The Smoking Tire heads out to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch for the Optima Batteries Ultimate Streetcar Invitational, where SEMA Showcars get the crap kicked out of them on the race track. While there, host Matt Farah not only gets to test out the track himself in a Lotus, but also gets a ride from a pro driver in a Radical SR3.

We’ve never figured out why, but for some odd reason humans are always transfixed at the tragedies of others. Its why car accidents cause so much traffic havoc – we all have to stop and look as we drive by (grrrrr)! Racing is no different. When something goes wrong on the racetrack we all wanna have a look.

So for your viewing pleasure, I thought I’d just highlight all malfunctions that went on during Optima’s Ultimate Street Car Invitational 2009. For starters, there was Hot Rod Magazine’s Factory Five built 1933 Ford Coupe, which I’ve already covered in: Hot Rod Magazine 33 Hot Rod Coupe goes down!.

Next there were some problems with Hot Rod Jim’s 1957 Chevy Pickup. It sounded like the tires were just a little too big for their own good. A problem that would’ve gone on with many-a-car on the SEMA showroom floor.

Then we had an exciting show when this 1965 GTO built by Barry White of Wrecks to Riches fame blew a radiator hose of all things. It might not have been so cool – but it happened just as the big heavy GTO was heaving itself around the autocrosses’ 360 circle and resulted in a mess of steam and fluid dumped onto the race course.

After that we had the mysterious control arm breakage on the 0-60-0 acceleration/braking course for this 1972 Charger. A suspicious occurrence for this event no doubt.

At the same event, and we can’t exactly call this a malfunction (the car was all right.) But for some reason it just couldn’t handle doing 0-60-0 in the allotted space this run, running it right off the course!

Last, but definitely not least, was the even more mysterious occurrence for K&N Filter sponsored Nissan Infinity G35. After a full day of racing, on it’s 2nd to last curve around the Road Course we see something fly and a cloud of dust. Was it a bird? Was it a plane? No, it was all 3 control arms snapping and the rear differential blowing out!

All this excitement in one day and nobody got hurt! For plenty o’ pictures of all 51 of the competing cars in the Ultimate Street Car Challenge, check out the MyRideisMe Event photos and for more on this exciting event click on over to some other stories!

Whoever came up with the idea to put on an event that would demonstrate the performance capabilities of the cars being showcased at SEMA was a genius! And that’s exactly what the Optima Invitational is all about. Happening the day after SEMA ends, it gives people a chance to put their “money where their mouth is” so to speak. 2009 was just the second year for this event, and the fellows at FM3 made sure that it was pulled off without a hitch.

This year there were 38 vehicles competing for the Ultimate Street Car title along with 14 other cars under the “exhibition only” category, making for 51 beautiful cars out at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch on race day. What goes into an Ultimate Street Car you ask? You might say it needs to be well rounded. At this invitational race they competed in 4 catagories: Road Course, Autocross, Acceleration/Braking, and Styling.

Having driven the course the day before, I had an extra appreciation for what these cars and drivers were doing. Not surprising to many, Bruce Cambern’s 1966 Cobra took the cake in three of the four catagories. On the Ride Tech Autocross it got time of the day (by at least a second I believe) of 39.546 seconds. In the Baer Brakes Speed Stop it did 6.7 seconds.

Everyone was quite surprised however when they tallied all the scores to designate the winner of “Ultimate Street Car.” It wasn’t the 1966 Cobra but last year’s defending champion “Bad Penny.” This announcement surprised most at the awards ceremony since the Cobra had done so well. When I’d talked to Bad Penny’s driver, David Pozzi (who also does work building the car), earlier in the day he said he was disappointed with the performance of Bad Penny and was expecting better results. In races like this though, it’s consistent performance and split seconds that separate a winner from a loser…so Bad Penny, congratulations!

Bad Penny winning wasn’t the only surprise of the day, a few cars went down throughout the day in some very interesting ways. For details (come on, we all know crashes are the most exciting thing!),check out my article on that. And roll on over to theMyRideisMe gallery page to see pictures of all the cars in action, including some really cool Hot Rods such as a 1927 Tucci Roadster, 1933 Factory Five Ford Coupe,  Hollywood Hot Rod’s Model T Roadster Pickup, and even a 1957 Malibu Wagon

After three days of SEMA, our group from Optima left Vegas Friday morning and went to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Parumph, NV. Spring Mountain is a country club for racers and people with high end sports cars. The club house features 8000 square feet of resort-style amenities, including a lounge, men’s and women’s locker rooms, massage and fitness center, pool and jacuzzi, an executive conference room, billiards, custom poker facilities and nine plasma televisions. An outdoor veranda with barbeque area and fire pit connects to a 23-foot-tall viewing tower of the track. There is also a racquetball/handball court, an indoor gun range and racing simulators. A one time initiation fee of $15000 plus maintainance fees of $200 month will get you access to the club house, road coarse and access to their in-house professional driving instructors, including Ron Fellows. They also offer six different racing/driving schools, including the one GM gives to all new ZR1 Corvette owners They have two main track configuratins; the North/South road course is 2.1 miles and the west “Radical loop” is 1.5 miles.

