Engineering Guru Panel - The Results

Ironically, two of the three gurus on this year's engineering panel have been on the drilled side of the evaluation in past USCCs. We thought we'd let them return the favor this year by inviting Eric Hsu, formerly of XS Engineering but now performance parts development engineer for Cosworth USA, and Robert Fuller, aka Robi, representing KW Suspension and, of course, Robispec. Hsu and Fuller would bring their vast expertise and tuning knowledge in powertrain and chassis setup. Last, but definitely not least, we added a turbo specialist, Brian Regnier, senior engineer at Honeywell Turbo Technologies, which we all know better as Garrett Turbochargers.

This year's USCC seemed to be a bit milder than previous years, with the entire field made up of true street cars. The nearly stock GT-R and lightly tuned Evo X already seemed to "tone down" the competition. Hands down, the Groma Fabrication V-8 BMW 325i took the win here because of the massive amount and the level of difficulty of the fabrication. While not super immaculate, it definitely won the judges over on the crazy front with its custom front subframe, engine mounts, custom Rotrex supercharger, cage, rear suspension design and pedal assembly (from a 5 Series). The sheer quantity of fabrication and what it took to make everything work was pretty cool. Did we already mention there was a lot of fabrication?

The Technosquare fabricated Nissan 350Z was a true street/track car and won points from the other angle with its super clean work and serious attention to detail. What irked one of the judges was the lack of attention to the valvetrain, which was a Cosworth specialty (hint, hint). Even the cosmetic custom fenders and hatch were all functional enough to impress the super geeks. The Power Enterprise twin-turbo system, with Cosworth plenum, was credited as a very wise choice for maximum power.

Ed Bergenholtz's Mazda3 should have been the ringer. Despite its less than optimal front-drive layout, the car had all the right parts for our three judges, including a repeatedly track-proven Cosworth-built engine, MoTeC ECU and ADL dash, integrated into the factory CANbus systems to run all the OEM gauges. The virtually stock simplicity of the interior also scored points since everything was well hidden, while still being accessible when needed. The World Challenge derived aero work and big brakes were also a very nice touch.

The stroked Evo VIII set the mid pack mark as it truly represented a good daily driver. Nothing was clean or special about the car, but it had just the right combination of parts developed from trial and error for the street.

While engineers can appreciate the cleanliness of an elegant swap, the V-8 powered Audi Coupe Quattro didn't earn nearly as many points since most swapped parts were other factory Audi parts. The appearance was very OEM though. Cool car, but it was in the wrong competition.

The remaining cars fell into the classification of the bolt-on bunch. While the cars worked great, in the USCC, bolt-ons count for very few points with the gurus. Rigonan's R32 GT-R and AMS' Evo X were the perfect examples of fast bolt-on cars that fell under the gurus' knives. While the GT-R had a nice engine and choice parts, it lacked in terms of output. Little work was done to address the horrible stock suspension geometry, brick-like aero, or chassis stiffness. The AMS Evo X similarly lacked refinement because of its showroom fresh status.

The beautiful Subaru Impreza L should have stayed on the ground. From the outside, the swap was beautiful, but its "made in China" super heavy intercooler and Frankenstein exhaust system hurt it.

The R35 GT-R just got participation points for its advanced OEM engineering. Maybe the judges were just jealous.
-Eric Hsu, as told to Jay Chen