2006 Ultimate Street Car Challenge

Engineering Guru Panel
When contestants come before the Engineering Guru Panel, they lose all control. The cars speak for themselves-their parts and modifications enunciate clearly over the whines or excuses of their owners.

As we gurus listen and look, we keep the following golden rules in mind:
1. Do only what needs to be done.
2. Do it well.
3. Know why you did it.
4. Balance

A key yet cruel aspect of this philosophy is that if you go crazy somewhere, equal effort must be placed elsewhere to support that performance. This balance separates the good from the great. Bonus points are given to the enthusiast who turns his own wrench, while negative points taint the sloppy, lame, and otherwise uncooperative.

New to the guru panel this year is Nissan tuning superstar Jim Wolf, of Jim Wolf Technology. The builder of James Chen's two-and-a-half USCC winning entries, Mavrik Motorsports' Teddy Hiraoka, also showed up to share some of his secret sauce. Progress Group's suspension wizard Jeff Cheechov graciously returned for his fourth tour of scrutiny. Balancing these industry types, is yours truly, an independent ElectroMechOptical enginerd and frequent SCC contributor.

Illustrating how excess can appear balanced, Danny Young took what started as an excellent car and made it simply amazing. The NSX's engine makes huge power, the suspension passes the pro's critical eye, and the interior and exterior retain the Acura's true beauty. Exotic magnesium wheels and composite brake rotors whittle the pounds, while real aero pushes what's left to the ground.

HPA's show always entertains and leaves us geeks smitten. From the hydroformed roll cage tubing to the Stack instruments lap counter frenched into the stock steering wheel, its cars always seem to have OEM-level fit and finish.

Tinkering endlessly will get you something like HASport's CRX. It's an example of what happens when a normal dude on a normal budget gets around to touching everything-pretty impressive. Much like the NSX, everything has been changed for a reason, but for way less money.

An LS7 RX-7 is just so wrong, it's right; the highest form of import blasphemy. While universally agreed this is the cleanest example yet, the build is still somehow underwhelming.

The same goes for Prototype Racing's Elise. For better or worse, not much has been done. And around here, shocks, springs and a motor swap don't count for much.

APR went the opposite way. Questionable aero parts may add points in the car show, but if the gurus can't stand on your splitter, they'll break it off trying.

Robispec's Evo, built for NASA's Pro Touring racing class, is subject to a brutal points-based handicap for each mod to the car. While changes made are logical and well executed, there were some fundamental things that could have moved the car much further in the gurus' eyes. XS Engineering's 350Z had the opposite problem of traveling too far down the race car path.
-Mike Kent

The Big Picture
Sounds easy right? Just pop the hood, poke around with a flashlight , and then pick a winner. Wrong. Kent and Co. stayed at K&N for almost four hours, after all the competitors headed out for the fuel economy test, just to discuss who won. When the smoke cleared, Danny Young and HPA clearly separated themselves from the pack. HASport's distant third was still validation of their insanity and quality execution.

You see his scores on the table because we added them later, but at this point there was still no sign of Joe McCarthy and his Elise.