Optima rented the track for the afternoon so after lunch at the clubhouse we were able run the short coarse in a Lotus Elise orMini CooperS. We ran two 30 minute sessions of lead follow behind an instructor. The first session was slower paced so we could get to know the track and the car. The second session was fast paced and alot of fun, especially since I had never driven a Lotus before or done any road racing. The Lotus was hard to get in & out of but it was easy to drive and very forgiving on the track. Then we were able to ride side-by-side with an instructor in a Radical race car for an even faster paced 15 minute heavy g-force laden ride around the 1.5 mile short coarse. I had a smile on the face the whole time, what a rush.

Afterwards we were able to run the Lotus or Mini thru an auto cross course that was setup for the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. I picked the Mini CooperS for the autocross coarse since I had never driven one before and I wanted to see how it would do. While the Mini CooperS is no 1/4 mile racer, it has good power, it’s light-weight and it impressed me how well it handles.

Not that I need another expensive hobby, but I really had alot of fun and really enjoyed road racing and autocrossing. I wish we had more time so I could have run the Mini on the road coarse and the Lotus in the autocross. But the sun was setting and everyone was getting hungry. So after a day of racing we went to dinner and then to the Hotel for the night.

Read more from diesel racing professional Micheal Tomac>>

Today I left the hub-bub of Las Vegas and SEMA to head out to Spring Mountain Ranch racecourse. In preparation for Saturday’s Optima Invitational, myself and the others from the auto-blogging crew got a chance to get behind the wheel ourselves. Spring Mountain Ranch is almost like a country-club for speed seekers. People who are members get use of the track. In addition, they have certified race-driver training programs. While we didn’t get the whole training program in one day, we did get the opportunity to go very fast in a few different situations.

The day started out with the road course. If you’re not familiar with racing (like me) think of the video game “Grand Prix”. After a short orientation we headed out to driving machine #1: the Lotus. Although I may have been a little jittery that I would do something wrong – it was surprisingly easy! As we followed our guide, Rick, around the racetrack things got faster and faster. After the first few 1.5 mile laps I began feeling comfortable with the car and trusting of the squealing tires as I rounded a turn between 40 and 60 mph.

It wasn’t until my second time out that I encountered a little issue. As I was preparing to turn out of the main straightaway, my car did a full 180 degree spin! At first I was stunned at what was happening, then I had a slight second of fear, and then I realized everything would be fine. For the most part my Lotus stayed on the track and I just readjusted and kept on going. The spin really cemented the feeling that this race course was really just an adult go-cart track… and I say that to mean that it was really, really, really fun!

Once we had the Lotus’ parked it was on to the Radical Sportscar. These aren’t as user-friendly as the Lotus, so these we didn’t drive we just rode in. With your butt practically on the ground and no windshield, speed can really be felt in these babies. Reaching  130mph only added to the speed-bug I caught while at 2009 Bonneville Speed Week this year.

As if all this speed wasn’t enough, the group then headed to the autocross track. Autocross is the track full of cones that you navigate in a competitive time. Looking at the course I had no faith in my driving abilities. But once I sat in the seat of my supercharged Mini Cooper I felt ready to tackle the road ahead. I felt that this course was like practice to be a really slick, kick-ass driver on the everyday road – and I loved that it was timed, bringing out that competitive edge in all of us. Running the track twice, I improved upon my time by over 2 seconds on the second run – leaving my time just above 50 seconds.

(You can also watch the instructor doing a lap along with some directional commentary here)

Getting a chance to drive the course today makes me all the more excited about tomorrow…the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. Cars from the SEMA show will get to prove their stuff out on the track at Spring Mountain Ranch… the same tracks I was on today. Part of me is a little curious how my own 1955 Studebaker would handle on that autocross track. With a little more work it could be a fun and interesting experiment. Who knows, with all the info I’ve learned at SEMA maybe Stude’s ready to raise to a higher level of driving. Only time will tell.

Don’t miss our coverage of the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitation Race! What car would you love to take out on the autocross???

Cruising what I call the main hall of the SEMA show, it’s fantastic to see the great rides that make SEMA, the parts show, become SEMA the car show. Featuring the best built cars and timeless classics, it’s a mix of some of the best rides in the country. I stayed close to “Hot Rod Alley” to find the booths of manufacturers I used and wanted to check out. Seeing the Mustangs and Camaros that are no doubt classic SEMA favorites was cool and will be featured here, but I’ve always like something different.

Big power and stupid amounts of torque aren’t different to the folks at Duramax performance discussion forum TheDieselPlace.com, but what about in a 1970 Chevelle? This is one of two cars I spotted at SEMA running a diesel and starting a new trend in hot rodding?

