The Rise of the EV in Ultimate Street Car Competition

Electric vehicles or EVs have been competing in OPTIMA's Search for the Ultimate Street Car, presented by Advance Auto Parts and the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) for several years now and their rise to prominence is no surprise to anyone who follows the series closely. As more auto manufacturers started releasing EV models and companies like Tesla really ramped up production, we hoped at least a few EVs would end up in the hands of enthusiasts, who wanted to push them to their limits in the Ultimate Street Car series.

In the initial years, the turnout was somewhat light, but also surprising, in that a factory-backed Hyundai team started competing right away, seeing the series as an inexpensive opportunity to pick up some additional testing data in a real-world environment. In the 2017 OUSCI, the Hydunai team's Ioniq finished 77th out of 92 entries. The team went back to their garage, ran through another qualifying season and posted a 61st-place finish out of 82 entries. 

Unfortunately, the Hyundai team was called to other developing projects in 2019, but that year marked the arrival of John Laughlin and his 2019 Tesla Model 3. Prior to Laughlin's arrival, the best score ever posted by an EV at an Ultimate Street Car event was a 355 out of 500 points. Laughlin topped that in his first event with a 394. He followed that up with a 435 and a 443 en route to capturing the GTE Class regular season championship.

Laughlin also took a quantum leap at the 2019 OUSCI, finishing 19th overall and becoming the first EV to finish in the top-20 in the iconic event. The following year, Laughlin posted two 475s during the regular season and finished 13th overall at the 2020 OUSCI. While there were initial concerns that EVs couldn't be competitive within the other existing classes, Laughlin made it clear that was no longer the case and the GTE Class went away for the 2021 season.

Laughlin also moved to the GTC Class, where he won another regular season championship, while Jordan Priestley debuted his 2021 Tesla Model 3 Performance at the Utah Motorsports Campus stop and came away with 450 points and a GTS Class invitation to Las Vegas and the OUSCI. Priestley has been a long-time competitor in the series, fielding a Camaro and Corvette, while also prepping several other cars for competitors out of shop, JDP Motorsports.

Priestley saw the impressive track performance of Laughlin's Tesla and others and felt it made sense to get in on the ground floor of the emerging EV performance market and opened up Revolting Performance to help develop new products and support his efforts on the track. It didn't take Jordan long to make his presence known, as his Model 3 finished 7th overall at the 2021 OUSCI, the first EV to crack the top-10.

If Ultimate Street Car competitors didn't have EVs on their radar before that point, the definitely did going forward. Suddenly, the bane of many competitors, the Design & Engineering segment, became their saving grace. Newer cars in general and Teslas specifically, have more difficulty scoring well in that non-timed competitive segment, while older cars and seasoned veterans have a distinct advantage. However, as Priestley and the Revolting Performance team had more time to develop their platform, that advantage would begin to disappear. 

In 2022, Priestley marked another first, pushing his Tesla into the top-5 at the OUSCI, with a fifth-place finish and Teslas clearly established themselves as the dominant competitors in the Peak Performance Challenge. "I think those cars have technology that allows them to see that cone in the stop box and stop the car in time, before it hits the cone," claims two-time OUSCI champion, Bob Sobey. "Those cars very rarely go through a box and hit a cone and I can't believe all those drivers are all that good and that consistent...or maybe I'm just getting old," admits Sobey.

With the right driver, the Teslas are also the cars to beat on the Classic Car Liquidators Autocross and making headway on the Falken Tire Road Course Time Trial. While Mitsubishi Evos made a run in the series several years ago, Sobey's all-wheel drive Nissan GT-R has won the last two OUSCI titles. However, Priestley closed the gap on Sobey again in 2023, with a runner-up performance. Seven years is what it took for EVs to go from 77th place to 2nd place and knocking on the door of an OUSCI title.

What isn't mentioned often enough about these EVs is the reliability they have exhibited during this run toward the OUSCI title. We're not aware of a single EV that has ever failed to finish an Ultimate Street Car event during that span, although someone can let OPTIMA Jim know if that's not the case.

During that same span, countless other competitors have experienced a wide variety of mechanical failures that ended their weekends early, including Sobey, who finally replaced his engine after nearly 30,000 hard race miles. Will that consistency and reliability make 2024 the year of the EV in OPTIMA's Search for the Ultimate Street Car? We'll find out, as the season starts up on February 23rd at Sebring International Raceway. You can sign up your street car, including Teslas, to compete in the series at www.DriveOPTIMA.com