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

Optima Red or Yellow top? I bet you’ve got it wrong!

If you missed the other stories about SEMA 2009, then you didn’t read how Optima Batteries brought up car and truck enthusiasts for a “round table” of sorts to find out what’s happening with their customers.  Great idea, right? MyRideisMe.com, through Grease Girl and me, Pikesan, represented the hot rod and custom car crowd. Also strongly represented was the off-road, diesel towing/performance, drag racing and serious computer-audiofile segments.

Why’d Optima do it? Cause they’re serious about making batteries for enthusiasts. The showed me they care about their existing customers and want to earn more by selling a great product.

On the first day, I learned about the “Optima Paradox.” Red top or yellow top?  Ken, my expert technical guide, schooled me on how folks that need a yellow top see that it’s more expensive and buy a red top instead. Understandable, but wrong. Optima’s a premium product and costs more than a run of the mill wet battery. But, experience tells  you, or should, that getting the right parts for your ride, even if they’re a little more money, always pays off in the end.

Breaking down what I learned, I expect some genuine disbelief, bordering on hate, in the way of comments from this story. Why? Because I’ve already found that some of my buddies are breaking these simple rules:

Red top is for starting.

• High voltage, short duration “bursts” of power when cranking the motor
• Put another way: Big-time cranking amps with only a little discharge because the motors starts and the alternator quickly takes over

Yellow top is dual purpose.

• Purpose #1: Starting, like the red top
• Purpose #2: Continuous or long periods of high demand, high power usage
• Put another way: Crank it, over power your alternator, drain it, then let your charging system catch up. Repeat. This up-down, repeated cycling is what yellow tops are made for.

That’s the basics, let me add some other general rules (here’s where the wrench throwing starts)

• If you think you need more than one battery, get yellow tops
• If you use a “battery tender” or external charging source to keep your ride ready to roll, you need a yellow top
• There’s no reason to have two red tops
• If you’re not sure which one you need, you can’t go wrong with yellow top
• Mixing red tops and yellow tops is wrong! (unless they’re wired completely separately)

Finally, the most general rule:
If you’re running anything on your ride that needs power, especially when the engine is off, that wasn’t there when it was built, you need a yellow top.  For example:

• Air compressors for air bags, air horns or whatever
• Stereos with big amps or multiple “Pimp My Ride” style 20 inch LCD monitors in the trunk
• Winch or off-road lighting (or gasp, underbody neon like my PT Cruiser buddies)
• Games systems, DVD players or some alarms

So was I right? Are you doing it wrong? I’m not the expert here, Optima is!  If you disagree, I’ll take your comments directly to them.

read more from classic car enthusiast Craig Pike>>

The Smoking Tire heads out to Las Vegas for the 2009 SEMA show, where all the major aftermarket and custom manufacturers show up with their latest goods. Host Matt Farah shows off the Best Truck, Best Sports Car, Best Motorcycle, Best Low Rider, Best in Show, and of course, the Worst in Show.

See more from sports car enthusiast Matt Farah>>

One of the first things I saw Saturday morning as I arrived at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch was this Factory Five built, black 1933 Ford Coupe. I was worried it would be all about Camaro’s and other muscle cars during the Optima Invitational Ultimate Street Car Challenge – but seeing this smooth coupe roll across the pit assured me I’d have someone to cheer for this race day.

I can’t tell ya all about the long list of goodies it had – but let me assure you it was long. And being built by Factory Five means its some serious business. After the few laps around the Road Course that all of the cars took, Lucky #13was just the second car for its chance to prove its stuff in this segment of the race.

To the dismay of everyone watching, as it began its second lap of the track, pulling past the first curve we saw a big cloud of dust. What we’re all asking now is what came first, the break or the accident? I guess Lucky #13 was not so lucky, it’s front suspension snapped right in half.

We were all disappointed to see this baby sponsored by Hot Rod Magazine get put on the sidelines…but here’s hoping it’ll be back next year!

Read more from hot rod enthusiast Kristin>>

Rather than continue to post pictures of my SEMA experience here, I decided to put them together in a couple of videos:

This show really has something for everyone and is the biggest stage in the automotive aftermarket world for debuting new products and cars.  Optima Batteries decided it was also a great opportunity to see if the some of the cars at SEMA performed as well on the track, as they did under the convention center lights.  They asked me to scout for potential cars and the task was not easy.

I tried to bait the owners, by asking them if their car was strictly a “show car” or if it actually saw time on race tracks.  As one would expect, 90% of the owners immediately proclaimed their cars were built to run.  That led to my follow-up question, “Since your car is built to run, would you be interested in taking it out to the track this weekend after SEMA ends?”  That’s when the hemming and hawing and excuse-making started.  “My car isn’t tuned yet, we barely got it put together for SEMA.”  “These aren’t my wheels and tires, they belong to one of my sponsors.”  The list went on and on.

Optima did find plenty of cars for their event, which was comprised of a 0-60-0 run, an autocross course and timed laps on a road course.  The whole thing will be televised on Speed in January.  SEMA is always an adventure and I look forward to returning again.

Read more from muscle and sports car enthusiast Jim McIlvaine>>

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>>