Instead of choosing from from several small block Chevy’s you’ve already seen or even throwing cubic inches or the tech of LSX in, Mike Racke of Fullerton, CA stayed with the General, but in the form of a 403 cu. inch LLY Duramax.  This beast runs a mostly stock block with aftermarket turbos and heads to make an unbelievable 950 hp and 1,700 lb-ft of torque.  Just so you know diesel hot rodders as dedicated to tire shredding performance as their gasoline counterparts, there’s more performance to come when they add the nitrous system!

Finding a diesel under the hood makes this Chevelle worth stopping for in a SEMA hall littered with great rides, but the engine’s only part of a total package that makes you glad you noticed the “SS Duramax Diesel” badges discreetly revealing why this ultra clean street rod is in the PPE (Pacific Performance Engineering) booth at SEMA. The overall construction is top notch, as you’d expect from the incredible detail and plumbing under the hood. (Click on the pic to see it full size)

While not parked inside the show, I found another example of classic meets diesel power in this 1965 four door Caddy parked near unsuspecting tuner cars and lowered pickups.  The flat black paint might make you think “rat rod” but this was a clean ride.  Add contrasting red metallic paint on the roof with wide white walls and original style Cadillac hubcaps and this smoothed out more-door is already a great cruiser. With the power and, gulp, fuel economy of a Cummins diesel, now you’re talking about a truly unusual, but sweet long distance highway mofo.

I found a video on Youtube that shows this car in better light. Owned by Jason Livingston  and dubbed the “Poor Boy Cadillac” the 12 valve Cummins motor runs a slew of ATS parts including the intake (unfortunately requiring a big hole in the hood) and giant turbo.  The video shows the gnarly black smoke pouring out of the 4 inch or so exhaust exiting out of the passenger side fender. Check it out:

So is diesel plus hot rod the new thing? Or is it simply the continuation of hot rodders putting something that don’t belong into their rides simply to be different and go fast? Either way, I dig it.

Special thanks to Optima Batteries for the trip to SEMA.

After three days, SEMA is beginning to take it’s toll on the weak and unprepared.  At the very least, this show will help people find their personal limits.  This guy clearly blew through his threshold at some point and decided to take a snooze in the middle of his exhibit.  I had to snap this picture quickly, as one of his co-workers noticed me pointing the camera in his direction, waiting for the flash to charge up.  Many of the bigger exhibitors have meeting rooms, which are often converted into nap rooms, depending on how late people have been staying up.

If you read the blog the other day, you’ll remember the 200mph truck with the 7,000 horsepower jet engine.  When I cruised back through the alternative fuels area, I stumbled across this pickup truck, which was promoting some kind of computer system, that allegedly increases fuel economy by as much as 50%-

Apparently, the system has something to do with hydrogen technology and the guy claimed the development of the box of electronics under his hood had a $300,000 pricetag on parts alone.  At this point, I’m willing to listen to his pitch with an open mind, because I really don’t know that much about the combustion process or hydrogen and maybe this guy really has built the better automotive mousetrap.  He did claim several major auto manufacturers and countries were talking to him about his technology.  Then he shifted gears and started talking about his future plans for this truck.

He said he planned to set a land speed record at the Bonneville salt flats and eclipse 300mph in a truck that can still be driven on the street.  Immediately, Mike T and I looked at each other in stunned disbelief.  When he asked us how we thought he might accomplish this task, I replied, “With a solid rocket booster strapped to the bed of your truck.”  He laughed and responded by saying that he was going to use ram-air technology instead and that the only major modification he was going to make to the truck was to chop several inches off the top.

I was going to ask him how he could do this, considering many of the world’s most aerodynamic supercars struggle just to hit 200 mph, but Mike T, who competes in diesel truck pulls, started asking him how he was going to deal with all the safety modifications required for a 300-mph pass, in a daily-driven truck.  The guy then got a puzzled look on his face and responded by saying he didn’t realize they had safety any requirements for running at Bonneville.  At that point, I thought to myself,”this guy should stick to talking about strange-looking boxes with electronic gizmos in them and not talk so much about driving 300 mph in a pickup truck.” 

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Optima Batteries has extremely rare vintage racing muscle car on display at their booth for the 2009 SEMA show, a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang.

This Boss 302 Mustang was completed in June 1971 as a new car for George Follmer and was one of four uni-body chassis assemblies instead of a semi-completed production car and never received a serial number. These 4 cars are significant in that they were stamped out of thin-gauge sheet metal instead of being acid-dipped for lightness. They are also the only Bud Moore Engineering cars built from 1970 model bodywork. Some muscle car enthusiasts at the show put this car’s value at over $500k.

This Boss 302 Mustang is set to be the offical pace car for OPTIMA Batteries Ultimate Street Car Invitational on November 7th, 2009 at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, NV.

Take a look through the gallery of pictures, including an exclusive under the hood shot.