Has this ever happened??

[garickman]

With all the prestige that goes with building a Street Machine of the Year and all the prestige that goes with being invited to the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational, I was wondering if there has ever been a car who has won both the SMOTY and the OUSCI?

[bret]

Won both? No, not yet.

The Roadster shop Nova was SMOTY nad invited [and ran well]. I think the Ring Brothers Mustang won SMOTY and ran Optima as well a couple of years ago.

Maybe this year we'll have a dual winner!

[garickman]

Won both? No, not yet.

The Roadster shop Nova was SMOTY nad invited [and ran well]. I think the Ring Brothers Mustang won SMOTY and ran Optima as well a couple of years ago.

Maybe this year we'll have a dual winner!

Ineresting coming from you, a person who runs a top notch company, a builder of awesome cars and someone you can definatley wheel on the autocross. You know what it takes to build and compete. I posted this same question on Lateral-g.net and although there is only two responses, both of the these individuals feel it could never happen. That no one who spends the amount of time and money on a SMOTY contender would ever pound there car hard enough to win an OUSCI. Sounds like this might be a pretty good goal for some builders to shoot for.

[JEFFTATE]

It could happen .

[GrabberGT]

I could see it happening. Why not have a race inspired SMOTY that can perform as well? What are the criteria for a SMOTY car that would take it out of competition at OUSCI? Perhaps a lot of it is the driver. I see no real reason the RS Vette could not have been a contender in the same fashion Bruce's Cobra was. Just needed a little more power, tuning, and a skilled hand behind the wheel willing to push it. Judging by other winners of SMOTY, ground effects and wild body mods are favorable for SMOTY. Those same mods can be made to be a benefit for OUSCI. They just need to be applied to the right car in the right way. We've had the discussion on what it would take to beet the modern modern Vette's (Danny Pop) out there. This is it. Free reign to reengineer a musclecar to be competitive. Now who do we know who is an engineer by day, amateur race car driver by night, and has deep enough pockets to make this happen?

[bret]

I think the real issue is the amount of sac that would be needed to take a SMOTY winner, which by definition would be a car that likley cost several hundred thousand dollars in labor to create, and drive it the 10/10ths level needed to win OUSCI. There will likely be a chorus is people who would talk about the concept...but I'm here to tell you I do not personally have the huevos to run a 5000 hour build on the track at 150-170 mph.

But I've changed my mind before.

Interesting idea.

[bret]

Since Optima sponsors both the SMOTY award AND runs the OUSCI, maybe they can pony up some incentive for the person who can accomplish both. Cam? Jimi? :)

[GrabberGT]

I think the real issue is the amount of sac that would be needed to take a SMOTY winner, which by definition would be a car that likley cost several hundred thousand dollars in labor to create, and drive it the 10/10ths level needed to win OUSCI. There will likely be a chorus is people who would talk about the concept...but I'm here to tell you I do not personally have the huevos to run a 5000 hour build on the track at 150-170 mph.

But I've changed my mind before.

Interesting idea.

Who's the guy that commissioned Rad Rides to build Blow Fish and now the new 3rd gen? We need that guy on here.

Looked it up George Poteet. Somebody should bet him he cant do it. :D

[garickman]

Who's the guy that commissioned Rad Rides to build Blow Fish and now the new 3rd gen? We need that guy on here.

Looked it up George Poteet. Somebody should bet him he cant do it. :D

I guess if anyone could do it, it would be him.

[SparkyRnD]

I've always appreciated great builds, and expensive builds, but maybe they should change the name of some of those events to parking lot machine of the year, or trailer machine of the year. I think PT cars that are driven and beat on are the real street machines....as they are used and abused ON the streets. Again, I have full appreciation for the high end builds, but since most of them don't seem to be driven much, I find it a odd choice for the name. And no, I'm not calling out anyone in particular, and I realize that several of them do get driven and driven hard.

[Scott Parkhurst]

I'd bet on Stielow doing it first. He can drive fast, which is the hardest part of making it happen (in my opinion). If the judges at SMOY could appreciate all he puts into building a car, he'd win that too. But, Mark relies on factory lines and many stock details on his cars, and I don't think he'd build one radical enough (style-wise) to win SMOY any more. There was a time a few years ago it was possible, but I feel that time may have passed.