laredo]

Looks like a fun series but they criss cross the country over and over, would need time and serious backing to do that as a series.

Can you sign up for just 1 weekend event? Elkhart Lake in August!!!

[Unclesams_SVO]

Man that would be a fun "bucket list" item.

[brsvo]

I believe you can enter any one or all. The idea is to finish high enough in any one event to be invited to the finals. Doug where did you get that from? From what I have seen on tv they have a lot of money into trying to win this stuff. But if a bunch of us entered it could be fun regardless of finishing position.

[svono50]

Wouldn't it be cool to have a gaggle of SVO's at one of these events! You can run whatever portion of the events you want to, I believe. Check out the chatter about it over on Corner Carvers to get an idea what goes on. It sounds like their events can be a bit crazy from an organization point, but running on any track is fun.

[brsvo]

Rules

http://driveusca.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/USCA-2016-Rules_v10_final.pdf

[Unclesams_SVO]

I will have to look into his next year as this event happens every year in Las Vegas. I drool over the cars when they are displayed at SEMA.

[Karl Rodg88]

Hey Guys, that's me. We ran the Thunderhill event in february of this year in the SVO. I probably had the most under-powered, under-braked, under-tired car there, but it was still a ton of fun. The only real issues we had were the brakes getting hot after only a few laps and oil blowing out the dipstick tube on the road course. Looking at going to cobra brakes and a bigger pcv/catch can system. I really thought I had a chance at the Spirit of the Event Award with my daily driver, four cylinder, turbo mustang, but they liked a coyote swapped F100 a little more i guess. Looking forward to doing it again next year!

[Karl Rodg88]

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Karlrodg88/IMG_7855_zpsitbdwryq.jpg (http://s204.photobucket.com/user/Karlrodg88/media/IMG_7855_zpsitbdwryq.jpg.html)

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Karlrodg88/IMG_7882_zps4oauekeq.jpg (http://s204.photobucket.com/user/Karlrodg88/media/IMG_7882_zps4oauekeq.jpg.html)

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Karlrodg88/IMG_7883_zpsnctle0eq.jpg (http://s204.photobucket.com/user/Karlrodg88/media/IMG_7883_zpsnctle0eq.jpg.html)

[Laredo]

Those are some sweet photos Karl!! :cool:

[MikeFleming]

Getting some airflow to the brakes will help a lot. Going to larger brakes (aka 13" Cobra with 17" wheels) will help until the brakes get hot - then you'll have the same issues (without the needed airflow). Are brake cooling ducts allowed??

I did notice that "professional drivers" (past, current) are not allowed. Sigh.

[Mike S]

The only real issues we had were the brakes getting hot after only a few laps

If you are not ready to swap to the Cobra brakes just yet, flush your brake fluid for Motorcraft and install some Hawk Blue pads up front and EBC yellows out back. They should get you through a 20 minute session with no issues. The 13" Cobra swap really makes a huge difference specially with Hawk Blue pads.

[Karl Rodg88]

Eventually I will be making the swap to cobra brakes, but no real timeline for that yet. Id like to make it to where I swap back and forth between 17"/13" and stock 16" with the 12" crown vic rotors. For the event, I didn't have a ton of time or funds, so I went with HP+ pads up front, stock pads outback, and some 550* dot4 fluid, but unfortunately no ducting. The only other real mods that got done for this event were adding a harness bar, harnesses, and a Kirkey Road Race seat. Plans for next year are some brake work with ducting, stiffer springs, and keeping the oil front blowing out the dipstick. Besides brake fade, I was getting about a quart of oil blown out the dipstick during a 20 minute session. Though I run track events regularly in my pretty much race prepped Turbo Coupe, this was really a lesson how much your average street car can take on track.

[Mike S]

keeping the oil front blowing out the dipstick.

The solution that Stinger posted on his site works. I was having the same issue and that fixed it.

[Under Pressure]

Mike where on Stinger website is it about blowing oil out the dipstick?

[brsvo]

He is referring to how to make up a catch can I believe.

http://stinger-performance.proboards.com/thread/732/fix-pcv-system-engine-blow

[Unclesams_SVO]

That is an interesting read, I have been running a catch can setup but still using the PCV valve, I may re look at this now. I hate it when the dip stick pops and gets oil over everything.

[Under Pressure]

I've been running a catch can also. That reduced the amount of oil dripping but didn't stop it coming out of the dipstick tube. I still have the pcv valve in.

[brsvo]

Take the PCV out of the equation and make sure the catch can vents sufficiently. Made all the difference in the world on my car. Ironically I didn't get much in the catch can?

[Unclesams_SVO]

Take the PCV out of the equation and make sure the catch can vents sufficiently. Made all the difference in the world on my car. Ironically I didn't get much in the catch can?

I am going to have to give this a try. I have a large catch can collecting dust on a shelf, I will swap out the smaller can already installed in the car.

[brsvo]

Karl what class did you end up in and how much did your car weigh? Seems the GTL class is 3200 and below is that where you ran?

[Karl Rodg88]

I ran GTV. The car is probably a little underweight, but it's also under-prepared in every other way too, so it evens out. I'm planning to do a few things, but nothing that will really make me much more competitive against cars with 600hp and 315 tires.